Into the Wild Blue Yonder

To catch you up to speed, let’s highlight the things that have happened:

• I’ve accepted a position at Mobi Wireless Management
• I’ve moved into an amazing apt. downtown (literally down the street from The Iron Yard.)
• I will forever be indebted to TIY for the amazing path I’m on in my career

First days at the new job:

I’ve been with Mobi for about 6 weeks now. And I know what you’re wanting to ask: “Did the Iron Yard really prepare you for your job?” In a word: yes. Initially, they had me working on a few outside exercises to double check my ability to use test drive development (TDD) and to get a feel for what I was comfortable with, but I’m entering the stages of really getting into their code base. 

I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until a few weeks in that I had a strange realization. …my entire dept. works on ONE rails application. Whereas that might sound silly, it kinda blew my mind, thinking to my TIY final project and trying to view it at the level of the Mobi codebase. Insanity! No wonder they have set documentation for nearly every facet of the app. 

The culture of the company kicks ass. The people I jive well with, jokes and all, there is a sweet kitchen area with a starbucks grade espresso machine (It’s a beast), there’s always beer in a keg cooler (lovingly dubbed “Frank”) available to workers during their last hour every day, flexible working hours. …I’m not seeing a downside to working here in terms of culture.

But with every good, there is usually a bit of the bad as well - and it may differ based on opinion. The one hiccup, for me, has been the pace. It’s a bit of culture shock for me, going from living and working in 60-80 hour work weeks through college and after to now working a 40 hour a week job. It’s weird. I’ve been filling my time with more dance-related things, and I’ve immersed myself in the planning, organization, etc. of the groups. I enjoy staying busy, so the work pace here has taken a bit of adjusting to get used to. Though, I suppose if I tried to keep up my 60-80 hour pace, I might burn out. Burn out is something a lot of developers apparently recognize, and, as such, respect for recuperation time is apparent. 

And camaraderie is also great here. I’ve talked before about how amazing it is to be in a field where you can tell everyone acknowledges and remembers the fact that they were once new to coding as well, that it’s constantly evolving, and, most importantly, by working together in sharing knowledge and ideas, we ALL grow better together. That’s single-handedly the best reason to be in this field, this job, and why I love the hell out of what I do. It’s encouraging. I honestly wish architecture had this mentality (I might have pursued it more as my future).

The living:

I’m living in a sweet apt. building from the 1920’s. It has been kept in amazingly great condition, and I know the owner is passionate about preserving its characteristics. It has the original floors, cabinets, and even the original refrigeration unit built in (though it no longer is used as one) from back when there was ice drop-off in the mornings for the ice-box. It’s just out of the realm of the heart of downtown, by which, I mean it’s only a few blocks from the Indianapolis circle. And it’s within walking distance of - no joke - 4 breweries, with another 3 being within 10-15 min biking distance. 

Overall:

Life is grand. And I genuinely feel like I can say I owe it to the Iron Yard for where I’m at. Shout out of thanks to Chris for instructing me in the ways of Ruby, to Emily for putting up with my nonsense and being AMAZING at her networking and communication skills with companies, to Danny for informing me about the program in the first place, and to everyone else who helped to support me as I went through the program. I feel like one of those commercials on the radio right now “I may have done it myself, but I was never alone”

PS - best of luck to the 5 guys in the current cohort at TIY! 

Hunting for my career

On the hunt

I've been out of the Iron Yard for two full weeks now, entering the third. My time has been a mess of things happening since. HopCat shifts, dancing again, misc. things I had put off during the Iron Yard, seeing old friends again, and...oh yea - interviews!

The Interview process

I should start with a shout out to the Iron Yard. I had 3 interviews the first week out thanks to the Demo Day meetings with professionals, and another two the next week. This week I had a second-round interview with a start-up company. I'm really hoping it goes well, as I'd love the opportunity to work with this particular company.

So what kind of companies am I looking for?
Well, I'm hoping to join a smaller team. My thinking is that if I'm hired on a smaller team, I can get more knowledge across various platforms and learn more across the board than if I were with a larger company where I might become a simple cog in the greater machine. I also like the idea of knowing everyone in the company (but, let's be honest - like that's ever been an issue for me. #extrovert #chattycathy).

That being said, there's also pros to being with a company that is on the larger side. There are certainly benefits in the job security and stability. Also with a larger company, I could, in theory, make more connections.  ...I'm still leaning towards the smaller side, but from what I've seen of the larger companies, they do seem to have great culture, team dynamics, and unique perks. (Won't lie, the whole snack set-up at Salesforce was kind of amazing.) I mean, there is a reason that they have more employees.

The process for hiring...
Far different than what I've encountered before. There's multiple interviews and the process takes more time than to what I'm accustomed. I suppose it's understandable, making sure the individual is up to par with the technical side of things, making sure it's a good fit with the culture of the company, and making sure it's overall a good fit for both sides. Honestly, after beginning this process a number of times over the past few weeks, it shows how the tech world is much more focused on retention of employees, unlike the restaurant industry, where some companies are known to burn through their staff with little regard for if they leave or not.

LeadsI've got probably 4 leads right now, and I'll be sending off more. I'm kind of in full-on 'hunting mode' for locking down a position. The biggest hurdles right now are patience and scheduling. I understand it's a process for taking on a new employee, and I'm happy to go through the proper route...but I'm just excited to get to doing this stuff, haha! I still have to remind myself - I'm going to get paid to do this! Which is crazy!

And there's making sure the scheduling for all these interviews and meet-ups align with my schedule, while balancing HopCat, dancing, and the misc. things in life. But hey! I've juggled more before, and I can certainly make things work.

Onward!

The dust settles from Demo Day

Demo Day Review

So how did it go?
Well, all in all, I'd say it was a success!

For those of you who wanted to check out the project, All the Swing Dancing was the project being presented. Now that I've presented it, I'm ok with people being on there and tinkering.

I met a TON of awesome developers yesterday, and I am so excited to get going into this 'Find that Job' mode!

My portfolio website is up and running. I'll be continuing to edit, style, and change it, but if you'd like to check it out, it's at bendoane.me

Common Questions from Review

Do you plan on continuing this project?
     Yes! I literally told the attendees that I made this site for somewhat selfish reasons - I wanted a place to find all my events without having to remember the names of which event happens when and what it's called this year, etc. I also had to tone back the scope of what I originally wanted to the site to do. Down the road I'm planning far more integration with Facebook, better user interface (UI), and the addition of event hosting, if needed, for smaller dance scenes who may not have the technical know-how to build a site. (And I personally hated using Wix or other similar sites.)

What was the hardest part?
     Facebook. Easily. The developer aspects of Facebook, while it is used in tons of applications, isn't the easiest to navigate through for someone like myself, who is a bit new to this and had a limited amount of time to learn it and integrate it. I had to register the app through their site, make sure I had my email as tech support, get a privacy policy set, fill out exactly how I'm using the information, and only then could I work on the portions on the back end for my site. But, I do feel I've got an OK understanding of how it all links together.

What are my plans next?
     Seeking full-time employment as a software developer. I said it a lot yesterday, but I still feel like a bit of a wizard. ...first there was nothing, and now I've made this! And I genuinely feel like it's almost unreal that people actually get paid to do this stuff!

Do you want to do more front-end or back-end work?
     Yes? Haha, I don't have a preference. I suppose, in an ideal world, I'd be working full-stack, going from one to the other. But as far as a preference, I'm not sure. However, the front-end work that I did certainly came easier in the learning process (Thanks, design degree!).

What are your overall thoughts about The Iron Yard?
     Words cannot express how amazing a journey it was. And it was very much a 'you get out of it what you put into it' scenario. (And isn't life that way, too?) I learned SO much, and there is absolutely no way I could have gotten this far on my own. I will be forever grateful for the experience and the people I've met I know I'll be friends with for life. I only wish I could have had more time to work harder through it - there's always more I could have done. (But again, isn't that life...)

What. A. Ride.

After approx. 636 hours of back-end engineering with The Iron Yard,
271 hours of working at HopCat,
14 weeks later...

Demo Day

...it's less than 24 hours away.
How do I feel about it?

I'm fine with the presentation part - that I'm confident I'll do well with. But the searching for jobs part after might be a different story. As confident as I come across, it shakes me a little in knowing someone will be analyzing every line of the code I've written and finding things they may not like about it (though hopefully they find things they do like!)

Mock Interviews at Salesforce

Salesforce is one of (it not, the) biggest tech company in Indianapolis. They specialize in tech to help businesses succeed through customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, data analysis, assistance with building both web and mobile apps, and much more. I was more than excited to get to visit one of their HQs here in Indy for our mock interviews.

It snowed the night before - the first real snow for Indy this winter. I left thinking I'd have a solid 20-25 min to prep for the interviews, as I was scheduled to go first. ...but as the snow-lords of the north would have it, I arrived at Salesforce just in time to meet up with the others. No prep for me! Let's do this!

Overall, being an extrovert has its advantages. The interview, I felt, went well. There were a few moments I had to put my foot in my mouth, and I did feel kinda silly for not knowing one of the terms they used, but, with my knowledge in this field going back to only 3 months ago, I'd say it went well.

The feedback I received said I may have been a bit too excited. It made me laugh a little, as I didn't feel I was any more or less energetic than I normally am - but I had to recognize, not only was I interviewing for a developer job, but I was also being somewhat 'compared' to the other two students going through the interviews.

Ultimately, I realized I do know a bit more than I give myself credit for at times. And that what I may lack in overall experience in the tech world, I can make up for in some regards due to my previous experience. I've managed restaurants, I've worked on design projects, I've led teams of various kinds, etc.

Awwww yea.

The Final Project

My final project, you may recall, was based around swing dancing. Originating from the frustration I personally have from recalling and finding the information for the events I sign up for, want to go to, etc. It seemed every time I signed up for an event on Facebook, I'd quickly forget about it, as it was months off...then months later I'd find that I wasn't paying attention and, well, now I've double booked myself because I couldn't find the info for that event - or I'd forgotten the name of the page created for the event. I thought "why can't there just be one place to find all the swing dancing?".

...aaaaand my project was made just for that!

The project is only in phase one of where I'd like to take it. It'll have multiple phases of additions, which I'll spare you the details of here. Those of you tech-y enough to be curious, or those who have dance-specific requests can contact me directly to discuss. Just know this is the base level, and I only had a couple of weeks to make it.

(**I'm purposely not posting a link to it yet, as I want to make sure Demo Day goes smoothly before I open it up to my friends. For now - if you really want to check it out, send me a message, I'll give you the link.)

Graduating

Ending the course, we received certificates, stating our completion of the course, a wonderful, personalized note and mini-dedication speech from our fabulous campus director Emily, a celebratory beer (of course!), and a letter. The letter was one we had written to ourselves early on in the course. I was surprised to have forgotten all about it. I literally laughed aloud as I read the first lines of mine:

[On the front prior to unfolding]

 "To Future Ben"
[Inside]
"Dear Ben,

You suck.
...(cont'd)"

My first thought: "Man, 'Past-Ben' is a jerk! Haha"
But I could tell through my own writing that I was clearly unsure of how all this would go, and I had my doubts about being able to juggle working to sustain myself and complete the course. Failure wasn't an option, yet I felt it was a very real possibility with the time I had at my disposal. Yet, in spite of a part-time job, roommate squabbles, health issues from moldy-apartment, having to move and couch surf, and having to buy a new car...I can say "I did it. I made it."

Find that job

After Demo Day, I'll be playing the game of "Find that job". I've built a web page for my resume and portfolio of works.  I'm putting the finishing touches on the ol' girl today. I'm hoping I can rocket off this course and land a sweet dev job in a short amount of time.
 (same as the final project, shoot me a message if you want a preview)

--

Tomorrow is 'Demo Day'. Tomorrow I go before developers to show and tell them about my final project, what it can do, and what I can do.  Tomorrow is the last day with The Iron Yard, Indianapolis.

How do I feel...?

Well said, Lemon.

Approx. Time-clock:
Week 10: Iron Yard - 53 hours, HopCat - 17 hours.
TOTAL - 70 hours
Week 11: Iron Yard -  44 hours, HopCat - 23 hours.
TOTAL - 67 hours
Week 12 (week of Christmas): Iron Yard -  17 hours, HopCat - 12 hours.
TOTAL - 29 hours
Week 13 (week of the New Year): Iron Yard -  25 hours, HopCat -  8 hours.
TOTAL - 33 hours
Week 14: Iron Yard - 60 hours, HopCat -  13 hours.
TOTAL -  73 hours

Time during Iron Yard total: Iron Yard - 636 hours  ||  HopCat - 271 hours