During the last few weeks, I’ve continued the Data Structures and Algorithms course on Udemy as well as refreshed myself on a handful of React and Redux concepts in preparation for my next position. After reflecting on my journey as a developer, this is definitely the best decision that I’ve ever made. It’s been quite a challenge to reach this point in terms of the mental struggles that I dealt with, but it’s how you react and cope with these situations. There were times where I was not entirely optimistic about what came next or what lies ahead. It wasn’t so much a fear of learning Ruby on Rails or JavaScript, but I knew that I would eventually be assessed on my skills.
Walking through the projects that I built and explaining my reasoning for technical decisions. I remember during an interview back in October where I was asked some technical questions about JavaScript. Instead of taking my time to understand the question and think about the steps, I stumbled completely and ended up not moving on to the next phase in the interview process. After this experience, I began creating a study guide for JavaScript concepts that would be crucial for technical interviews. However, it’s not really about memorization, it’s about practice. I’m not sure that any interviewer would expect you to know every single line and page of the MDN web docs. One piece of feedback that I received that describes this well is that the logic and concepts are more important than the programming language you’re working with. You have to communicate the code that you’re implementing. Setting up a consistent schedule for coding challenges and taking note of the duration it takes to solve the problem is ultimately more beneficial.
Throughout the job search, I faced a lot of rejections, whether it has to do with the timing or my experience, but I never once had a thought of my software development journey ends here. There are so many different avenues and opportunities that you can take to gain developer experience by building a network and staying connected. I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts that I’ve had incredible conversations with alumni and other software engineers throughout this process. I’ve not only learned about some of the challenges that they faced finding their jobs, but also the passion and eagerness to continue to learn in their careers. You never stop being a student and that’s not a bad thing.