95 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
95 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "My First Real Job"
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date: 2022-12-27T00:47:29-07:00
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description: 'I take a trip down memory lane, explaining how I got my first real job as a developer.'
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tags: ["work", "thoughts"]
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showTableOfContents: true
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image: "/images/monochrome-path.jpg"
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weight: 1
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type: "post"
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---
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# What's a 'Real' Job?
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Previous to the 'real' job I got, I had worked a handful of other jobs, some were even related to my field of work,
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computer wizardry. What made this job different from my previous internships and odd-job contract work, was that this
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job payed a salary, and a pretty good one for taking a "beginner". I thought I would chronicle the experience for other
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software developers out there curious of what one random anon's experience was like.
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# The Dating Period
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I dropped out of college, just temporarily, to pursue other interests, and also try the job market, to see what I could
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catch with, what was in my mind, a decent amount of real world experience. I had worked some sort of software developer
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job for about two years, and had just recently concluded a summer internship. I could have continued at my internship
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except for the fact that I wasn't offered a full time position, which is a good story for another time. So, with my 2.5
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year college education and nearly equal work experience, I ventured onto Indeed and other similar shark sites for poor
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saps like myself with naive hopes to throw their resume into the abyss. A month or so into my college semester break,
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I received an email from a recruiting agency with an offer for a full time, remote position paying a salaried amount
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I thought surely wasn't deserving of a college drop out. To sweeten the pot, the job's tech stack mentioned flutter,
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which I had spent the last year building a handful of apps and had really come to love the framework. I am compelled to
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add that I really don't like React or Vue, or really Javascript / npm / webpack / css in any form / webdev in general
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(typescript is the only thing I do like in that space), so building something in Flutter got me really excited. However,
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it was one of probably 20 emails I got a week spamming my inbox, I really don't know why I was reading this one, and
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thought surely I wasn't qualified enough for the position. I clicked a link in the email and was brought to a calendar
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to schedule a zoom call with the recruiter. I wasn't sure this was even legit, and there was a time slot in 15 minutes
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that a scheduled. I 'showed up' and sure enough, a recruiter on the other side of the internet was waiting for me. We
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chatted and I walked him through my work experience, no mention of school. He seemed impressed. A few days pass and
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he connects me with someone from the company, we set up another zoom meeting, more of a 'get to know you'. That call
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was interesting. I talked with two guys, which are the only two full time devs in the company, and neither of them had
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really hired anyone before. The questions they asked really weren't technical in nature, but I also couldn't get a read
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in the slightest what kind of information they were looking for so I could tailor my answers. 15 minutes passed and
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the lead dev said something like "Alright, well that's all the questions I could think of..." * trails off... Uhhh --
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I desperately thought of a question to ask them about the company to buy myself some time to assess what was happening.
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It seemed to me that this interview had gone poorly, they didn't see my true awesomeness (because their questions
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weren't really introspective or technical) so I thought of something I could do to rescue this sinking ship. I learned
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more about the product they are building and what their jobs are like. They seemed to like that. After 40 minutes, we
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ended the call and I felt a bit more satisfied with that ending. I believe that was on a Monday, and on Thursday they
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reached out to setup a lunch the next day. Though the company is remote, both devs are located close to me, so we met
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over lunch the next day. I was told by the recruiter that I would have a more technical portion of the interview, a paid
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day working in the office with the team to see if I'm a good fit. Heading to lunch, I expected them to congratulate me
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for a god interview and schedule the 'technical' part, which is probably the most dreaded step of the software engineer
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acquisition ritual. We had lunch and just got to know each other better, I discovered both of them align pretty closely
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with my conservative values, which was a nice bonus. Made conversation easy as there is lots to talk about with new
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acquaintances that you discover to have similar passions. At the end of the hour dinner, with no previous mention of the
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position, the lead dev says "So we both like you, we want you on the team." This came as a bit of a surprise, where was
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my gauntlet technical obstacle course? But obviously I was thrilled. The dating phase ended as quickly as it began, and
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with that, I found myself a married to the corporate system.
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Incoming!! Analogies to life as an rpg with points assigned to various traits that may be more genetic / permanent
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than I make it seem. Character composition is a little more that just stats, buffs / debuffs, and inventory. But only
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a little...
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# Advice
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How much luck was involved in this process? How much was my modestly stacked resume? I can't say for certain. From my
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experience, there are a few things within your control that you can try to develop to increase your odds in the game.
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I stress *in your control*. I wager 80% of the time when you aren't hired, but you are qualified, its because of forces
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completely outside your control, hiring freeze, nepotism, off by one error, lazy hr guy, etc, the list has no end.
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## Emotional intelligence
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During this hiring process, they took a lot of my expertise and experience by my word, and I can only assume they did
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so because it seemed that my word was one they could trust. I think experience is great; lots of experience gives you
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the confidence to answer questions about previous problems you have solved, but experience isn't all, or possibly even,
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the majority of what gets you hired. I think a lot of it comes down to your interpersonal skills, your charisma stat,
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how chiseled your chin looks. Some of that you can't change easily, I think I was born with an above average emotional
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intelligence. But, I can't stress enough how important it is that you appear confident but not overbearing, and eager to
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learn and work. With everything today getting people to get as far away from socializing I R L, not having any grounded
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confidence in their abilities, I get the sense that a lot of qualified individuals just don't sell themselves enough.
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Want the job, and convince yourself you would be a great addition to the team.
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## Most Important Trait
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If you could do a character stat reset on yourself and spec everything into one category, I think you should go all
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in on "Ability / Willingness to Learn". I think the sciency term is brain plasticity. But you don't need to spend 250
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drupals to activate the stat reset, I think its a habit of thought, and can be a learned behavior. What do you do when
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you encounter a problem? Do you google it? What if google has no answers? What if the answer is "Read these 20 pages
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of docs"? Do you read them? Or do you say you are 'blocked' during stand up and let your team lead or that one guy that
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solves every mystery get to the bottom of it? If you can teach yourself something by gritting your teeth and stumbling
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along the way, only to realize your solution is magnitudes slower that its supposed to be, I think you are still leaps
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ahead of the snooty pampered rich mom's son who has kombucha and white granite counter tops at home to retreat to when
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he gets too 'whelmed with work. A wise woman said to me that grit is the greatest word in the English language, if you
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got enough of it, there isn't anything you can't do. Wise words I reckon.
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