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erhallow
erhallow

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Job Search in Uncertain Times

I have been a professional poker player for 8 years. Over the past 6ish months, I have been self-teaching myself to code. I started my job search just over a week ago right before the corona shut-downs hit hard. Needless to say, I have pivoted my game plan and lowered my expectations.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the world, but I plan to concentrate on what I can control. I will focus on consistently working towards becoming a better developer. Time will not be an issue over the next few months. The goals are clear and simple. Consistency. Focus. Deep learning.

For reference, here is what I have done so far:

  • Used Codecademy to learn syntax of languages - Python, JS, C++
  • Built a basic Javascript Todo list app using the Watch and Code tutorial.
  • Focused on deep learning and problem solving with AlgoExpert. Python has been my main point of focus.
  • Utilized python, flask, and docker to build a blog app with the Mega Flask Tutorial
  • Read the book Thinking Python
  • Working on FreeCodeCamp Responsive web design

    My daily process going forward will be simple and easy to execute. I will be applying to 1 job a day. Next, I will do 2 algorithm problems. The first problem will be an easy C++ problem that I am already familiar with. I find that my brain learns the language better when I am trying to solve problems. I will focus on a difficult Python problem that I have never seen before. The goal is to push my problem solving skills. This will take about 3 hours of my day. With the rest of my time, I will be working towards the free code camp certifications and building the projects (fingers crossed for a python certification coming out later this year).

    Here is my first freecodecamp page for responsive web design. I will be sharing my projects and work over this time. I hope that this can be a reference to other self-taught developers when they search for jobs. I will talk about job applications, building new projects, new topics I learned, and interview prep.

    Thanks for reading and I hope you all follow along!

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