DEV Community: David Papamichael

Post Makers - Week 17

David Papamichael — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:20:38 +0000

Week 17, the weather is great, the country is slowly returning from hibernation, and tech tests are in full effect.

The first one I had was from a fintech company, and involved 4 hackerrank questions. It started with the classic 'Fizzbuzz' question....this almost made me have a panic attack i was so thrilled!

The second jumped straight into a question about removing duplicates, and then modifying the existing elements left in the array. The third was a question involving hash tables and the fourth was a question i'm still not sure what it is asking, let alone the answer!

Overall it was not as scary as i first thought, the practise i was doing beforehand really helped. I noticed that the more complex problems often involved using multiple easier questions logic, breaking it down into smaller problems definitely helped.

I also noticed that from the start of the week to now, I have become noticeably better at solving these problems. Both in time, success and the time it too to notice the pattern/solution type. This is something I will definitely carry on with daily. Even completing one or two a day will help keep this mindset fresh.

The other tech test involved using a company software, and building an application based on a 'customers' requirements. This overall went well, I explained my process well, spoke through my logic, and am had a great fluid conversation with the engineering manager and my hope-to-be future colleagues.

Fingers and toes crossed that they go well and i can progress though to the further rounds. Not only is this industry new to me, but the interview process is also something that took time to adjust to. Gone are the days of an interview, a handskae and an offer. The 4-5 rounds are draining, terrifying, stressful, but totally necessary. I have learnt to actually appreciate the screening process more - each step I meet more people, learn more about the company, and make up my mind more. Not only is it the company assessing me, it gives me a great POV to see how they operate, see if my goals are aligned with theirs, and see if my ambitions can be realised at their company.

Every day is indeed a schoolday.

As always stay safe, and please wish me luck!

David

Post Makers - Week 16

David Papamichael — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 10:30:26 +0000

Another week has passed and now 4 months have elapsed since graduating...although this week ended on a slight different note!

It seems that someone heard my rants from last weeks post and I was lucky enough to have two interviews! The first was for a Fintech company, and after speaking to the recruiter (and bonding over our love of food) I was out forward to the technical round which I will elaborate more on next week once I have received it!

The second interview was for an exciting start up in a SaaS company. The company has great reviews, the team seem super young and motivated and the prospect looks like a great long term option! I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself and just keep calm and take each step as it comes. After 4 months of nothing, 2 in the last week seems like a dream!

Other than that, I have been spending time searching more about React and the 'proper' layout and composition of components, and when to use hooks ect...it's a great learning curve as I am tweaking the famed covid project with these changes, adding a router, reducing the amount of prop drilling and adding tests!

More to follow on the interviews next week!

As always stay safe,

David

Post Makers - Week 15

David Papamichael — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 11:02:12 +0000

15 weeks have now come and gone since graduating from the Makers Academy. Whilst the sign of covid seem to be optimistic from the UK (with the opening of pubs happening next week), I cant seem to help think that we are still in this for the long run... The so called second waves happening around Europe, America, and as of this morning China may be a picture of what is to come.

This had me thinking, what have I achieved in 15 weeks since graduating, and more importantly, am I a better developer today than I was way back when?

The answer is yes.

The time is takes to solve almost any problem is less, not necessarily because I know more, but because I am becoming more and more used to struggling. This may sound strange but struggling is part of the game, knowing how to cope, think positively and be intuitive are all skills I have since acquired more of.

The ability to understand new concepts is also drastically less. I can almost place a new syntax, principal or component in the "same same but different" zone when comparing it to other tech, and it seems to me now that most tech I have started to use more and more (most recently the Jest and Enzyme testing suites) are the same as the Jasmine library for example. And they are used in similar ways to the Capybara test suite of my old haunt Ruby.... This linkage has become a powerful tool for me to power though, understand and use technology more efficiently.

This enthusiasm has allowed me to put the proverbial cherry on top of several projects I had finished, but not quite finished, this week I managed to style the Recipe Book app i created using Ruby/Sinatra, create a saved state update via an AJAX request for my Thermostat application, feature test me twitter clone using the PERN stack, and unit test the RESTful API backend.

I will carry this momentum into next week where i will attempt to discover extensions to React, mainly Redux and styled components.

As always, stay safe!

David

Post Makers - Week 14

David Papamichael — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 13:42:56 +0000

This week was a quiet one. After my ramblings last week, I spent time searching for jobs, and applying to companies who I genuinely wanted to work for.

It seems that someone out there heard me moaning, there does seem to be a few more roles around, and some of the ones I came across even mentioned that they were suitable for bootcamp grads! Fingers crossed this is the shape of things to come. It seems that there is a direct correlation with government strictness, the less severe, the more companies are likely to hire/onboard juniors.

Makers also had a job posted for the first time in 3 months which is great, i've applied so fingers crossed something positive comes back soon.

On the coding site I spent a couple of days trying to get an authentication system in place in a PERN stack app I am making. It's a bit fiddly, but it has been fun to use the react router and tokens to validate a user.

Next week i'm planning on hooking back up with my old partners in crime Nic and Asia to start a new project, the successor of the covid application.

Fingers crossed it will be as much fun, and as resourceful as that!

Stay safe everyone,

David

Post Makers - Week 13

David Papamichael — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 10:11:20 +0000

This week marks 13 weeks of unemployment.The optimist could call it 13 weeks of learning.

I now have been off site from Makers, more than I had been on site. Perhaps it felt more blunt due to the pandemic, I would have still liked to be onsite, working in an environment with others, but regardless I feel I am twice the develop since graduating.

I have had the chance to review many projects and key concepts of the curriculum, and explore new tech in my own post projects. However I have a nagging reminder in the back of my head that bills need paying, and my newly acquired coding muscles need flexing in a professional environment.

Today i sent off my 60th Job application. I am not one for an 'Easy apply' on linked in. These are 60 jobs that I genuinely would like to do, and companies I am interested in being part of. Writing about myself is something I have never been good at, so consequently, these took some time. As I have ranted about before, times are hard and I am not expecting to simply waltz into a job, but after assessing my Huntr board (a fantastic job tracking tool), I soon realised I had only received an email back from 9 of those applications. 7 were rejections due to no prior professional experience and 2 were due to the company ceasing to exist because of the struggles relating to the pandemic.

This was a pretty sobering realisation. I believe I am doing everything right. I am applying for roles I am realistically qualified for, I am continuing to code and learn new skills for at least 5 hours a day, and I am genuinely enjoying it. But the undeniable pang at the back of my head is that of....when?

Not that I should compare myself to others, but i am part of a 25 strong cohort graduating from the same class. The class had some simply fantastic coders, and some even more fantastic people, and currently only 3 people have ben hired. I have to say I am guilty of the whole "well if so so has not been hired, then times must be hard" however I wonder how long this will continue?

I genuinely wish every single one of my cohort to get hired by amazing companies. We shared a solid bond during our intense time at Makers, one that will last for a long time. Whilst it seems like a race or a competition to get these first steps on the career ladder, i know it will all be alright in the end, everyone is feeling the same.

Apologies for the slightly pointless rant/strange tones, positivity is key and I will continue to prepare for the day i get a friendly email.

Off to study more React it is - Redux here i come!

As always stay safe,

David

Post Makers - Week 12

David Papamichael — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 12:38:50 +0000

This week has been a first for me, I participated in my first Hackathon....and won!

If you would have asked me what a hackathon was 2 weeks ago, i'm not sure I would have known what to reply. Last week makers sent around an email detailing that they were organising a 'Hack for Heroes' event, detailed specifically to helping the heroes on the frontline.

As a big believer in the feat the front line are accomplishing, I was more than happy to oblige. It turns out that a hackathon is fundamentally a timed sprint to create the best app possible. The apps are then independently judged and the winner is announced based on set criteria - addressing the problem, solving the problem, and doing it in a cool way.

Monday morning I joined the zoom call and after basic orienteering started to discuss ideas with the 100 participants. Groups were then split based on interest/topic, and that was it - GO! We had 2.5 days to present the best app possible. This was then to be judged by top CTO's/Engineers from fantastic companies around the UK.

I was lucky enough to be joined by my old partners in crime Nic and Asia. Together with team members Bassel, Thomas, Lucian and Ben, we set apart formulating a plan. We decided that the biggest problem facing the frontline staff currently was the extreme mental health stresses they were under. This was unanimously agreed on and we set about brainstorming the idea. We decided on a React Native app (with no one previously using this tech..) so that is was accessible and available to everyone on the go. We decided to use a Node/Express/PostgreSQL backend (my suggestion as i have previously been working with this) and use Expo to run the app locally on our machines.

We ended up with a very nifty mental health tracking app. A user could log in, and then speak to a chatbot that would ask them how they were feeling. A value and comment on this value was logged in the database, and could then be tracked over time to identify trends and patterns. The chatbot would then take the user on a conversation, giving resources and suggestions based on user input.

We also identified the power of positive affirmation and Neural Linguistic Programming, and many group members said first hand how this had helped them. We therefore gave the app preset mantras that could push notifications to the users phone at selected intervals. The user could also add their own mantras.

Overall we worked amazingly well, always having 3 different zoom room open so that pairs could float between parts of the build and ask/contribute to the development. I started to build the RESTful API backend in Node/Express and connect it to the database, I then connected this to Heroku and deployed the PostgreSQL database. Other members built out the framework in the React/Native front end and we connected the two. I then got to work on the Chart.js data, and helped out with the push notifications. Everyone worked around the clock and contributed to all areas - I am genuinely prod of what we achieved. Day 1 we met out MVP and day 2 we finished all the features we set out to complete. Day 3 involved styling and writing and rehearing the presentation. We had a flawless presentation, with everyone being concise and coherent, coupled with a very slick demo of our app (we gave a barcode that could be scanned that allowed everyone watching to download the app and use it themselves.

We were lucky enough to be selected as winners, well done to the team! I learnt so much in a small space of time, and had such a blast collaborating with the team. The time frame/competition element really spurred us on, and collectively we united to give a product we are all proud of.

There are some ideas to enhance the app in the future involving adding a machine learning element to the chatbot, but for now its a beer and some rest!

As always stay safe,

David

Post Makers - Week 11

David Papamichael — Sun, 31 May 2020 12:33:13 +0000

This week for me was all about exploring tech that was same same but different.

At Makers you learn what I have come to realise are the most simple, easy to understand formats of tech For example as a language - Ruby is super accessible and that is the bread and butter you start with. Sinatra is the first taste of a web app/framework, rspec is the first test library you use, and .erb ruby/html files are the first taste of front end development.

These are all great introductions into these worlds, and I am glad they are what I started wit. They are easy to understand, fairly straightforward, and allow you to learn the basic concepts, and understand how they all stitch together. The problem however, is that very few jobs I have seen advertised in the 11 weeks since graduating require these technologies...and by very few I mean virtually zero.

I have applied to 50 jobs since graduating, and have seen 500 more descriptions of all levels...and aside from Ruby as a language, The other technologies that were our staples during studying have never come up again. Now this is not a rant at all, as I said above I understand the reasons we were taught those technologies, but it got me thinking about how I should evolve my skills and keep up to date with what is going on.

As I have explained before this, React has become more of a staple for me since the Covid project, and i feel far more comfortable using it now. JavaScript has replaced Ruby as my go to language as i find it more flexible and versatile, and testing libraries such as Jest and Jasmine have become normal. However the backend part of my skills ha pretty much stayed the same, anything that needed a database or a RESTful API use meant it immediately became a Ruby Sinatra/Rails app.

This week therefore became all about Node.js something I have seen in almost every single job application requirement. I never really even knew what node was, or how it is used. The more I read about this JavaScript runtime environment, the more I came to realise I would need to use another word that kept popping up - Express. This, it turns out would act as the server framework for Node.

The first thing I did was to build what I almost always do when I learn a new web app tech stack - build the tried and tested to-do list application. This is for many reasons, firstly it needs a simple RESFUL API structure, utilises a database, and applies the crud cycle to Create, Read, Update and Delete the content - a full stack application!

The more I researched about creating this, I found that a common tech stack using Node in this application was referred to as the PERN stack using PostgreSQL as the database, Express for the back end framework, React for the front end framework, and Node for creating the JavaScript runtime environment.

After wresting the intricacies of this tech stack, it YET AGAIN became apparent that Makers really laid the foundation for me being able to absorb this new technology. It all had a strange likeness to its 'Ruby starter kit' tech that i had learnt, and after identifying the syntaxes it was basically same same but different....marvellous.

The next stage for me is creating a Twitter clone using the same stack (yes a bit cliche, but it really does help the learning process!) except this time I am using the Jest and Enzyme libraries to TDD the application.This will be my next few days, then I hope to start a new project with Asia and Nic, using this newfound tech stack. Fingers crossed it will be as successful as the Covid Project!

As always stay safe during these crazy times!

David

Post Makers - Week 10

David Papamichael — Fri, 29 May 2020 10:28:29 +0000

This marks the 10th week since graduating from the Makers Academy. To think that almost the same time has elapsed since starting the course is crazy. It feels so much longer in many ways, but also like a snap of the fingers.

It has been hard - as it has been for everyone. Going from the crazy fast pace of the Makers curriculum, to sitting inside the same 4 walls every day is certainly a massive change, but with regards to my coding, I am beginning to understand that it has been a blessing in disguise.

I have the freedom to take projects at my own pace, study hen i feel like it, and more importantly just code. When I was first thinking of starting this journey, i spoke to many friends (and friends of friends) who were in the industry - and the same advice kept coming up. "There is no shortcut to time" they would say, no matter who I spoke to. I am only truly understanding that message now, 9 months in.

I now understand what to type into stack overflow, how to change the code to see a different response, and how to debug more effectively. I don't panic when my tests are flashing red, or the endless console errors fill the screen...instead it feels like a bit of a game now, and has become truly fun. I still want to throw my macbook out of the window often, and curse whoever created the 'rules' for React apps, but quickly I know that I can overcome the issue. Also i have come to notice more that issues mean you are learning and expanding your bag of tricks, it is going to be there for the rest of my career!

The bottom line is there is indeed no shortcut to time. I honestly feel i think differently about discussions in life now. Everything seems like a conditional, and every problem has a solution, even if you don't know it then and there. I am having crazy/structured dreams where i feel like i dream in code...but i'll leave that for another post.

Everyone stay safe and fingers crossed this mess will be over soon.

I'm off to Durham this weekend....

David

Post Makers - Week 9

David Papamichael — Wed, 20 May 2020 09:58:20 +0000

Today marks the ‘end’ of the Covid project. Whilst the project is never fully over as I am learning more and more React sugar with which I will constantly refactor in to the project. But with regards to large features, it is done…..for now!

I thought I would therefore take this time to reflect on what I have learned during this project, not necessarily on the tech front but more about my first post Makers project experience, and a remote one at that.

https://covid-mapper.herokuapp.com/

https://github.com/davidpaps/covid_19_mapper

Firstly I have to send a huge shout out to Asia and Nic, my two partners in crime for this project. Not only did we get on well throughout the course (a love for table tennis may have had something to do with it), but they have become good friends throughout quarantine…even though I have never seen them once since graduating. I have to say it was seamless, and a pleasure to work with them. We planned the initial phases well, and had a clear direction of an MVP.

We worked well towards it with a collective enthusiasm. Everyone had a voice and everyone had the creative flexibility to take it in a direction on a “see what happens’ approach. i think the unique point of this project was that we have never used React before….so we all had the flexibility to research, try and try again to see what we could do.

We used Zoom calls , whilst collaborating on the fantastic VS Code Live Share plugin (for those who don’t know, it allows you to share the same text editor - you can literally edit code on the same line as you peers - at the same time!) so communication was good, bit for coding, but also for discussing ideas. We then used slack to send the endless stack overflow pages to each-other. This trio of communication apps was vital for the success of the project in this remote working style.

We always discussed the next phase of the project (if you check out the README of the repo, we have document the stages of releases) and were always aligned in what the next goal was. Every night we always had a 10 minute review of what we had done, and what was next to tackle. It sounds like butter wouldn’t melt, but honestly this was the truth. We were always aligned in our vision, we love data and stats, and wanted to make an app that simply displayed the current crisis that we were all going through, as a tool for everyone wondering about the day to day change.

We all wanted to use new tech (React seems to be a very popular requirement for most Front End Jobs, and as the course did not really cover front en at all, we thought we would try to up-skill this area of out programming) and all wanted to make something we were proud of. it also hi lighted many areas that were used in ‘real life’ professional development. We tested using Jest and Enzyme, we Deployed on Heroku, using Travis as a CI tool, and used a RESTful API structure for the app.

Most of all I learnt to trust my colleagues, and learn from them what I did not know and visa versa. Asia and Nic are two fantastically cited software engineers, I learnt so much, and great conversations, and had an insight into how I can adapt and use some of their techniques to improve my own skills. It was all helped by the fact that the worst disagreements we had )if you can call it that) was to do with what colour a line on a graph should be - it really was perfect.

So all in all yes, I built something i am truly proud of, and yes I learnt some new tech and skills, but most importantly I learnt how to work in a harmonious and open environment, where ideas and creativity was encouraged - All in my bedroom with ought seeing Asia or Nic in person!

With regards to my situation, I am still actively job searching, hoping this project on my CV will boost my chances. But for the time being I am continuing to learn, discover new tech and who knows…there are a couple of ideas floating about with Asia and Nic, let’s see where that goes for future ideas!

As always stay safe during these crazy times,

David

Post Makers - Week 8

David Papamichael — Tue, 12 May 2020 10:11:30 +0000

2 Months have now passed since graduating from the Makers Academy.

The more that time passes, the more I see this pandemic situation in an optimistic light. I am carrying on with learning the intricacies of React, started working on Algorithms ( as I see this is a keen interview topic), and find myself reading about any and all articles I come across regarding coding/tech in general.

What is most productive however is my review of the course. I find myself completing week challenges from the course syllabus in a few hours, and completing bonus challenges, and additional features....and enjoying it. When I am working through some of the user stories, I have flashbacks of panic, dread, confusion and disbelief - what I was feeling when I first worked on these exercises. Now I am flying through the work, laughing at my previous self, but also realising that there is no shortcut to time.

I now understand the world of coding more than 3 months ago, appreciate practises and methodologies, and understand the core concepts more and more. Testing has been a big revelation to me, mocking in particular. I remember spending the first and second weeks main issue was to do with testing, and stubbing out some behaviour. This time around it made sense, and worked - it bloody worked! I felt so good that I quickly completed the same projects in a second language. Ruby code became JavaScript code, RSpec tests became Jasmine tests, and I felt this calming sense of I am a better developer than I was than 3 months ago.

This was important for me....the course was so intense, non stop and busy that I never had a chance to breathe, take a look around and observe what I had achieved. This quarantine has given me the time to take a look around and appreciate just how far I have come.

Apologies for the self absorbed rant, but i'm proud what I have achieved, and happy to be on this journey.

As always, stay safe during these crazy times, I wish everyone the best of health.

David

Post Makers - Week 7

David Papamichael — Fri, 01 May 2020 10:59:42 +0000

Happy Friday everyone!

It's raining, we are stuck inside but for some reason i'm more upbeat than I was last week. I actually managed to get a couple of application rejections, but they were quite personal responses with some feedback - strange that this would make me happy, but it's nice to know someone actually read the applications, and took the time to respond.

2 weeks ago I changed my tactic after speaking to some peers. Before I would basically write a novel of my journey, findings and thoughts of programming, and my CV was 3 pages of every success I have ever achieved! It took a good friend to say "would you read it?" for me to have that penny drop moment.... So now i have a slick 1 page tech CV, which details facts that can then be elaborated on in interviews. I am now in the school of "drop nuggets in the CV you want them to ask you about, and invite you for an interview" kind of thought. Cover letters are now trimmed too, rarely more than 2/3 of a page (before they could be 2+....).

I have been carrying on with the React Covid project, and deep into the world of Chart.js. I just love the data and viewing it in different formats. It's also a very interesting way to spot trends and project what is around the corner for the Covid 19 crisis, but I wont get too deep into that on here, positivity is key!

This weekend I am going to go back over some old JavaScript projects and upgrade them to ES6, the more React i do, the more i see the value of this ES^ over ES5 (which we primarily used at Makers).

Anyway same as always, stay safe and positive!

David

Post makers - Week 6

David Papamichael — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 11:36:06 +0000

I make this post slightly late...it's funny how with nowhere to be, and little to do, things can get rather busy!

Over the last week I have joined the British public in moaning about the recent change of weather, and having a full social diary of zoom quizzes with friends and family each evening.

Coding this last week has been good. I have continued to explore react and the Chart.js library which has been great. I also took a couple of days to properly refactor the code, as much as I claimed to have good coding principals, this particular project did not reflect this. I started to research about the best practises of React components and spent the next 2 days creating parent child relationships to effectively and efficiently pass down props between them.

This again got me thinking just how good Makers prepared me for real world coding. I did not learn how to write JavaScript or Ruby...I learned how to write good code and design good programmes. This has helped me search the right things, read the right documentation, and search out the right code. Again a small victory feeling in these dark times.

The job hunt still seems futile, but i'm pressing on and applying as much as possible for roles that grab me. I'm not expecting much still, the world has bigger issues currently, but fingers crossed something positive will happen for everyone in the near future!

I wish everyone a warm quarantine, until next time.

David