DEV Community: Joseph Friedman

I Surrender

Joseph Friedman — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 15:52:52 +0000

I surrender to you impostor syndrome, maybe you are just correct. Maybe the reason I just can't seem to find a Software Engineer role is that I'm just not good enough. So what, that I've made stuff in multiple languages across multiple domains, gotten certificates in ML and DL, taught and mentored dozens of students through projects even in languages and frameworks I did not know, somehow I'm just not good enough for even the most entry level roles or apprenticeship programs. (No, I haven't only applied for those.)

Or maybe I am good enough and the thing I can't seem to overcome is the bias against people who look different or have a neurological condition, or just an unconventional background and experience like I do. How do I fight against people knowingly or unknowingly doing the wrong thing?

And so, I give up. I free myself from the burdens and expectations that I have placed on myself to overcome all this and grant myself the freedom of just letting it happen.

For today.

Monday, I'll be back.

Disclaimer: this post is an ode to my feelings and being shared in the hope that it will be cathartic to others experiencing similar feelings. THIS IS NOT IN ANYWAY A REQUEST FOR ADVICE ABOUT THE JOB SEARCH PROCESS. IT CERTAINLY DOES NOT ELABORATE ON THE VARIOUS APPROACHES I'VE TAKEN.

Having said that, feel free to contact me if you want to work with me 😁

Is this recursion?

Joseph Friedman — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 22:38:52 +0000

https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/uf4dj2cju7jz3yhm35is.jpg

Technical interviews suck, but Algorithms and Data Structures don't have to.

Joseph Friedman — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 04:07:10 +0000

Like many, I started my journey to a tech career not knowing what technical interviews were all about. What little I knew about them was what I heard from others, namely, that they ask irrelevant questions and ignore job role related skills. Which, I guess, is kind of true.

I decided that I would approach the interview process by preparing for it as if it were a completely separate skill set that I needed to learn, as I would any other skill such as a new language, framework, or API. Truth be told, it was a little more difficult than I expected (more on that later,) but once I got the hang of it I began to appreciate the value of having this knowledge. It has changed the way I approach and solve problems and greatly improved the quality of my code.

YMMV but here is what worked for me:

interviewcake.com
Cracking the coding interview by Gayle Laakmann
leetcode.com

The order mattered a lot. Interviewcake really opened the door for me. I had tried leetcode first but I didn't really get it. Cracking the coding interview helped a bit but I wish it had more in the way of explanations to the coding problems. Interviewcake (paid) taught me the rules of the game. Subsequently I was able to make use of the other two resources.

Thanks for reading my first Blog post. You can find me @decentgradient on the twitters.

Oh, If you have a need for a machine learning engineer / developer relations person, HMU I may have someone for you. (It Me)