DEV Community: Gurjot-Sidhu

Interview week

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 21:52:18 +0000

This week I had my 2 interviews. The phone screening went well and I was offered a position within Infosys upon completion of 8-9 weeks of training and a reinterview. Unfortunately it only pays 35k and relocation is required(out of state). I feel that it is a good opportunity but will not be my first option. The tech interview for Remitly went well and I was able to complete all of the questions that were required of me when asked and even did some bonus questions. I was told to wait until the other applications and interviews are done before setting up the final phone screening interview that will contain an offer. I understand their desire to find the best fit for their company but I am getting a bit impatient as I would really like to get this position. I still am yet to complete the SmartSheet coding assessment and was sidetracked by other things in my life this week. I am going to study today and tomorrow and plan on completing the assessment at the latest on Monday the 14th.

Interview week

Gurjot-Sidhu — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 22:40:21 +0000

This next week is going to be hectic. I have 2 interviews this week. I gave my availability for them yesterday and both companies decided to book me for Monday the 7th. I have not ever had a phone screening interview so I have been watching lots of videos to study. I also have written out a bunch of mock questions and am coming up with answers for them right now. My other interview is a tech interview and I am studying the most commonly asked questions during the interview. I did well on my mock interview that I had as part of Flatiron School's Career Prep track. I also landed another coding assessment that is due within 2 weeks from now. I am not going to focus on that until after Monday. Unfortunately, I will not be meeting with my career coach until after Monday but I will be sure to reach out to her and get whatever advice she can offer.

Project Underway...

Gurjot-Sidhu — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 20:19:51 +0000

This week was a very busy one with Thanksgiving right in the middle of it. I reached out to a few people on Linkedin who were former Flatiron Grads abut building a PWA. A PWA stands for Progressive Web App, which is an application that functions on multiple platforms like a computer, tablet and phone. I had learned a little bit about PWAs in Flatiron School from one of my instructors. He told me about React Native. React Native is a framework for Javascript that allows webpages to refactor themselves based on the platform they are on so they look and function as intended. I thought it would be best for me to expand my knowledge of React by using this relatively new technology for my Goals app. My other alternative would be to learn Android or Ios programming languages in order to make my app work. That would be a lot of work and I figured that know React Native on top of everything else I know would only benefit me on interviews or in the job search process. I look forward to working on my app more.

challenging difficulty activated

Gurjot-Sidhu — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:21:19 +0000

So this week was a good week. For many reasons in my personal life but mostly because of my coding progress. I was supposed to start refactoring my goals app to become a react native app but didn't get around to it. The master procrastinator strikes again.... However, this week I focused on doing more challenges on leetcode.com. Usually I copy the challenges they have and work on them so I can push them to my Github for reference. This week I did them on the site itself and began to work my way through the many errors. I completed 3/4 challenges I started this week. 75% is much greater than my usual weekly average that I get. It feels really good to see green instead of red because it shows that I am learning how to problem solve and code out the solutions I have in my head faster. Some questions still leave me confused as how to start them. This for me is a massive sign of progress and I expect it to show on my next coding assessment.

App redo time...

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 22:31:33 +0000

Today I received an email from Twitter's Hiring team that I was rejected from their apprentice program. I was not given a reason why but I'm going to try to be productive to bounce out of this new low. I decided that I am going to work on one of my applications, The Smart Goals app. I plan on redoing the whole app with react native for mobile and web accessibility. My end goal is to deploy the app and make a startup of it. It sounds like quite the grand scheme at the moment but I feel that another app of that kind does not exist. I bounced the idea off of a close friend and he mentioned that it would have many applications within the education field. It could also be used as a general planner for life or business. I took his advice to heart and do plan on really overhauling this app to make it more usable. Its time to stop waiting for these companies to give me a shot at employment and make them really see who I am and my talents. Til next time readers, this next week is going to be interesting. :-}

Twitter??

Gurjot-Sidhu — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 02:18:08 +0000

Today is Sunday Nov 8th, exactly one week ago I finished my assessment for Twitter last Sunday. I have not heard back from them since but I do feel that I did well on it. I remember one of the questions was about sorting through a 2d array(matrix). That particular question was really easy to do complete because I had done a similar question on leetcode.com. It have not gotten a response from them but I understand that they have a lot of candidates(thousands). A few of my other Flatiron grads have also taken that assessments and have heard nothing yet. This past week has consisted of lots of job searching on Linkedin and sending out emails to recruiters. This next week will consist of the same and hopefully I will be asked to interview for more options.

Twitter???

Gurjot-Sidhu — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 21:39:20 +0000

Earlier this week(Thursday the 26th) I received a very important email. I was invited to complete a hiring test for twitter's Software Engineering Apprentice program. I remember applying and this was the first time the company got back to me. I was given until 3pm on Nov 2 to complete the assessment. I won't lie I am definitely very nervous going into this because I have taken many assessments like this in the past for many different tech companies and not heard back from them. I believe I did not do well on those previous assessments. I have doubled down on studying algorithms and data structures more in the last few weeks than before but I can still be caught completely off guard by a problem. I think the practice I've had using LeetCode and using HackkerRank have helped me a lot. But now, It's time to put my knowledge to the test once again. I understand that the outcome will not be the end of the road for me as this is just an internship. It would definitely lead me in the direction that I would like to go career wise. Wish me luck tomorrow, I'm going to make sure I get some good sleep and eat breakfast tomorrow to knock this test out of the park!!!!

Samsara??

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 22:45:31 +0000

So about two weeks ago I applied to a company called Samsara as a Software Engineer (Intern). Soon after filling out the application I reached out to Jacky Frias, a recruiter at Samsara. Within the hour, I received an email from her about the next step in the process. I was asked to complete a CGA or Coding General Assessment for them. The assessment was timed at 70 mins with 4 questions. I chose to solve them in Javascript but there were many options available language-wise. The questions were pretty simple and not too difficult for an entry level position. This is the first step of the process that I have completed. As of right now I am waiting on a reply from them.

React Prime or Prime React???

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 19:28:45 +0000

No this is not a paid subscription on behalf of Amazon. PrimeReact is library of components available within React. I have used Prime React in 2 of my previous applications and plan on implementing it with the app I am building now. The reason why I love Primereact Components is because of its ease of use. All you have to do as a developer is install primereact with
npm install primereact --save and
npm install primeicons --save

after that you just browse the list of components on the website and then import directly like so

import {Accordion} from 'primereact/accordion;

thats it.

Now if you want to use the component you can just write it directly into you render function like so:

Thats it, It is super easy to use and really easy to adjust with some simple built in CSS

New interview?

Gurjot-Sidhu — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 17:05:36 +0000

This past week I have been working on a few code assignments. I heard back from HCL Technologies and they are not interested in continuing the hiring process. It is unfortunate to go as far as code challenge and not pass but I am remaining hopeful that opportunities may arise. Speaking of which, I got a new opportunity with Samsara. I found out about the company on a post on Linkedin about the top 50 up and coming tech companies to work at. I applied for an software development intern position and reached out to a recruiter on Linkedin soon afterwards. Within the hour, I got an email saying they are interested in moving forward with the process. I was given a code challenge with the option to practice via CodeSignal.com. I ended up trying the practice challenge and I barely finished 1 out of the 4 questions in the 70 minutes I was given. So i decided to reach out to hear to ask for extra time which she had offered. Its been 4 days and she has not gotten back to me about the time adjustment. I won't attempt it with 70 minutes because I know i wont be able to do my absolute best in that time frame. I also completed my JPMorgan and Co. assessment this week. It was done with this new technology called Hire Vue. You basically have 3 minutes to answer a few questions about yourself or your work. The questions are similar to actual interviews. Then you must complete 2 code challenges. After completing each question within 35 minutes, you must explain your thought process in 3 minutes in a video recording and how you could improve your solution had you been given more time.
This was a stressful week no doubt about it, but I kind of liked having all of these challenges and assesments to complete. I hope i get many more opportunities like this and can eventually get hired after doing one of these.

To Assess or not to Assess???

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:10:38 +0000

Hey everyone,

I'm back with some news/experience regarding my assessment/interview. So for those of you who are not in the loop. I had an Entry Level Cognitive Assessment with HCl technologies. The assessment was 36 questions. The first 35 were in sections of 5 with 7 multiple choice questions each. The sections were about critical thinking and problem solving. They felt like middle school level math questions but I guess they were put there to gauge competence with simpler topics. So about 30 days into the assessment I had moved onto the last question. It was to build out 2 out of 3 functions and make the test cases pass. This is where I had the most difficulty. Each coding question had 2 test cases that had to be completed. I ended up doing 1 for each but ended up running out of time. I look forward to hearing from them. I do think that my practice with #100daysofcode has helped me a lot. I also have moved forward with JPMorgan &Co regarding a software development role. I received an invitation to complete a pymetrics assessment before moving forward. I just took it and it was 12 games meant to test you in different ways like risk taking and fairness. It was kind of fun and unique, I think i did well too.

By for now readers..............

New interview, who dis...

Gurjot-Sidhu — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 20:58:35 +0000

Today is Friday,Sept 18. I didn't sleep so well last night and hopped on linkedin after a shower and breakfast. About an hour later I get and email from a Flatiron School Career Services Rep. The first time I was emailed from this person was about applying to a position at HCL Technologies as part of an employer partnerships.

Recognizing the opportunity at hand, I applied as soon as I could and let the Rep know so she could flag my resume/application. Today I heard back from her. Her email stated that I had been selected to participate in HCL Technologies online assessment.

As soon as I read this I was extremely excited. I had been job-searching for a while now and all I had gotten was weird waitlist type responses from recruiters. Now I have an assessment to take and am going to study/practice as hard as I can. Landing this job would be such a great relief because getting hired as an entry level developer has gotten considerably harder since Covid hit. I don't want to get my hopes up but now I have a solid opportunity to get my foot in the door. I'd like to give a little shoutout to Reagan Jones for getting me this opportunity and all of Flatiron School Career Services for their continued work during these difficult times.

Thanks for reading,
Gurjot