DEV Community: Lisa Maskovich

What's Up?

Lisa Maskovich — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 23:51:03 +0000

First of all... I'm going to dedicate this blog post to the 4 Non Blondes song, "What's Up?". (hence, the blog title) This song has consistently been a guilty pleasure of mine since I first heard it in Junior High. It's great, and the video is a smashing 90's era time-capsule of the styles and sounds of everything that I thought was awesome in junior high. Enjoy!

(You're welcome if you haven't heard it in a while, and my apologies if it gets stuck in your head for the next 3 days.)

"25 years and my life is still, tryin' to get up that great big hill of hope, for a destination"

Well, I'm not 25...

I often think about what Junior-High-Lisa would think if she saw me now. Not that my life is perfect, (far from it) but life is pretty darn delightful. I read something many years ago that really changed the way I live each day, and it was essentially this:

Life is basically 90% good, and 10% bad. The key to a happy life is to focus on the 90% that is good. The problem is that most people can’t turn their attention away from that rotten 10% and it proceeds to rob them of any happiness they might otherwise be able to experience right now.

(paraphrasing because I can’t actually find the quote)

So overall, life is good!

But, for a short moment… let me share with you the 10% of my life that isn’t great.

Just in case anyone out there actually reads my blog posts (Hi mom!) and is wondering what has happened since I last wrote, here is the “Reader's Digest Version”:

That job didn’t work out.

The company had me working on their code, making some small changes and additions to their website, but after far too long without any helpful feedback, or mentorship, and no paycheck… I decided to step away. So, I am basically right back where I was before.

That is my 10%.

Now don’t get me wrong, that 10% can feel all-encompassing at times, but I have found a way to make a little cash doing some online testing of prototype software, and I have a part-time cleaning job that I really enjoy. (I know, I know... this is a run-on sentence)

Lets now talk about the 90% that is AWESOME!

I have run two half marathons recently with my favorite person, and we have one more race coming up soon. (Let me just say, having someone to run with is the best!)
Although there are always fires in California, it hasn’t seemed as bad as last year!
I am literally sitting in the redwoods right now.
I have family and friends that care about me.
I get to cook everyday. (I know for some people that isn’t part of their 90%, but I love cooking!)
I get to bike, hike, walk, jog and hangout with my favorite person all the time.
I am able to make some money. :) Not a lot, but that has also given me the chance to fine-tune my frugality skills!
I just renewed my passport, which means my travel daydreaming is back in full swing.
I get to live in a beautiful city!
Since getting the Covid vaccine, life has become a little bit more relaxed. I am still cautious, of course, and happily follow all local/state and CDC guidelines, but it's been so nice to have the occasional chat with a neighbor on the sidewalk and be able to see their smile.
My college friend is getting married soon and I get to be one of her bridesmaids, and I LOVE an excuse to wear a pretty dress!
This is literally where we jogged this morning!
And the list can go on, and on!

It’s been a while now since I decided to take a terrifying leap of faith and reroute my life. When I left my job in Kansas to move back to California, I sent out an email to my friends/coworkers to say goodbye. In that email I wrote the following line:

“My hope for the future is to find a place where I fit perfectly, and if I can’t find it, I will create it!”

So, I am about to pull out my hammer & chisel to start creating the place where I fit perfectly. This will not be a fast process, but I am enthusiastic about pursuing something that I know will bring incredible happiness to myself and hopefully to others as well. Wish me luck!

Cover Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

The last 500+ days...

Lisa Maskovich — Tue, 25 May 2021 22:16:39 +0000

It’s been 516 days since I left the security of my job.

516 days since I drove away in my car containing all the physical items that I had not sold or donated, and embarked on a ~2000 mile trek.

Driving the first 100 miles was really exciting!

The next 100 miles were riddled with doubts and anxieties. What am I doing? What if everything isn’t great? What if I fail?

Then, the following 200+ miles were sorta numb, just silently driving.

I got to my motel after dark.

From the road it looked like a location where murder-suicides might happen regularly, but the husband and wife that ran the place were absolutely wonderful, and my room was cozy. I ate the food I’d packed for myself, (I was traveling on the cheap) looked over the route for the next few days, took a shower, and then had a great night of sleep. I woke up early the next day, got to see the sunrise while I ate the complimentary breakfast, and somehow that magical motel waffle banished my anxieties!

The following 500+ days of life have been a unique and challenging time, while also being fun, terrifying and exciting.

My Web-Dev Bootcamp training/education

The term “Bootcamp” is synonymous with “tough-as-hell” and that was my experience with this program. I know that people who have gone through an actual military bootcamp will scoff at me comparing these two. My bootcamp did not have drill sergeants yelling at me while I crawled through mud, 3am dark & rainy trail runs, or midnight pushups on the beach while waves crashed into my face. (I know all of this from movies)

I assume that my web-dev ‘bootcamp’ experience was very similar to what other people have experienced. Basically, it starts with confusion, then struggling to understand, blindly trying something, searching the internet for help, cry, try again, start to ‘get it’… then immediately the curriculum moves on to the next topic.

My “Bootcamp” experience felt a lot like the triathlon I did in 2019.

You are standing there in a big group, shivering on the shore waiting for the race to start, feeling unprepared. The whistle blows and everyone starts running down the sand and into the water. Water, feet and arms everywhere. At some point you feel disoriented, you look for the buoys... you finally spot a buoy and then you realize how slow you are going compared to some of the other swimmers. Someone in a kayak paddles over to you to make sure you aren't drowning. You assure them that you are okay, you are just a bit slow. They reluctantly paddle away, but they don’t go very far. You keep swimming, you’ve made it past one buoy, you are excited! You feel accomplished! Then your muscles start to feel very weak. You keep swimming, the choppy water relentlessly pummeling you in the face so you can’t get a good breath of air. You round the next buoy, the swim is more than half way over. The man in the kayak returns to check on you. You thank him for his concern, assure him you are fine and keep on swimming. The shore slowly begins to feel within reach. Muscles straining, but still working. Your feet finally feel the seafloor, you made it. You did not drown, you step out of the water feeling exhausted, but also amazing.

It’s at that point you remember that this is only one part of this Goliath race.

You begin to jog, barefoot, towards your bicycle parked up the hill. You do your best to clean off your feet and get your shoes on. After swimming all that way, telling your muscles to start biking is a challenge. For the first few moments you feel incapable of operating a bicycle, but eventually you get into a groove and you are off, soaking wet and soaring onto the race course. The hills are intense, but predictable. You push your way up, gasping for breath, then coast down only to be greeted by the next incline around the bend. When things seem a little too easy you start to worry whether you installed your front wheel correctly, or what you should do if your brakes fail. It’s long, lots of miles, but every rotation of the pedals gets you closer and closer. The end is near, but your quadriceps are burning!

You pull into the bike area, and then immediately start running.

Just then, the July sun decides to come out and scorch the earth! You are running on fumes, but somehow you have just enough energy to put one foot in front of the other. Running, running, running. Water stations along the way give you a boost of hydration, as well as a little extra confidence. About half way through the run, it starts to feel like a slog. To push-on is all mental. It seems crazy to keep going, but you do. There are hills, the occasional spot of shade, then hot direct sunlight searing you.

Then amazingly, just when you start to feel like giving-up someone is there to cheer you on. Random people along the route clapping, smiling, maybe holding up a sign or ringing a bell. You wave at them, you smile and keep going.

And then, the finish line miraculously emerges from behind a thicket of trees. You use the last bit of energy you possess to finish up what you started. You cross that finish line, they place that medal around your neck, hand you a banana and corral you into an area with hundreds of other sweaty participants.

It’s exciting, but you are tired. They have a band playing and other frivolities, but you just want to go find your bike, sit down for a few minutes and be with your thoughts. You know that you still have to round up everything, get everything to your car, dismantle your bike so you can transport it and then drive 45 minutes home. Once you get home it’s unpacking, getting cleaned up, getting some nourishment into your system and then probably going to bed at 5pm.

Ultimately, finishing is great, but sorta anticlimactic. You know that the struggle will continue on. You're moving from the Triathlon of learning web-development directly into the ultra-marathon of job hunting, interview preparation and learning more.

It is not easy.

I write this as I am about to step over the “finish line” of my 7-month ulta-marathon of job hunting. It’s exciting, but at the same point I am taking this step with caution. The role is a temporary contract position, it might last for a while, or it might end without much notice if funding runs low. I know that I will end up back here at some point to start the job-hunt again.

The silver lining, (there is always a silver lining!) is that when that time comes, I will no longer be looking for my first software engineering role. I will be coming to interviews with actual experience on my resume and stories to tell about my contributions and involvement while working on a dev team.

So, I want to say thanks to the company that decided to take a chance on me.

“Thanks Company! I will do my best!”

I'd also like to thank the people that cheered me on along the way.

"Thanks, y'all are the best!"

One extra shoutout to my biggest supporter...

"Dear Favorite Person,
You are the reason I am able to write this blog post. Thanks for everything!"

Cover Photo by Jon Del Rivero on Unsplash

Must...keep...positive...

Lisa Maskovich — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 17:22:43 +0000

I remember having a conversation with my aunt many years ago.

She told me that as a teenager she once looked at herself in the mirror, noticed her scrawny limbs, cat-eye glasses, her teeth that seemed a little too big for her mouth, and a variety of other physical attributes that made her feel different from the other kids at school. She looked herself up & down and announced to her reflection, “Well, you better start working on your personality!”

My aunt is a lovely person, but she has never achieved any grand sophisticated acclaim. She's never had a flashy job, a fancy car, or money to flaunt. However, she has ALWAYS had a great sense of humor! She's always made other people feel important, been there to offer some helpful advice or just listen. She tells great stories, she carries an aura of happiness that reaches out to anyone within a 15-foot radius, and she successfully creates a bubble of serenity that encompasses her home and garden.

From her example, I have also tried to build a good and positive personality. Hoping that it might be the propellant that could carry me along through life.

During my first job out of college, I worked hard to overcome all the anxious feelings that plagued me when meeting new people and doing new things. I very slowly got past a lot of the anxiety that I felt, and I started to make real connections and friendships with the people that I was lucky to work with. When my job evolved into working on construction projects, I faced more nervousness and feelings of being ill-qualified to run a large project. I decided to do my absolute best to know the project plans and specifications, but to focus more on treating everyone on that project with great respect. I tried to remember people's names, greeted workers with my terrible Spanish language skills (which seemed to be quite entertaining for them) ,and worked on being an encouraging force for the successful completion of any project I was given.

I found that my personality did carry me along! I was not the best person 'on paper' for those jobs. I was inexperienced and had to regularly fight off feelings of insecurity, but I found that my personality did truly carry me along!

Starting over, and entering a new world of technology has been a challenge. And after my most recent setback, I am starting to question myself.

I know that I am not the most qualified, I know that I am slow, and I know that I ask a lot of questions. I kept hoping that one of my job interviews would end with, “Okay, she’s not the best candidate, but we see her potential and she was delightful to talk to… let’s give her a chance.” Unfortunately, I have found that my personality and positivity aren’t serving me as I’d hoped. Most jobs have hundreds of applicants, and I am never going to be in the top 10.

At what point do you decide to change your life plans? You know...try to make it as a “Van Life” Instagram-er, finish that novel you started years ago, or just get a job… ANY job, just to have health insurance again. I knew that this process would be hard, but I didn’t know that it would be so emotionally exhausting.

Now, to finish off this blog post I would like to write a letter to my future self:

Dear future Lisa,

How are you?
Did you have a good summer?
Did you end up adopting a cat as you’d hoped?
Did you ride your bike more? Sit on the beach more?
Did you have more meaningful conversations with the people that matter most in your life?
Are you ready for that half marathon?
Are you happy?

btw, I am not going to ask about your job hunt, because that doesn’t amount to any true and authentic happiness in your life.

Wishing you all the best!
With love,
Past Lisa

I guess this isn't normal...

Lisa Maskovich — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 22:50:50 +0000

As I have gotten older and look back on my life, I realize that I was a weird kid.

Just this morning, I was telling my favorite person a story from my childhood.

It starts this way…

I was ten years old and I was climbing around the junk pile on my grandparent's property. (What? Your grandparents didn’t have a giant junk pile??) As I climbed around the pile, (trying to avoid spiders and tetanus) over old pickup truck bumpers, broken irrigation pipes, faded & cracked Tupperware, random cabinet doors with hinges still attached, and a variety of other rusty/dirty treasures, I happened to spot something interesting. It was an old Kirby vacuum cleaner! It was filthy, the bag was gone and the electric cord was severed. I dug it out from the pile, brushed it off with the sleeves of my giant hand-me-down sweatshirt, and began to drag it up the dusty driveway. I reached the road and continued to push my new toy down the gravelly street towards my home... and by ‘home’, I am referring to the camping trailer where I lived with my parents, and 5 siblings.

So, the setting was perfect. A 10-year-old girl in a baggy, dirty sweatshirt trying to lift an old vacuum up the rickety, folding, metal steps leading to the aluminum and fiberglass camping trailer. :) Classy!

As you can probably imagine, my mom was not excited about the addition to the already cramped space, and kindly let me know that it should be returned to the junk pile. I told her that I wanted to fix it up and she again told me that it needed to be returned to the junk pile. The temporary compromise was leaving it outside, next to the shed.

The following Monday morning as I headed out to catch the bus, I retrieved my vacuum and rolled it to the bus stop. Oddly, I was the only kid waiting for the bus with an old, decrepit vacuum. (strange) When the bus arrived, Gary (the bus driver and my friend) helped me hoist it up the steps. I sat just behind him and told him all about how I found it and was planning to fix it up.

We arrived at school and Gary helped me lower the vacuum out of the bus. I began to push it down the sidewalks until I reached the steps of my fifth-grade classroom. (It was one of those portable buildings and had 4 steps to reach the door) I used my scrawny arms to lift it, one step at a time. I got inside and rolled it to my desk. My teacher came over to inquire about my unusual accessory and to my delight, he was about as excited as I was! I told him that I wanted to fix it up and I asked him if he would help me. He said that he would and we spent that morning recess on the sidewalk in front of the classroom cleaning the dirt and grime away. We also spent the lunch hour cleaning and then beginning to dismantle the beast.

I look back now and I realize that my teacher was giving up his time to rest and get away from his students. He was a good teacher. We spent many more recesses and lunch hours working on this vacuum. He even ordered the parts that we needed to get it working. I (of course, being 10) did not reimburse him for the cost of parts or labor, and I have no clue how much it all cost. All that I remember is being ecstatic to open the packages containing the parts necessary to get that vacuum to run. Teachers are the best!

The first time I turned it on and it hummed to life, I was beyond excited! I vacuumed the whole classroom and the entry rug outside. This is one of my favorite memories.

Thus began my lifelong love for learning how, and why things work.

There is a beauty in fixing something, especially when that something has been tossed into the junk pile.

Not that long ago I felt like I was that vacuum left in a junk-pile. I had not been discarded by anyone else, but by myself. I had put myself into that junk pile. I thought I was never going to break beyond entry-level work, never going to be allowed to gain leadership skills or do anything noteworthy. And then I had a conversation with my favorite person! (At that time, my favorite person was just a newly acquired friend) We sat in a coffee shop and talked about software development and how computers work below the surface. I was encouraged by this person to try, and that I could learn anything if I was willing to put in the effort.

Fast forward to this lovely new year! My favorite person and I sat down over a couple of evenings and rebuilt the old computer game PONG… just for fun! And even though I am not employed yet, I no longer feel like a vacuum in a junk-pile. I am refurbished and ready to work.

Time to eat my feelings!

Lisa Maskovich — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 01:09:47 +0000

So... I didn't get the job that I was really hoping for. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you'd hoped, and that’s okay.

I always try to look on the bright side!

What is the bright side in this situation?
The bright side is that I can have a moment of pure gluttony! I can (at least in my own mind) justify eating whatever will make me feel better. :) I would like one of those giant chocolate cakes from Costco, please!

Sadly, Costco doesn't make this cake anymore. Reddit thread - What happened to the old Costco Chocolate cakes? But, this is MY blog post, so I am mentally moving forward where Costco hasn't also broken my heart, and they have supplied me with my top choice of gluttonous consumption.

I woke up this morning to a rejection email. As you probably know, the words “we have chosen to pursue another candidate for this position who we feel is best qualified” are very hard to read.

I was sad. Let’s be totally honest, I am still sad.

(Sound of cake container opening. No plate necessary, just a fork. I sit on the floor, cross-legged and begin to consume the cake.)

I was really excited about the job. It was just an internship, but I know that a good internship, working with good people, can build a solid foundation for a successful career. I met with 6 different people during my interview and each person was someone I would have been happy and excited to work with. I am truly envious of whoever they chose for the internship.

(A second fork has now joined the party. One for each hand, right, left, right, left, cake is coming from both directions. These forks are getting their moment, the moment for which they were created!)

I wrote a nice email back to the gal from HR. I took some time to really think about what I wanted to write.

(Sound of the vanilla ice cream container being opened and a spoon being retrieved from the drawer)

This is what I sent:

Hi name of HR gal
Thanks for letting me know. I am sure this isn't your favorite part of your job.

I would love it if you could pass on my appreciation to names of the 6 nice people I interviewed with. I am extremely grateful for their kindness, and making me feel comfortable during the interview process. It was like chatting with friends. They are all people that I am sure would be amazing co-workers and I am envious of the intern that was chosen to work with them :)

I hope you all have wonderful holidays. Happiness and health to you all.
Take care

(Melted ice cream begins to pool around me)

It was a difficult email to write, but after I got past my feelings of despair, the words I wrote were my true feelings.

(Chocolate cake crumbs fall into the puddle of melted ice cream as I scrape the last bit of cake from the container with my fingernails)

It's been 9 days since the interview (that I thought had gone really well) and 10 hours since I received the rejection email. And I can say, wholeheartedly, that I feel better knowing than not knowing. It is 100% better than being in a state of limbo.

Now I know, and I can move on.

(I am now stepping up from my cake and ice cream puddle. Grabbing the mop, 4 rolls of paper towels and a gallon of Pinesol cleaner. I soak, wipe and scrub everything until it's sparkling clean. I put the spoon and forks back into their resting places and recycle the rinsed plastic cake packaging)

Time to try again.

Magnificent Ballet of Interview Failure

Lisa Maskovich — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 20:26:16 +0000

Seems like a lifetime ago, but as I step back into interview life I am reminded of a hilariously horrid interview from my past.

The year was 2009, the Bitcoin network had just been created, Barack Obama began his first term as president of the USA, the swine flu (H1N1) was declared a world pandemic, Sully Sullenberger landed a plane on the Hudson river...and Lisa Maskovich walks into a small conference room and begins her magnificent ballet of interview failure!

Background:

I had been working as an unpaid intern for the Planning and Development division of a local City Government. I had one semester left and was walking into an interview for a very promising job. A job that was NOT unpaid, in fact, the job’s pay range was 58K to 64K! (not an insignificant amount) I was excited, and the pressure was high.

Back to the day of the interview:

I spent way too much time picking out an outfit that was probably too formal. (The wrist corsage and tiara might have been a bad choice, just kidding) I wore a knee length skirt, blouse and a well fitting blazer. (I looked like a defense attorney.) I had also read somewhere that you should include some sort of memorable detail to your outfit, so I wore this gaudy/sparkly broach. What was I thinking?!?!?!

I walked into the office and was greeted by the receptionist. She was very nice and showed me to an area where I could sit and wait for my interviewer. I was already quite nervous and could feel the sweat soaking through the fabric of my blouse. Luckily, my middle-aged woman blazer was a good cover. I was mentally rolling through the typical interview questions and thinking over my answers.

Tell me a little about yourself?
Tell me about a conflict you had with a coworker, and how you dealt with it?
What do you feel is your greatest weakness?
What is your greatest strength?
Why should we hire you over other candidates? … and others.

I had my answers queued up and ready to go!

My interviewer approached. A pleasant man around 50 years old with red hair and a nice smile. He greeted me with a handshake and invited me to follow him. We traversed a few hallways, past cubicles, walked through a narrow room where they kept blueprints from past jobs and then swung by the breakroom where I was offered coffee or water. I accepted a small bottle of cold water.

We entered the small conference room, which had a large window, but the view was obstructed by a dense shrub. I sat opposite the window and my interviewer sat with his back to the shrubby window.

The interview began…
“Tell me about yourself?” he asked. I was expecting that. I responded with “Well, my name is Lisa. I am about to finish my degree and I am enthusiastic to take the knowledge I’ve gained and apply it to my first post-university job. I am a happy person, I like to work with other people, and I enjoy a challenge. I like to ride my bike, bake bread, read good books and watch anything that will make me laugh.”

I found that I was nervously clutching the water bottle, it had become a sort of security object. I decided to open the bottle and take a drink. Upon unscrewing the bottle, water over-flowed and landed in a nice puddle on my skirt. My skirt was light gray and the water created a visible dark gray wet spot, right in the middle of my skirt. It was just water - no biggy.

The questions went on and I answered them without too many, ahhh’s, Ummm’s, and Like, you know…'s. It was going okay, but my confidence was plummeting for some reason. (I blame it on the big water mark on my skirt) I fumbled along through the interview questions that I had anticipated. Then came a question I had not expected, “Have you ever received an award, something that you are proud of?”

An award… I was actively searching my rolodex of past memories… I had no acclaims. I had been perfectly mediocre all my life and I guess they don’t give out awards to mediocrity. Then something popped into my head. Someway to answer the question...

“I was given the Golden School bus Award!”

My interviewer looked dumbfounded and I immediately regretted the words that came out of my mouth. I tried to explain it in a way that would sound interesting. “Well, my high school would give an award to one student (a senior) each year that rode the school bus for the most miles. It was a plaque with a toy school bus superglued above my name. You see, I lived far away and up in the mountains and the route to school was about 42 miles each way. Approximately 84 miles per day, times an average of 180 school days per year (15,120 miles) for all 4 years of highschool. A total 60,480 miles on the school bus.”

I smiled.

There was an awkward silence.

I began to fill the awkward silence with words that did not improve the situation. I continued, “I would get car sick if I tried to do my homework on the bus. (another awkward smile) I actually rode that same school bus route for all of 8th grade too!” *
My interviewer said, *“Well…” I could tell he was trying to keep me from discussing my award any further. “... I’ve never heard that answer before” That was nice of him to say. I am sure that wasn’t his first thought.

I honestly don’t remember much beyond that point.

I walked away from that interview downtrodden. Feeling upset with myself for blabbing on and on about something so silly. As you can probably gather, I did not get that job.

Luckily for me, about 8 weeks later my unpaid internship became a paid position and I ended up working there for almost 3 years.

Fast forward though many years or life, jobs, maturity, and more education. I now stand once again looking through the doorway that leads towards interviews and eventual employment.

I feel like a completely different person than the Lisa of 2009. I am not a little girl looking for her first ‘real’ job anymore. I am not trying to be anything other than myself. I know now that nothing can be worse than putting on a fake version of who you are to try and impress an employer. I want to be hired for who I am, and for the skills that I currently possess. I want an employer to know that I don’t know everything, but I will do my best to learn. That I want to be a reliable teammate and contributor.

Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to interview for a company that I respect and I’d be happy to work for. I spent many days preparing for that interview. Going over possible questions, reviewing data structures and working through coding challenges. I practiced my answers with a seasoned software engineer and got advice from him on how to present myself in the best possible way. He reminded me that having the skills is one thing, but being a person that people want to work with is more important, and that I needed to just be myself. :)

I feel like the interview went well and I am cautiously optimistic.

Now, why did I write this particular blog post???

A few days before my interview, I texted my mom and two sisters to let them know that I had an upcoming interview that I was equally excited and nervous for. Their responses were:

From mom:
“Yeah, that’s progress!”

From sister Robyn:
“Awesome!! Congratulations!”

From sister Julie:
“Remember, they don’t care about the Golden School Bus Award”

Tech interviews... stepping out into the dark chasm.

Lisa Maskovich — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:14:11 +0000

I have been feeling like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade.

For those of you who've not seen the movie, here's a synopsis of the part to which I am referring:

That horrible Donovan guy shoots Indy's dad and he knows that the only way to save him is to get the cup of everlasting life. Indiana first has to make it past those floating cobwebs, (spooky) and then the head slicing saw blades that come out of nowhere. Then he has to take on the most dangerous cross-word puzzle ever, almost dying because he doesn't remember that in the latin alphabet Jehovah begins with an "i".

Then he gets to the place where I feel like I am standing now.

One last obstacle before he can reach the room filled with the cool looking cups. He stands looking over a chasm so deep that the bottom cannot be seen. The entrance to the 'cool cup' room on the other side of that vast, dark void.

Those awesome cups seem so close, but ultimately impossible to obtain.

He has to take a 'leap of faith from the lions head'.

So, that is where I am. Standing with my toes perched slightly over the edge of a deep, dark pit.

Tomorrow is my last day of school and I don't feel ready to take that leap of faith. For me, that dark bottomless pit is the prospect of the terrifyingly inevitable event that will follow when someone deems me a suitable candidate to mentally torture.... Sorry, I meant to say: suitable candidate to interview.

Yes, I am talking about the Software Engineering Technical Interview. Now, I've not experienced a true tech interview, but I have done a few mock interviews and have spent many hours taking on coding challenges. There are so many coding challenges out there to study! Thousands of problems to solve. It seems impossible to ever be, or even feel ready to take that anxiety inducing step. So, I stand here, looking across the wide crevasse at the dimly lit doorway that leads into the room filled with those gaudy goblets.

I am capable of holding a cup, I'm capable of successfully drinking from that cup, I can move that cup, clean that cup, use that cup to help fill other cups, maybe use my cup to help fill a punch bowl that will benefit other cup-holders, maybe I could give a rousing speech with my cup held high giving other cup-holders inspiration to create other cups, bigger cups, BETTER CUPS, STRONGER CUPS!!!

But alas, I stand gazing over the deep gap, cup-less.
(cue the somber music)

For the last 9 months, I have clawed my way through this Lambda school program. It has been the toughest mental challenge of my life. I've worked/studied/practiced, and then I've worked, studied and practiced some more, but I still feel completely lacking in the confidence needed to take on a tech interview.

(Now, back to the movie)
As Indiana takes that leap of faith, stretches his foot out in front of his body and begins to cantilever down towards what seems to be an empty abyss, then his foot lands on solid stone! A bridge which was not visible before becomes perfectly discernible. He is safe, and can easily make his way to the room with the desirable chalices!

I picture myself in his place, raising my foot off the ground, leaning forward and then plummeting... dramatically turning into Gandalf the Grey! Falling while also fighting that flaming demon Balrog. Falling father and father, while punching, pinching, scratching and clawing at the demon technical question.

It is assumed that Gandalf fought Balrog for 10 days, then as stated in the book;

"Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell... for a brief time, until my task is done... I lay upon the mountain-top. … There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth." —The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter V: "The White Rider">

Then as Gandalf did, I emerge having successfully defeated that flaming demon (the technical coding question) only to find out that since it took me so long to complete, everyone just assumed I had died and they gave the job to someone else.

I honestly don't think that I will ever feel truly ready to walk into a technical interview, but it is a necessary part of the path I must tread. I will continue to prepare, work and study and with any luck somebody out there will take a chance on me. Someone who sees my little glimmer of potential and offers me a cup.

Cheers!

Not a 'tech' job... but a job. And I love it!

Lisa Maskovich — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 23:42:01 +0000

After selling (or donating) 90% of my belongings back in December, I packed my little car up with my remaining earthly possessions, left Kansas City and drove to San Francisco. Upon arriving on the West Coast, I unpacked my car and then sold that too!

Leaving my job and a regular income was rather terrifying. I owe my livelihood for the last 9 months to my parental-inherited-frugalness, and the kindness and generosity of one other person. I’m not going to reveal who that person is, but they are the BEST! A top-notch human being, and you would be lucky to know this person.

Since attending school has been a full-time commitment, I could not work and, as you can imagine, my savings account has started to diminish. Then, at almost the same moment where I started to feel a little worried about the status of my savings account, I was asked if I was interested in helping other students through the Computer Science curriculum!

I said, YES!!

I have had plenty of student-jobs in the past. During my college years, I worked as a cashier, a medical courier and I even had a seasonal job at a chocolate shop! But, this is the first student-job that I have loved!

Here are the basics:

-I have 9 students on my team and I am their team-leader.
-I hold a daily stand-up with the entire team.
-I host a time where we can peer-program as a team to work through some tough algorithms.
-I have daily shifts where I monitor the help channel for the cohort.
-I have 1:1 meetings with each student, each day to go over the code they wrote the previous day.
-I do code reviews.
-And, like most jobs, I fill out the daily paperwork and logs that keep the ship sailing!

I honestly LOVE this job! Don’t get me wrong, it is challenging and some days I am crazily busy, but overall it’s an amazing gig.

And boy-oh-boy I love getting a paycheck again!

React-Redux project with a splash of Jack Donaghy wisdom

Lisa Maskovich — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:26:15 +0000

More than anything, I love a good laugh!

I will choose to watch/read something funny 90% of the time and the remaining 10% is usually something like NOVA on PBS. So, when I was given the assignment to create a React-Redux app that fetched data from an API of my choosing, I knew it was going to be something funny.

Looking for the perfect (free, public) API was a fun challenge and in my search, I was lucky to find this: https://github.com/leovolving/jack-donaghy-quotes

Dear Leo (creator of this API)
Thanks! I can only assume that you are an awesome human!
I raise a glass of scotch in your honor, while I enjoy some, “…very expensive freshwater clams from the… Cuyahoga River”.
From,
Lisa

Needless to say, I am a big fan of the "Head of TV and Microwave Oven Programming", Jack Donaghy from the sitcom 30 Rock. Leo's API has 30+ quotes from the hilarious character portrayed by Alec Baldwin. The app I made is very basic, but the wisdom of Jack Donaghy is anything but basic. Feel free to check out my silly app here: https://react-redux-app-rcualva64.now.sh/ Clicking on the Get More Jack Donaghy Wisdom button will randomly choose one of the 30+ quotes.

If you are wondering where that cover image of Jack drinking scotch came from, and you'd enjoy a bit more Jack Donaghy wisdom click on this link:
https://cultbox.co.uk/features/trivia/30-rock-top-10-words-of-wisdom-from-jack-donaghy

I will wrap up this post with one of my all time favorite quotes...

“There are no bad ideas, Lemon. Only good ideas that go horribly wrong.”

Birth, Death & Resurrection... of cells on a grid. :)

Lisa Maskovich — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 23:57:05 +0000

I've been working the last few days to create a simple application of John Conway's Game of Life. It's a game (of sorts) run by a simple set of rules.

The first thing to note... each cell has 8 neighbors. (1)above, (2)below, (3)left, (4)right, (5)upper-left corner, (6)lower-left corner, (7)upper-right corner and (8)lower-right corner.

Each cell's neighbors determine it's existence, demise, or re-birth.

The game rules are:

A live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies.
A live cell with more than three live neighbors dies.
A live cell with two or three live neighbors lives, to the next generation.
A dead cell with exactly three live neighbors will come back to life.

This project got me thinking about my apartment building. There are exactly 8 apartments in this building. It's a big cube with 4 residences on the first floor and 4 on the second, with the common entrance/stairway/foyer in the center. In pre-COVID times, people would come and go all day long. (live = occupied apartments, dead = empty apartments) If these rules were applied to our building there would be many variations throughout the day. It would be fascinating to simulate The Game of Life on the comings and goings of my neighbors, but I have a feeling they might find it strange if I sat by the door and monitored each time they entered or exited the building.

The project was really enjoyable to create. I began with a great tutorial from freeCodeCamp.org (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM0_Er3SvFQ) and then I added some additional React components. It's simple and nothing fancy, but it's still pretty neat to see those cells dance delightfully across the grid.
https://cs-build-week-1.leesahmasko.vercel.app/
Feel free to check it out, create a random pattern by clicking cells to set them as alive, (or choose the seed button) hit play and watch what happens! (Also, I apologize that it isn't very mobile friendly. The grid is happiest on desktop view)

While doing this project I had the privilege to learn more about the creator John Conway and I found him to be quite a fascinating character. Sadly, he recently died from complications due to COVID-19. It's rather somber to think as I worked through this project, still adhering to the shelter-in-place order, that I am doing my small part to help prevent the spread of the virus that took his life.

Cheers to John Conway! A life well lived, surrounded by numbers. May we all find ways to follow our passions and leave a legacy for others.

How did I get on this path?

Lisa Maskovich — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 22:38:24 +0000

I grew up in an era where computers were not commonplace in residential homes. The only time I sat in front of a computer was in the quiet, dark computer lab at school. The computers were small yet somehow bulky, and gray but oddly also tan. The screens winked back at you with that all-familiar green blinking cursor. I would travel along the Oregon Trail trying to keep my family and oxen alive, try to follow along with Mavis Beacon as she attempted to teach me proper typing techniques, or do my best to figure out where Carmen San Diego was hiding.

The computer lab was small and in a portable building. They would send us there for around 45 minutes in groups of about 15. We had computer lab 2 or 3 times a month. I remember being worried that I would break the computer. I was intimidated by the technology and hyper concerned with following the directions perfectly.

When I was 16 my parents purchased a PC. It was the cheapest computer Circuit City sold and it came with the Encarta CD-ROM! There was no internet, so the computer was just a word processor, a place where I sat to write school papers. The computer was not fun. The computer was not exciting. It was the location where I made many late-night mental declarations like, "I'm not going to procrastinate ever again!", and then a few weeks later... "Why do I keep doing this to myself? Okay, focus... plate tectonics, what should I write about plate tectonics... does my teacher even read this?"

I left high-school with a positive outlook on life and zero aspirations! I worked some delightfully crappy jobs, got my first cellphone, bought my first car, and then..hmm? I was 20, I hadn't accomplished much beyond owning a Nokia and having a car loan. I decided to dabble in some higher education and with no plan or direction, I began taking classes at community college. Eventually, I transferred to the local University and got myself a BS degree in Construction Management! All is well, I have now figured out my life. hmmm, maybe not.

I finished college around the same time that massive layoffs were taking place. So I took my college degree, my positive attitude, my large student loans, and embarked on an unpaid internship! Eventually, my unpaid internship became a paid role and things started to come together. I worked mostly on street and sidewalk improvement projects.

After a few years on that job, I had the opportunity to live in Europe and I couldn't pass that up. I spent 5 years in Europe. I made some great friends! I learned to speak terrible Italian, terrible French, terrible German, and terrible Dutch. In 5 years I should have become proficient in at least one European language, but I can't say that I did. Shame on me.

While living in Europe I began studying Geographic Information Systems. I was sure that this would set me off on a bright future!

Moving back to the States I ended up in Kansas to work for a big GPS company. I was hired as a cartographer to help make nautical navigation maps! Unfortunately, even though the company required applicants to be proficient in GIS, they did not use it. They had proprietary software that did the job and that was what we used. The daily tasks were more about QA and had very little to do with cartography. The longer I worked there I was becoming less and less hire-able elsewhere. It didn't take long for me to realize that the job was not the right fit, but one thing that I really liked about the job was that it provided me the opportunity to interact with software engineers.

One particular SE inspired me to go for it! He told me about a few different programs that might be good to pursue and that is how I ended up at the Lambda school.

Coding, WebDev, and Computer Science have been my life since starting the program back in February. I attend classes and work on projects M-F and on the weekends I spend time preparing for the upcoming curriculum. It is the most challenging thing I have ever done. I have cried when I've been exhausted and still not understanding a concept, I have danced excitedly when a project comes together without much trouble, I have questioned my abilities, and then conversely felt the condescending power of telling a computer what to do. It has been quite the rollercoaster.

I have learned a lot over the last 5 months. I have learned the benefit of stepping away to avoid feelings of confusion and despair, I no longer panic when I see an error in the terminal, and I know where to find good resources.

I know that I still have a long way to go, but I am at a point now where I can look back and see how far I've come. One thing is for sure, I know that I am on the right path.