init 1 - Failure

rewriteinrustpls — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:25:21 +0000

A follow up to my last post.

I had an interview with an amazing company. My code challenge went well, and I got to have an in person interview. While I thought it went well, the interview seemed very short, and by the end of the week I was informed I did not proceed to the next round of interviews.

Not quite sure what happened. I've been wracking my brains on what happened. Did I give bad answers? Did I not seem like a cultural fit? Do I have the wrong skill sets? Guess I won't ever get answers. I did reply back asking for feedback, but I doubt I will get any.

Am I disappointing/demotivated? Yup. But I guess this is just the game, and I just have to keep going. Kinda feels like a real bad breakup but oh well.

Going to this office though has made me realize how much I'd rather prefer working with a small or mid size company than a large one (in my current work, I'm in a large company providing services to other large companies). It was nice to see how people from a small company are more passionate and caring about the work they do.

So pro's to this experience:

I got some in person interview experience.
I have confidence that I can do well in coding challenges.
I know more about the size of company I wan't to work for.

Guess I'll just keep up the grind.

init 1 - Trying To Enter The Dev World

rewriteinrustpls — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 18:24:53 +0000

Introduction

Hello, Dev! This is my first post, so please forgive me if I am breaking any Dev best practices. I intend to write a set of articles in attempt to explore my current thoughts, and to seek wisdom from the Dev community as I try to grow in my career.

The Problem

I currently work in the field of RPA (Robotic Process Automation). While I've learned a lot while working in the field, I feel I may have reached a ceiling. It's not entirely too technical, and I do love the development part of it the most, so I figure I want to pivot more into a developer role. Additionally, I've come to realize that RPA most of the time is more of a hindrance than a boon (it only serves to increase technical debt within an organization). This is something I'm not comfortable with based on a morality standpoint.

So I'd love to get more into a traditional development role. No chance for that within my current organization: I've been pigeonholed as the RPA expert, as well as my group doesn't really have any true development roles available.

So I need to enter the world of development through another organization.

My Background

My primary coding language in the past has been python. I have used it in personal projects, as well as I have developed some machine learning POC's in the past for work.

I love Linux, and I use Arch Linux at home. I also am currently learning C/C++ & Rust.

My Goal

To find a role that falls more in line with my want of a developer career. I'd ideally like to work with Linux, but that is not a must. I'm open to learning any language, but I'm particularly attracted to more systems level languages. Beyond that I'm not really sure what kind of development work I want to be doing.

I need to figure out the following:

What area of development I want to work in
How I can build skills in that area