DEV Community: Salvatore Santamaria

A day in the life of a remote junior developer

Salvatore Santamaria — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 13:32:52 +0000

The Top 14 Things I learned In My First Year As A Dev!

Salvatore Santamaria — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 13:49:46 +0000

The Top 14 Things I learned after 1 year as a web developer

This has been a huge year for me. 5 years ago I had decided that I wanted to become a developer. I was 31, had a new baby, and knew I needed a career change. It took 4 years and a bootcamp, and I was hired as a full time developer 1 year ago today- so I’ve been a developer for a full year now!

Things I did

Wrote 52 blog posts

I committed to writing a blog post every week for a full year. I wanted to give back to the community, as well as teach myself some of the many things I didn’t know about development. So each week, I wrote a blog post.

Started a Youtube channel and created 50 videos (Including 30 videos in 30 days!)

I’ve always liked making little videos. I was inspired by a lot of the YouTube videos that helped me along the way. I challenged myself to make 30 videos in a month, and met that goal. Sometimes I used my blog posts as scripts, and other times I talked about my experience and opinions on coding bootcamps, and other times I made little coding videos.

Made 13 projects

When I was hired, I didn’t know the primary language I would be writing code in- so I had to learn Ruby, Rails, SCSS, HAML and RSpec. I did this by grinding out tutorial after tutorial on many late nights and weekends. I pushed my limits and came close to burning out several times.

Things I learned

I can only improve so fast

This has been tough for me to accept at times. I’m a hard worker and have done many things. In the past, I’ve been able to do things like floor my house faster by simply working more hours, or conquering a work project with more hours and help from my coworkers. And while I can get better by practice coding more, I can only learn so much at one time.

I don’t use algorithms in my job

I’ve never included Fizzbuzz in a controller at work. But, I’m glad that I have studied some. I’ve found that my framework knowledge has been vastly more important that my Ruby or JavaScript language knowledge.

There’s an awesome community of dev’s on tech Twitter

Like many, I had an account for years but never posted (literally). I quickly started making connections after I discovered that so many dev’s use Twitter. I really wish I had known about it when I was struggling to learn code on my own.

Task switching is productivity killer- don’t do PR’s in the middle of a task

After I started reviewing pull requests, I got in a bad habit of dropping everything when a new pull request would open. This slowed me significantly. It took my tasks much longer to complete and I would often break my codebase when I had to work with any sort of database migrations.

Looking at code with fresh eyes after a good nights sleep will often reveal the solution

I solved so many problems after sleeping on it.

Communication is your most important skill

Updating co workers on the status of things is extremely important. ‘This got done, this is how I tested something, that is why something isn’t working’, etc. Don’t understand something? Ask! But, asking the correct question is paramount. Being able to communicate my thoughts and ideas effectively can be challenging but is extremely important as well.

Take details notes with references

I’ve always been a notetaker. At first, it just seemed like a good thing to do. But months later, I realized that I need to use a command again, or access something again. And I knew right where to find it- in the ol’ notebook.

Blogging / vlogging is an accelerator to your growth

I started my blog as an outlet to share my experience as it was recommended to me. But I found that it forces accountability and growth. I had to research and write about topics. Sometimes I just used the weeks blog post to help write out my notes on a coding challenge, and sometimes I just wrote out my thoughts on a topic. I ended up with a nice body of work, and have helped many people along the way (thanks google analytics, it’s so cool I have readers all over the world!)

Equipment matters

I code best on two large monitors, full size keyboard, wireless mouse. I made the mistake of just accepting the single monitor provided at work. I’ve always worked on two or three monitors, and I had learned all of my coding skills on multiple monitors. When we were forced to work from home, I went make to that setup, and it made a huge impact immediately.

Take your performance enhancers

Exercise, sleep, good work area (music/lighting/equipment). All of these things contribute to the skill of a developer. I’ve found that being at my best has been more important in this job than in any job I’ve had yet.
Plus - do some hobby activities outside of code. I’ve gone through months where I am unable to give attention to any other hobby, and my work has suffered for it. I’m just less excited about working when it is non stop

Writing a blog post every week became a chore

After a couple of months of blogging, I felt I overloaded myself. I made a commitment, so I kept at it, but while I often learned a great many things, I wrote a couple of posts that were just… filler. All of the growth I’ve achieved due to blogging was worth it though.

Having a self development plan is the most important thing you can do for growth

I should also mention that sticking to that plan is just as important! Software development is so vast, it’s easy to wander without focus. Creating a development plan is key to success.

PR feedback is coaching!

A coworker told me this a few months after I started working. It’s free coaching where you get to get better at writing code.

I learned that a lot of example code and useful pages are in Github

As a new dev, I thought that Github was only used to store codebases and projects. One day, while Googling, I found some interesting Markdown files containing public notes on some code. Then I began searching Github for example code and more notes. It’s been a very valuable discovery.

Plans for the future

Make some videos on algo’s

I’ve always liked algorithms, and as exercises they are important. Coding tests are also a prerequisite to many jobs.

Grow my youtube channel

I like making videos, but I can’t help anyone if no one watches! Plus, having a body of work can lead to opportunities. Maybe one day I’ll make a couple of bucks? I hear I can make dozens of dollars of profit from YouTube….

Monetize my blog site- just enough to pay the hosting fee

Since my portfolio is up on Github, I’ve been paying a hosting fee- it would be nice for the blog to pay for itself. Also, it’s a cool challenge!

Master Rails and improve my Ruby skills

Maybe I’ll never fully master Ruby or Rails, but I will enjoy my journey as I try to.

Finally create my dream projects - Fantasy Football site and Office Crawler

I’m in a fantasy football league. We are pretty serious. It’s a 14 team auction league with 2 keepers and I have access to all the scores on ESPN. It would be cool to dig out some stats.
And, I’ve always wanted to make an office crawler site, like a dungeon crawler, but in an office as a lowly worker. I’ve had this idea since I finished my bootcamp, and I can’t get it out of my head. So, I’ll have to make it I guess!

An online coding bootcamp walkthrough

Salvatore Santamaria — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 14:27:11 +0000

Coding Bootcamp or Computer Science Degree?

Salvatore Santamaria — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 13:45:41 +0000

If you can afford either, think about your career goals. CS degrees take you farther up the corporate ladder and they are requirements for some companies. So for career advancement- making VP Engineering likely requires a CS degree. Another thing to think about. CS degrees require years of study, which leads to a deeper understanding and a lot more hours writing code. However, college is not cheap, nor does everyone have the ability to attend one.

Coding bootcamps, while much cheaper and faster, will help you learn how to code. However, the knowledge gained from a bootcamp will be far less than the knowledge of a computer science graduate. Bootcamps tend to focus on real world applications and modern technology. In order words, bootcamps are designed to help get you a job- computer science degrees are designed to help you learn computer science.

Coding Bootcamp Pros

Faster
Cheaper
Make real life applications
Learn interview algorithm
Learn interviewing techniques and get job search support
Learn the tech that’s getting used right now
Better return on investment- make more per hour with how much effort you put in

Coding Bootcamp Cons

Not a real degree
Ridiculous pace
Stigma attached to bootcamp graduate
Usually get paid less
Likely an amateur after graduating

CS Degree Pros

Deep knowledge of computer science
Years of practice. Literally years of training to code in preparation for a job.
CS degree is highly valuable in careers and market
Get paid more
Networking

CS Degree Cons

Expensive
Difficult
Learning outdated tech
Don’t build many ‘real world apps’
Takes a long time

Employer Views

All employers want employees to have technical knowledge and soft skills. Many employers will look for a candidate with a degree as well, although it doesn’t have to be a computer science degree. Data heavy positions such as analyst and data scientist may also look for math backgrounds. Bottom line, employers, recruiters, and HR departments like degrees.

Bootcamp graduates will have experience with practical and modern knowledge. Most importantly, bootcamps are designed to help build practical, personal projects. Some companies will value the ‘self-taught experience’ and drive that comes from coding bootcamps. These companies recognize the valuable soft skills many bootcamp grads have, while knowing that the bootcamp grads have enough technical knowledge to at least be an amateur coder.

How to make a junior web developer portfolio website

Salvatore Santamaria — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 14:04:18 +0000

Your portfolio needs to be mobile friendly!

Design it mobile first. Mobile traffic accounts for about half of all internet traffic worldwide. So, there is a great chance your recruiter or hiring manager will look at it in mobile view.

Make sure you include links to other live projects, pages with live projects, and/or video snippets to live code.

You should already have a link to your Github as well, but your future employer is going to want to see if you can launch something live. Remember, most recruiters and hiring managers will only spend a couple of minutes at most looking at your portfolio! Having live code let’s them play with the cool features you have built. If you can’t launch everything live, grab it with a (short) screen capture video.

Integrate code snippets OR a CSS framework is ok and encouraged!

This shows you can integrate code into a live site. In the real dev world it’s common to incorporate snippets into a project. This also shows that you are able to work with someone else’s code!

Integrating code snippets or frameworks also ensures that your site will look great. CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Semantic are already responsive and mobile friendly. Your portfolio will look better, it will be created faster, and you are less likely to be writing bugs by trying to create all that custom code.

The url should be readable and custom.

You want yourname.com. If yourname.com isn’t available, try for .net, .io, etc. The point here is to make it professional and easy to type in. Don’t include a middle initial if it makes your name read weird.

Make sure any custom code is clean.

Remove comments and get the formatting right. If your potential employer inspects your portfolio site, will they find a professional work, or a bunch of curse words and commented out notes and blocks?

Your resume should be downloadable!

They probably don’t have a copy. This is easy to do and it is often overlooked, AND you may get them to now look at your resume. Be sure to also link out to your LinkedIn, Blog, Github, etc, but you don’t need to link to everything under the sun! Keep it to just a few external links, so they can get a better picture of who you are.

Lastly, QA it!

Check all your links. Check it for typos. Check for spelling. Try to break your site. Make sure your hard work was done right!

A guide for complete beginners to learn JavaScript

Salvatore Santamaria — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:02:51 +0000

This is my outline for complete beginners to learn JavaScript. I struggled to learn on my own for years while I searched for great learning resources. This is the secret: find a path and just stick to it.

Here's the best path I can recommend. If you follow it, you will learn JavaScript.

Step 1. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript | http://www.asmarterwaytolearn.com/js/

This is a good resource for someone who has never programmed anything at all before. This book and accompanying site is great because the author gives you chapters that are easy to digest, and then you are able to practice in a live environment, write real code, and then see if your code is correct. Follow the book chapters and complete at least 75% of the online lesson challenges, which are free with a purchase of the book.

Mark Myers also has A Smarter Way to Learn HTML and CSS, as well as A Smarter Way to Learn Python. They're all excellent beginner books and courses. I originally began learning here.

Step 2. 30 days of Code Challenge | https://javascript30.com/

In this online course, Wes Bos takes you through 30 simple projects where you get to build actual things with JavaScript. He gives you access to all the source code files and usually starts you out with a project that's half built so you get right into building the cool stuff right away. It's a great way to jump-start learning how to build real world projects. The idea is to code everyday or follow along with this tutorial everyday for 30 days so that you really catch the coding bug and then want to continue coding as a habit. I've heard that once you do something repeatedly everyday for long enough time you will make that thing a habit and this course is definitely following that concept. Make sure you complete all of the course before moving on.

Step 3. FreeCodeCamp / PizzaPokerGuy | https://www.youtube.com/user/pizzapokerguy87/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=12

FreeCodeCamp is a well known resource and community for learning how to code. It is exactly what is it- a free coding camp. After you get past the beginners tutorials, the real world projects are fairly difficult for beginners. Give them an honest try, and when you get stuck, check out PizzaPokerGuy’s YouTube channel, where he walks you through some of the projects. He also walks you through most of the tutorial lessons. Watching others code is a great introduction to pair programming. Go as far as you feel like with the beginners tutorials and easier projects, then move on to YouTube tutorials.

Step 4. YouTube Tutorials

At this point you should be familiar with how to build an application, but maybe you're not able to build anything on your own. That's ok! The best thing to do now is just follow tutorials and build as much stuff as you can. Search for “Learn JavaScript” and find some projects that are interesting to you, or check out Traversy Media.

Step 5. Udemy

Udemy has great courses that are more professional and updated than YouTube tutorials. If you aren’t having luck finding YouTube tutorials you like, check Udemy. Be sure to complete whatever course you take. I find it takes me 3x the length of the course to complete, due to bug troubleshooting and note taking.

Step 6. Edabit | www.edabit.com

Edabit is great to practice syntax and algorithms. It’s free, shows multiple solutions if you get stuck, and has differing levels of challenges, starting from ‘Very Easy’. Repetition is key, because coding isn’t about memorization, it’s about figuring out problems. Spend time each day attempting challenges. After you have a feel for building application, be sure to sharpen your skills with challenges.

Step 7. Keep at it!

This will take time, I’ve outlined hundreds of hours of content above. Remember that learning to code is about enjoying the journey, and not the destination. Programming is all about continuous learning!

How to pass a coding interview (for junior devs)

Salvatore Santamaria — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 22:14:50 +0000

Getting that first developer job is hard! Especially coding interviews. Here is my 1 pager of tips to prepare pass a coding interview. I’ve also included a video as well discussing in coding interviews in further detail.

Prep

Find out about the company as much as you can. Go to their website, look at articles, etc.
Algos algos algos. More algos. And, WHITEBOARD THEM OUT!!

Dress

Dress nice but be comfortable. Dress code tends to be fairly casual but you will look better if you dress nice. Who would you hire, guy in slacks, or guy in jeans? Who is more serious?

Arrival

Read through your notes and STAR stories. A trick to get over nerves, listen to some comedy and laugh before you go in. Arrive at the office 10 minutes early. No earlier and no later.

During the interview

They are trying to find out:
- Are you a good fit for the team?
- Do they like you? Would they like working with you?
- Would you enjoy the work?
- Are you smart?
- Do you have communication skills?
Be honest and enthusiastic, not apologetic for what you don’t know.
Be confident. You're going for friendly, confident, eager and team player.
DO NOT LIE!
If you don't know, say you don’t know but indicate that you would love to learn
Again, DO NOT LIE!!
Try to relate your past experiences and skills to your current job. Talk about what you can bring to the table, as this is important as a junior.
In a junior role you should be looking for a great team and mentor ship that can help you become a better developer.
Tell them what you are currently doing to become a better developer.
Tell them how you keep up to date. How do you learn best? It’s a red flag if you don’t have an answer. Do you like videos? Read documentation? No answer means you aren’t studying.
Have some STAR stories
- Situation with a position outcome
- Tasks needs in the situation
- Actions taken to complete tasks
- Results achieved from the actions

Some Common Questions

Q: what projects have you done?

A: Talk about your GitHub and portfolio and the projects. Mention the technologies, challenges, and future improvements on them. And, what you learned!

Q: Where you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

A: You need an answer for this question! (like Sr. Developer or team lead or director)

Q: Personal Questions- like what do you do for fun?

A: Talk about whatever tech you do in your spare time. You are a jr. You want a job so you can work in a team with mentors so you can further knowledge, learn best practices, contribute and work in your passion.

Q: Do you have any questions for me?

A: Ask what is the project like? What technologies are used? What are the challenges?

Ask what they expect from a Junior developer? You are looking for something about learning and growing, and personal development. Answers about work hours, workload, bug fixing and test coverage are red flags that they might just be looking to put a body in front of a keyboard and aren’t interested in your growth.
Do you have feedback for me? What are my gaps? Ask for feedback!

Whiteboarding

PRACTICE WHITEBOARDING!!!
Start in the middle, use plenty of space
Use a dark pen. If the pen is lousy ask for a different one.
Write pseudocode first
Don’t BS. Ask for clarity and help. If you aren’t sure, say so. A good team will try to help you through the problem. They want to see how you go about solving a problem under stress and how you think.
After you think you have solved it, run the function on the whiteboard to look for errors

Ending of the interview

Thank them for their time, and ask what the next steps are. They will tell you what that is. Ask so you know and aren’t wondering. If they offer the job don’t accept the salary immediately. Take some time to think about it, call/write them back and counter.

Following up

Immediately write your contact a note thanking for the time, tell them why you think you are a good fit and if you struggled anywhere, DO SOME RESEARCH on it and explain what it was. Ask if they had any further questions for you.

Lastly, remember it's OK to fail! Write down what you could do better and have learned, and keep trying.