DEV Community: Torrey Thomas

Day 9: Job applications and Javascript

Torrey Thomas — Fri, 29 May 2020 23:18:16 +0000

Today was my first day back from visiting my sister in Rochester, so I had some personal responsibilities to take care of. However, I of course spent most of my day practicing and working on my skills. The entire morning session of the day I spent applying to jobs at all levels. It is said that job searching is a job in itself and I believe this to be very true. I don't take the current situation in the business world lightly, so I try to spend a large amount of time dedicated to reaching out to people via LinkedIn and searching Indeed for jobs that am a good fit for. This is something that all developers should be doing regardless of experience or knowledge. It never hurts to start early.

Nevertheless, I am spending the evening session of the day studying Javascript. I am continuing to practice Javascript until I have a very high-level understanding of the language. Javascript is the core to which React works and it is something that can always be improved upon. I intend on doing just that by continuing to grow in my knowledge and hopefully be able to apply this to a high-level project shortly.

Day 8: React Native

Torrey Thomas — Wed, 27 May 2020 22:51:58 +0000

Today I took a break from my freeCodeCamp Javascript practice to revisit a course I took on creating React Native applications.

About three months ago when I was still struggling to understand React, I mistakenly purchased a react native course on Udemy. Ironically, this course was the first course I took that helped me understand regular React, which was a bit backwards, but it worked. I recently received a job inquiry regarding becoming a React-Native developer, which is something I never really thought about but actually have the skills for thanks to that mistake.

I like using React Native, I think that it's an amazing tool that developers can use to create deployable app-store apps using the beloved React framework, which has easily become my go-to front-end language and preference. For the next few days I will continue working on a shopping list application that I began today and will hopefully have it deployed by early next week.

Day 6 & 7: holidays & code

Torrey Thomas — Wed, 27 May 2020 15:59:22 +0000

Hey all,

I realize the last two days, I did not release an article so allow me to catch you up.

I am visiting with my sister, so Memorial monday and yesterday we spent a lot of time with her friends in different cities celebrating which was fun. But, don't think that stopped me from getting in my daily lessons. Holiday's are fun, but as long as I am not where I want to be in life, I can't casually take an entire day off without working on some code for at least an hour or so.

For the past two days, I have been focusing on finishing the basic javascript section which is proving to be a really good section as far as fundamentals go. I know a lot of the code and can read solutions fairly easily. I still want to continue to practice until I can code a game or a small app like a to-do list from scratch without having to use any help or stack-overflow, which I feel like I am getting close to being able to do.

I have some exciting new projects that were introduced over the past two days as well which is something that I will talk about in the days to come, but I know some of you are following the daily progress, so I wanted to stay updated on my progress.

Day 5: Basic Javascript

Torrey Thomas — Sun, 24 May 2020 23:49:04 +0000

Today marks day five of my journey through freeCodeCamp. I feel like I am getting into the flow of the work and just moving forward with the work as best as I can.

Life has been throwing many distractions and mixed emotions at me during this time period, in just the five days since I have started, a relative has passed, I have travelled to a different state, as well as other small life interruptions. I believe that when a person decides to do something that is going to help them, distractions and life will always try to get in the way and discourage them. Life is a very natural boss that will always check you to see if you really have what it takes, and I welcome the challenge.

I am currently going over switch functions at the moment, which I can already see working wonders in the logic of games like Hangman or other trivial games that look easy, but require a lot on the logic end. Overall, today was a successful day for studying and I am sure that as I continue to work with Javascript, I will be able to update on any new ideas that I run into.

Day 4: Finding time during transition

Torrey Thomas — Sun, 24 May 2020 03:21:12 +0000

Today was a pretty rough day for me.

I had a 12 hour train ride from D.C. to Rochester to visit my sister, and I in turn had nothing to do but code today. I was able to finally complete my responsive web design certificate.

I found the responsive web design section to be the easiest yes, but there were some very key basic styling and some more advanced styling topics that were new to me and are still important to know.

I also began to study some Javascript today and go over some of the Javascript basics that I currently possess already. I am quickly coming to the aspects of the language that I still struggle in, which I am excited to learn and get better at.

I had an immense headache today after working for over 10 hours after I had a 2 hour delay which was grueling.

Day 3: Responsive Design

Torrey Thomas — Fri, 22 May 2020 23:51:20 +0000

Today was a pretty simple day as far as coding goes.

I had to find some extra time to code since I am traveling tomorrow and I wanted to be 100% prepared to do so safely during such times.

I still managed to complete two of the Responsive Web Design challenges and intend on completing two more by the end of the night.

I got some good practice today with flex-box and functional nav bars. I might intentionally do some extra practice with flex-box and grid design to ensure that these important styling skills are really solid until I can build a fairly simple front-end in ten minutes or even less than that. Once I can do that, I will feel more comfortable moving forward onto the main course of any new developer, JavaScript.

I am excited to move onto this important skill, but I am forcing myself to have patience and to really focus down on my necessary skills.

Day 2: Taking the time to really learn the basics.

Torrey Thomas — Thu, 21 May 2020 22:37:39 +0000

I think that a lot of developers mean well when they say that new coders shouldn't waste too much time doing things like trying to memorize css classes and html tags. I've read many articles where developers say that they regret all the time that they spent doing CSS challenges and trying to memorize good html markup. They say that they should have focused more on learning by applying and knowing that they could just look the entries up when they need.

I think that this outlook should be taken with a grain of salt. Using the fact that most things can be searched on Stack Overflow when there's an issue, can be a powerful tool, but also become the crutch that newbie developers like me tend to rely on. This dangerously begins to feel like progress when in actuality, the sites that i'm creating aren't even semantically written, and that is a huge problem. See, the time that these developer's are saying they "wasted" wasn't actually wasted time. Even if they believe that they could've focused on other projects sooner, the extra time they took to go over the basic, menial, and "easy" code skills is what allowed them to work on their larger projects without having to worry about how to make a page responsive or whether to use flex or grid, because they know the skills and which work best like the back of their hand.

I want a job as bad as the next 20 year old broke guy does, but letting that wish and desire control my timing is what can really leave me with the huge gaps that I have in my knowledge. The funny thing is, here I am, beginning to code again from the start to truly learn the skills without rushing. Had I "wasted" my time by studying HTML and CSS earlier, maybe everything would've came a bit easier.

I know that I said I would focus on my progress, but today I really wanted to just let anyone reading this know, don't rush . Take your time, learn the skills, and be patient. Your time will come, and when it does, no matter when it does, it will be right on time. That's what I am believing moving forward.

Day 1: Began FreeCodeCamp curriculum

Torrey Thomas — Wed, 20 May 2020 20:55:22 +0000

Day One

I have had an issue lately that I have been struggling to overcome. Some call it imposter syndrome, the feeling of not being ready when you are more than ready to take the next step as a web developer.

Except for me, I realized that the reason I felt imposter syndrome, was because I AM an imposter in my eyes. I finished Coding Bootcamp a couple of months ago and while I believe I have the tools and knowledge to leverage those skills into a job, I can personally tell when I haven't truly internalized something. That feeling comes from when I look at the projects I have made and don't feel any real sense of accomplishment from them.

I am by no means discounting the work that I have previously done, but I know my potential better than anyone else, and I know when I am not fully walking into what my true potential is. I have read tons of articles that motivate me to fix my resume or make large projects and reach out to people. While those things have helped me land a few interviews, I have found that I lack some of the basic understanding skills that are necessary to become an Effective web developer.

After taking a hard step back and realizing that at the end of the day, I had to decide if I wanted to continue feeling like a poser, or if I wanted to become an effective developer who isn't just looking for the name or the perks that come with it, but to become an actual asset and earn the title.

I came to the answer of Yes, I DO want this

So, what was I going to do now? I have the Bootcamp experience under my wing, but at the end of the day, being able to display my true skillset and knowledge is what will land me at the job of my dreams, and oh, are my dreams big. I decided to take what I am calling the "baby lifecycle method". The reason I am calling my approach the "baby lifecycle method" is pretty straightforward. I keep trying to get into the prestigious private Universities when I haven't even adequately learned to walk yet, let alone talk or explain the intricacies of scope and closures.

So, this leads me to the point of my first post. Today I began studying the freeCodeCamp curriculum. After reading some very positive reviews from new engineers and job recruiters alike, I have made the decision to let go of my pride of not knowing and my impatience to find a career to truly allow myself the time and dedication it takes to truly learn something I am passionate about. I am currently working on the first certification on Responsive Web Design, which I have some experience with, but I could always improve. I am even completing the menial tasks that I already know, to reinforce my knowledge.

I have also decided to begin reading Eloquent Javascript in addition to studying this work to further develop my understanding of Javascript and it's deeper intricacies.

Overall, I am going to make a post everyday from now on that speaks about what I have learned and how the journey to landing my first web developer position is going. Feel free to join me for the ride and offer any wisdom you might have!