I just want to let you all know I just found my dashboard on here and 201 of you are following me? Wow! Why? (haha)
I can't believe that. 201 people follow me on here. That means you're going to get notifications anytime I write something right? Maybe?
I hope I don't disappoint.
Well - I wanted to write about my week. Maybe not in huge detail but in terms of coding. So I wrote a post on Monday about Code Newbie Wins, talking about my first post on dev.to and the wonderful feedback I received (which I continue to receive!). My #SheCoded post. I wrote about waking up that Saturday with a crazy handful of inspiration.
I wrote everything I could think of down on my list:
- Complete Colt Steele’s Web Dev Online Bootcamp
- Projects
- Portfolio
- Blog
- Tech app/form
- Re-create pinterest sites
- Re-create mom’s stroke site
- Re-launch portfolio
#100DaysOfCode- Apply for Dev jobs
Post on dev.toOrganize, re-establish my Github & Codepen- Meetups
So let's break it down.
Monday
Basically all of that pent up inspiration I had? I dove right in. I posted about all of my inspiration here on dev.to and then started organizing my Github page and Codepen. I published my Technician Form on Codepen and began my Portfolio which is still a work in progress. I struggled so much with trying to attempt an image overlay hover which seemed to be something so simple I should know how to do. I also struggled with my nav bar and div spacing because they kept overlapping. Definitely one of the biggest days for frustration on my end.
Tuesday
I still plugged away at my portfolio in between downtime at work. I finally placed 2 projects on Github and reorganized my profile so you can only see my personal projects instead of the plethora of 'school projects' (albeit they're still great). I also started #100DaysOfCode!
After work I hosted my first Ladies That UX event called "What Makes A UX Portfolio?" It was a huge success! We had a senior recruiter attend, there was lots of networking, and some great Q & A regarding portfolios.
I completed Day 2 of #100DaysOfCode by struggling with some things on the 'dev' page of my portfolio.
Lastly - I wrote a post about going to a coding bootcamp or not. I have an interview with a 'student success coach' but I'm still nervous. About the money. If I can do this. Is it a waste or not?
Wednesday
Kids, take your medicine. To be transparent, I take Lexapro and it is definitely not something you can just skip. I don't know what happened. What made me so overwhelmed. Was it things going on at work? Coding? Both? I know I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I had done so much typing and copying and pasting and attempting to hack away at my portfolio that I just kept telling myself my code wasn't clean. It was messy. I wasn't being original. That an image overlay should be simple and I was messing it up. I contemplated posting another "#help!!!!" post on here but avoided it. I was embarrassed about it and had this thought that someone was bound to be like "why doesn't she get this" so I was determined to figure it out myself.
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I tried reading this post by Cat Carbonell which helped a bit, but I was still feeling out of it.
I went home in the middle of the day, after a session at the gym. I bought a bag of Reese's cups and a bag of Baked Lays and chowed down, finishing up with work. I skipped #100DaysOfCode.
Later that night I went to the college service at my church and let me say, it was exactly what I needed. We talked about being 'Confidently Convinced'. To have the mindset of 'winning the game before you even play it'. I'll spare you the whole sermon but it was so refreshing. The pastor discussed living as 'more than conquerors' (Romans 8:37-38) and to start saying "Why not me?" instead of "Why me?"
Thursday
Onto Day 3 of #100DaysOfCode! I felt a sense of renewal from the night before. Excited to try to get back into the swing of things. It was hard, I felt the lowest I have in awhile but picked right back up. And what do you know? I found the answer to my image overlay problem. I googled 'image overlay code' and played around with code after code after code. I took time to dissect one of the examples I found and fit it around mine. It worked! I also added additional CSS to my Technician Form on Codepen. I updated Github as well!
I still had a setback with work. Long story short, I made a huge mistake. But I notified who I needed to and it was one of those "can't fix it now" but someone was made aware.
Friday
What. A. Week. I reverted back to working on my online bootcamp on Udemy where I'm working on Bootstrap at the moment. The videos work off of v3 and currently, Bootstrap has v4. So it's been fun trying to adjust to that.
I emailed a senior recruiter today as well. Hoping to connect. Maybe reach the path I want to go. A week ago, a recruiter reached out to me about an Entry Level Software Dev job but I can't seem to get more information about this spot. Wednesday I turned down a Level 1 Help Desk job too. I felt pretty bad about it. But also tried to tell myself not to settle. To take a position I want to do. That I deserve to be happy as well.
I didn't do much for side projects but Day 4 of #100DaysOfCode was dedicated to getting back onto the bootcamp horse. Oh, and some March Madness (my team lost).
How was your week? Any wins, challenges? How is your journey going?
Here's to hoping everyone had a wonderful week and enjoys the weekend ahead.
Listening to:
Oldest comments (5)
Mood.
I started 100DaysOfCode as well this Monday, and also as well couldn't get to doing it all. I emailed two recruiters my friend recommended me but neither of them replied all week, and I haven't gotten a response from my internship past the interview. I'm rather new to the whole idea of recruiters, is there anything specifically you know about them that would be handy to a newbie?
I wish I did know so I could help. If I'm being honest, I had one that was blowing up my phone 3-4 times a day and I blocked them. But when they first called about a job they jumped right into the assumption that I wanted the job and then told me it was for L1 Service Desk. I've done a job similar to that before and would rather stay where I'm at. I told this person that and they ignored what I said and tried to start up the whole "she accepted" process. Later in the week the company called me and I said "hey thanks for calling but I'm more so interested in a developer type of position, sorry". Probably wasn't something I should've done but...
Very smart that you're thinking about personal projects so early; I did not do that thing and it cost me a lot of quick growth early on.
Thank you! Where do you find inspiration for creating projects? I find that tends to be my biggest roadblock.
That inital creative spark is often one of the hardest parts! You'll get the best results from thinking about your everyday life, and what the biggest pain points are, and how you would fix that. I would recommend checking out
this episode of Syntax.fm where they discuss side-projects and how to approach them.