Welcome to my weekly retro where I go over everything I did each day. I record this as my week goes on and doing so has helped me talk about what I am learning in a clear and concise way. I feel like I have already come a long way since week 1 and can't wait to see what life has in store.
Monday
Today was great. After 4 weeks of keeping up with my routine I ended up feeling exhausted. I loved the progress I was making in many different areas and want to continue to grow, but the style of work seemed to put too much pressure on my brain. I used the weekend to revise my schedule and decided to incorporate more frequent shorter breaks and do less things for longer amount of time. I am no longer applying for jobs, networking, doing practice problems, reading emotional growth books/articles, learning new skills, reviewing statistical analysis and interview practice all in the same day. I am working on my technical skills one day, and my outreach and personal growth the next. Today was a day for technical growth, so I hoped on leetcode and started with some practice problems. I used a web compiler to test my solutions in a way to learn what each bit of code was doing. I took my time and didn't peak, every submission I solved more and more test cases. I ended up learning more about python than I have in a while without even trying to. I have been focusing on learning more complicated topics such as NLP, this helped remind me that the basics are always important.
Tuesday
Today was another great day. I drove my cousin to work this morning as he needed a ride. I grabbed some coffee on the way home and had a great breakfast with my girlfriend. Today I am focusing on networking, outreach and a little job applying. I hopped on my computer and reviewed my emails to find I got a response from a recruiter. I have a short get-to-know you interview on Thursday and can't wait for it. I try not to focus on just applying for a ton of jobs every time because I don't think it will provide lasting results. If I comment on 5 different peoples posts or write my own that happens to have 50 people see it, it will help me a lot more in the long run than applying to an extra 10 jobs in the same amount of time. My goal is to build lasting relationships with people who have similar interests as me.
Wednesday
Today was good. Woke up feeling rested, ready and raring to go. The night before I found an email asking to reschedule a quick phone interview. I was planning on having the interview tomorrow because I will be in the mindset of networking and outreach instead of solving problems from a technical standpoint. But alas, it worked better for my interviewer to get it done and I am honestly happy that I got it done. I did wonderfully, she will be getting back to me sometime soon, and I don't have to deal with the anxiety of it anymore. I also worked on some leetcode problems for review but didn't make enough time to explore a new data science skill. I had a few errands to run throughout the afternoon and it ended up taking more time than I anticipated. My hope is to find a dataset to work with. I haven't flexed my analysis skills in a bit and I am itching to get working again.
Thursday
Another great day. The early hours were stressful as my girlfriend went to small claims court in the afternoon. However it was also her birthday so we did our best to celebrate. She did win and it was interesting to see how incompetent some people are. She was fully prepared, looking professional and followed the procedures of presenting evidence with witnesses. Meanwhile her ex-bosses, who refused to pay her severance, looked unkempt on their kids school laptops and tried/believed they could win with hear-say. Needless to say, the judge saw right through their unprofessionalism and handed the case to my girlfriend right away.
Being on the bottom of the proverbial totem pole when it comes to the world of data sometimes makes me forget that I am in fact more prepared and professional than I once believed.
Friday
Today was great yet again. My girlfriend slept soundly through the whole night. I wouldn't normally note something like this but its the first time in months so I am very happy for her. I believe it is because the stress of her court case gone. I didn't mention this yesterday with everything else going on, but I was contacted by BI advisor who also works part time at Harvard. He wants to work on an analysis project with someone (me :D) for learning purposes. Which if you forgot, is exactly what I was wanting Wednesday night. Only now this could lead to not just review and some learning, but possibly an endorsement and even a job opportunity. More than anything though, I am excited to work as a team. Everything I have done thus far has been on my own and I am ready to show what I can do.
This week was great. I didn't have a single bad day. That doesn't mean I was happy all the time, but as a whole there wasn't much to complain about. If you have any questions or words of advice, I am always happy to talk. Otherwise thank you again for joining me, and I hope to see you next week.
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