Personal update, self reflection May 2022
TL;DR currently focusing on not becoming homeless/get a job and get stable again before I proceed to do more learning/projects.
What I’ve been up to lately
So… the company I was trying to get off the ground with some partners is not working out at this time and so I’m back on the job market. That company will reprioritize and I’ll work on guiding it’s transition to a new development team (not me).
I keep wondering if I just got lucky with my previous role. I was employed as an SWE at a corporation but I was a contractor. The process for this contracting role was pretty much, they needed someone immediately and I was there at the right time/place (LinkedIn). I don’t recall any crazy interviews/long time to get everything done. Just a phone call with the tech hiring manager and boom I was chosen/ascended by $30K in pay. Now it seems the pattern is something like: recruiter, hiring manager or dev manager, tech interview then final interview. That’s something like 4 x 30–60mins of time spread out over a couple days or more.
Can see my batting average below so far, I almost nailed one job right away but I didn’t meet their needs/failed at the technical interview (discussion/random questions). It’s not so bad job searching if you’re not desperate. In my case I am because I grossly underestimated how long this process can take. I should have started looking like 2 months ago.
I’ve started to apply some as well. So far to three companies, unfortunately one was sketchy/I didn’t think about it till after I submitted my info. I’m using Glassdoor and Indeed (easy apply). These are not as good/immediate sources like LinkedIn since a lot of times the job listings are days old which I didn’t think about.
The job search process/back and forth is extremely distracting. I’m fortunate that I have an open schedule with the company I’m working for currently. I am a partner but it’s a sweat equity deal at this time so I was burning money since I left my day job in Dec 2021. Also my old POS car that I’ve sunk like 5x its worth from a car lot finally died and I got a new (used) car. It’s crazy how fast that process was (CarMax) I bought/financed (25% down (loan) on a $20K car)/drove off the lot same day. I also increased my personal debt by like 30–40% ha. Also with crypto tanking I lost money there. It’s possible a car loan is a fatal mistake for me (lol) and while I dealt with my finances imploding in the past eg. 300s to 750s credit score, this car provides me with peace of mind. My other car anytime I drove it I was afraid of it dying. One time it died at a BK drive through and my friend and I had to push it out of there ha.
Reflections
What I’m picking up right now is I’m a generalist. I’m not really an expert in anything. The tech I work in is not that good either. I really need to get into more harder tech eg. C++. Which yeah a job is a job and front end/full stack roles pay well enough. I also have always considered myself not good enough for FAANG, I have tried some Leetcode before and it wasn’t like “boom easy”. Which I’ve read you just have to practice.
Update: I’ve looked for Amazon FE jobs/ones that don’t explicitly mention a degree or any that offer experience as a substitute. I’m going to commit to doing the cliche grokking, leetcode, dsa, etc… actually try.
Ultimately I have to secure my own future as in not be employed by anyone. To get there will take a while. I also despite making more money than I have in the past/all my life, am still broke. This is largely because I’ve given away money to my families (a lot like I could have paid off my student loans). But personally I do burn money though like dropping $100 for ramen meals from a restaurant. So yeah, when the time comes/hopefully get employed I will work on that, saving, investing but aside from investing (need a lot of money) working on businesses. Because I need multiple income streams and mostly be free/not be panicking like right now I NEED A JOB! Ha but yeah.
It’s alright, long time ago I learned to not get too attached to my things, worst case I can abandon all my possessions like at 70% of resale value and try to freelance more. I have some runway but yeah it’s not a good time right now.
Future/slated projects
This is all BS you can call me a liar until I get it done. I hate doing this (ego-satisfaction) because words are cheap. But I intend to write a camera driver in Linux (lol probably fail) and learn Haskell for this VR compositor. Then just generally become a better dev/wrap up other projects I have been working on (like the Twerk Lidar Robot) which I will probably finish that first before proceeding on something new. I did buy a Haskell book so I’ve committed that much, like my unfinished Clean Code book.
I have not been able to fly my DLG yet this year, winds are coming the wrong way/have not printed the carrier. Anyway onwards, I’m still trying to finish this part of Inkit Live so it can be demoed. Just been distracted it’s a hard task/wall I have to overcome/need total concentration on. Then I’ll breath a sigh of relief when it’s done and I can focus more on job hunting.
Update
Well on 06/06/2022 I accepted a new role. Thank goodness I am so broke. With regard to the spreadsheet above it was oddly the Hired one that I got a job with. I got two hits from there in the short amount of time I used it. My background is no degree so my odds were not that great.
