Hackbright finished on December 19th. Since that day, I've been trying to write a post about it, but obviously, failed in the attempt. I've got a ton of excuses as to why I didn't write such as the holidays, getting super sick (as in lying in bed, getting up, realizing that was a bad idea and went straight back to bed... and really, it was not just one day that I experienced this, it was multiple days... more on that later), looking for a job and going on a trip. So, let me start rambling on about the last few months.
Towards the end of Hackbright, I felt like I was catching the HB plague. I managed to fight it off. I also managed to interview at a couple of companies. One rejected me straight out, but I was ok with that as the company was in San Francisco, was a tech writing job and very far away from the Caltrain station. The other place I interviewed with was very near the Caltrain station. It was also more of a writing position than an engineering one, but the product was amazing. So was the salary.
A HB friend, Danielle, questioned why I was going for writing jobs and not a "real" engineering job. She encouraged me to go for an engineering position. And to be honest, I really didn't want to get stuck in a writing position for the rest of my career. The salary wasn't great, and I'm pretty sure I'd get bored fairly quickly. So, why wasn't I going for a "real" engineering job? I think part of it was because I didn't want to deal with a technical interview. I wasn't really paying attention to whiteboarding practice. I know I should have, but I am strangely against studying for whiteboarding.
Aside 1: Whiteboarding is supposed to show the process by which a candidate approaches the problem, a candidate's ability to work through a problem with or without help. and to demonstrate communication skills. It is not necessary to solve the problem. That is NOT the important part. The important part is what was just mentioned. So why the hell are there books about solving these problems? Knowing the answer to the typically asked questions does jackshit to show how a candidate can think and so forth. - end of Aside 1.
At any rate, two interviews down and no technical/whiteboarding interview. AND I didn't have a clue about what type of engineering I wanted to do. Front end was ok. I learned a bit of JavaScript for the 2nd company. I started to actually hate HTML less. Bootstrap was ok. In thinking about my project, I have to say that writing the data model using SQL and SQLalchemy was the best part. Pity that was only about a day and a half of my project. HB friend, Julie, encouraged me to find a data engineering position.
Hackbright finished, the holidays were good, but my stomach started doing that sick thing and then I caught a cold. Around this time too, my body just crashed. I was exhausted after living on adrenalin for so many weeks. I stayed in bed for numerous days. On the one hand, the cats were happy to have me home and to provide a comfortable spot for them to sleep and warmth too. On the other hand, it really sucked staying in bed because dammit, I needed to find a job! Also, I needed to study other languages like JavaScript, or maybe I should study Hadoop... Dear Lord, give me something to focus on! I didn't know what to study first or second or at all. So, I didn't study much of anything and just enjoyed the holidays as much as possible and get better.
Now, I knew I needed a job by February. That's when it would become imperative for me to find a job to get $$ flowing back into the bank account. A friend who has an unfunded start up asked me to do some work on her website using the Brandcast tool. I'm not a fan of Brandcast yet, mostly because I didn't have enough control over what was appearing on website. After learning how to control the appearance of a page using CSS, HTML and Bootstrap, using a drag and drop tool to build a site drove me nuts. Oh, no money on this job, just experience and learning a new tool. Also, if she gets funding and her company off the ground, I could potentially get a founder's credit.
Aside 2: I was advised to run from this friend's job for a few reasons. 1) No money. 2) Working for or with a friend can really damage that friendship. Both are good pieces of advice that I didn't listen to. - end of Aside 2.
Now, I did do some work on the friend's site. I haven't heard back from her in quite some time, so I have no idea where it stands.
In the mean time, I did a writing test for that one company nearer to the train station. I'm left wondering if it would be good to pursue this job as it is in San Francisco (craptastic commute!) and it's writing. Despite the fact I'd be using JavaScript, I didn't know how marketable I would be if I ever decided to leave that company and go to another. Would I be stuck doing tech writing/teaching for the rest of my career. - Danielle's voice in the back of my head was saying, "Go for a 'real' engineering position!"
I also was in touch with one of my pottery customer. This customer, Mrs. C, well, she's been a friend for a while and she knew all about my issues with my previous job. Mrs. C would encourage me and just listened to my whining. She also would tell me to check out her son's company which was a direct competitor to my last company. Mrs. C told me that if there was ever a position open, she would put me in contact with her son and he'd be sure to get my resume to the right person. So, I would check out the company, but never found any open art positions. But now, I was an engineer. I looked at the company website and there it was, an open Data Engineer position. So, I tell Mrs. C that there is a position I'm interested in. She gives me her son's email addresses. I send off an email of questions and later my resume.
Aside 3: Ok, how's this for coincidence. Mrs. C likes my pottery, we become friends. She is Chinese, her husband is white. She has a son named Chris who went to University of Pacific. Now, I have a cousin named Christopher, who is half white, half Japanese and was going to University of Pacific.
During the holidays, before I found a job, I went to dinner with my parents at Pasta Pomodoro. Mrs. C is there at the same. We wave to each other, she comes over and brings her son over too. I get to meet Chris in person. I also introduce my parents to Mrs. C. Lo and behold, her dad and my dad have the same first name. Whaaaaaat??? - end of Aside 3
I did get a phone interview with Chris' company, IMVU. I spoke with HR and it went well. Now, they had already filled the data engineer position, but HR thought I'd be good as a junior data engineer or maybe an intern. In other words, if IMVU thought I'd be a good fit and could contribute to them, IMVU would create a position for me.
I sent panicked texts to former co-workers because OMG this is a competitor company. Are they really interested in me as an engineer or is it just because I worked for Meez? I'm feeling a bit unsure of myself. I also get a rejection from that company close to the Caltrain station and holy crap, what if I don't get anywhere with IMVU because I only really applied to two companies...
Aside 4: Actually, I did sign up with jobspringpartners.com, a recruiting/placement agency. even went in to their office in SF to get interviewed. I'm kind of annoyed with their San Jose office because that office never got in touch with me even though I applied to a number of positions controlled by that office. At any rate, nice people, but they didn't help me find a job.
Also, there was an opportunity in Long Island that my friend tried to get for me. Unfortunately, that one didn't pan out. - end of Aside 4.
A week later, I talk to the lead engineer who is going through my Github page for glazehub.com. The call was supposed to last an hour or so, but it didn't take that long. He asked me questions about my experience - I was completely honest about my level of experience but told him I could quickly pick up stuff... look at what I did at Hackbright!
About a week after that, I get called in for an in person interview. Yes, I had to face the dreaded whiteboarding/technical interview! Thank goodness I reviewed the SQL lesson, Skills 1 and Skills 2 before my interview, because that is what I got asked. And really, it wasn't all that hard. One of the interviewers was impressed that I could write the code I could write especially considering I had just started serioulsy coding 3 months prior.
So what was the result of all this? Well, I was offered a 3 month contract as a Data Engineering Consultant. I will be paid hourly (about $0.53 more per hour than my last job) and I could be considered for a full time position after 3 months. At the end of two months, I'll probably have an idea if they wanted to keep me on at the end of my current contract.
Yes, a long winded tale of my post Hackbright life. Can you see why it took me so long to write? I kind of wanted to wait til I had a job before I wrote about it all. I probably should have written sooner as then this post would be a lot shorter.
Now, I know a number of my HB friends applied to a shit ton of companies. I did not. For me, I
decided that it was better for me to be focused and limited. I didn't
want to just apply willy-nilly. I had three main considerations in mind:
commute, salary and product. I was willing to make sacrifices on any
one of the three depending on how good the other two were. So, I only
really got somewhere with two companies. And I definitely networked my
way into IMVU. Since IMVU is not a partner company to Hackbright, I won't be getting $3000 back, but I'm ok with that. I have a job closer to home. I beat the average of 3 months to get a job post-Hackbright. I am being paid less than the average post-Hackbright salary, but I'm a contractor. I will consider my true salary if I get hired on full time.
So, that's my summary of what I've been doing for the past 2 months since Hackbright finished. I have a few other thoughts about the program and what I'm doing. But that will have to be another blog post.
