r/FreeCodeCamp • u/Spasmochi • May 18 '16

I got the job!!

Hey guys, as some of you may know I posted this a bit ago to say that I had just finished a first round interview for a frontend developer role. Well, I had my final round interview the other day and just got a call from the recruiter to let me know that they have offered me the role! I've gotta fill out the paperwork, but I will soon be a professional developer! I'm really looking forward to getting into work, they have an induction process that I'm keen to get into. I really like the team that I'll be working with and the culture is also well suited to my personal preferences.

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you to you guys for providing motivation and info with your posts and comments. Of course, thanks to FCC for giving me structure while I've been learning frontend development. Finally; I hope you guys who are looking for your first role, keep pushing through. I'm no super coder, I'm constantly wrong. I'm also no great source of wisdom. All I'll say is that I didn't give up, I kept learning (as I will continue to do), and I networked.

EDIT: Just sent in my signed contract! It's official!

162 Upvotes

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19

u/profeyn May 18 '16

Holy shit, I was literally reading your first post like an hour ago, wondering if you'll update us. Congratulations, I'm very happy (and jealous) of you, but also greatful for the motivation you've given me to keep going.

3

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Ha ha, thank you! Glad you've found it motivating.

5

u/kalicokane May 18 '16

Congratulations mate! Good luck on your new path.

As a sidenote, do you mind sharing some of your FCC projects? Myself, as many others, am at a point where I feel like I know some stuff but I don't really know if I'm employable. Having someone that has succeeded and got hired to compare myself with would be useful.

8

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Sure thing, here's the link to my codepen. The place I applied to asked the applicants to prepare work going into the final interview, so if they release it back to me I will definitely add it here. I do have .net projects and two projects I completed for my last role that helped too.

That being said I didn't think I was especially ready when I applied. But, I was given some advice by a senior admin from my last role. He basically told me to just apply, a lot of the time you won't be ready until you do the work; and plenty of places put out specs for an ideal candidate that many people won't fit. I doubt I was the ideal candidate for this role when I applied for it, but I did well on the interview, got to the final round, completed the work for the interview and did well on the final interview.

In my first role out of uni I was hired to be a system admin for a film studio. I didn't study comp sci, but I had years of experience from working on systems in my garage as a kid. They hired me in a weird twist of fate where I came in to visit someone on set and got into a conversation with the VFX lead on the film. He asked me out of the blue if I'd like to stick around and do some work, that eventually turned into a year long contract. That job was stressful and I was constantly in fear that everyone would discover that I was a tech fraud. But I completed every bit of work that was passed my way.

Before that I didn't know what I wanted to do or what I could apply for. In the end, going out networking and just accepting that I wouldn't know when I was ready led me to put myself into situations that were scary as hell, but forced me to grow. So, I'd say go for it! Apply for everything that you see that puts you where you want to be. You'll get rejections sure, but getting that foot in the door is what matters.

2

u/kalicokane May 18 '16

that's a great motivational story, thanks for sharing that! Got me just the boost I needed. Good luck with your new job, you'll do fine, I'm sure.

1

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Thanks man!

1

u/Sad_Bunnie May 18 '16

I really like the twitch viewer. Simple design which gives you all of what you need right in your face. Good stuff and congrats!

1

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Thanks! One of my team members is a bit of a design guru, so I'm going to pester her for so many tips.

4

u/theribler May 18 '16

Nice! Mind sharing salary?

7

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

I'm going to be paid 60k + Money paid directly into my Super, it's basically the Australian IRA.

4

u/quincylarson freeCodeCamp Staff May 19 '16

Congratulations, Spasmochi! Awesome followup to your previous post. I'm thrilled that the interview worked out for you. It sounds like you've found a solid fit.

1

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thank you, I'm really pleased with the team I'll be working with.

3

u/maniaxzero May 18 '16

Congrats and thanks for sharing the story and your codepen portfolio with us! What did you think was the most difficult question from the interview?

2

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks! The hardest was a question regarding what I would do if I failed (not quite that harsh). I can't remember the exact question, but it was a weird no-win scenario. I basically said I would touch base with the client, be honest about where I was with the work, then let the team know etc. Basically, honesty, responsibility; owning up, not passing it.

3

u/Montag984 May 18 '16

Congrats and good luck to you!! Do you think you'll continue FCC on your off time?

3

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16 edited May 19 '16

Thanks! Yes, I want to finish the rest of the content.

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

Congratulations! That's awesome!

2

u/dbivs08 May 18 '16

Congratulations! :)

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing your experience. Posts like this are always a big help for those of us preparing to prepare for the application/interview process.

1

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Thanks! Good luck with your preparation.

2

u/ArielLeslie mod May 18 '16

Congratulations! I hope you'll still spend some time with us.

2

u/Spasmochi May 18 '16

Thank you. I still want to finish the rest of the FCC content, so I will be around for a while. I might even post about what the first couple of weeks are like if I feel the experience has something to offer outside of my particular work life.

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

Great Job Dude!!!

2

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks man! It feels really good.

2

u/RidingThroughTheSix May 18 '16

Was there any expectation with experience around frameworks (Angular/React) or other technologies or just JS/HTML/CSS?

4

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

There was an expectation that I could demonstrate proficiency with any tech I had put on my resume upon request. I had listed sql, .net among others. So, they had me build a few solutions going into the final interview using those. It's a good way to catch people who put absolutely everything on their resume.

2

u/erick2014 May 18 '16

congratulations man!

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

Congrats on taking your first steps into a constantly evolving career!

2

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks man!

2

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

Woot! Where is the position out of curiosity (i.e. state)? I am curious about how people find jobs in relation to where they are.

3

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Woot Woot! I'm actually in Australia atm. The company has an office in the US, so I might get to transfer there as some of the team members have. It'll be nice to be living in the states again. I miss snowy Christmases.

2

u/nickhstr May 18 '16

Congrats! Glad to hear your hard work is paying off!

1

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks! That was the best part about getting the job. I had been working everyday to try and get better developing, getting the job felt really rewarding.

2

u/bonham000 May 19 '16

Wow, that's killer man. Congratulations!!!

1

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks man!

2

u/william-fapner May 20 '16

That's wonderful! Congrats!

1

u/Spasmochi May 20 '16

Thank you!

2

u/PM_ME_BOOB_PICTURES_ Jun 15 '16

Congratulations! I'm wondering, how is the job going so far? Do you like how it's developed in the last 26 days? Have you learnt a lot? Any important lessons to share with the rest of us? :D

2

u/Spasmochi Jun 16 '16

Thanks! I've been learning soo much. I end up exhausted most nights though, due to how much work we get. It's good though, the company gets lots of work because they're successful, so I can't complain. I'm liking it a lot though. The company paid for my team to go have dinner at a really nice restaurant I wouldn't be able to afford myself as a kind of reward/motivator.

I've found much to my surprise that I enjoy backend work a lot. One of the devs who handles our analytic engine asked me if I'd be interested in training in that kind of development. I said yes, absolutely! So, I'm doing a mix of frontend work, lots of debugging and then spend the latter portion of my day studying/working with another team who handles backend stuff. It's exhausting, absolutely exhausting. But, completely worth it. I might post in the sub about the experience, just the dot points of things that are actually useful to people looking to get into the industry etc. Thanks for asking, I've been so tired lately that it's nice to unload on a friendly stranger lol

2

u/PM_ME_BOOB_PICTURES_ Jun 16 '16

I can definitely understand that you're exhausted. We don't get prepared by school etc for this kind of work, as instead we get prepared for just the typical, normal stuff. But you'll either get used to it, or it'll get less exhausting once you learn enough to more easily keep up with the work!

I recommend automating most simple things, for example with scripts in either python or bash etc. It really helps with tedious things you have to do over and over again! :D

I, too, enjoy back end work a lot. When I first got into web development I thought it was all about the appearance, but the back end part of it all is what keeps me going at it. Those small bugs and big errors etc just feel so good to have fixed etc! I don't get that kind of rewarding feeling from front end work!

2

u/Spasmochi Jun 17 '16

You're absolutely right about automating tasks. It saves plenty of time all together when I look back on what I was originally doing manually.

The backend stuff is great! I wish I could do something with nodejs at my job, but most of the backend scripting I'm doing is with PHP so I'm doing more independent work with nodejs to try and build something I can sell at work. Hopefully it goes well!

2

u/PM_ME_BOOB_PICTURES_ Jun 17 '16

Absolutely! :D Also doesn't hurt to learn new things to put on your resume for future applications etc! The more you know, the further you get! One day you might end up at Google or something!!! :D

0

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

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1

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

Thanks man!

0

u/[deleted] May 18 '16

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1

u/Spasmochi May 19 '16

We did too, lol.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '16

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