Check your Spam Folder! | Newsletter #44
Luke Simmons's Forty-Fourth Personal Newsletter
Introduction
Nothing really to introduce this week.
Let’s just begin.
What I’ve Created
Significant progress on Codecademy (now 83% finished!)
Some real health progress
Codecademy work this week has been learning all about linear and complex data structures. I learned about nodes, linked lists, queues, stacks, and hashmaps. There’s still a long way to go before finishing this course, but I feel like I’m making actual progress!
As far as my health goes, I’ve been consistently working out at least twice a week for over six months now. What kind of exercises I do has changed a lot in those months, starting with a lot of cardio while now I do weights almost exclusively. But, I’m glad I’ve been able to keep this routine for so long.
What I’ve Consumed
The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland
I wanted to focus all my attention this week on finishing The Escape Artist, and I did it!
Overall, the book was fine. The sections about his enslavement and escape are by far the best parts of the book. However, the rest of the book really falls flat in my opinion. Especially the last section (about five chapters) could easily have been cut down to a single wrap-up chapter instead.
I would recommend the book, but maybe just stop reading after section four.
What went Well
Church on both Sunday and Wednesday were very nice and encouraging
Made a ton of progress on Codecademy and found opportunities to fit it into my schedule when I wouldn’t normally
Got an email back from the NC job-op (more details below)
I decided to send a follow-up message regarding the job opportunity in North Carolina on Wednesday morning.
The response I got back was shocking.
Turns out they emailed me over a week ago!
The email went straight to my spam folder and I didn’t see it until nine days after they sent it.
Regardless, the contents were very encouraging.
Firstly, they said they run it every year over the summer and do their application process sometime in January. This means I won’t be interviewed or anything until then.
Secondly, they gave me a ton of resources to go over until that time. They said that the main languages they use at their company are Javascript and Ruby. With my previous experience with Javascript, I’d like to really focus on learning Ruby. They gave me a great-looking course which I plan to start once I finish Codecademy.
Overall, I have a lot of work to do before I’m ready to jump into the pro scene.
However, I am very excited to get to work!
What went Wrong
Didn’t see the NC job-op email until Wednesday (as just talked about above)
Was abnormally exhausted by work
Spent a lot of time consuming energy and not enough producing energy
What I’m Taking Away
When waiting on an important email, check your spam folder (yeah duh, lol)
There’s still much work ahead before you’re ready for a full-time programming job
Keep working hard on growing your skills for exactly that
Conclusion
A bit of a shorter one today. I’m entering a very monotonous stage in life, so newsletters may look like this for a bit.
But, I hope you enjoyed catching up regardless!
As always, I will write to you again next week.
God bless,
-Luke