It's been over a month since my last post of this series, so there's been quite a bit of change. I haven't landed a job yet, but I've made progress in many areas and continue to adapt my strategy.

Personal Projects

Since last time, I've worked on multiple projects, including building a custom feed on AT protocol, further developing my QuickBooks project, and working on a BlueSky analytics dashboard. Looking back, I'm noticing I'm very prone to getting distracted and not finishing something I've started. While I think there is value to committing to something for long periods of time, I think there are also times that switching focus can be good as well. I'm always learning more, and the new information I acquire often leads to me changing course. Plus, I can always pick up projects back up from where I left off. In fact, that's exactly what I did with my QuickBooks project. Since last time I added new functionality and deployed it for anyone to see.

After finishing my QuickBooks project update I decided to move back to working on a project on AT Proto. Originally, my goal was to build a data pipeline extracting data from the AT Proto firehose and use it to inform some sort of machine learning model, but for the sake of time I decided to simplify my plan.

Me and my dad were planning on attending the ATmosphere Conference, and I wanted to build something I could be done with by the time of the conference. Instead, what I did was develop a simple analytics dashboard displaying the number of hourly posts being posted to the network. I finished a basic version of it and got it running locally, but haven't fully deployed it yet. In short, it works by ingesting data from the firehose using Jetstream, loading it into a database, and displaying it in a frontend application I built using v0. It was great for gaining experience in building ETL pipelines, managing databases and designing a frontend application. I will probably write a post later going into more detail of this project.

Interview Prep

I scaled down the amount of time I spent every day doing Leetcode problems so I can spend more time on my other tasks. I haven't had a lot of interviews and don't currently have any lined up so it didn't make much sense to be spending so much time on these problems, but I didn't want to drop it completely. When I do start having interviews I would like to be ready, and I can always put more time into Leetcode when I know I have interviews coming up. For now, I'm just doing one problem a day. Most days I will do a DSA problem, but I also make sure to do a SQL problem every week as well.

Applying

Sending out applications to jobs can be disheartening when the positive feedback rate is low, but it's still important and worth doing. Every week I reflect on the previous weeks strategy, and think about something I can add or alter to increase my chances of success. At the beginning, my strategy was simply scrolling through LinkedIn and applying to jobs that seemed right, but I've made some changes since then. I started using other job board websites in the hopes that the postings there would have a higher chance of success. I've enhanced my resume and spend a little more time tailoring it before applying. Instead of applying to any position that I'm interested in, I tried dedicating certain days to specific roles (i.e. Monday: SWE, Tuesday: Data Analyst) to get a better idea of which roles I should be targeting and have a better balance. Unfortunately, none of my strategies seem to be bearing much fruit thus far. However, the more time I spend strategizing and trying out different approaches the more I learn. Comparing how much I know now about the job market to how much I knew when I first started applying is night and day. That's how I know my time hasn't been wasted. Going forward, I will continue spending time every week applying and looking for jobs, each week iterating on my previous weeks strategy. Right now, I am looking to focus on targeting specific companies that interest me, and spend more time networking.

Self Study

Last time I said I wanted to make self studying optional, but I think I am going to add it back to my daily schedule. Maybe it's because I've gotten used to my current schedule so I have more energy remaining at the end of the day, but lately I've been wanting to dedicate at least a little bit of time every day to reading and/or learning something. I'm hoping that spending more time focusing on something like reading or learning will enhance my ability to focus, increasing my productivity.

Conclusion

Although I haven't achieved my goal, I know that my efforts are helping me move towards it. Sometimes it feels like my progress is slow, or that I'm not making any progress at all, but I know that isn't true. All I can do now is continue to stick with it until I get to where I want to be.