Week of 1/18/21 Notes, Plan for Next Week
Tags: webdev, programming, devjournal
Published: 2021-01-24 17:16:37

Okay. Truth time. I'm a former teacher. As such, I over plan and I over plan HARD. I do so in part because while I was teaching, I quickly learned that the worst thing you can do is under-plan. Under-planning leads to boredom in students, boredom leads to chaos, and you're bound to have the Principal walk in the second your class turns on you. While I'm not a teacher anymore, I still find it incredibly difficult to break that habit. I'm also not super interested in breaking it because over-planning for one week allows me to push myself that week and carry over the unused plans for next week.
 
All this to say, if you look at my plans for the week and wonder to yourself how any human can possibly meet allll of those goals, let it be noted that 1) I never claimed to be a human and 2) As much as I really intend to get to everything, I always have my need tos, want tos, and will if I cans in the wayyy back of my head (I'm just not going to declare them because they change as the week goes on). 

Without further delay.....

# Last Week Reflection

Last week was what I will refer to as a wonderful roller coaster. I started off very strong by getting through the [Free Code Camp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/) Front End Libraries reading in two days. I felt pretty good about all of the content they had (mostly since I've built a react project and was mostly using FCC as a way to refresh on the basics and make sure I wasn't missing anything). 

##### Favorite resource of the week
[The Net Ninja](https://youtu.be/j942wKiXFu8)'s ongoing Full React Tutorial is an amazing resource and probably the best I've found for understanding React. During this video series, you learn updated react topics (including useState and useEffect) that are not found in some older articles or learning resources. You'll also be using these to build out a simple Blog application. 

#### Mock Interview
My preparation for last week was with the goal of success on my mock interview with someone who is working at a top tier company. With these two resources, plus some of the interview articles I linked last week, I CRUSHED the React portion of my mock technical interview. Unfortunately, this is where the roller coaster of the week took a little bit of a slide. I've been so focused on learning what I need to for projects that I haven't gone as into depth with coding challenges/ Data Structures and Algorithms as I've needed to and it showed. While the React portion went smooth, the JavaScript coding challenge was...problematic. I was able to solve the problem, however, it was definitely nowhere near the most efficient solution. The interview feedback ended up being that if it was a real interview, it definitely wouldn't have been an immediate no, but it also wouldn't have been a *we have to hire this person right now* either. 

#### Post-Interview 
While I will admit, I was a bit sad for the rest of the day after my mock interview didn't go exactly as I hoped, I woke up the next day with renewed energy and determination. I scrapped the remainder of the week's plan and decided I needed to focus hard on Data Structures and Algorithms. I haven't had much time since then as my interview was Thursday, but since then I have studied Big O in multiple ways to make sure I understand it, I've started reading Cracking the Coding interview, I've started a Data Structures and Algorithms Course on Udemy, and I've been practicing coding challenges every day, while making sure I investigate how others are solving the problem after I complete my solution to ensure I'm actively learning as I'm solving these. 

# Next Week Preparation
Next week's plan is fairly simple. I want to finish reading Cracking the Coding Interview and a popular udemy course on data structures and algorithms, all while making sure to do at least a couple of coding challenges every day. This already is a lot, however, I'd really like to push myself to build a portfolio website using React only (while I understand that React is overkill for a project like this, it serves the dual purpose of keeping those skills sharp as well as giving me a portfolio page). I'd also love to review JavaScript documentation to refine those skills while I'm focusing the coding challenges on JavaScipt. (I'm thinking TypeScript the week after maybe, but I'm also trying not to think *too* far in advance. 

## Resources I Plan to Use
- Cracking the Coding Interview
- [Udemy JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms](https://www.udemy.com/course/js-algorithms-and-data-structures-masterclass/learn)
- [JavaScript Documentation](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript)