CS Day 3 - Formalizing what I need to do the rest of the week

So, here was the previous todo list or at least stuff I wanted to do:

• Get an account on AlgoTutor and start doing 2 problems a day
• After the above, apply to TripleByte and make my job-hunt a little more efficent
• Watch the company presentations, and apply to them
• To do so, I need a cleaned up resume, and a strong LinkedIn (almost there!)
• Plus, I need a updated, clean portfolio, hopefully something I can accomplish this week
• Read the Data Struct/Algo in Python book (seems really good)
• Apply to the Pioneer/Lambda challenge to maximize chances to stipend
• Which means building out that idea from Bad Version
• Reach out to the Punahou community in LinkedIn, my only viable community out here
• Reach out to the recruiters I talk to before, figure out how to build out some sort of network
• and of course, keep up with coursework

And now, I have a few more added:

• use my new kailovingfoss.me github page to make a clean portfolio site
• work on codesignal with bondor to get stronger at python syntax
• while at it, i wonder if i should keep reading more js stuff
• talk to k. lin about interviews and what i should focus on
• check out the skilledinc site for the future
• and … well, that’s about all for now, but im sure there’s other stuff lurking

So I think there are three buckets that I need to put all this stuff in:

• Career Prep (Portfolio, resume, LinkedIn, GitHub Page, talking to ex-Lambda Students, getting CC verified)
• Projects and Lambda work (Pioneer, Lambda Course Work)
• Coding and Algorithims (SkilledInc, AlgoTutor, TripleByte, CodeSignal, CS course work)

There’s other stuff like social matters and all, but I think I need to focus on the top three things. The rest can basically wait. Finishing my course work is priority, of course, but the Career prep is a very close second. But I can’t do all of that without becoming better at algos and data structures (because even if I get interviews, I will fail if I am not prepared), so there’s that.

The last big question in my head is if I should commit to being a generalist, software engineer, or if I should tout the whole front-end stuff a lot more strongly. I gravitate towards the backend, and I like projects that deal with algorithms A LOT more than front-end work. I need to ask about this. I also want to start fleshing out an overall plan to get that Revvr project off the ground.

Written by Kai Lovingfoss who lives and works in San Francisco building useful things.