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Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

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Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone applying for a front-end position and made it all the way to the on-site, doing the on-site interview soon. Can you explain to me what you mean with js being "so different" inside of Google? Also that sounds like you learned A LOT. How does that affect your work/life balance?

None of this will show up in your interview, but: - Strongly typed everything. I get it now, I really do, but I was resistant to compiled and strongly typed Javascript at first and didn't like writing JSDOCs all the time, I'd say 30-40% of my development / code review time came from those issues. - goog.struct.* instead of . There are a ton of internal libraries that improve on basic JS objects and have different API…

Thanks for your answers! My recruiter told me the front-end engineering interview is a bit different and would also focus on HTML/CSS. I guess it's still going to be algorithm heavy hm?

But yes, focusing really heavily on algorithms. I still have a couple of weeks to work my way through "Cracking the Code interview". Practicing a few hours a day on my whiteboard! :)

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#302

I landed a great job as an iOS developer at a great startup in Toronto. I accomplished this by building a unique iOS game that uses animated gifs for jigsaw puzzles. I wrote the app several times, and after giving it enough time, I was able to incorporate functional and generic programming concepts to reduce my code down to less than 1,000 lines. I also ditched my resume because I didn't have substantial previous exp…

Hey I really need some help I am in a similar situation and was wondering if I can get some advice on getting a job. I just have questions regarding what to put on my portfolio page like you did, and also what was the interview like? What sort of questions did they ask.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#303
post #62

My plugin for Visual Studio Code is nearing 1000 followers and 200k downloads: https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim (Last year it was nearly nonexistent.) I learned a lot about managing an open source project, but probably the biggest thing was that I learned that even something as uncontentious as a Vim plugin can get a ton of hate online, including from Hacker News. I would hate to be working on a more contentious and…

My personal achievement is similar, but smaller. Almost reaching 1000 downloads for my extension, but never made something like this before, so I am happy when I receive positive reviews.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#304

I landed a great job as an iOS developer at a great startup in Toronto. I accomplished this by building a unique iOS game that uses animated gifs for jigsaw puzzles. I wrote the app several times, and after giving it enough time, I was able to incorporate functional and generic programming concepts to reduce my code down to less than 1,000 lines. I also ditched my resume because I didn't have substantial previous exp…

Hey I really need some help I am in a similar situation and was wondering if I can get some advice on getting a job. I just have questions regarding what to put on my portfolio page like you did, and also what was the interview like? What sort of questions did they ask.

Hey! Email me at danielhhooper @ gmail dot com I would be glad to help you.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#305

2015 was a pretty rough year for our family. A miscarriage, several relationships ending in painful ways, etc... Our motto coming in to 2016 was "Well... it can't get any worse!". Our hubris was 'rewarded'... In February, my wife was admitted to the hospital, 25 weeks pregnant with twins, because one the babies was not getting enough blood flow through the umbilical cord. The doctors were hoping to get another week o…

<3

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who did an on-site, I wouldn't worry too much about that. 95% of your interview is going to be on your whiteboard skills solving algorithm-heavy problems. Spend as much time as you can practicing for that.

even for front-end? My recruiter stressed it would "not be as algorithm heavy" and would be focused on HTML/CSS as well. But yes. I'm working my way through cracking the code interview with my own whiteboard at home :)

Technically I was brought in for mobile/ios, but I was asked almost nothing about my mobile experience. It was pretty much just whiteboard question after whiteboard question and then a (do you have any questions for me?) at the end of each one-on-one.

I don't trust what recruiters tell me for preparation much anymore after a recruiter told me "oh, don't worry, they're desperate for people, they just need people with any programming experience!" for the Mortal Kombat team, and on the phone interview they grilled me about 3D graphics (I had only made 2D games at that point), giggled quietly at my unprepared answers, and told me they weren't interested while still on the phone call. I would have done much better if I had brushed up, but I was lulled into a false sense of security by that recruiter.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#307

Learning Tango. Or should I say, starting to learn it -- it takes a couple of years of sucking at it to become bearable for a leader. It is an incredibly deep and rich discipline which invites me to multi-dimensional mastery: kinesthetic, emotional, sexuality/boundaries, musicality, finding place in a complex multilayered society and communities, relationship to learning/failure/frustration, intimacy, discipline... a…

Awesome. May I ask which school is this? I am trying to find a great school/tutor for Salsa in NYC.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#309
Launched a product that is on the shelf in stores across the US.

Things I learned:

Be extremely careful with your demo apps, people will see the demo work and think its most of the way there and just needs polish where reality is very different.

Grasping new technology stacks is harder for many people than I anticipated. I chose Erlang/Elixir/BEAM and I wouldn't change that, but onboarding has been a challenge. What I see as mostly syntax and just learning what philosophies work best on a new VM others see as a sea change that takes much longer than anticipated to understand.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#310

Learning Tango. Or should I say, starting to learn it -- it takes a couple of years of sucking at it to become bearable for a leader. It is an incredibly deep and rich discipline which invites me to multi-dimensional mastery: kinesthetic, emotional, sexuality/boundaries, musicality, finding place in a complex multilayered society and communities, relationship to learning/failure/frustration, intimacy, discipline... a…

Awesome. May I ask which school is this? I am trying to find a great school/tutor for Salsa in NYC.

Oxygentango in Los Angeles. Www.oxygentqngo.com

Can't recommend them enough, they know what they're doing.

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