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I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

codeamigo.dev

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Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#81

Post by ct520 »

jrm4 wrote: post #76
grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

Old timer who had an Apple II as a kid, and the experience I try to sneak into every class I teach is: 10 PRINT "John is Awesome"; 20 GOTO 10 This little gem is the beginning of it all. Little me is understanding, okay, so if I'm willing to put in the time and thought, the machine will obey and I I have the literal power of infinity at my fingertips.

Love it, in first grade I use to remove the 5 1/4 inch mid game to get to the command prompt and do this. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#82

Post by masklinn »

codingdave wrote: post #67
q-big wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion). Considering what he writes on https://docs.codeamigo.dev/blog/why-codeamigo , I would assume that he has a somewhat different vision on the product than Codeacademy.

Agreed - passion is great when aligned with the business direction, but can be downright toxic when in conflict.

I can only concur, having someone who's extremely passionate about a project but whose vision diverges drastically from the project's leads is hell all around.

Given GP seems to indeed have quite divergent opinions about the product's focus:

> What bothered me about the platform was that I didn't know or connect with my teachers. I wanted to connect with members of my community and learn from them, instead of just digesting information from a black box.

then it's probably a better thing that they went and created their own version focused on what they think is important.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#83

Post by TeMPOraL »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #37
grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

This gets me too. In high school I called it "the power of a blank text file." Something about knowing that this was how every great software product began life was very empowering and intoxicating to me. When you open vim and look at the blinking cursor, you stand on the precipice of greatness in the shoes of every programmer who has ever lived, all of you united across space and time by that peculiar feeling you ge…

I suppose this is what "high self-effiacy"[0] means.

I've only recently learned this word/concept, but your quote fits. You see a blank text file, you see an interesting challenge, something you're sure will lead you somewhere nice. I'm gonna admit - I'm the opposite. A blank text file scares me. I don't know what to do. I spend a lot of time agonizing over what I want to write, trying to desperately narrow the space of possibilities until I have the design[1] sharp in my head, and only then I'm able to actually write anything in that empty file.

I guess I'm the "low self-effiacy" kind of person.

--

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-efficacy

[1] - Or at least the first iteration of it.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#84

Post by smegger001 »

OJFord wrote: post #44
agustif wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a freelance or equivalent, you should apply anyways to those Remote (US) positions, YMMV, but since you can be treated as an external provider, they don't care about where you reside as long as it makes sense with timezones and such for meetings etc... That's my experience at least, have worked for some US companies remotely from europe that way anyways

I've wondered about that when I've seen it described as 'US timezones' or similar, which on the face of it seems to just mean the Americas (modulo I have no idea if maybe Canada or somewhere South has an extra one not used in the USA) - but maybe it suggests they're pretty open to anyone anywhere who convincingly says they'll work Pacific (or whatever) hours. Good to hear it's worked out for you.

I beleive Nefoundland Canada is in its own time zone outside any the US has. but unlike most time zones it is off by 30 minutes.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#86

Post by PragmaticPulp »

aspencer8111 wrote: post #35

Good on you man! You: 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion). 2. Created your own product (which you seem even more passionate about) 3. Did all the heavy lifting to make it interesting out of the gate (provided content). Wishing you all the success!

> 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion).

Passion is a double-edged sword: When a person's passions align closely with the company's needs, it's wonderful.

But if a person's passions conflict with what the founders want, the passion can amplify the conflict.

That's why it's important to understand exactly what the candidate is passionate about. If they're passionate about helping the company wherever necessary, that's one thing. If they're passionate about something tangential and they expect the shift the company in that direction by joining, that's something else.

Codeamigo appears distinctly different than Codeacademy in some key areas, as the author explains, so I wouldn't assume that his passions aligned exactly with what Codeacademy was hiring fire. I think it's best to give the benefit of the doubt to Codeacademy in this case.

Remember: Being rejected from a job doesn't mean someone is unqualified or a bad developer. There's more to matching candidates to a team and not every candidate is a good match for every team.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#88

Post by convolvatron »

karaterobot wrote: post #66
officialchicken wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leading a team spanning more than 8 timezones is hard - but what it usually means is they don't know how to manage (read: trust) and have no leadership experience with remote teams. The factory/assembly line of managing teams is still common - they don't really understand how to asynchronously build software itself. Many employers in the US are particularly keen on NOT hiring in the EU because of the significant diff…

I've never been on a team where having people spread the globe worked well. In fact, just this morning I got off a 7 am (PDT) call with people at 7:30 pm (IST), and as always I was thinking "this sucks for all of us". I don't believe there's a clever hack that can optimize around the circumference of the planet.

the one caveat I've found is that if you _can_ get it running you get a two or three stroke engine instead of a single one. its absolutely fantastic to wake up and find out that not only was the problem solved but we solved another one and we're on the next.

that memory is pretty tarnished by all the other times I couldn't even get very much done because the night team is asleep and its completely unclear where we are - not only did they not make any progress but they actually left things in a bit of a mess.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#90

Post by pickledcods »

jrm4 wrote: post #76
grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

Old timer who had an Apple II as a kid, and the experience I try to sneak into every class I teach is: 10 PRINT "John is Awesome"; 20 GOTO 10 This little gem is the beginning of it all. Little me is understanding, okay, so if I'm willing to put in the time and thought, the machine will obey and I I have the literal power of infinity at my fingertips.

And then reading the manual to discover the other things it could do
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