Last day of my batch!
I kind of expected to have that kermit-flail reaction, like so:
But instead I’ve been talking with people, attending Alicia’s awesome code dojo (we round-robin paired on a Flask app for Abstract Salad Factory, which is where everyone brings an ingredient for salad, and then everyone shares the ingredients, and makes whatever salad they like from those things), and not exactly ever making it out the door to have lunch. (That’s what trail mix is for!)
Also went to Madelyn’s awesome short presentation on “how not to be disrespected,” which, one, was a great presentation anyway, and TWO, Madelyn has such incredible presentation & comedy skills that it was ALSO an absolute blast.
And now somehow it’s five, and I still haven’t heard back from the Latvian embassy, and I’m going to go talk to Sonali and Nancy about JOBS STUFF, and then there are presentations, and THEN there’s our end-of-batch party, and we are dressing up like programming languages. So. This is going to be pretty fun.
I will reflect more on all this soon, for whatever definition of “soon” ends up being right.
Do you have any tips on applying to the Recurse center. I’m finishing up Zed Shaw’s LPTHW this week and plan on applying a month from now. Anything that made you stand out in the interview process? Do you remember the questions they asked you? Thanks.
Yeah, I have some general tips!
From what I can tell (I haven’t given any of the interviews), RC works hard at eliminating “gotcha” moments in interviewing — they’re not hoping to surprise you or trap you in any way. Read what they give you, and prepare accordingly.
Don’t worry about needing to be super clever: I didn’t have any standalone code that did much of anything, and I didn’t have any brilliant ideas for something new, so I took their suggestion and built tic-tac-toe. I am so glad I did. That’s what I ended up pairing on during my pairing interview, too. (The other interview was way more conversational, more about what brought me to apply, and what I was hoping to get out of it — those are good things to think about anyway!)
It’s okay to say “I don’t know.” It’s important to be kind. But those are tips for life in general.
One more thing: getting something done with the desired result is not the only way to succeed. I didn’t finish the pairing task during my pairing interview (though I did finish it about 10 minutes later!). The process is really important.