scmoore

You might read up on http://www.appaftercare.com/, the guy who started it is named Einar Vollset. It's a similar idea (I think) and he has published a lot of material about getting started with it.

I've interviewed a handful of people for junior positions, so take this with a grain of salt. I usually look for:

* Basic coding ability -- maybe a couple simple whiteboard questions, or walk through some code

* Able to learn things -- talking about past projects, interesting things they've learned, ask them to explain their past work to me (doesn't have to be tech)

* Able to ask decent questions -- Unfortunately I don't have a good standard for this, but generally I like candidates that can form a straightforward question about the role, the company, the tech stack, really anything.

Basically for a junior position, I am not looking for someone who will deliver a lot of value on day 1. Instead I am looking for someone who is curious, learns quickly, and can learn the necessary skills to deliver value later. A quick learner will be great in a year, a slow learner or someone who doesn't care to learn will not.

Good luck!

I have an art degree -- sculpture. I graduated, couldn't find good work, and went to a community college to learn programming. I wouldn't say my art background has much application to my current job.

You might check out the current humble bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/astronomy-book-bundle

While flipping through channels in a hotel, I found this documentary about the Harvey Girls -- pretty decent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9y5mNE5q2E

SpotX | Denver, CO | full-time | ONSITE, INTERNS

https://www.spotxchange.com/careers/

We are a video advertising monetization platform serving billions of requests a day. We're hiring for a variety of positions and levels of experience here in Denver / Westminster, and we need a QA person for our Belfast, Ireland office.

We mostly work with PHP, Angular, Java, and Hadoop. We stay busy and we're growing fast, but work-life balance is good and it's a great opportunity to work on problems at scale. I'm new to the company and it's been great.

Email me at smoore@spotxchange.com and I'll answer questions or route you to someone who knows the answer.

Quitting jobs and moving without having the next job lined up. I always figured I was a smart guy, I could land on my feet wherever I ended up. And that was true, but it took some time and effort to get a job that lined up with my career goals, and while that was happening I was pretty stressed out. I also feel like I've lost about a year of growth (and salary!), which is hard to let go of.

I realize that this isn't really a big revelation, but it didn't really hit home for me until I got into a real "career" -- it wasn't such a big deal when I worked retail jobs.

Location: Denver, CO

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, open to something different.

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottchandlermoore

Email: hello@scottcmoore.com

I'm Scott, I have 3 years' experience in web application development, and I'm looking to join a small or medium sized technology company.

I'm a quick study and a nice guy.

Thanks!

There's a common misinterpretation of the end of that phrase -- I blame the Osmonds:

"One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl /

Oh, give it one more try /

Before you give up on love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96HqPpjI3UY

Location: Denver, CO

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, open to something different.

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-moore/13/534/277

Email: hello@scottcmoore.com

I'm Scott, I have 3 years' experience in web application development, and I'm looking to join a small or medium sized technology company.

I'm a quick study and a nice guy.

Thanks!

I can think of a few reasons, mostly that it implies[] criticism the same way most abstinence does. But you should check out the reaction to the previous BBC coverage in my other comment to get an idea of other reasons.

[] is perceived as implying, i guess

HN comments on the previous story:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10609524

This is why I don't talk about this decision, although I admit that's not a great solution.

Location: Denver, CO

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, open to something different.

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-moore/13/534/277

Email: hello@scottcmoore.com

I'm Scott, I have 3 years' experience in web application development, and I'm looking to join a small or medium sized technology company. I'm a quick study and a nice guy.

Thanks!

Shoot me an email, in profile -- there's a Denver developers slack channel that has a few job listings. And it's a good place to meet other devs in town.

I'd also suggest taking a look at http://www.builtincolorado.com/.

There's a (kind of cheesy) documentary about the construction of the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTN_R1b00I

I skipped through some of the slower-paced sections, and mostly just gawked at the machinery.

Of course I had to google it, and I seem to have missed whatever's so disgusting about it (guessing an insect-infested wound or something based on reactions here).

"Trypophobia is a claimed pathological fear of holes, particularly irregular patterns of holes. ... Shapes that elicit a reaction were said to include clustered holes in innocuous contexts such as fruit and bubbles, and in contexts associated with danger, such as holes made by insects and holes in wounds and diseased tissue."

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia, which contains a picture of a lotus seed head.

Location: Denver, CO

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, open to & prefer something different, picking up MEAN now.

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-moore/13/534/277

Email: hello@scottcmoore.com

I'm Scott, I have 3 years' experience in web application development, and I'm looking to join a small or medium sized technology company. I'm a quick study and a nice guy.

Thanks!

I haven't tried it, but there are services like http://letsworkshop.com/ which are similar to what you're talking about.

3 years' experience in web application development, looking to join small or medium sized technology company.

Location: Denver, CO

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, open to & prefer something different

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-moore/13/534/277

Email: scott.chandler.moore@gmail.com

Thanks!

Not sure how "retro" it is but I played a lot of Tribes 2 and would play it again.

If I can't read it in a few minutes, I use a "send to Kindle" chrome extension. I don't bookmark long reads anymore.

I do most of my reading at night, in bed. My Kindle is constantly loaded with longer pieces that had sat in my bookmarks unread before. Once I'm done reading, I usually just delete the article from my Kindle.

Just got my bag from Amazon -- thanks for the recommendation, it's really good!

Hmm, since I'm new to freelancing I don't know if I have a good answer. Maybe try searching "$US_CITY Web Development" -- most agencies seem to focus their SEO efforts on searches in their city, so that seems to be a good way to surface lots of agency contacts. For you, it doesn't really matter which city since you'd be remote, so I guess I'd start with the biggest ones since they'll have the biggest budgets. From there you could just point to your oDesk profile as proof of your skills & reliability.

I think the biggest objection for remote freelance work is going to be the concern that you'll just disappear mid-project, so being able to show a long track record seems like a big point in your favor. Good luck!

Thanks, I'll check it out! Did you cut out coffee for focus reasons? Or any other reason, and did it help?

I'm just getting started freelancing, so take this with a grain of salt.

How about subcontracting for an existing agency? You could do development work for a design shop, or overflow work for a development shop. Once you convince them, they'll be the ones finding clients. On the flip side, you'll just be a cog in the machine -- just coding to spec, rather than participating in and contributing to the client's success, which seems to be the agreed-upon recipe for freelance success around here.

The one thing I'm sure of: don't work for free or rock-bottom rates. If you're trying to pad out your portfolio with the goal of attracting future clients, you might as well just make a project for yourself. I made a couple sites for free for people who had hobbies, as opposed to businesses. They never got around to filling in the site content, so they didn't make for very compelling marketing. Or put another way, the "exposure" was worth very little.

I drink 1-2 cups of coffee daily, and I'm working on switching to black tea as a precursor to dropping caffeine on workdays. I have this theory that it might help me focus on work a little better, although it's a wrench because I love how good coffee tastes. Not sure how I'll measure it though.

I'm guessing it's a joke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildebeest

And "unixen" refers to the weird english "ox / oxen" pluralization.

GNU's not Unix, but they're similar because they're both hoofed mammals.

I work for a research institution funded by a DOE grant, not sure if that qualifies.

Technical decision-making is messy here. The folks making the decisions are academics whose expertise is in their research areas, not in software development. I will refrain from the horror stories. I have made suggestions for improvements to workflow, technology, etc. but they must always be routed through someone with at least a Master's degree. Usually it's easier to make the changes myself and hope for the best. It can be frustrating that no one cares, but OTOH there's very little pressure, as Bahamut noted. At this stage in my career it's not a great fit, but if I were <10 years from retirement, I might feel differently.

Part of the problem, I think, is that we're grant-funded. In a business setting, I can make the case for process improvements in terms of the bottom line. Here, it doesn't really matter if, for example, we have no bug tracker, because that doesn't really affect the grant-writing process that keeps our lights on.

Our research goal is to discover best practices for improving employment options for people with disabilities. Therefore, if I could change anything, I'd have my boss approach our software development efforts in the same spirit as the research, that is, with an eye to measuring more of it and implementing processes to improve those metrics.

Location: Richmond, VA, moving to Denver, CO this summer

Remote: No

Willing to relocate: To Denver, CO

Technologies: PHP, JS, HTML/CSS, MySQL, now picking up Ruby/Rails

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-moore/13/534/277

Email: scott.chandler.moore@gmail.com

It's been a long time since my last college English class, but I enjoyed Derek Walcott:

"...I loved them, my children, my wife, my home;

I loved them as poets love the poetry

that kills them, as drowned sailors the sea."

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177932

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Walcott