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Approachable Post-Termination Mindsets

Jen Chan on August 14, 2019

Abundance mindset: No one owes me a job. There’s always the next one and learning is all that matters. Mindfulness mindset: It might be disavowal,...
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JustinKaffenberger

Try to give yourself better building blocks to work off of.

What I mean by that is, read more classical computer science literature (to me, Design Patterns and Data Structures literature are GREAT building blocks), or take some courses on the topics. Learn a bit of assembly and C (or some other low level language), as it will help with comprehension of what it is exactly that JS is trying to solve for you.

The problem with having JS (or any similar scripting language) as a foundation is that, while its quite robust, its also quite magical.

It also doesn't help that, because a majority of developers use JS, and a majority of developers are new to programming, its actually hard to find well written and designed JS.

With the right building blocks, you can go anywhere!

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Jen Chan

If I could have any comfort right now it would be you telling me JS devs get fired by the dozen per week, and that miraculously we can get by, writing mediocre, if not shitty JS.

I’m missing a lot of experience but I got a lot out of the code reviews, so for that I’m very grateful. I only just got started but it’s been a bumpy few years. At first I took whatever I could get but I realize that no one trusted me to work on anything more complex. Now I’ve gone in the deep end I’m not good enough 😂 I’m feeling exhausted right now but I’ll bounce back I’m sure.

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JustinKaffenberger

We all write code that we will look back on in disgust, because we're constantly growing as developers. And, I apologize for the sweeping statements about JS, but the fact is its the most talked about/used language around (for the time being). There are plenty of people who absolutely crush with JS, its just that in my experience, those are the people with experience in a large variety of languages and technology stacks.

When looking for your next opportunity, try to find a company that is invested in growing you as a developer, not a company that is looking to chew you up and spit you out.

Your current experience with JS/Front End is still a valuable way to get your foot in the door, but I wouldn't settle for that. Keep aiming to expand your knowledge.

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Jen Chan • Edited

My plan was to get decent at one language before moving onto another so I at least seem reliable. And from the sounds of what I'm told it's not unachievable but I definitely could be nitpicked more. (Ie extraneous whitespace, correct tabbing, instead of using two for loops, to use a find inside a for loop, to know '!= null' checks for both null and undefined...)

I got to the place where my code works and it covered all cases but it was too long.

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Joseph Stevens

I've been there brother, I think the best thing you can do is know how others see you.

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Jen Chan

I'm a woman :D
but thanks, comrade.

I agree such things are not controllable; all we can do is control how we react.

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Joseph Stevens

Sometimes you can control it. What was the reason you were removed?

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Jen Chan

I'm going to write a longer post with reflections on it.

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still-dreaming-1

Environmental Design mindset: Thanks for helping me be more motivated to provide more value at my next job.

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Jen Chan

What’s environmental design?

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still-dreaming-1

Environmental design is the term Benjamin Hardy uses to refer to designing your environment to get the results you want, or to live the life you want. It is the theme of his book "Willpower Doesn't Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success", which is one of my favorite books. If you don't control your environment, your environment will control you, especially in our modern times of constant pulls for our attention. If you have to rely on willpower, that means you are fighting against yourself and your environment. We have neither absolute freedom nor no freedom at all, our current environment presents us with certain options, and we are free to choose between those. And within those choices, we can influence and design our environment over time.

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Umut Ahmet

Hey Jen, is there a similarity between the 3? What seems to be the problem?

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Jen Chan • Edited

Yes, the similarity is me being too thirsty and just to get a foot in the door, taking any job too soon. Also, it’s me wanting a job that I’m not fully qualified for.
I need to go home and study.