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Ethan
Ethan

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What I learned this week. Week 3.

Here we are at another week. If you are new, this is a thing I do every week where I record each day at the end of the day and end up posting it during the weekend. This is my journey as I attempt to get a job as a Data Scientist.

Monday

This week started off pretty great. Woke up feeling recharged and ready to do. Had a great morning, I finished Atomic Habits by James Clear and will be moving onto How to Win Friends and Influence people by Dale Carnegie. If you haven't checked out Atomic Habits I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their every day life. I went from having a ton of motivation with no real idea of how to get to my goal (getting a job as a Data Scientist), to having a structured day where I schedule myself using time blocks and am making my 1% improvements everyday. Today I posted on Linkedin for the first time, which doesn't sound like much, but the last time I posted to a social media platform was 2017, so it was a big step for me. I looked into volunteering for data science problems but was met with a lack of resources. I turned to open source projects instead and found a wonderful post on Towards Data Science giving me everything I need to get started.

Tuesday

I had some residual feelings from my flare up this morning so I decided to start the day off with my medication and a full body stretch. Today was interview prep day. I have already done a lot of preparation in the past but wanted to do a full review of what I have learned. I also set up multiple lists of bullets points that I can utilize depending on what is asked of me. I don't have a lot to say today because of how much I am focused on the interview.

Wednesday

Woke up anxious and excited hyperfixating on the upcoming interview. So today my goal was metabolizing my emotions and focusing on the task at hand. Sadly I woke up to find out my dog Jake had an awful night. He must have eaten something that upset his stomach because frankly, shit was everywhere. So I spent the next while cleaning and making sure he got plenty of hydration. Afterwards I set out to start my day. I was supposed to have a practice interview with my career coach, I set up my interview room, got everything ready, and she didn't show up. I was disappointed because I feel like I have made a lot of progress since my last interview and wanted to prove that I can do this well. Turns out they had a scheduling mishap and ended up calling me soon after our meeting was supposed to finish. Luckily we were able to figure out a time tomorrow before my interview to meet. As I write this and still feel anxious about tomorrow I continue to remind myself that I deserve this. If I weren't ready for this opportunity, I wouldn't be given it.

Thursday

Today was interview day. Jake had another hard night and needed to cleaned up after so we got a appointment to see the Vet on Monday. I had a longer morning because I was working on processing my emotions, both excitement fear came into play and I needed to discern what to do moving forward. I did many breathing exercises preparing myself. I hopped into the interview via Microsoft teams and was immediately met by two kind smiling faces. After the initial introductions, my nerves started to subside and I was able to relax and be clearheaded. I feel as if I answered clearly and concisely. The questions I didn't know the answers to, I presented the knowledge I did have, and received good feedback on doing so.
All in all I really enjoyed my first interview, and look forward to learning more about this process.

Friday

Today was reward day. After doing so well yesterday and having all the happy chemicals that come along with it, I decided to make today a reward day. Now that doesn't mean I slacked off of my daily routine and work, it just means I was little nicer to myself throughout it. I got a special coffee from Dunkin instead of my home brew. I picked up some delicious takeout for lunch. I am making one of my favorite foods for dinner, tacos. All together today was a great day.

This week has been pretty hectic. From my dog Jake not feeling good and worrying about his health (He is 16+ years old), all the way to the amazing feeling of doing great on my first interview. To say life has its ups and downs is an understatement. I for one feel like I am on a roller coater most of the time. Even so I still look forward to every day and do my best to be optimistic. I can't wait to see what next week brings and hope you will join me.

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