Covid’s Manipulation of Time & How I Graduated in Rapid Speed

Today feels a little bit different.

My schedule for the last 6 months has been super exciting. Every day I wake up, roll myself out of bed, and take the same boring commute to my desk. A desk might I add that is too low for comfort and causes me great pain. But hey, at least it’s by a window… got to keep up that positive mindset!!! :) ANYWAYS…. once I’m planted in my chair, I usually take a few minutes where I just daze out the window. I stare at the big beautiful oak and reflect on how sore my neck is and how shitty my sleep quality was once again. After about 10 minutes of feeling sorry for myself, I switch to my super cool code bending ego. For 15 hours a day, I battle imposter syndrome and learn how to code really cool applications. I honestly can’t complain. My decision to learn to code has been the most adult decision I have ever made. So you might be wondering, why does “today feel a little bit different”? Well, I will tell you why. Today I woke up, stumbled over, sat down, and looked out at the big beautiful oak. But today something hit me, and it hit me hard.

WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THE LEAVES?!?

Apparently, it’s November. Well, I know that it’s November because I graduated last week, but none of this seems real! All the leaves are gone which annoys me because I love admiring the foliage. I’m still confused on if summer even happened at all. I’m absolutely convinced that Covid has some type of time-manipulation ability. I’ve asked multiple friends and they also are confused. Most of them still feeling left behind as far back as April. At least I’m not alone in this confusion. I guess I’ll have to accept this new reality but I definitely don’t feel ready.

Maybe my dissociation is a result of my fear of finding my first tech job. How do I even begin prepping for a tech interview? Do I review all the material I have learned or try and learn Data Structures and Algos. The Bootcamp was so intense that I feel like I barely learned anything well enough to be interviewed on it. Sure, I was able to google and look over notes to build some cool projects, but do I really know anything?

I see Covid doesn’t have any effect on imposter syndrome. It is here to stay and I need to learn how to control it. So here’s my first attempt. Some ideas I have on how to approach prepping for interviews.

Approach A

Start from the beginning and try and do a fast skim of all the material. Create flashcards along the way. Study CSS since I barely spent any time learning it.

Approach B

Trust that you know enough even though you know that you don't. Jump right into studying Data Structures and focus on learning popular methods.

The truth is, I feel like I need to do all of the above. But how can I manage this when Covid is messing with my time? It’s time for me to switch to my super cool code bending ego!

Okay, so here’s the plan. I am going to pick 1–3 topics to study a day and write blogs to help drive them right into my hippocampus. I need to remind myself, I graduated from an extremely challenging Bootcamp during 2020. That’s pretty damn impressive and I am definitely proud. I will maintain the same energy and focus I’ve had for the last 6 months and prove to myself that I can conquer any battle that comes my way!

I hope if you’re still reading this, you will check back weekly to see my progression towards landing my first tech job.

Stay safe and stay coding-

Christy