Over the last three years, I was at a startup, a large company, and a smaller company inside a larger company. I’ve interviewed. I’ve been interviewed. I’ve been the deciding vote and I’ve watched great people get passed over. I’ve seen whiteboarding, pair programming, coderpad technical interviews, hacker rank challenges, take home assignments, written tests, and…
The Blog
Moving On To Liberty Mutual
After weeks of reflection and learning, I decided to take a position at Liberty Mutual. I spent about a year at CoachUp. It was the highlight of my professional career. I learned a lot about software, design patterns, agile, and the craft of writing software. I wanted to continue learning and taking steps towards the…
Teaching Myself Computer Science
A few weeks ago, I found this website: http://teachyourselfcs.com It is a structured curriculum for someone who has been writing code, but never learned the fundamentals of Computer Science – someone like me! It has approximately 8 main topics you should learn, a preferred order you should learn them. For each topic, it recommends the…
Book placement is the key to finding time to read
Book placement is key for finding time to read. I keep 2 books on my nightstand next to my bed. Depending on the mood I’m in, I might read one or another. One is usually about business. One is usually a well known book like The Great Gatsby or Brave New World. I also have…
I’ve read 8 books so far this year, How did I do it?
3 months gone, and I’m 8 books into my goal of 26 for the year. How do I find to read? That’s simple – every morning, I have a goal to read at least 1 page of a book. It sounds trivial, but it’s a start. It gets you in a cadence. It creates a…
So Long CoachUp, Hello ????
My time at CoachUp has come to an end Almost a year ago, I announced the start of my tenure at CoachUp and my departure from Eaton Vance. Today, I am announcing that my tenure at CoachUp is over. If you don’t know the story by now, CoachUp laid off 50% of the company at the…
Missing the key insight
I had a technical interview two days ago. The algorithm I was asked to build was based around anagrams. If you’re not familiar with what an anagram is, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Two words are anagrams of one another if their letters can be rearranged to match one another. dan, and, nad, dna, adn…
Share what you know
Yesterday, I realized something I should have already known. I shared something with a few friends from CoachUp. I had assumed everyone already knew this. They didn’t. A few of them were grateful for me sharing. Don’t take for granted everyone has the same knowledge and skill sets as you. They probably don’t. Share what…
Priorities – where does writing rank?
Yesterday – For the first day in over two weeks, I didn’t post anything. I hate breaking this habit, but sometimes other things have to take priority. I was on the phone for 4 hours yesterday talking to all kinds of people. I was trying to plan my future. The search is on. I didn’t…
Put down your phone and focus
I had a lot of trouble with focus today. Today was a day of political turmoil. It was hard to put my phone down. I tried diligently to study ruby, work on a side project, and plan my week of phone calls and meetings. I did my best, but it was a difficult day. I…