I Get Paid to Do This!? Awesome!
This has to be one of the most amazing weeks of my life. It feels like I must be dreaming.
For the last year and a half, I have been attending Lambda School to learn how to be an iOS Developer. It has been a tough journey, balancing two jobs, school, and being a parent. Last week, I finished school and was officially endorsed. Thursday, I received a job offer from Rekor Systems. Then Friday, The Startup published my journal entry about learning GraphQL. All of my hard work over the last two years is paying off!
Monday, I started working at Rekor. My first task is doing some research for a new app they want to develop next year. I don’t think it is possible to overstate how much I love doing research. I research everything. Researching and planning are two of my favorite tasks, and I get to do both. All week, I’ve been saying to myself “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this. I’m having so much fun!” They couldn’t have picked a more perfect way to ensure that I’ll be invested in programming this project. I get to see a product from the research phase all the way through to product release. Being the point person from this early phase gives me a feeling of ownership of the product, which really helps motivate me.
I’m also excited about the opportunity to work with Ben Gohlke. He was an instructor at Lambda School, and although I wasn’t in one of his classes, I often watched his instructional videos. He truly has a passion for teaching, to the point where he even made the interview an informative lesson! Having him as my mentor is truly an honor and a privilege.
Tuesday, I won a ticket to attend iOSDevCampDC this Friday from Paul Hudson. There will be a presentation on “What’s New in UICollectionView” that I’m looking forward to, since I’ve been working on improving my skills with collection views. The conference is being held virtually this year. Although I am looking forward to attending conferences in person some day, I’m also really grateful for the opportunity to attend these virtual conferences. Normally, I’d be unlikely to attend a conference in Washington, DC, because of the travel time and expense. But having a virtual conference means I get to attend remotely. I hope that in the future, conference tickets will be offered both in-person and remotely, so more people can participate.
Tomorrow there is a costume contest at work. I love having an excuse to dress in costume. ANY excuse. When I worked for a pediatric chiropractor, we’d often dress up, just for fun. We’d ask other people to dress up too, and we were surprised how many people were willing to wear a costume on random days.
I’ll post pics from this week’s costume contest and my takeaways from the iOS Dev Camp some time this weekend. Stay tuned!
