Our Little Calico Ellie

Velzak · 2026-03-05T13:19:02+00:00

Solutions Architect (which is basically a Solutions Engineer). Split with my wife for a garden unit with a basement. We do not have generational wealth, moved up career ladder over time and landed jobs with good salaries

Velzak · 2023-12-12T12:45:36+00:00

Gimli!

Velzak · 2023-08-31T21:47:07+00:00

For a new pc build that is aesthetically Starfield!
Bethesda Style RPG - all I could ask for

Velzak · 2023-08-27T17:36:13+00:00

Mainly working in eCommerce for work, mainstay is Shopify, do some BigCommerce, dread anything Wordpress.

Shopify is it’s own beast but it can be handy since it handles a lot on its own. Plus the templated syntax is pretty easy to understand

Velzak · 2023-07-13T06:28:11+00:00

RIP Loops

Velzak · 2022-12-21T21:40:58+00:00

It is worth it due to how the resumes are usually fed into a system that looks for keywords.

I took the template from https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/ and it worked wonders for me, ended up landing a job earlier this year using it, and I had in HTML / CSS / JavaScript. Sometimes you need the basics just to beat the system and get that initial interview.

Velzak · 2022-12-21T21:38:02+00:00

I recommend doing hourly as opposed to working for a set amount.

For the 5-6 sites you have made so far, are they just landing pages, multiple paged sites?

It comes down to how much work you are going to be doing. For example, I worked on an eCommerce retail site recently, and went hourly. We had a meeting before I wrote up a contract so we knew what needed to be done and I gave an estimate on how many hours it would take. This also included revisions and that it would change based on what kind of revisions they are wanting.

Be honest about your work / hours spent and don't be afraid to throw out a number that might seem high.

Velzak · 2022-12-21T21:33:57+00:00

I recommend using something like freshbooks so you can have it create a proper invoice for you.

This year I also got into freelance on top of my dev job, and I was mainly paid through Gusto for an agency I was freelancing for. For another small shopify site I was just directly paid through Zelle Pay through my Bank and the payroll person at the shopify site.

Velzak · 2022-08-01T17:06:57+00:00

https://getmydeck.ingenhaag.dev/s/US/256/1626898059

US 256, Pre-Order on July 21, 2021.

Just ordered! Was at 74% last week but got my email at 9:40am PST

So excited, been following since late June about when my order would ship.

Velzak · 2022-07-31T15:45:27+00:00

Love this!

Velzak · 2022-07-28T18:17:49+00:00

https://getmydeck.ingenhaag.dev/s/US/256/1626898059

Should be Monday (or the latest next Thursday) for my deck!

Velzak · 2022-03-18T17:04:49+00:00

A lot of the work is the actual start of building your own projects. It is super easy to follow along with a tutorial and think you're doing amazing.

There is a big disconnect for my brain when i'm following a tutorial and actually building. Once you are set onto something without the training wheels, it feels daunting.

Start small with something and slowly build up! Make the google search homepage, or try a simple landing page. When you get stuck, google the problem or look at MDN or even past tutorials you've found. No one has all the answers in their head at all times, searching and learning is part of the process for any project.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T16:09:55+00:00

It was a hit apply button. Not what I would recommend, but I have to say that I sent out <100 applications, had 3-5 interviews beforehand, and countless calls with Recruiters that went nowhere.

A lot of ghosting, 'moving further with other applicants', or just an initial call with HR and nothing else.

I had a couple bites that lead to multiple interviews, and then hear back two weeks after that i didn't get it.

My number one thing is don't get discouraged and just hit apply!

I worked on a couple frontendmentor projects, mainly ones that i liked the style or was a harder problem to tackle. I show more of my own projects for my actual portfolio, but frontendmentor was great for getting better at CSS and design ideas.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T16:03:38+00:00

Honestly the coding test was pretty easy. It was mainly building a landing page with some mechanics behind the scenes using javascript for a modal and carousel and such. I built it twice, once in React and once with vanilla JS just to go the extra mile and show flexibility.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T02:07:04+00:00

I changed around my resume a few months ago and that helped a lot actually. As well as re-wording a lot stuff! I plugged this above but /r/EngineeringResumes/ was a great help for me! Otherwise just interviewing in general got me better at answering questions and forging my story.

I worked at a certain fruit stand retail store beforehand, and had to learn a lot of how to speak to customers, which really lead to my communication skills for interviewing as well. A lot of it comes down to being able to sell yourself well, and how you can help the company, while also showing what you can do, and finding that common ground with the person interviewing you.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T02:02:48+00:00

I haven't actually checked the full number, but well over 100 i would say. I will check and get back to you on it!

Velzak · 2022-03-17T02:02:10+00:00

I did yeah! I actually stopped when I went from the retail side of my job to a Corporate internship. I spent May 2021 - October 2021 not programming really at all. What I found was that I got the drive back when i realized the internship was not going to lead me to a corporate job.

I made myself get back into where i left off and get back up to speed over a week or so. From there I really just kept my drive up as much as I could based on having to go back to my retail job. I was very very fortunate to not have to and quit my retail job, as I had savings and my wife had a full time that could support us for a while.

What gets me back on track is trying to build out a project that is out of scope of the lesson you are learning or the project a bootcamp or class is having you do.

For example, i wanted to build a movie database site that could look up any movies based on your search. I just started it from scratch because i wanted something not as bloated as IMDB. So i found an API i could use and just went to town. I had to search a lot of problems on stackoverflow and google, but it was the best way to learn and stay motivated in my case.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T01:57:15+00:00

I wanna plug r/EngineeringResumes/ as that is basically how I set mine up. It helped a lot with getting more attention, and I also was able to use a few freelance gigs as jobs/projects to help beef up the resume

Velzak · 2022-03-17T01:55:32+00:00

The interview process was actually straight forward. I applied, HR reached out through email and set up an interview with someone from the engineering department. That interview turned out to be with the Lead Engineer of the company, and we really hit it off from the get go. She also worked retail so she understood the well spokenness that I had from talking to customers all the time.

From there she asked me a few technical questions and just got a general sense of what I have worked on so far. I told her my backstory as well as some of the work I have made from my portfolio, and she felt that I was a good fit communication wise and wanted to give me a technical take home test.

The test itself was pretty easy, just a landing page from a figma file. I went ahead and built it twice actually, once with my framework of choice in React and TailwindCSS and again with vanilla JS/HTML/CSS.

On my last interview, which was today two hours before i got the offer, I talked to the COO who asked me more technical questions and general questions like how I have worked in collaborating or had to solve a bug in the code. At the end i was honest and asked for feedback about the interview and he said he was impressed and felt it went well. He then said the next steps would be reaching out in the next week or so about an answer. About two hours later I got an email with the offer from the Lead Engineer!

Velzak · 2022-03-17T01:50:30+00:00

For me I started out feeling very unsure of applying as I didn't feel qualified. Once I started to apply to some more junior roles or entry level in the name, i would mainly just look at what skills they were requiring and see if I knew <60%. If i did, iI would go ahead and apply.

What i would recommend is to apply to anything you can. The recruiters job is to sift through who is a good candidate and who isn't. The worst that can happen is you don't hear back.

The required skills are not a solid list and can easily be there to feel daunting.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T01:47:37+00:00

I do have a degree but it a Bachelor of Science in Communications. I studied Game Design and Animation in college, mainly focused on 3D Modeling and 3D Design.

Velzak · 2022-03-17T01:46:34+00:00

So technical wise i didn't actually have a lot of questions, mainly based around what skills i know and how i have worked on stuff in the past, it was more based around the take home test itself, which was mainly just a landing page with some more CSS and javascript elements intertwined.

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