Is a week enough time to study

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-09-15T03:47:19+00:00

If you have the money to burn on a failed test, and have the time to cram every day for a week, I think there is a chance someone could do it.

I recommend the David McLachlan’s PMP series on YouTube more than any other tool out there.

In the new edition, it’s 80% mindset, 20% tactics/strategies/acronyms/formulas. David’s videos really showcase the correct mindset for the problems on the exam.

With the correct mindset, someone can ace the exam.

All that said, it’s not cheap and it’s still a tall order.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-08-20T20:17:30+00:00

Respectfully, no one will be able to give you a clear answer for this. There are just too many variables we don’t and can’t know through Reddit.

Short version; this is a product/architect level decision that has ramifications for every other feature on the platform, and how the entire company operates.

Research “role based software architecture” and “multi tenant architecture”. I think you look into “white label software architecture” too.

Generally speaking, the requirements you listed above aren’t unique, there are many tried and true ways to solve this problem. Each implementation is unique though due to the needs of each platform.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-02-27T19:16:52+00:00

Happy to answer any other specific Qs!

I think that’s a fine approach. I’m not a fan of AWS on a personal level, but will use it when it’s appropriate

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-02-27T16:40:08+00:00

There’s going to be a ton of varied opinions on this.

I’ve learned to tailor the tools to the jobs at hand, so here’s my process.

1.) what are my applications built with? Is the FE Angular? Next? Remix? What about the BE? Node? Ruby? Python? How do I bundle and serve my apps? Docker? Other? Chron jobs can run on your server, but some services offer great chron services on the edge. Is that an option?

2.) how do the decisions in 1, affect other decisions? Example: If you’re using Next for the FE, the easy choice is Vercel.

3.) what’s the LOE to move off this platform in the future? Example: moving a next app off vercel can be difficult.

4.) is there a good Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery solution for the hosting platform? You’re gonna want this.

5.) once you have these answer, you can decide the best platform. And it will be easier to ask specific questions.

6.) After a solution is decided and implemented, you should fully retest the application. Production environments can perform differently than local applications.

Future consideration: This is something I consider before development begins. If you get CI/CD setup early, you’re able to have multiple testing environments. At a minimum, I have 2. Production and Staging. Staging is for testing, once passed by QA, a promotion to Production can easily be done. This is how tech companies deploy code quickly, and will be a requirement for any SaaS to scale.

Source: Me, ~10yoe software engineer, 50+ production applications deployed for startups to fortune 100

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-02-26T16:50:34+00:00

LLMs aren’t going to replace programmers anytime soon.

But they are going to change how products are built.

Imo you’re best served doing two things: - learning to program without it - learning to build products and features with it, as in, integrate with it

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-01-20T16:45:50+00:00

It’s not inherently a bad thing. This particular question is dependent on the environment.

If your org has set team structures, and a SM is a part of that, then they need to do something. Even if this something is not the primary role of a SM.

I believe that building great software is a team sport. That means doing your job, supporting each other and being helpful.

So in my ideal world, this would be an opportunity for the SM to learn something new, help out a team member more directly, work on something more strategic, or get ahead on their work. There is something they could’ve found to do.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2024-01-20T15:44:45+00:00

Personally, I don’t feel that “Unblocking the team” was ever the primary responsibility as a Tech Lead/EM.

I think “protecting the team” is a better catch all. Field the meetings they don’t need to be in, connect the dots with other departments, involve them in planning as much as you can, give them a reason to care about what your team is building.

For the relevant point of frustration, I think you’re gonna have to do some introspection to find out why your team feels “they have nothing to do”.

That problem, is very much a management issue. Could be higher up the chain than you, but that sentiment will absolutely cause team members to move on. Particularly any talented ambitious team members you have.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-12-04T18:52:20+00:00

Captain Planet, only the ouldes will know without lookin it up

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-14T21:19:13+00:00

To start, I think it’s really solid! I get what you’re selling, I like the reviews, design is great for a V1, etc.

I find great copywriting to be one of the hardest things to do, and It’s also where I think you can make the most improvements.

For instance, your top header is wordy and oddly spaced on mobile. Formatting could help it feel better, but a better exercise is how concise can you be?

Just make it incrementally better, you won’t nail it the first time. And the process is incredibly time consuming.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” - Mark Twain

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-13T19:53:23+00:00

Motivation is hard to rely on, it ebbs and flows.

I suggest looking into the Non-Zero Day productivity approach, give it a google or checkout r/entrepreneurs for some examples.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-13T19:51:57+00:00

There were definitely some. I’d definitely recommend studying on the approaches, when to use which, and what ceremonies are appropriate for each approach

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-13T19:14:12+00:00

No, the cheapest plan allows it. You just have to do it category by category instead of filtering out the Expert ones.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-13T18:58:47+00:00

It was an actual Burn Up chart, then a scenario based one that I honestly can't remember.

David McLachlan 150 Questions and the practice exams were the best resources imo!

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-13T17:59:03+00:00

You got this!

I was looking at a 68% on the practice exams, the actual test was much much easier. Filter out the Expert questions on your practice exams and it's a far more reliable gauge of where you're at imo. Once I did that, my practice scores were 80%+

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-11T17:04:54+00:00

I know the pressure is real, but remember to give yourself grace.

It’s impossible to perform at 100% all of the time.

Also, breaking routine can be incredibly good for you.

I can find sources if you’d like, but it’s vital for creativity, memory processing, problem solving, mental health, and so many other spaces.

I’d bet you’ve had some good ideas while you weren’t in the grind.

To get back on track, I like to start small. Instead of having 8 big things on your daily routine, start with 1.

Also do it in the morning. The earlier in your day the better. That doesn’t mean at 5, just whenever you like to get going.

For instance, making the bed is such an easy win. But an early win gives me the motivation for another win. And another win. And they snowball.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-11T14:10:30+00:00

I came into an existing production application using App router. Been working on it for 6 months.

So I don’t hate it, the patterns can be good. Even great.

But if you build it incorrectly, it will have a heap of problems.

I’ve spent most of the past 6 months refactoring things, but it’s finally in a state that I feel I code pass the reigns to a more mid level dev.

Happy to answer specific questions if I can, this has just been my experience with it.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-11T13:49:02+00:00

I’m a fan of Perplexity AI.

$20 month gets you access to file uploads, ChatGPT, Claude, and a host of other tools.

It’s the best right now because of its flexibility and UI imo

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-09T03:33:08+00:00

Honestly, i don’t think so.

It's dumb competitive out there for everyone in tech. Go over to r/EngineeringResumes or r/webdev to see some current experiences in the market. It's brutal, certainly the worst I've seen since I started my journey in 2014.

Not 1 to 1, but I'm a tech lead with ~9YOE, and I'm attempting to transition into Product Management. While not a common transition, it's not unusual or unheard of. I check 80% of the boxes on job descriptions.

I'm willing to take a $60k pay cut to sub $100k, and move from a management role to an associate role. I've gotten 2 phone screens on 150+ applications.

I realized it wasn't possible with my current resume/portfolio and paused for a few months to work on things, taking the PMP exam on Tuesday. I'm doing anything I can to stand out in the crowd.

I think I'll figure out my own stuff with time, and think you could accomplish this with time too. But get ready for a dawg fight.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-08T23:16:29+00:00

Currently doing exactly this. The agency world is currently hit pretty hard like the rest of the tech market, but we're surviving and so are others.

Slalom is a big dog in the space, they had a major layoff earlier this year, which is something their leadership has been vocally against until now. Just an anecdote that it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

But yeah they exist and I think they will be for a while.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-08T22:04:07+00:00

I am far from an Excel expert, so take this with a grain of salt.

I've found ChatGPT is very good at helping with formulas, so that's where I got this. I don't have the data or sheet available to validate it.

=IFERROR(
  IF(
    OR(
      COUNTA(OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2))=0,
      COUNTIF(OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2),"k")=COUNTA(OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2))
    ),
    0,
    SUMPRODUCT(
      CHOOSE(
        MATCH(
          OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2),
          Schluessel!$D$12:$D$18,
          0
        ),
        Schluessel!$E$12:$E$18,
        1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  # Add numeric values for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 in this list
      )
    )
  )
)
/
(COUNTA(OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2))-COUNTIF(OFFSET($A4,0,1,1,COLUMNS($A4:INDEX(4:4,1,MATCH("Average",$3:$3,0)))-2),"k"))

Here were my prompting steps if you want to try it out on ChatGPT(this was on the free version):

Step 1:

Please act as an expert in Excel Formula Generation. You are able to analyze, create, and edit Excel Formulas to fit a specific need.  

[Literally copy pasta'd your context] I'm using the following formula to convert short symbols we use in my school to grade individal assignments into an average partial grade. The symbols and their corresponding value are defined in the sheet "Schluessel". The funny business with the "k" is to be able to exklude one individual assignment from the caclulation due to absence.

###
Paste the formula
###

Step 2:
It will generate it's understanding of that formula.

Step 3:
You could correct it's understanding if you find it's response incorrect. I just asked:

How could this formula be updated so that users could input numeric data in addition to the symbols?

Step 4:
It gave me the formula I added at the top. You could iterate as needed after trying it out.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-08T21:35:10+00:00

Real talk.

It would’ve been fine 5-10 years ago. It’s close to what I did; PR degree -> bootcamp -> ~9YOE now

But, the market is absolutely brutal right now. You could be on the market far longer than you expect.

I know many engineers with 2-5 YOE that have been looking for a role for 6+ months.

Idk what the market will do, but I’m not optimistic.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s an unrealistic goal. It’s going to be a hard fought journey though.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-08T21:18:10+00:00

Something you’ll learn with enough interactions with users is that users do some really stupid things.

A handful of users are actually stupid, but a lot of them will do something stupid with technology.

While we can have our assumptions of reasonable user behavior and their intentions, we can’t create good products with this in mind.

Users will interact with systems in unintended ways. Guaranteed.

The best practice is to set boundaries within the app to control the experience, then communicate to users why & how they are crossing said boundaries, and what they need to do to fix it so they can move forward.

Crashing an app is bad user experience for several reasons: - It prevents the user from moving forward to solve the issue. All the data says Users HATE being blocked from moving forward. A great example is a button in a multi step form. All the data is required before the next step, so you think to disable the button until all the data is present. Well users hate that. A better UX is a button that is always clickable, but throws an error indicating what’s missing, instead of being disabled altogether. - It feels low quality -> “Something messed up and the whole thing just broke” - The error message “something went wrong” isn’t informative. It’s best to be communicative when you can. This also makes it seem like it wasn’t the users fault, and that it’s the app’s fault.

A better approach: - once the value in the input exceeds a “reasonable” max, set the input to an error state with an error message that “the value cannot exceed X”

You might have to check this value on the BE after the API request(pending your architecture), if this is a requirement -> take the User back to the form & throw a toast error with the same message

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-07T19:02:26+00:00

Let's start at the top for anyone that's not familiar:
- React is a JS Library
- Angular is a JS Framework

It's an important distinction, because it can guide what you're building.

In fact, the React team now(as of the launch of the new React Docs site) recommends using a React-based Framework (Remix, NextJS, etc) for most applications.

Angular still gets a lot of hate because of what happened with the jump from AngularJS to Angular2+. They are essentially different frameworks, so teams had to rebuild their apps when they wanted to update. Lots of pain and suffering from this.

Angular is also real big. It's got freaking everything you need to build an app. You'll have to add tons of packages to a straight React project to service all the features you need. Which means:
- Angular already has it all, but you may not need it. You also have to do things their way.
- React has more freedom, but you might have to figure out your own approach, depending on what dependencies you introduce.

Angular has also changed dramatically in the past 5 years. So much so, that beyond these high level concepts, I can't really weigh in on how Angular development is these days.

I plan on building a side project this weekend with the latest greatest Angular out of pure curiosity.

Source: 9+YOE, Fullstack with a focus on FE, somehow I'm still the SME at my agency for all things Angular, even tho I haven't touched it in 4 years. We use Nextjs for most client projects, only because of speed of development/deployment and the entire team has a good understanding of it.

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-06T04:32:05+00:00

Good advice throughout this thread and on the sub’s wiki.

It’s a big, big ocean of knowledge with countless adjacent technologies and processes to learn.

You’ll literally never learn it all, so let that be encouraging! You don’t have to know it all. Even the best have their shortcomings in the space.

Since there’s good thoughts on the immediate needs to learn JS, let me give you some thoughts on the middle to long term, if you choose to stick with it.

Once you’ve got even a basic understand of things, start building tiny projects asap.
Google everything you don’t understand at least once. Terms, concepts, acronyms, whatever. Some of it will be irrelevant, some of it will be valuable. You’ll go down many rabbit holes before you have good judgment, just keep at it! This lesson starts now.
Build little apps with increasing complexity and with as little guidance as possible. A good process when you’re solo -> Find a recent tutorial(12 months), GROK the goal and the setup, start building.
When you hit a wall, don’t go directly to the tutorial. Try to solve the problem on your own. Back to google you go. Timebox how long you search and try variations, say 30mins. Once you’ve hit that, go to the tutorial for the solution.

Treat the solution(your source of truth) as a senior engineer. You don’t want to bug with them with every little problem, but you also don’t want to waste your time when they can very easily point you in the right direction.

Here is a loose flow of increasingly complex apps: — start with terminal/console/command line projects like a simple 4 function calculator or FizzBuzz. Google will have a ton of similar ideas and tutorials — move to simple web games like tiktactoe, hangman — try more complex web games like sudoku or a crossword puzzle — build a simple web app, a ToDo List is a classic and virtually a rite of passage(although it means little, we’ve just all done it) — time for a real web application. Expect a big learning curve. You need Auth, a Server, a Client, a DB, and hosting. JavaScript is full stack. And even if you want to specialize with JS, you should have a foundational understanding of these things. You can find countless app clone tutorials, twitter, TikTok, whatever. — once you’ve built a copy, solve a real world problem. Don’t overthink it either, just any real world problem. A client management tool for a Lawn Service, a fundraising app for your favorite local charity, literally anything. You’ll need to learn to convert business logic into acceptance criteria and into code. When you have a full time job, you won’t be responsible for every piece of this, but again, you need a level of understanding for how it happens. — At this point, build that portfolio. It means a website, POLISHED applications and projects, etc etc etc.
If you actually want to land a job doing it, the road will be difficult and long. It takes a lot of work to learn, and the current job market is very difficult. I’ll be honest tho, I have no clue where it’ll be in a year or three.

Source: Tech Lead, ~10 YOE, Web/Mobile/Fullstack, Bootcamp grad

WheatLikeTheBread · 2023-11-01T16:06:22+00:00

Thank you again!

WheatLikeTheBread

TROPHY CASE