GSoC Day 4 and a new Gig!

I was pleasantly surprised this morning

• Usually, when an employer or recruiter has contacted me in the past, I’m expecting something to the extent of “While we really liked you as a candidate, we are unable to extend…”. Life of the budding junior dev! It’s actually tougher to get your foot in the door initially, especially now, with no CS degree. However, I’m super persistent. I’m convinced that in some universe (well, this one), I was meant to be an engineer. This was different; the email said “Good news!” and asked if I had time for a chat on the phone. So I replied back, after all, I was working on Haskell and was seriously stuck on a type-error.
• I was still groggy from doing an assignment in Ruby (which was pretty easy) for class I stayed up late to do. Btw, I signed up for Advanced Data Structures and Discrete Mathematics for Fall. It’s in the LATE PM, so I should be OK. Then I was officially extended an offer. I’ll be doing a testing internship for about two months (with flexible hours, so I can come and go as I need as long as I get my part-time hours done), and be sort of rotated around and at the end, around the time GSoC and RustReach end, I’ll be full time in a particular department. The hours are part time, so it’s perfect, for the duration, so that by the time that is complete, I’ll be more knowledgeable and be ready to integrate into a team full-time.
• My parents are really happy for me. It’s taken me about a month and a half, and I really did like the people I met at this company. I’ve been speaking with them for about a month now. I love that it’s part-time because I also want to continue putting in my hours in GSoC and RustReach. It’s a bit to juggle, but I’m convinced that all of this is worth it.
• It probably means I won’t have a life at all; so basically, I put in my hours about 4 days a week part-time, go to class (which thankfully ends by mid-June), and all the rest of my time is for GSoC and RustReach. No weekend outings or anything like that for me.

Cool Mentorship Advice

• Gabe sent this to me today. It’s a reminder to integrate my changes early and frequently. I need a header of this somewhere in my apartment.

Juno lecture

• I’m going to a Juno Lecture today with my mentor and his brother.
• I had also declined two scholarships, and the two organizations were nice enough for one to give it to me anyways (so I can still access the material) and the other said they’d leave the offer on the table for two months. It’s an opportunity to go to a one-day conference in Seattle and receive software training in November. So we’ll see.

That’s all I have for now

• Back to work!