Steve Husmann’s Post

I’m happy to share that I’ve been working as a Software Developer at Bema Software Services for the past 6+ months and I’m loving it! Been so invested in my new job I haven’t been scrolling through LinkedIn in months!

Welp... Ya win some, you lose some right? I applied for an opportunity with a large company that looked pretty interesting. There were no specific languages listed in the job description, but it said bootcamp grads were welcome. "Hey that's me!" I applied for the position called "Software Engineer 1". I had already received a "no thank you" from this company earlier in the week for a different position (job description said 5+ years experience, but I applied anyway because the job looked cool). I was excited when I got an invitation to do a coding challenge. I set aside 90 minutes after work and after the kids were in bed, got my work station all set up and cued up my "coding music". Then, I hit begin assessment... and I saw the options in the picture below. I should mention that I just spent most of the last 2 years learning JavaScript... and that was definitely not one of the options. However, once upon a time, I wrote in C++. That time was 2003. I realized I hadn't written a line of code in C++ in (quite literally) 20 years. Still, I wasn't going to let this be another setback, and I plowed ahead. I was surprised that I actually remembered some of the conventions. "cout <<"... "cin >>"... "vector" instead of array... "Wow, this is just like riding a bike!" But yeah, I crashed and burned. For the life of me, every time I thought of how to solve a problem, I wanted to use a handy JS array method. But in the end, I gave it a good 45 minutes (out of my allotted 90) before I realized this one wasn't going to happen. Still, I'm proud of myself for trying, because if I'd been able to pull that off it would've been a tale for the ages (or at least I'd act like it was). Oh well, onto the next one! #javascript #codingchallenge #softwareengineer #engineeringjobs #juniordeveloper #buildinginpublic #reactjs

Where's a good place to look for coding project ideas? I love the project based approach to learning a new framework or language, and I want to get a couple reps in before starting some contract work. #buildinginpublic #frontenddeveloper #uidesign #reactjs #react #juniordeveloper #javascript #bootcamp #reactnative

How I Learned to Love UI In late 2020, I knew I needed to take a new direction in my career (more on that in a later post). I had considered coding bootcamps in the past, but I thought that a career in UX/UI would be more in line with my background in film and graphic design. Before going all in on UX, I decided to take a 2-month UI bootcamp. While I enjoyed building layouts in Figma, I found it deeply unsatisfying that my job seemed to end when all of the menu bars and buttons were in the “right place”. This helped me realize I wanted to be able to dig a few layers deeper and actually make that button do something! Flash forward to July 2021 when I started Parsity, a full stack JavaScript coding bootcamp. I really enjoyed learning a new language and it was thrilling to build applications from scratch! A couple months in, I was introduced to Bootstrap, and that’s when my inner designer took the wheel again. I didn’t feel ready to make my apps work “under the hood” until I got the user interface looking good. At times, I worried I was spending too much time on the UI, but I always got feedback about how good my apps looked. When it came time for our capstone group project, I partnered with 3 other engineers ( Nina, Jason, Kush) to build a Kanban style, list-making web application (basically Trello). When I was mulling over the different roles, it felt a little too easy to focus on the UI. But I couldn’t resist, because this wasn’t any normal UI ("put a button here", "line up your rows", etc). For this project, I would need to master the White Whale of UI… Drag-and-Drop. (Nobody has ever called drag-and-drop the White Whale of UI, but stick with me…) I decided to see what strategy Atlasssian used to create the drag-and-drop for Trello, and was impressed to learn that they built the functionality from scratch for use with React! Even better, they wrote great instructions about how to make it work in your own project. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/gUnF-Gmk I’m really happy with the result (see a quick demo in the video below). There is something exciting about the way a simple user interaction like a clicking-and-dragging a card from one list to another immediately -> communicates the change to the back end (“let the database know that Card A is now on List 2”) -> which then rewrites the database (“Card A is now on List 2”) -> which alerts the front end that the database has changed and refreshes the view to reflect the current data There’s a lot riding on that user interaction! This project encouraged me that there were still robust coding challenges to undertake in building great user interfaces. It also encouraged me to lean into my design experience as I search for that elusive first job in tech. If you are looking for an enthusiastic Front End and UI Engineer, please let me know! #javascript #react #ux #ui #graphicdesign #frontend #kanban #job #softwaredevelopment #softwareengineer #buildinginpublic

Shout out to Luke Hovee for giving me an audit of my LinkedIn Profile and providing some great feedback. I found it helpful so I thought I'd share the wealth! - Added "Featured" section with my resume in PDF format - Added "Projects" section highlighting a couple of projects from my bootcamp - Created a custom cover photo with name, title, and tech stack (see before and after below) - Reworked tag line (would love feedback!) - He also suggested I wordsmith the About section, but I'm saving that for another night Any other suggestions or feedback for what makes a great LinkedIn profile for a software engineer seeking their first dev job? Thanks again to Luke for all the help! Check out his free course "Get Your First Dev Job" https://lnkd.in/gpAnk5mE #softwareengineer #tech #job #reactjs #uidesigner #firstjob #buildinginpublic

Thought I might #crowdsource my #buildinginpublic here. I plan to build an app over the next couple of months, and post about it as I go. I know I want to pick up another technology or two along the way, but I'm not sure what to focus on. In my bootcamp I learned React, Redux, NodeJS, Express and Mongo/Mongoose (along with older technologies that served as building blocks). I'm interested in building mobile apps, so either Swift or React Native seem interesting. I've also heard Typescript is a must-have for most frontend jobs. I feel like I'm just getting the hang of Redux, but I'm seeing chatter that it's obsolete already and I should pick something else up! Please let me know any other recommendations in the comments! #react #frontend #technology #swift #typescript #graphql #reactnative #mobx #reactcontext

I posted yesterday that I'd graduated from a coding bootcamp, but I left something out... I actually graduated from the program last June! (In fact, I would have been finished in March, but I took some time off when my son was born) For the past 6 months, I've been searching for a software engineering job under-the-radar. So why post about it now? When I started this journey in April 2021, I never thought I would be entering 2023 still working for my current employer. But here's the problem - I need this job until I get my first software engineering role. My bootcamp (Parsity) suggested some helpful ways to network and market ourselves on LinkedIn, but that felt foolish in the current climate. Unfortunately, several of my coworkers have been let go over the past few months because of budget shortfalls, so I couldn't afford to advertise the fact that I'm looking for another job without putting a target on my back. However, after 6 months of trying to find a job under-the-radar, I decided I need to change my approach. My solution? I spent the past few weeks blocking everyone I could find who works at my current company. (I also removed my employer from my profile, so hopefully this doesn't get out there.) This still feels risky, but I feel ok about it. I'm still working faithfully at my job, putting in my 40 hours (I'm writing this on my lunch break). Over the next few months, I will be "learning in public" - posting about ways I am sharpening my software skills, while looking for my first SWE position. I am hopeful this approach will help lead to a life-changing role for me and my family! Does anyone have any tips for my fellow career-switchers about keeping your current job while looking for a new role? #coding #learninginpublic #softwareengineer #frontenddeveloper #reactjs #careerswitch

When folks ask where I work, it usually leads to me trying to describe my company with a bunch of metaphors, or listing off random services we provide... Now I can just direct them to this video! This was a lot of fun to make from the scripting phase (Jon Amos) to the voiceover recording (Johanna Alvarado) and everything along the way! This video was released today with our brand new website: hhs1.com Check it out! Great work Jon, Katie, Will, Shannon and Allison!

I had fun making this video for HHS, LLC. I was asked to create a short trailer for our companies new culinary concept called "FlavorPort". The goal is to bring variety, fun and excitement into hospital foodservice, so I wanted to be sure the video reflected that. I went with a 21:9 aspect ratio and film LUTs to give it a cinematic look to highlight the fresh new direction our culinary program is piloting. This is the most I've used speed ramping in a video, so I had some fun with that as well. Shout out to Victor Nash of Bookend Creative in Richmond, VA for filming some great footage and executing our vision perfectly. I appreciate how he filmed everything in scenes (wide, medium, closeup, shot/reverse shot, etc). He gave me a lot of great options to work with in the edit. https://lnkd.in/eRsc3srB