Reflections on 2000 Git Commits
Typically, I use this platform to show other engineers how to problem solve a particular problem. But for this article, I want to convey a message of encouragement for my fellow engineers searching for their first job. The best approach is to just remain consistent. No matter how small your improvement is or even if you are completely stuck on a problem, approach every situation as an opportunity to learn and sharpen your skill set. For instance, part of my 2000 git commit journey involved getting better at reading documentation. At first, I struggled mightily understanding documentation but I promise you this skill only gets better so long as you continue developing. Don’t be ashamed to fail or feel completely stuck, that is the natural process of growing as a professional. A great technique to start forcing yourself to grow is breaking down a problem into its most basic component. For example, if you are encountering an error pulling data from an API then I highly suggest you just follow the data stream until you discover the error. The technique is simple, just identify the functions involved with pulling your data and console log your variables that are meant to store the data. Wherever you see the error then at least you know where to start solving the problem. For more complicated problems such as introducing a new feature or tackling annoying CORS error problems, first spend some time looking around for a solution. Before implementing the solution make sure you fully understand why the problem exists and why the solution fixes the problem. These little things matter as you mature as an engineer. To quote a famous problem solver,
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
A great lesson I learned throughout my milestone journey is the large number of senior engineers who are willing to help. I honestly think this is one of the greatest untapped resources in our industry and wholly encourage you to tap into this. All you have to do is introduce yourself and ask for help, that’s it. There are so many discords that senior engineers host and active in responding to comments. One of my favorites is hosted by Leigh Halliday but there are so many out there. Be proactive and introduce yourself.
A very enjoyable phase of my milestone journey was Hacktoberfest. The exposure of high-quality pull requests was ASTOUNDING. I was quite literally wholly impressed with the code quality I saw and even more so impressed by the great initiatives by some open source projects. A very notable project that I actively contributed to is hosted on a platform called Ruby for Good. In fact, before you even finish reading this article I want you to check them out, they are an incredible organization of Rubyists from all over the world developing apps to push great causes such as CASA. Additionally, one of the best outcomes from Hacktoberfest for me was a simple comment from another engineer on a pull request that I made. It was completely random but extremely useful and the gist of it was to just better format my git commits. He provided a link to a template for better git commit structuring and I have been following it to this day. Here is the link if you want to up your git commit game. Another tip I highly encourage to adopt especially for take-home assignments during a job interview is to document your changes in a README doc. Take before and after screenshots, explain what you changed, what you solved, the scope of the feature, perhaps even a video of the new features or fixes added. These practices only enhance your maturity as an engineer.
All in all, I am very proud to reach this milestone. I have learned so much and even more so am enjoying embracing being a teacher or mentor of sorts for recent coding boot camp graduates. I thoroughly enjoy watching someone grow and succeed and that’s why I am here writing this blog. All of my content is written with the aim of helping you to be a better engineer. Stay tuned for more content as I continue my journey. Onto git commit 3000!
