Episode Transcript
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Don Hansen (00:00):
Hey everyone, all
right, we're back for another
video with the series where I'mjust going to be transparent
with my goals and how things aregoing right.
So, if you haven't been to thischannel, essentially I give a
lot of advice for aspiringdevelopers and you know I'm a
big advocate against victimhood.
I think a lot of people getvery comfortable blaming
(00:21):
external circumstances for theirsituation, and I find that most
people end up just shootingthemselves in the foot with that
mindset, and so I want to sharemy transparent process of
trying to hit my own goals andshowing you that I failed to,
and that's okay, but I'm goingto continue pushing forward.
So hopefully this isinspirational to you, but I also
want to share a couple of othercommunity things as well, any
(00:42):
events that we have going on.
But yeah, so let's start withmy goals.
Um, originally I think my goalswere I wanted to record 28
videos in 28 days, um, and Iwanted to reach 205 pounds with
my weight loss journey startingat 21 15.
I wanted to code 10 hours perweek and I wanted to read the
(01:04):
book uh Tao of react.
Um, I didn't hit any of thosegoals.
I failed miserably, um, but I'mgoing to reset and make new
goals off of what I learned,cause I had pretty ambitious
goals, uh, with the otherresponsibilities that I had.
So, um, essentially I think Irecorded like 12 videos, 13
(01:26):
videos.
I can do more, but 28 videos isa lot.
As a content creator, I havegiven all the advice that I will
ever have to give.
It's all in there somewhere inall my live streams and videos
and, you know, to an extent Igot to repeat myself because
there are a lot of new peoplethat come to the channel that
have no idea what I said, what Istand for, the advice that I
(01:48):
give.
They never heard it right, I'mbrand new to them.
They don't care about me.
I'm just another YouTuber thatthey happened to come across
last month, and so you'll noticethat, with a lot of YouTubers
where they will repeat theiradvice, it's just because we've
given all the advice that youneed.
It's all spaced out in all ofour videos.
You know we gotta repeat somestuff, but I find that it could
(02:09):
be a little tiring givingsimilar advice that I've given
before.
Um, I think what would excite meis to react to some stuff I
love doing, react content, but,um, it's kind of lazy content.
I don't know if I really wantto do a lot of those types of
videos, but maybe we just touchbase on kind of what's happening
(02:31):
in the programming space a bit.
I don't know.
I got to think more about whatis going to inspire me to create
more videos.
But I know what I can do and Ican create at least 16 videos.
So that is going to be my goalfor next month.
I think I can do four videosper week.
That'll kind of be a bit of asoft goal.
But as far as my weight goes, II think I started reaching about
(02:56):
like two 10, and then I decidedto have one drinking night and
then I ate a bunch of food thenext day and gained a few pounds
and I feel like I'm at abouttwo 12 right now.
So the goal is to lose 10pounds and I failed at that
pretty miserably.
I feel like I'm someone where,um, I don't really have a
(03:17):
drinking problem, I have aneating problem.
Afterwards I feel like shit.
Even if I have like six beersthe night before, for some
reason I still get a bighangover, like I just get
dehydrated or like super lowenergy and then anything sugar
related just ah, it's so goodthe next day.
So you know, that's just beingrealistic with myself.
(03:39):
I think to hit my weight goals,I'm just going to have to
completely ditch alcoholaltogether, which I have no
problem with, because when Idon't drink the night before, um
, my eating's fine, I stay ontrack.
I eat a lot of meat, a lot ofvegetables, um, I don't eat a
lot of carbs and I just startlosing weight.
So you know that's what I'mgoing to be aiming for, uh, for
the next month and um, yeah,that's how I fix that.
(04:01):
But one thing I love is coding.
Holy shit, do I love coding?
I've been live coding, um, andI feel like I've just been kind
of stuck with foundational stuff, with the learning, nestjs and
TypeScript.
But, man, have I learned a lotand I love it.
Like I get excited to livestream and code Um, I do it
every Tuesday, thursday andSaturday, right now.
I do it every Tuesday, thursdayand Saturday, right now, 3 to 7
(04:24):
pm, central Time, and I lookforward to it every single time.
It doesn't feel like work and Iget to just decompress and I
don't, I don't know, I don't, mymind just goes to another place
and I don't worry about stuffand it just feels freeing.
I miss coding.
I really do.
(04:45):
You know, when I start thinkingback, I really think I jumped
into trying to become a contentcreator and an entrepreneur a
little bit too early, because Iset myself up to not be able to
code a lot to be able to putfood on the table, and that I'm
finding that that was a mistake.
I want coding in my workflow, Iwant it in my business in some
(05:05):
capacity, or I want to work foranother company where I'm
working as a developer.
I want to code, no matter whatit is.
I want to code and be able toput food on my table.
And so my transition right nowand how I'm trying to change my
life, is to be able to at leastchange my business model so I
can do that a bit more often.
And that's probably going to bereleasing a SAS product, twitch
(05:26):
sprout, which I'm working on.
Um, but no matter what, I wantto figure out how I can code a
lot more, because I just love itand I miss it and um, and
that's kind of where I'm at withthat, and whatever that turns
into, it turns into whatever itturns into, as long as I get the
(05:46):
code, I'm going to be happy.
So my goal for next month isgoing to be coding at least 12
hours per week.
Still have otherresponsibilities and cause I've
been doing a lot of mentorshipsessions.
Um, so, if you don't know, Iactually reduced my rates cause
a lot of people did request it,including current clients, but
(06:09):
just because economic timeswhich I get so previously it was
97 an hour I reduced it to 74.
This is temporary.
I'm not going to promise thatit's going to stay this low
forever, but, um, for now Ilowered it.
I'm getting more clients in andit's paying the bills.
So I love the technicalmentorship, I love career
mentorship, so it does end upputting food on the table.
(06:32):
I'm not making a ton of money,just enough to pay the bills and
I'm going to continue doingthat.
But you know I'm still tryingto fit in coding as much as I
can and we'll figure out wheremy business ends up being down
the road.
I'm kind of.
I'm actually really curiouswhere I'm going to be at in
three months.
What I'm going to be hyperfocused on.
I don't know about you guys,but I think about that a lot
(06:54):
because I feel like in threemonths.
My future is pretty damnunknown, as I'm trying to
reshape my business or decide ifI want to go back to a
developer position.
So you know, I've been thinkingabout that a lot, but we will
see.
Right now I'm going to focus onwhat I can control and we'll
see what that turns into.
But in the Tao of React book Ijust I didn't have a need for it
(07:19):
.
I'm diving into NestJS.
I'm learning a lot about that.
I'm diving into TypeScript I'mlearning a lot about that.
I'm diving into TypeScript.
I'm learning a lot about thatand I am having fun with it and
I feel like I am just able tostructure things in a much more
scalable manner with NestJS andit's fun for me.
My Nodejs applications havebeen incredibly messy and I've
kind of formed my own structureand data flow, but I always felt
(07:43):
like I never, uh, was able topick up really good conventions
on the backend.
Front end I'm pretty solid withright, uh, but backend man I I
just still sit at a low juniorlevel and I'm just trying to
ramp up a bit, um, because it'sinteresting, it's fun, I like
front end, I like backend and Ijust want to get better with the
backend.
So you know it's fun.
(08:03):
I like front end, I like backend and I just want to get
better with the back end.
So you know, I don't think I'mgoing to spend a lot of time
reading a book.
I think I'm just going tocontinue to get more comfortable
with Nest and TypeScript andthat's challenging me to learn
something new.
I'm fine with that right.
So three goals essentiallyrecord the videos.
So 16 videos in 28 days getdown to 205.
(08:25):
I'm going to keep that as mygoal and it should be a little
bit easier to get to because I'mnot at 215, but weight loss is
important.
And then I'm going to code atleast 12 hours per week.
So again, I just want to betransparent with what I'm trying
to do, what I'm trying toimprove with, and people in our
Discord server shared kind oftheir own um, their own goals
(08:46):
for the next 28 days, which Ilove.
We had like five or six peopleshare that in the discord and
they're kind of trying toachieve their own goals.
But that's the goal of videoslike this is to show um, is to
kind of just like invite peopleand inspire people to have some
goal setting in general, becauseI think it's really easy to
want to improve but we neverreally solidify how we're
(09:09):
supposed to improve and then wenever solidify the actions that
we need to take our actual goalsto be able to get to that
outcome.
So my outcome really is to pumpup my content quite a bit,
because I do see an increase intraffic and revenue.
But also I feel better and I'mgetting closer to getting back
into more athletic things as Ilose weight and I'm coding more,
(09:33):
which makes me way more happy.
I'm just a happy person when Iget to code.
So that's why these are mygoals, but I'd love to hear what
your goals are below.
That's why these are my goals,but I'd love to hear what your
goals are below.
But before I end this video, Iwant to share one more thing.
So I have been pursuing warmleads for in the job search just
(09:53):
with people that I've workedwith, people that I know and you
know.
Thank you to everyone that didkind of extend something to
their company and I.
Sometimes I got instantrejections and I made it to a
couple final round interviewsand I want to talk about a
recent one.
But it was for a company is fora front end position, pretty
big company, thousands ofemployees, I believe, worked at
(10:15):
the company.
So it's outside of my comfortzone of working for startups,
but it seemed like a really goodcompany and I got to the final
round and I did three finalround interviews and two I think
went pretty good and then thethird one I bombed terribly.
So I did essentially twotechnical interviews.
(10:38):
One was kind of just codingchallenges and then the second
one was kind of front endchallenges and, um, I did okay
with the second one but therewas kind of a miscommunication
with the API stuff, uh, but Istill could have responded, um,
I still could have prioritizedthings a little bit differently
(10:59):
with how I built the application, even though we had this like
really weird blocker.
That probably shouldn't havehappened.
Um, but the third final roundinterview I found that I just
blanked, like I just had a bunchof anxiety come up and I
noticed in interviews I forgotabout this because I used to do
(11:21):
this in interviews but it's beenso long since I've interviewed.
But I would.
If I don't prep, if I don't knowthere's going to be a technical
challenge, sometimes I get intothe state where I kind of just
blink and if I get over that infive to ten seconds.
It's not a big deal.
But then I haven't reallytrained my mind to think about
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coding and so I have lessconfidence that I'm going to be
able to get past this blocker.
And then it's like a snowballand I continue to just blink on
really simple stuff and then Iremember even asking the
requirements like two or threetimes and they're really really
simple stuff.
I do way more complicated stuffin my personal projects and I
did way more complicated stuffas a professional dev.
(12:04):
But I just get into this kind ofanxious state and the only way
to overcome that is practice.
It's only practice.
So I don't think you'resupposed to be really good at
interviews if you're a gooddeveloper.
I don't think that's a thing.
(12:25):
I think good developers ininterviews also practice
interviews, especially when youare competing with a lot of
other people.
And you know, I just have toremind myself as well, even
though me being anxious doesn'treflect my skills, there is
absolutely no reason thatcompany should ever take a
(12:46):
chance on me, right?
It is really costly to hire adeveloper that could end up
being a bad developer and beinga risk to the company, like a
financial risk or like anon-cultural fit.
It's in the company's bestdecision especially when there
is a lot of competition, thereare a lot of applicants to
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really be sure that you don'thire a bad developer.
You probably heard that before,but it's true.
It's very, very costly to hirea bad developer.
So I completely understand whythey didn't take a chance on me,
and that company doesn't owe methat.
But I owe it to myself to get alittle bit more comfortable
practicing interviews so I canactually showcase a skill level
(13:30):
that's true to where I actuallyam, rather than me just fumbling
over really simple stuff,looking like I just started off
coding, and so I don't know ifthat's supposed to help you.
But I think my advice if I hadto give any is just, if you
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screw up in an interview, Idon't think that necessarily
reflects your skill level, and,just like you, doing poorly in
the job search because that's awhole other thing of its own
doesn't necessarily mean you'rea bad developer.
Just because companies aren'treaching back out to you doesn't
mean you're a bad developer.
Just because companies aren'treaching back out to you doesn't
(14:14):
mean you're a bad developer.
It might mean you're not greatwith building up connections,
you're not great with presentingyourself, your resume, your
portfolio.
There are so many kind ofsurface level things where
companies don't really have alot of time to analyze, where
you could just make littleimprovements that would make you
stand out a hell of a lot more.
And it just because you aredoing bad in an interview
(14:35):
doesn't reflect that you are abad developer.
It just reflects that, hey,this is what we were able to
assess with the skill level andyou know, we got a lot of other
applicants we can't take achance.
So that just means doing mockinterviews and even doing pair
practice interviews with otherpeople that you're learning to
code with and trading.
You know, maybe one person can,so maybe you've met friends on
(14:57):
discords where you're learningto code together.
Maybe you worked on a project.
Do some coding challenges whereone person is the interviewer
and one person is theinterviewee and just reverse
those roles and practice that.
And just reverse those rolesand practice that.
I think that'll help a lot ofpeople get over their nerves and
I think you're going to do alot better in the interviews.
It's really about conqueringthat anxiety in the interviews
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and it just comes off so muchbetter, even if you are
struggling with some technicalconcepts, how you handle that
and how you rebound usuallytends to improve when you feel
less anxious.
But you know, I'm telling youthis advice because this is
advice for me.
Now I've applied probably for 12developer jobs over the past
(15:43):
three months.
I have not tried.
I mostly pursued warm leads andthen applied for a few
different positions Well, maybeabout like eight or nine
different positions in Miamiwhere they wanted me to be in
person.
So you know, I just wanted totake a shot because I'd like to
head to Florida.
But, um, you know, if I evertake it seriously, maybe I'll
(16:05):
share that process with you.
Um, but right now I don't knowif I want to like, I just want
to code.
Code, whether it's for myself,building up twitch sprout, or
whether it's for a company, aslong as I can pay my bills, I
just want to code.
I don't care what I'm doing, Ijust want to code.
So you know that's still.
I don't know where that's goingto lead me with um down the
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road if I'm going to be workingfor a company as a developer
again, if I'm going to pivot mybusiness, um, if I really am
going to double down on TwitchSprout and really try to push
out my first SaaS product,because it's a passion project
as well as something that I'dlike to build revenue on top of.
But I feel like it's just kindof a big unknown for me.
(16:48):
I feel a little uneasy becauseI don't exactly know the
direction my business is goingto go or where I'm going to be
in three months.
And until I figure that out,I'm just going to continue
pushing forward and we'll getthere.