I’m still working my way through the AJAX project and having a ton of fun learning about API calls in Rails (httparty for the win). The AJAX part isn’t too difficult to pickup, so hopefully I’ll have it wrapped up fairly soon. The more difficult part was calling the Sportradar MLB v6 API and parsing through the data efficiently. Once I got my head wrapped around how to parse through nested hashes (including an array), it became super easy. But, getting to that point was definitely a struggle. I honestly think you have to go through that struggle to really learn the material though. So all in all it was a good thing.
I would love to get this project wrapped up, so I can move on to building my first API. No clue what type of data it will serve quite yet, but I know it’ll be another great learning opportunity. The portfolio of my projects is really coming together, and I honestly think that I am almost at the point where I can start prepping for interviews. I will say that with a huge BUT though.
I’m transitioning subjects here, and jumping over to my job as an IT Project Manager. The team (e.g. my boss and a few others) have been more than happy with the work that I’ve been producing. With that, they asked what direction I would like to move towards. I relayed my desire to work on some projects as a full time developer. My boss has arranged for me to start moving over to the IT applications team to begin programming within Amy’s Kitchen (!). It honestly could not have worked out better, and I might even have the opportunity to be brought on as a full time developer. Everything is still developing on this front (e.g. projects that I’ll be handling), but I’ve already started transitioning my work and putting the finishing touches on some projects as an IT Project Manager.
The most enticing possibility about being a full time employee at Amy’s Kitchen is that I will still have time outside of work to pursue my end goal. Which is to work on self-driving cars as an entry or mid-level engineer. There are really two paths that I can take to reach my goal:
- Apply to top Master’s in Computer Science programs (ala Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, etc.)
- Teach myself the self-driving car stack
There are obviously benefits and drawbacks for either path, so I’ll have to really take some time to analyze what will be a better fit for me. My initial action is to finish up a couple more Rails projects and then start forming a plan for attacking the skill set I need to become a self-driving car engineer. This will most likely start with looking at job listings and parsing through which roles sound the most interesting to me plus the skills needed. From what I’ve gathered so far though, Python plus R/Matlab will be great starting points.
I also have a huge project that I would like to undertake once I’ve picked up an intermediate level skillset. I’ll save that for a future date since I’m at least 4-6 months out from starting it, but it’s an awesome one. I’ll definitely be back with an update for how things are progressing at Amy’s Kitchen as a developer. Be back soon (aka 2 weeks from now most likely)!