CS 373 Fall 2020: Jonathan Randall
Hello, friends! I hope you had an excellent week! Welcome to my blog for: Week of 14 Sep — 20 Sep.
What did you do this past week?
On Monday, I attended the ECE Bonanza. This was my first time using Brazen. It’s an interesting platform that mimics some of the best aspects of in-person career fairs while leaving out the undesirable aspects. Instead of having to dress up and wait for a shuttle, or worrying about check-in and if you left your stack of hastily-printed resumes at home, Brazen is a lot simpler. Waiting in line while being able to work on a homework assignment? Good. Talking to a recruiter without the noise and awkward dynamics of other students listening right behind you? Great! One downside was that the video call was really poor quality and kept dropping out.
I also participated in a HireVue interview, which was really weird. Instead of talking to a living human being, you are asked pre-recorded questions and provide answers. It was surprisingly difficult and awkward. The coding part of the interview was fine and easy. They do log your keystrokes, so no cheating!
I’m curious as to how other students are experiencing the switch to mostly online recruiting. However hard it is for us, I’m sure the transition is even more complicated from the perspective of companies and recruiters.
What’s in your way?
I’m nervous about recruiting activities happening this upcoming week. I have to learn how to use several tools related to project 2.
What will you do next week?
I’ll work on project 2. My group made good progress already, having picked a solid project idea and finishing up the proposal today. I am doing week 4 of SI sessions for CS 314, and we’re getting close to exam 1, which is probably frightening for a lot of students. I’m re-learning so many concepts from freshman year, and it’s been somewhat challenging. I’m slowly getting better at relaying information efficiently and answering questions.
In FRI, our class is fully in the “learn how to code in Python” part of the course. The quantum computing FRI is not an introductory programming course, and there’s a heavy presence of math and physics majors who get the chance to learn how to code.
Also, my birthday is next week!
What was your experience of exceptions, IDB1, and types? (this question will vary, week to week)
It was helpful to go over types in Python. When it comes to Python programming, I’m mostly self-taught, so when it comes to the specificities of the language and syntax I still have a lot to learn.
What made you happy this week?
I went to Eastwoods Park yesterday which was nice. The weather has been fantastic!
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My tip-of-the-week is that if you sign up for namecheap.com with a student email, you can get a .me url for free. This is what we will be using for project 2. I’m trying to avoid spending money on this project if I can.
