Hope in Honest Error
“There is hope in honest error …
None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist.” — J. D. Sedding
Before I failed my first developer interview this was my favorite quote. Now it’s my official professional mantra.
My Heroes Have Always Been Underdogs
I started this post with a quote often attributed to Scottish Renaissance man Charles Rennie Mackintosh. During his lifetime Mackintosh struggled with project funding, public scorn for his forward-thinking architecture … hell, his most famous quote wasn’t even his! But he persevered, in part because he operated on the principle it was better to create original (albeit misunderstood) masterpieces than to fake success by copying everyone else.
Pushing Forward Despite the Odds
Prior to applying for my first developer internship, I already knew I was going against the odds by trying to become a developer who’s neither a) young, b) male or c) childless, unlike the majority of Stack Overflow’s 2018 Developer Survey takers. But times are changing, and I’ve always wanted to make the leap from content writer to web developer. So I’ve done my best in coding school, networked within (KCWiT), and reached the point I felt ready to apply for my first internship.
Finding Success in Failure
The company I interviewed with mentioned there would be a test to gauge my skills. Since it was a summer internship, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be marched in front of a whiteboard. And I knew there wasn’t anything to study — I either knew the answers or I didn’t. As it turns out, I didn’t. But I did complete some of the test, and I didn’t draw a complete blank on the questions I didn’t answer within the allotted time. I’m not even done with my coding program yet, so although I didn’t find work ahead of schedule I’m also not behind.
Following the test, I answered the remaining questions and asked about the hiring timeline. I also asked for a copy of the test questions, which I brought home and studied without the pressure of the test clouding my thoughts. The questions weren’t hard. They gave me a better idea what to expect next time. And the overall experience didn’t leave me feeling defeated. Just the opposite. I made some errors, but I was definitely no icy perfectionist. And like my hero Mackintosh, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
