Key takeaways from Zedde's article.

As a job seeker myself, this article is a motivator with many takeaways. Zedde started with no coding background to landing a $226k software engineering job offer in 8 months. He managed to do it by enrolling in a coding boot-camp called Hack Reactor along with his discipline and growth mindset. I have listed some of the lessons that can be applied to job interviews other than software engineering.

➭ Plan the day’s tasks the night before.

➭ It is essential to have uninterrupted deep work when pursuing a task like job application or interview preparation.

➭ Have a growth mindset when facing challenging situations like tough interview questions.

➭ Learn from each interview by evaluating how well it went about and strive to correct mistakes that arise during each interview.

➭ Prepare on what is likely to be tested when interviewing for technical positions. Ensure that the concept likely to be asked is understood well.

➭ Use past interviews as learning opportunities for future ones.

➭ Do not settle. Keep negotiating your salary when there are multiple offers by leveraging on them. Zedde’s first offer was $120k from IBM. Two months later he accepted an offer of $226k from Lyft.

➭ Though salary is important, it is more important to choose a company that has the right culture and opportunities for growth. Eg: Mentorship.

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/first-line-of-code-to-226k-job-offer-in-8-months/