Jest, Enzyme, and everything in between
This is my 50th day of posting these blog entries, without skipping a single day! That means a lot to me; the content itself may be fairly useless, but the act of creating these blogs serves a greater purpose. Creating these posts has helped me to formulate a better plan for the future as well as to introspectively look back on what I've done on a daily basis. I haven't really gone back and looked at past posts yet, but I think if I did, I would see a huge amount of progress from the start of this blog until now. I'm on the verge of finishing my 4th large course on Udemy and, when I started this, I had only completed one. That means in less than 50 days, I've consumed over 100 hours of intense coursework. When I started this, I had only created a couple of projects using React and Vue with no real training, but now I've had a ton of instruction on both of these technologies. Beyond that, I've also learned a vast amount of other tools and technologies that are complimentary to these technologies. All of these things make me more employable. I still have a long, long way to go in my studies, but as my friend who sat with me last week to discuss jobs and web development, I'm now ready for my first job.
Today, I finished up a massive section on testing in React, one that I found much more enjoyable than I thought I would. React relies on Jest, which was also created by Facebook, to facilitate its testing mechanisms, and Jest comes with its own set of keywords and syntax in JavaScript. It's a very straightforward syntax, but still something brand new to me. The ideas were fairly easy to grasp, but incredibly difficult to master. That being said, most junior developers are not going to be experts in testing when they walk into their first job; it's definitely a nice plus to have on the resumé. This section was 3 and a half hours long; I finished half of it last night and wrapped it up today. I got to a point last night where I was so tired that I considered mailing it in on this one, meaning just watching without actually coding along. I realized at that point I had hit my limit for the night and needed to call it. This was a good decision; I came back with a fresh perspective this evening and coded the rest of it right alongside the instructor, gaining a lot more than I would have if I had faked it.
I'm now on day 3 of 100 days of code, and it's definitely serving as a very nice extra layer of motivation, as well as giving me an outlet for my blog entries. I seriously doubt that anyone actually reads these, but maybe someone will gain some insight from them at some point. The general idea when I started this blog was to show how I got to the point of getting my first job on a step-by-step basis for anyone looking to get a first job as a web developer. I've documented my successes and failures along the way pretty clearly, showing my missteps as well as what resources and tactics have worked for me. I've also documented my first interview to this point and how I got that first interview. Of course, this interview didn't lead to a job, but I will get a job eventually and I will have some important insights to share. Regardless, it's been a great journey so far, and it's only going to get better!
Until tomorrow!
