Tips for remote work

Remote work is all the rage these days. Especially after the Covid pandemic and companies embracing a lot of video technology and security applications that make working from home very possible, there are a lot of positions now which allow for someone to do their job to the fullest extent and never walk out the front door. And it's fantastic! There are less cars on the road, more time to spend with your family or handling life, and you'll have more time for hobbies or getting active.

Three out of my last four jobs involved working from home. In 2020, the customer success manager position I had was quickly forced to go 100% remote when Covid hit. Then in 2021, I started another customer service job that was 100% remote from the beginning (and I was in a different country with a 13-14 hour timezone difference). Most recently I started a developer position which is about 60% remote. I've figured out through these experiences (especially with the time zone difference) that there are ways to do remote work well and there are ways to not do it well.

As such, I wanted to pass along six tips I have for remote work to help it go well for you. Working from home is a fantastic perk to have for the job that can come with a lot of benefits, but it does come with some responsibility on your part in order to be a good thing, and it does carry some extra challenges.

1. Make sure your internet is good. This is basic, and I don't think it will be an issue for most people these days, but I still have to list this. You have to have good internet - enough to have video calls while potentially sharing your screen and/or multitasking. Your company will probably set you up with a laptop with enough hardware resources to do this, but it will be up to you to have good enough internet service.
   
   
2. Be visible and involved at your company. Use Slack, Teams, Workplace by Facebook - whatever your company uses for communication and instant messaging, and be active there. This is crucial! I could probably write up a whole post just on this tip, but this is one of the most important things when you work remote. Being visible in your company opens up more doors with promotions and leadership opportunities, develops better working relationships with your colleagues, and can help satisfy the social itch which you may not have at the house (unless you live with others who are also at home all the time). You don't have to be in the social space every day, but checking in and posting a few times a week is good.
   
   Yes, it's possible for you to be a complete recluse, never sign into your company's communication tool, and rely on your brilliant work to turn heads and lead to promotion or that next job elsewhere. I have coworkers right now who do this. I wish you the best of luck - that's the harder path. Be involved, be visible.
   
   
3. Communicate a lot. You'll have to communicate more when working from home than when you are in the office. Most communication at home will be asynchronous. You lose context with asynchronous communication, and you do not get instant feedback or communication back most of the time. If you are on a group project working with other team members, let them know when you are going to be away for an extended period of time (e.g. lunch), and hopefully they'll do the same for you. It's a good way to help manage expectations. No, you do not need to let everyone know every time you go to the restroom or feed the dog - but usually I'll let my team know if I'll be away longer than 15 minutes. Think of it as doing a service to others, they'll know not to expect anything from you for the next X minutes.
   
   It takes awhile to feel out what's best and expected on your team. You don't need to ping them every 5 minutes with updates (please don't!), but the point of communicating more when working at home is to not leave your team in the dark guessing on where you are and what you've done. This doesn't help you, them, your company, or your customer. When you start remote work, ask your manager what is expected and how to best communicate with your team - then do exactly that.
   
   
4. Go touch grass. A big mistake I've made before is never leaving the house to go for a walk outside. Get out! Get away from the screen for awhile. Ping your team, tell them you're going on a walk and will be out of pocket, then lock your PC and go enjoy a nice walk. This will help clear your mind, boost creativity, and get you some steps in for the day. If you're like me and don't have a gym membership of any type, this will be good for you physically as well.
   
   
5. Minimize distractions. There are more distractions at your home. That's reality. You have pets, other family members, your own personal computer with Twitch, video games, chores that might be calling your name, and more. A nice part about being in the office is that a lot of these distractions are removed for a time period. At home, they are right there and they're calling your name! This is something I have to work on every day - minimize these distractions. Turn on some lofi music instead, and keep these distractions for your lunch break or when you reach a stopping point in your project and need to move around. Personally, I like to vacuum during the work day, but I'll do it when I've been at my desk for awhile and need to move around.
   
   
6. Turn off that computer at closing time (if you can). A big downside from working from home can be the blurring of the line between personal and work life. Managers may call you at 7pm and think you can quickly open your PC to review a document, or maybe you'll remember something you forgot to do and before you know it, you're working again after hours. I will say this now - most jobs are not that crucial. Whatever it is, it can be handled tomorrow. Once 5pm or 5:30pm hits, turn off your computer and get away from work. Treat it exactly like the office - you leave work at a certain time and you are not there again until the next weekday. This can also be the same for the company Slack channels. Yes, I'm a big proponent of using it to your advantage (see #2 above), but you don't have to be on Slack after hours either.
   
   There are some instances where you'll need to be on call, just like the office, or you'll need to work late to make sure your next product release is pushed successfully. But most of the time, most jobs are not that crucial and that email can be answered tomorrow. Enforce boundaries and keep that work/life balance.

In closing, hopefully these tips help! I firmly believe that if you learn to do most or all of these successfully, your WFH experience is going to be really good for you. You'll build a good reputation for yourself quicker, stay productive and do good work, and be healthy. From one remote worker to another - I wish you luck.

My software development journey

A few months ago, I accepted my first software development position with my company. It was a really cool moment, and it was a culmination of around four years of work, practice, courses, and being swayed back and forth on different languages and techniques. Several people in my life now have learned that "I work in I.T." and ask about how I made the career switch, and when you get the same question several times you know what comes next - a blog post!

Below will be a brief recap of my career, what I did and my motivations for doing it, and a few lessons I've learned along the way that I would give to anyone else looking to get into I.T. or software development more specifically. 

Where I started

I went to school for Sports Management. I wanted to work in the front office of a major sports team. That was the line I repeatedly told anyone who asked. I did not have a specific role in the front office defined in my goals but usually would default to something like "probably sports marketing." That's a role that has a sexy title but keeps you away from being in sports sales. Funny enough, sports sales has the highest number of job positions available and seemingly the lowest amount of people interested.

I graduated from school (both a bachelors and masters degree in Sports Management), and found positions with the Washington Nationals first (Inside Sales) then D.C. United (Account Executive) where I spent roughly the next four years of my life. I loved it at D.C. United despite the atrocious stadium we had to work in (that could be another blog post, but we were young and could work through anything). But I spent almost four years in the same job and knew that sales just wasn't my thing. And with life changes occurring in my late 20s, I needed to find something new that would fit the life I wanted. I guess that's a vague way of saying I wanted to be paid more and work a normal amount of hours in a week (sports can have you work way over 40 hours per week and the salaries can be heavily diminished due to "demand" of people wanting to get into the field).

The interest in I.T. begins

In 2018, I made a bold jump to take my first job out of the sports management career. It was scary, since I felt I was starting over at 28 and even though, yes, I was still young, I didn't feel young. But I found a position at a real estate tech startup (Compass) as a Customer Success Manager for the real estate agents. I loved it there. While at Compass, I started editing the HTML for our Agent's profile pages. I was just following a script made my someone else, so I didn't know exactly what I was doing. But my interest in learning about HTML started there. In the summer of 2019, I enrolled in my first HTML course at Codecademy and built the brown bear website. I think that course, as of this writing, is still there today - good times! I found freeCodeCamp shortly after and did their HTML/CSS course, and I did a short Python for Data Science course to close out 2019. I was hooked - I wanted to be a software developer.

But how could I do it? Bootcamps are quick but were expensive and I'd have to leave my job, plus take the extra time after the bootcamp to find a job. That's a lot of money to spend/lose and the opportunity cost could be very high. Learning on my own is mostly free, but it can take much longer to make that transition. And as much as I would have loved to go and get my Computer Science degree, that's another 2+ year commitment that would cost a lot of money that I didn't have. For the time being, I would learn on my own.

The strategy

In 2020, I left Compass due to moving out of the area, and in early 2021 I joined Cybrary as a member of their customer experience team. It was a good role that gave me access to a lot of online training for I.T. and Cybersecurity. On one of Cybrary's podcasts, they invited Meg West onto the show. She described how she was able to get her first Cybersecurity role by laterally moving within her company from her non-I.T. position to a cyber role. The hardest part is getting that first job, and sometimes the best opportunity to land that first role can come at the place you're already working. That was a lesson which sticks with me to this day.

One of my good friends in I.T. recommended that while at Cybrary I should get my Security+ certification. It's a great entry-level certification, and it's a door-opener for I.T. roles of all types. It took about four months of hard studying, but I passed the test! Almost immediately a service desk position opened up at my friend's company that required the Security+, and I applied and got it. With Meg's story in mind, I got to know our software development team within the first few months and started studying the tools they used to maintain our applications.

While at the service desk, I worked as hard as I could to learn the job, build a reputation of consistency and excellence in the office, and be open about my career goals with my manager. My manager told me he expected that his service desk technicians would want to move elsewhere in tech and he envisioned the service desk as a training ground for better things. I told him early on I wanted to be a software developer, and if there was ever a fit I would want to check out opportunities within the company. 

The Offer

Over the summer of 2023, I worked to earn two required certifications for our software development team. I didn't know if anything would materialize, but I wanted to put myself in the best position in case an opening came up. The manager on our development team included me on some of the team's meetings, and I was given a small application assignment to work on while having down time at the service desk.

In the fall, I was informed that a position would be opening shortly that would be using Pegasystems for development (it's a low-code Platform as a Service (PaaS) for creating business-process apps). The position required a certification for Pega that I did not have (Pega Certified System Architect), but I started studying while going through the application process. The exam was hard, and I failed the first time by one question. The second time, I passed and was offered the role on our software team - I had made it! My first day was December 1, 2023.

The lessons I learned a long the way

It's been a few months since I started my position on the development team at work. I have loved it, but it's been the hardest job I've had. There is a lot still to learn, but my team is really great and has helped me when I have questions or get stuck something. I tried to be as brief as possible while providing as much context as I could, but there were a lot of things I left out in the essence of time. But below are several lessons I want to pass on in hopes that it can help someone else who transitions careers like I did.

1. Look at where you currently are: if you are already working at a company, see what types of software development opportunities already exist. Find the manager of the Dev team and let them know about your interest. Ask to shadow someone for a few hours, or if there are any volunteer projects you can hack on. Also, ask if you can join their meetings every once in awhile. Also, look at the job board on your company to see what job requirements are provided for the role you want. After you gather this type of information, start studying those languages and tools.
   
   
2. Don't be afraid of the service desk: the service desk is a great place to get your foot in the door. There are many in the I.T. field who will absolutely refuse the service desk ("I just don't want to work with customers"), but don't be that person. The service desk is a straight-up skill-builder and will only help you get better.
   
   
3. You don't need a Computer Science degree or to be some sort of math genius to code: you may already know this, but a CS degree and exceptional math skills are not required. They certainly help for sure, and being good at math is needed if you want to be on the cutting edge of AI and machine learning. But a software developer does not need to have a CS degree. Math-wise, know what PEMDAS is and some basic logic, and you'll be good. Those who require a CS degree are, frankly, way behind the times.
   
   
4. Consistency is the king of learning: having discipline and consistency in learning, especially if you're self-taught, is crucial. Make a goal of spending X minutes a day coding based on your schedule, and really try to hold yourself to it. In 6-8 months of being consistent with learning, you'll be thrilled at the process you have made. (Check out Atomic Habits by James Clear by the way- fantastic book).
   
   
5. Build your portfolio of work: This is a mistake I made and will not make again. When I applied for the developer role at work, I didn't have a portfolio saved to show them what I had done. That almost cost me the job. If you haven't started one yet, start saving your projects to Github. Proof of learning and building side projects is very helpful.
   
   
6. Build your reputation wherever you are: my last piece of advice is almost one of the most important - build your reputation at work. Be professional. Be on time. Find the metrics that you are judged at for work and exceed them. Be friendly with everyone and also be present and visible in the company. This can greatly help you later on. And this is possible even being 100% remote! I was 100% remote at Cybrary and in a vastly different time zone, yet I was active on the company Slack and I went to as many company meetings as possible.

So that's it! That's my story up to this point. I was as brief as I could be, and I left out other things that I may write about in the future (tutorial hell, being distracted by the next shiny object, imposter syndrome). All of these topics happened to me along the way as well. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you at my next post!

Learning about the Luhn Algorithm

While learning to code, more experienced programmers and senior developers will say that in addition to knowing coding languages, syntax, and general computer knowledge, having a firm understanding of algorithms will really help you in a coding interview. There are established algorithms out there in the world that exist to solve problems, and it's good to know they exist, when to use them, and how to implement them.

The Luhn Algorithm was created by Hans Peter Luhn, who was an IBM scientist, and patented in 1960. It's used to verify a string of numbers, and mostly it's used for credit card numbers a long with various IDs. The Wikipedia page for the algorithm has a list (unsure how up to date it is) of the types of IDs it's used for.

It takes a string of numbers, and starting right to left it doubles every other digit, then adds the digits up at the end. If the sum of all the digits ends in a 0 (i.e. it's divisible by 10), the number is valid. Otherwise, the number is invalid. This seems simple, but there is one extra step. If the doubled number is two digits (greater than 9), you replace the double number with the sum of it's two digits.

For example, if you double 6 you get 12. 12 is greater than 9 and is a two digit number. So instead of using 12 in your sum, you add it's two digits: 1 and 2. So you end up with 3.

If you didn't get that the first time you read this, that's okay. I didn't either when I was first reading about it. Luckily, James Hamblin has a fantastic video on Youtube that explains the algorithm with a credit card example, and he does a fantastic job at it. Below is the example he uses in the video.

 

As you can see, starting from the right and going to the left, we begin at 5. 5 is the first digit, so we leave it alone as the "Product."

The second number is 9, so we double that and get 18. But since 18 is greater than 10, we add the two digits instead. 1 + 8 = 9. Thus, 9 is the "Product" for 9.

The third number is 7, which we leave as is.

The fourth number is 8, which we double to make 16. Again, 16 is greater than 9. So we add 1 and 6, and we end up with 7, the "Product."

We continue to follow this pattern all the way through the end of the string of numbers. Then we sum all the numbers on our Product line. The sum of the "Product" numbers is 70, so this number is indeed valid!

Now what happens if we are missing one of these numbers? The Luhn Algorithm will be able to give us the correct number because of it's rules. 

The current sum of the "Product" line is 73. We know that the furthest right number has to be multiplied by only 1, per the rules, and we don't have negative numbers. So we have to get our Product sum to 80. The difference we have to make up is 7, and the only way to get 7 with the weight of 1 is...you guessed it: 7! 

So this is how the Luhn Algorithm works. In my next post, I'll write up how I went about doing this in Python from a freeCodeCamp course I took. Thanks for reading!