Data Structures

I’ve begun work in the world of understanding and comprehending data structures and algorithms. As a budding developer, I find this work rewarding as well as exhausting, necessary though perhaps I’m diving in a little too deep considering the work I’ll be doing.

I’m learning about time complexity, and it’s pushing my math skills to the brink. Luckily, my partner is a doctor and physicist. He helps me with the most basic questions.

Our back-and-forth reminds me of my time teaching abroad. While teaching English, I was also learning the language of the country I inhabited — Mandarin and Spanish.

The relationship was symbiotic each time: the more I learned, the better teacher I became and vice versa.

Speaking with my partner Austin, I see similarities. Describing data structures to him as “boxes with certain rules” was a way to get him to understand my struggles.

It also provided easier ways for me to think about what I was doing.

I’m glad I have a math dictionary of sorts in the room next to me playing Assassin’s Creed while I apply and learn all day. He’s gone every week this month for work, so I’ll have to rely on my own chops for the time being.

Meanwhile, I just finished my first interview. It was great. I’m leaning in to finding work in the gaming world. Interview requests are coming hard and fast now that everyone’s back to work. I’ve gone from ugly duckling to belle of the ball in just a few weeks. Though, as everyone reminded me, three weeks of job applications doesn’t amount to much, compared with other developers going on a year without a firm offer.

I must say, I am a great candidate. I believe in myself. I’m ready to start work, get on a team, and get going.