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--- work-stories [2022/08/17 15:27] – donpdonp
+++ work-stories [2024/01/31 04:08] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 . Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer. Why did you do it? How did the customer respond? What was the outcome?
-* A customer wanted their location tracking app to work with the site. It uses different json data to push location data. After looking at the job and realizing it was doable in a reasonable time frame, I extended the API to include the new format. The result was better than I expected because then I enabled the format of two other apps and it started a small ecosystem of apps that were compatible with the site.
+  * A customer wanted their location tracking app to work with the site. It uses different json data to push location data. After looking at the job and realizing it was doable in a reasonable time frame, I extended the API to include the new format. The result was better than I expected because then I enabled the format of two other apps and it started a small ecosystem of apps that were compatible with the site.
@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 . Give me an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received. What was it and what did you do about it?
-* My git commit messages are terse and need more detail. First I review the problem to verify it, went over my old messages.
+  * My git commit messages are terse and need more detail. First I review the problem to verify it, went over my old messages.  Yes some of them are short and dont describe what the patch actually does. I tarted putting more effort into patch descriptions.  This was noticed as a positive change by my coworkers.
-  Yes some of them are short and dont describe what the patch actually does. I started putting more effort into patch descriptions.
-  This was noticed as a positive change by my coworkers.
 ** Have backbone, Disagree **
-. Tell me about a time when you strongly disagreed with your manager or peer on something you considered very important to the business. What was
+. Tell me about a time when you strongly disagreed with your manager or peer on something you considered very important to the business. What was it and how did you handle it? Knowing what you know now, would you do anything differently?
-it and how did you handle it? Knowing what you know now, would you do anything differently?
+  * Per customer custodial accounts vs one large pot; external circumstances I was unaware of, along the lines of minimum balances to earn interest; would have listened longer custodial partner; we had logs, they had logs. seemed safe enough.
-* Per customer custodial accounts vs one large pot; external circumstances I was unaware of, along the lines of minimum balances to earn interest; would have listened longer
-custodial partner; we had logs, they had logs. seemed safe enough.
-. Describe a time when you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers and your leader. What was it? Why did you feel strongly about it? What did you do? What was the outcome?
+. Describe a time when you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers and your leader. What was it?
-* My manager was pushing for extra hours when the team was already working at capacity.
+ Why did you feel strongly about it? What did you do? What was the outcome?
-  I knew the team was at capacity beacuse I kept up good relations with my coworkers and
+  * My manager was pushing for extra hours when the team was already working at capacity.  I knew the team was at capacity beacuse I kept up good relations with my coworkers and   knew what they were feeling. I built a coalition and pushed back. Warned deadlines wont be managed well. The manager heard the feedback once they saw we all agreed, and changed course.
-  knew what they were feeling. I built a coalition and pushed back. Warned deadlines wont be managed well.
-  The manager heard the feedback once they saw we all agreed, and changed course.
-; system design, clarifying questions
 ** Deliver results **
 . Give me an example of a time when you were able to deliver an important project under a tight deadline. What sacrifices did you have to make to meet the deadline? How did they impact the final deliverable? What was the final outcome?
-* Get the stock balancing service ready by the time API approval was given.
+  * Get the stock balancing service ready by the time API approval was given.
-  = Break down the task into the smallest possible subtasks. Categorize and prioritize. For each one ask, is this part of the critical path? If not, Can it be modified or delayed?
+  * Break down the task into the smallest possible subtasks. Categorize and prioritize. For each one ask, is this part of the critical path? If not, Can it be modified or delayed?
-  = Review subtasks with finance/mgmt, sometimes there are externalities that can have a huge impact, unaware to devs
+  * Review subtasks with finance/mgmt, sometimes there are externalities that can have a huge impact, unaware to devs
-  = For example, there was a parameter that represented the state of the market as a whole, intended to be
+  * For example, there was a parameter that represented the state of the market as a whole, intended to be deduced from API market data. this was changed to be a manual data entry by the finance dept. That eliminated   some development effort and brought the finishline closer
-     deduced from API market data. this was changed to be a manual data entry by the finance dept. That eliminted
+  * For example, Closing a customer account This processed trimmed the final deliverable to mininum viable product.
-    some development effort and brought the finishline closer
-  = For example, Closing a customer account
-  = This processed trimmed the final deliverable to mininum viable product.
 . Tell me about a time when you had significant, unanticipated obstacles to overcome in achieving a key goal. What was the obstacle? Were you eventually successful? Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently?
-* In an early crowdfunding project, all the dev effort went into the backend and the website. it was unanticipated
+  * In an early crowdfunding project, all the dev effort went into the backend and the website. it was unanticipated how important having a mobile experience was. the html was optimized for mobile but still not the same. it  was decided an iOS app was needed. I was thrown onto iOS dev using Objective-c. The obstancle was defining the   product's requirements, and learning Objective-C and the iOS environment. Knowing C already gave me a big head start. Knowning what I know now, we would have started earlier on the app.
-  how important having a mobile experience was. the html was optimized for mobile but still not the same. it
-  was decided an iOS app was needed. I was thrown onto iOS dev using Objective-c. The obstancle was defining the
-  product's requirements, and learning Objective-C and the iOS environment. Knowing C already gave me a big
-head start. Knowning what I know now, we would have started earlier on the app.
 ** Learn be curious **
 . Tell me about a time when you realized you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well. What did you do about it? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently?
-* Location Tracking Node.js project needed asynchronous operations with a node version that was pre-async/await. I learned Promise handling using a network of callbacks and the resolve() reject() mechanism. It demonstrated the elegance of javascript in some cases. While not the easiest to read, it stuck with existing mechanisms which made it easy to understand. I did a lot of reading of javascript instructive material including blog posts and other js github repos until I knew how to use it effecively. Then when async/await came out I had a deeper understanding that I would have normally.
+  * Location Tracking Node.js project needed asynchronous operations with a node version that was pre-async/await. I learned Promise handling using a network of callbacks and the resolve() reject() mechanism. It demonstrated the elegance of javascript in some cases. While not the easiest to read, it stuck with existing mechanisms which made it easy to understand. I did a lot of reading of javascript instructive material including blog posts and other js github repos until I knew how to use it effecively. Then when async/await came out I had a deeper understanding that I would have normally.
 . Describe a time when you took on work outside of your comfort area. How did you identify what you needed to learn to be successful? How did you go about building expertise to meet your goal? Did you meet your goal?
-* Crowdfunding Node.js project, front end needed testing help. I joined that team part time. I knew some javascript and html. I had to learn the particular js framework in use to be helpful and file tickets.
+  * Crowdfunding Node.js project, front end needed testing help. I joined that team part time. I knew some javascript and html. I had to learn the particular js framework in use to be helpful and file tickets.
   The result was a higher level of confidence in the product.
@@ Line 119: / Line 105: @@
 ** Dive deep **
 . Tell me about a time when you realized you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well. What did you do about it? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently?
-* location database. POSTGIS was taking too many resources. storage on-disk and indexes from LMDB. created an index specification schema in json to create these indexes, created an
+  * location database. POSTGIS was taking too many resources. storage on-disk and indexes from LMDB. created an index specification schema in json to create these indexes, created an
 api to query any existing index. on startup, consistency check and index rebuild if necessary
 . Describe a time when you took on work outside of your comfort area. How did you identify what you needed to learn to be successful? How did you go about building expertise to meet your goal? Did you meet your goal?
-* Working on a node.js backend, realizing the responses were being processed in a single threaded fashion. The usual solution is to load balance multiple node.js processes, but some kind of central synchronization is still needed, such as redis. Complexity of this implementation started rising and rising. Pivoted to a reimplementation away from node. Something comfortable with multithreaded libs. That excluded python/ruby/GIL scripting langs. Rust seems to be very capable and an emphasis on memory efficiency and parallelism. So the decision was made to start an engineering spike to try an implementation in rust. I started reading rust instructional material, join the rust matrix chatroom. It reached alpha testing and is still ongoing.
+  * Working on a node.js backend, realizing the responses were being processed in a single threaded fashion. The usual solution is to load balance multiple node.js processes, but some kind of central synchronization is still needed, such as redis. Complexity of this implementation started rising and rising. Pivoted to a reimplementation away from node. Something comfortable with multithreaded libs. That excluded python/ruby/GIL scripting langs. Rust seems to be very capable and an emphasis on memory efficiency and parallelism. So the decision was made to start an engineering spike to try an implementation in rust. I started reading rust instructional material, join the rust matrix chatroom. It reached alpha testing and is still ongoing.
 ** Bias for action **
 . Give me an example of a calculated risk that you have taken where speed was critical. What was the situation and how did you handle it? What steps did you take to mitigate the risk? What was the outcome? Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?
-< * Interfacing with an exchange API that was launching v2. We wanted those features so we kept in
+  * Interfacing with an exchange API that was launching v2. We wanted those features so we kept in contact with their dev team on their open slack server. The beta documentation helped guide our system to be ready for API V2 on day 1 of launch. The risks were implementing something in api v2 that wasnt going to happen. Being on the slack mitigated that risk.
-< contact with their dev team on their open slack server. The beta documentation helped guide
-< our system to be ready for API V2 on day 1 of launch. The risks were implementing something
-< in api v2 that wasnt going to happen. Being on the slack mitigated that risk.
 . Tell me about a time when you worked against tight deadlines and didn't have time to consider all options before making a decision. How much time did you have? What approach did you take? What did you learn from the situation?
-< * Choosing a cloud platform for launch. There are a lot of options with different features and
+* Choosing a cloud platform for launch. There are a lot of options with different features and prices. A decision was needed in a few days. To speed up evaluation of different platforms I asked devops people I trusted for their recommendations, along with my own experiences.  One was selected that worked out well enough. Later on, more niche platforms were found that would have made a better first choice. Now that we're on one cloud, its too expensive to move, at least over the short term.
-< prices. A decision was needed in a few days. To speed up evaluation of different platforms
-< I asked devops people I trusted for their recommendations, along with my own experiences.
-< One was selected that worked out well enough. Later on, more niche platforms were found
-< that would have made a better first choice. Now that we're on one cloud, its too expensive
-< to move, at least over the short term.
-; data struct