A starter project for career-related material in Markdown.
This code base started in 2016 as just my jsonresume and relevant files. In February 24, 2020 that converged into this existing format. This heavily leverages Obsidian to greatly enhance workflows. Obsidian's template functionality allows us to open a standup journal every time it's opened. It's recommended to close and open once per day to utilize this behavior. I find it's not too difficult to estimate 8 hours of daily tasks if done this way.
After estimating my day, I then finalize the prior day's notes. This allows me to prune everything back to only focus on what I accomplished.
I tend to also complete the Diary portion that is meant to highlight skills used or learned. This is a great place for a TIL.
Finalizing tasks tends to take the most time so someone with more discipline may prefer to do more during the day as tasks complete.
The Directory Structure section gives a brief explanation of each directory and how things are split up.
The TODO section lists my plan to refine the processes further.
- action plan
- Action plan for job opportunities that's a little out of place but there is a ton of ancillary information.
- assets
- Obsidian assets like the stand up daily note or other useful utilities.
- case studies
- Similar to stories,
- compensation
- Track total compensation across current and prospecting companies after offers are made.
- cover letters
- Cover letter templates, letters used in applications and archived after the application is sent.
- elevator pitch
- Elevator pitch from the MIT handbook. This also covers other parts split out like my biography and summary. Other useful information is kept here like interview questions
- journal
- Today's Daily Note/Standup files.
- Career diary capturing TIL or what I worked on.
- opportunities
- Job opportunities including our template and generator for keeping track of research, the interview process, and job offers.
- resume
- Resume or CV versions are stored here.
- stories
- Resume talking points, primarily useful in interview scenarios or commiserating with other developers.
- study plans
- Study plans for the books, courses, and other random information on the internet.
- website
- Information related to setup and maintenance for my personal site where my blog, weekly learning journal, and resume can be found.
- Import
- Initial import from the master repository and potentially sensitive information scrubbing
- Action plan
- All cross-links are functional
- Data scrubbed
- Case Studies
- Include example
- Cover letter
- Template scrubbed
- Archive with example from Spreedly scrubbed
- Elevator pitch
- All cross links are functional
- Opportunities
- Correspondence
- These were started but never completed. We can do that in the refinement phase
- Template and generator shell script
- Examples
- Correspondence
- Stories
- Include example
- Refinement
- Refining processes after a careful study of the existing data. My interview process could likely be adjusted to produce far better results with less work.
- Complete elevator pitch
- Action plan research checklist following concept I captured in Microsoft Todo
- Use Pomodoro time boxing to quickly get to a pass / fail response
- Should have a cover letter and application complete within 1-2 hours tops and even that may be too long.
- Try to eliminate the multitasking or batch application process. I sent the wrong application to multiple companies at 2am by mistake.
- Interview prep checklists
- Standard list of questions
- Audible questions - Things I may pick up on the fly
- Financial stability assurances
- Systems research on StackShare etc
- Systems review for concepts like payment systems or relevant industry practices
- Correspondence templates