This project scared the hell out of me. I use the past tense in the last sentence with a bit of trepidation. As I move into this stage of my web development learning journey, I am experiencing the imposture syndrome with an intensity I struggle to characterize in words.
I want to talk about my procedure in completing this project. I started with the obligatory attendance of all “project prep” study-group I could attend. What I found most terrifying was the statement that my evaluator would be deciding whether or not they would “hire me as a entry-level web developer.”
When the time has come for someone to evaluate my project, I feel a bit like Madonna’s new boyfriend in the bedroom. I feel compelled to start with the following confession: “I really don’t know how to make this new and interesting for you.”
I feel like a beginner skydiver stepping up to the open door of a perfectly good airplane out of which I was about to jump. Standing on the fulcrum point between safety and possible death I think, “maybe I should review the parachute-packing lab!”
Am I hire-able as a web developer? Will my evaluator think so? I would like to stand out from the rest. I know that I am in a position, like a job applicant, that my work and qualifications are being compared to that of others. My Rails project won’t be the first one my evaluator has seen. I confess my domain is completely lackluster.
The biggest struggle I faced was the dreaded,
- Include third party signup/login (how e.g. Devise/OmniAuth)
requirement. I felt like I would never put a check in that damn box! As of this moment, it is working! My suggestion to anyone struggling is Google+. I tried Twitter and it would have worked, but I was using email to authenticate users and the Twitter log in won’t supply a password without additional conditions being met. Facebook was a totally lost cause from the outset. My experiencing with the OmniAuth lab was so traumatic that I didn’t even try it!
My overall strategy involved going step by step through the requirements. I have one more to go! My mantra through the whole process was: Baby Steps!