Early this year, I asked y'all on Twitter to share your stories of how you got a dev job without a degree, and received *hundreds* of unique stories! I share them in this absolutely-inspiring read 😄
The hardest part of building my blog was adding Dark Mode. It's friggin' challenging if you want a toggleable, flicker-free experience on a static site.
It's niche, but it made the cut since it gets cited a ton!
I think this is the post I've been thanked-for the most 😌
Rehydration in React is one of those mysterious things that most devs don't know too much about, but it's imperative to learn if you work with SSG/SSR frameworks!
Ironically, I never planned to write this post! It was originally part of #7, my Dark Mode post, but I plucked it out because it was too long & complex.
Due to SEO, it's grown to be one of my most popular posts 😄
This was one of the most emotional posts for me to “write”. It has been _a year_, and losing the ability to type made it that much harder.
Fortunately, I'm doing much better now physically, and the experience taught me a ton.
(gosh, I have so much more to say about each of these, but it's hard to fit it all in a tweet 😅 maybe I'll do a deeper-dive into the context around each post in my newsletter? Would that interest you at all?)
This post shows how to use CSS grid to create a surprisingly elusive layout. As always, the devil's in the details.
It blew up, which has been SUPER reassuring, since I'm neck-deep in building a CSS course!
Thanks to you for reading all the way through this list!
I realize it's incredibly self-indulgent of me to showcase my own work like this 😅 but I also know that many of y'all started following me recently, and you may not know about some of these!
I hope they're helpful 💖
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This style removes the "ugly" focus ring on inputs and links, but it means keyboard users can't navigate; it totally breaks the experience for them (and any non-mouse users) 😬
A thread with some solutions 🧵
First, some quick options:
• Leave them as-is! Outlines aren't so bad.
• Provide an alternative focus style, like changing the background color, or adding a border.
There's a nifty new pseudo-class you may not be aware of, though…
🌠 The `:focus-visible` pseudo-class is just like the `:focus` one, but it only matches when the browser determines that a visible focus state is necessary (eg. not a mouse user).
Keyboard users will see the focus rings, but mouse users won't.
At a couple jobs now, I've been tasked with reviewing incoming applications, so I've read _a lot_ of cover letters. IMO, a lot of them miss the mark 😬.
Today I thought I'd share some cover letters I've written which led to an offer, + some cover letter tips.
This letter isn't my best work, but it tells a compelling story about why I'm passionate about the space + the organization. Could be improved by sharing more about my skills/background
Letter 2: Glitch
I'm proud of this letter. I cover why I care about their mission (online code education), their product (mentioning specific features), and why my skills/background are valuable to them in their mission / for their product.
So many folks have lost their job in the last 2 weeks :(
I've been writing a short book on software dev portfolios. It isn't ready yet, but I wanted to share some of the highlights, to hopefully help folks who are job-hunting again!
The most important stuff I know, in-thread 👇
Your developer portfolio is a showcase of your most important projects. I'm using the term "project" loosely, to include:
• Stuff you shipped on-the-job (if not restricted by NDA)
• Side-projects
• OSS contributions
• Volunteer work
Your homepage should list your 2-5 most impressive projects. You should have an image, a brief summary, and a link to a dedicated page to learn much more about this project.
I'm so glad I used MDX for my blog. It enables things that otherwise would not be possible with Markdown or a CMS, while still being a consumable data source (unlike having the posts be all-JSX)
For tangential information, I have a `Sidenote` component. It has a `title` prop which accepts JSX, so I can use any special formatting within it. Also a `type` which accepts info/warning/error/success.
Over the past couple years, I've had the opportunity to coach quite a few aspiring developers. I'm going to start sharing some of the things I've learned in this capacity, since I think it could really help folks looking to start their career as a dev.
First up: enthusiasm.
If you're looking for your first job as a developer, as a recent college/bootcamp grad or someome self-taught, one of the biggest assets you can bring is enthusiasm. You see this in a lot of corny job descriptions, talking about "hunger" (which always felt so primal/weird to me).
For non-college grads in particular, finding that first job can take ~1-2 months of pretty intense work. Lots of networking, cold emails, interview prep, portfolio development, all that stuff.
It can be draining, especially since it comes right after an intense bootcamp!