Some Journalling

Last week was quite productive. I moved to a new apartment with a shorter lease term, getting ready to relocate for my new job. I have decluttered some stuff and have been enjoying the zen a lot.

I also did my second swimming class and now I am able to swim to the middle of the pool. This is a big step (or should we say stroke) for me as swimming has always been one of my biggest insecurities. Now I am in the US so I can just say I have hydrophobia and everyone applaud my courage. I also did 2 yoga classes.

Work-wise, the script to schedule a batch machine learning job on Azure is done and ready for testing. The next step is to store the credentials in KeyVault instead of a config file for better security. After this, my recommender system is officially in production and will be able to auto-refresh itself every day. Hopefully we can get some feedback soon for further model improvement.

I also led another Python study group in my team, where we learned some string manipulation and basic regex. (Check out Python Morsels if you want to level up your Python skills.)

For the hackathon, our team decided on the challenge to create a "reverse mentoring" app which allows more senior folks to also benefit besides only providing help. We are still in the brainstorming phase on how this will work out and it has been quite fun. Have you mentored people and will you be interested in being "reverse mentored"?

BUT, my biggest achievement last week is, I spoke with a mobile engineer at Medium and the next day I received an interview invitation from them! I feel I made a good decision rejecting a company 2 weeks ago because I clearly felt my excitement when I heard back from Medium that I didn't have for that company. I JUST LOVE MEDIUM! (What's a little sad is that Medium is blocked in China and my family won't be able to access it. I think I definitely need to set up a VPN for them next time I go back.)

TODO Review and Plan

Reviewing my checklist from last week, I realized I didn't include any work-related tasks or gym time and didn't allocate enough time for moving so it turned out a little too ambitious. I also realize that I have been consistently procrastinating on a few of the tasks either because I felt it's too challenging or I am not sure what I can get out of it.

TODO from last week

• revise resume
  • read IT Consulting project report: DONE
  • SearchAds project focus on machine learning piece: DIDN'T DO
  • add placeholder for hackathon project: DONE
  • send to friends/mentors for review: WILL DO TODAY
• practice summary of qualification for 5 job postings: DIDN'T DO
• gender equality hackathon
  • data source research: WILL DO TODAY
  • brainstorming ideas -> decide on a topic: DONE
• Kaggle competition on Kuzushiji: DIDN'T DO
• settle into new apartment: DONE

I will be speaking with my career coach this Tuesday so I hope it will motivate me to work more on my resume, summary of qualifications, and side projects. And I will definitely try to be more mindful and realistic when planning for this week. I also chose 3 top priorities*.

• Driver Attrition Project*
  • read legacy code
  • understand what data we have and what has been done
  • have a baseline model
• Recommender System
  • Batch Script testing
  • timezone change to EST
• Resume*
  • update (Monday)
  • review session (Tuesday)
• Medium Interview*
  • prep self-introduction
  • prep questions for the hiring manager
• Side Project - 2 Pomodoro each (weekend)
  • hackathon
  • Kuzushiji
  • SearchAds
  • DingPy

Mantra

As for my mantra this week, I chose "Vulnerable". And I will embrace my vulnerabilities by asking people to repeat what they said if I didn't hear it clearly and correct people when they misheard me.

Historically this has always been challenging for me. It felt like either I am being a bad listener for not getting their point or being too confrontational to a person who is willing to listen and is trying to understand me. Either way, it felt socially awkward.

Good luck to me for my vulnerability practice and Medium interview!

Cover Photo by Jairo Alzate on Unsplash