Day 73: Final Full Day

Today is the last full day at the dojo. It is also the last day I'll be hanging out with VT. I did some updates on my friend's site but without being able to speak with him I cannot do anything more. The guy is a good friend but he's not perfect. One of his flaws is that whenever he's in Europe it becomes really difficult to get a hold of him. He usually doesn't keep a phone on him, or reserves it for European-only calls. And other times he's too entrenched with life over there that he can't be reached. And of course the nine hour difference does make it difficult to coordinate a good time to reach him. Over the years I've learned patients in my attempts to reach him.

Even though this is VT's last day there really isn't anything special we can do. We're treating this like any other day. He won't be around too long tomorrow to present his project but he wants to get as much done and have his partner present it. His partner is a student from one of the new classes. As for me after a few lines of code I took my computer and sat down on the couch and browsed through job listings and contemplated my future. In less than two days all of this will be over. What will I do then? I have my friend's site to work on but that shouldn't take too long once I get a hold of him. I do have to go looking for jobs. That's always been a daunting task, especially since my past experience with searches usually results in silence. I'd apply for a job and rarely hear back from anybody. I try to follow up but they either don't respond or tell me that they'll look into it further and disconnect as soon as possible. 

VT is always telling me that networking is the key to finding jobs since most positions aren't advertised and most recruiters want to speak with someone who they've seen in person at least once or a friend could vouch for. The career counselor did say stuff like that already and she advised us to attend meetups to connect with more people. I miss those days when you could just submit an application and you'd expect a letter or phone call in a couple of days asking to come in for an interview and if not then a rejection notice. Applying for college worked that way so why not it apply for a job? But I guess this is just another reminder that the real world is way more different than college.

Around 7PM most of the people went home, leaving only VT and I from our class here. Earlier in the day I suggested we go out for drinks or see a movie or something else before he heads back but he said that he has work to do so we settled for dinner at Denny's. We usually drive there but neither of us were in a hurry so we walked there. We talked about his life back in London and what his plans are for the next six months. He plans on dedicating the next couple of months to hone his skills and algorithm knowledge and then begin applying to jobs anywhere he can. In the meantime he'll work whatever job he can get and save up money. That's kinda my train of thought too. We both have our works cut out for us but it's important that we remember that we're not alone in these endeavors. Dinner went by and we returned to the dojo late. He went off coding all I could do was make this entry. Nothing else to do. 

I am worried about the future. I signed up for Coding Dojo to escape a rut of not being able to learn anything useful to apply for a job. I ended up escaping it but now I am in a new rut of not knowing how to get a job and do more with my life. Everybody kept saying I shouldn't be thinking about these things while I am in the dojo but now that I am on the eve of graduation I am filled with this feeling of uncertainty.