What can you do to build your confidence?

I got to say, the past week has been horrible for me because I have a crucial job interview coming up for a company I really want to work for.

Why should I be worried? My friends are confident I'll nail the job. My family is just the same. For me though, I know this interview will drill me on my knowledge as a programmer. Honestly I would say programming is a weakness of mine, whereas my strong points are interface design, optimization, and being addicted to the field.

How can one build their confidence about situations such as this? I've found over the past few years is to look at what relevant events you've been through that tie to your career field. As a web developer/designer I have seen a lot. I've come a LONG way since my days of programming horrid looking web sites on Angelfire. I've come a long way since last year's 1st place finish at the PBL NLC with Chris Pund (cheap plug, I know). My love for Web 2.0, aka the Semantic Web, was just taking off. From then to now, I must say that my PHP and MySQL understanding has increased tremendously and I have really gotten back into javascripting. I never really realized how important it's features can be to stabilizing the user experience.

Where am I going with this? I've come a long way and I'm still improving everyday. I have the upperhand against most students my age, in my location at least just because of my passion and desire to improve. I love this industry and it doesn't get any better than picking up something new.

You know, after thinking back on all of this - I should be worried afterall. I should just go, show them what I have to offer, and see how it goes from there.

It's something else I can learn from :).

Review OSS?

It dawned on me today that I probably download upwards of 5-10 different open source applications a day. It ranges from a variety of things - including frameworks, web development utilities, games, and much more.

Since I come across a lot of good and bad software, I have decided to actually blog about it. Look for a section coming soon about my endeavors (such as CodeIgniter, which I posted earlier this week).

CodeIgnitor Test Drive

As I posted last night, I downloaded CodeIgnitor, a PHP framework. I must say, so far I am very impressed.

After looking at some of the video tutorials to get a feel for how the framework is based (simple Hello World, Blog in 20 Minutes), I thought I would give it a try. I started by creating a few simple scripts, ranging from 'Hello World' to a basic string that would print variables and solutions to a math problem. From there I created my own blogging system in under 50 minutes, which isn't bad at all I think for just picking up the system.

Now it's time for the fun-run. The listing system I created a few weeks ago is taking shape but is far from where I wanted it. Currently it runs on close to, give or take, 8 files. After 35 minutes I have recreated the system with CodeIgnitor. All that is left is to add the delete function and it will be set to go.

All in all, I think this is a great resource for PHP developers and those that are just picking up the language. If you have programmed in Java, then you will definitely appreciate the libraries as it will make time more manageable in your PHP development.

You think you know Javascript ...

I recently saw a link on del.icio.us that I thought was noteworthy to pass along. You may have noticed that with my blogs lately, I have written quite a bit about Javascript (or at least complained about it, your choice).

Anywhoo, on to the article. It is a four part video series focusing on a presentation by Yahoo's Douglas Crockford. If you are just starting, I recommend you to check out the slides first. For those that have dabbled in Javascript before, start with the videos by checking out the link below!

http://101out.com/js.php