Career pivot - from project manager to developer

Until recently, my main job has been in project management and sales. And I've been doing animation and design as a freelancer on the side. I've decided to change that and move my main career also towards a skill based direction. I've been learning JavaScript as an ingredient in motion design for years, and about a year ago I decided to focus more on the development side. The lockdown has given me plenty of time to refine my framework(React) knowledge and I have started applying for front-end jobs. It's been tough so far, as the demand for juniors is down and the sector has seen a fair share of layoffs. Nevertheless, here is one example from the process. The job opportunity was for a junior front-end developer position, I passed the first round of based on the CV and the second round was a work sample test. I got a good feedback on the work and got to the final interview round, but missed on the position by a narrow margin. Nevertheless, I wanted to share the sample and the process.

The assignment - front-end developer work sample

Use the TalTech geology infosystem SARV public API - https://api.geocollections.info. Choose a table and create a webapp which includes at least a general search view and a view for chosen result details. The tables to choose from: analysis, drillcore, reference, locality, sample, specimen, taxon. The database structure: https://schema.geocollections.info

Minimum requirements:

    • Separate routes for the search and detailed view
    • At least 5 separate search fields/options
    • Use a CSS framework, like Bootstrap

Optional extras:

  • Build with Vue.js
  • Filtering results (equals, includes, algab jne.)
  • Pagination
  • Written summary
  • Source code on Gitlab/Github

My process and submission

  1. Refine to technical requirements and brainstorm the initial needed components.
  2. Collect moodboard for UI. My favourite tool for it - Milanote
  3. Create UI mockup and mock brand identity. My favourite tool for it - Figma
  4. Set up the project and code. I went with Vue using Nuxt.js and Bootstrap.
  5. Publish the project on Netlify and the source code on Gitlab
  6. I kept track of the total time for each step. I like to use Clockify.

search results

Summary

All the steps along with getting to know Vue.js as I used it for the first time, the assignment took me around 16 hours to get to a state I was content with. I enjoyed the process and got a good feedback, but missed getting the position in the end. Will keep searching and applying, though.