Forem: Thomas Hewitt

Why losing your motivation is okay.

Thomas Hewitt — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:27:02 +0000

To be honest, I fully intended to write a different post today.

I wanted to write about my journey becoming a web developer. I was planning on doing it over a couple of posts over a couple of weeks and then going into my journey since becoming a fully fledged developer.

I'm not writing that post today ...

I'm writing a different post.

This is that post ...

Simple sentences.

The thing is, I've been working hard almost every day for the past 18 months. I've got up. I've studied. I've gone to work, coded, studied some more and then gone home and studied some more after that.

That's in addition to:

learning Turkish
going to the gym
making sure my wife knows I'm still alive
socialising
eating
sleeping
doing things for the sake of my own sanity

Problem I'm having over the last two weeks is ... I don't want to do it right now.

And I know that's wrong because every single YouTube/ Instagram/ Facebook/ My Space (editor's note ... I'm old) influencer is telling me that I should be getting up 45 minutes after I fall asleep, completing my workouts whilst I shower and living off of crackers so I can invest the money I would've spent surviving in a self managed stock exchange portfolio.

Right now, I don't want to do that.

I want to chill out on my sofa and do none of those things.

But that's okay ...

I know from my own experience that after a little while of next to no motivation to do anything, I'll wake up to an epiphany. Suddenly I'll want to do nothing but work my absolute ass off.

It's those moments of heightened motivation that I find myself making leaps and bounds. I'll look back after a couple of weeks and things will have clicked into place. I'll have improved massively.

Point here is, don't become demotivated by your lack of motivation. Your mind is telling you to chill out and take it easy. Just make sure that you do take stock, ask yourself if your goals are still the same and if the answer is yes, allow yourself to recover from the tedium of life.

TLDR: chill the f*** out man.

Email Campaigns. When almost 90% of the web is made up of images, why are emails still so different? (hint: blame Viagra)

Thomas Hewitt — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 11:58:03 +0000

There are a so many different facets to being a web developer in the workplace today. Some will be solely responsible for taking the concepts and mind farts of designers and turning them into something real, whilst others will incorporate a lot of that design process into their own personal workflow. Others may find that as part of their role as a developer, they need to wear a few different hats, including SEO specialist and email campaign wizard.

In the spirit of inclusiveness, knowing that so many people think of so many different things when it comes to having an idea of what we as developers do, I thought I'd spend some time talking about something that might not have occurred to a few of us ... email. Also for those of you who make it to the end, I've included a picture of a horse.

When sending email campaigns there are a few things that we need to consider:

Will it display on the viewer’s email client?
Will the text/ image ratio mean that it gets blocked as spam?
Is the customer able to see the point of the email?

Will it display on the viewer’s email client?

Chances are, probably not. Generally speaking, the most used business email client is Outlook (editor's note: This is an observation based on customer data taken from various sources within my current workplace. Also a guess) which by default will block any and all image content that is attached to an email. This is then further compounded by the fact that it applies its own alt text to the email stating ‘Right-click or tap and hold here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.’

It’s not entirely bad news though as there is some support for images as default in webmail clients such as Gmail (because why wouldn't you let Google have more of your information?), which is by far one of the most used webmail applications at the moment (unless the viewer has altered their setting to not display images that is).

Whilst mobile devices are largely happy with images (and by happy I mean they will load images as part of their normal day to day function. I do not speak for the emotional condition of all mobile cellular devices), heavy image based emails will normally be too dense to render quickly enough for viewers to maintain their interest. As with webpages, according to a study completed by google, if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, you’re likely to lose 70% of the potential customers (Google/SOASTA Research. 2017).

Will the text/ image ratio mean that it gets blocked as spam?

You can thank the early days of the internet and those good old Viagra spam emails for this one.

Generally email spam filters will assess images to determine how much of them are made up of text. As a general rule of thumb, mailchimp (https://mailchimp.com/help/common-html-mistakes/) recommends an 80/ 20 split of text to images in a campaign in order for the email not to get shafted to the spam box.

Facebook (hashtag not promoting, stop listening to me Mark. It's getting weird) actually has a nice little tool that anyone can use to determine whether or not their image is likely to be regarded as ‘spammy’ on their pages. This can also apply to email spam filters so therefore if the result is anything other than ‘Ok’ chances are it’s not going to get anywhere near the primary mailbox.

Is the customer able to see the point of the email?

Probably not …

However, with an 80/20 text to image approach:

Using a combination of styled alt tags, bullet proof buttons and text, this email is able to grab attention without relying on imagery. Should the customer choose, they could then download the images and experience the email in its entirety.

Further Reading

https://www.pinpointe.com/blog/text-based-vs-image-based-emails-which-does-better
https://www.towermarketing.net/blog/html-email-best-practices/
https://litmus.com/blog/why-you-shouldnt-send-image-only-emails
https://organicweb.com.au/marketing/text-image-spam-mailchimp/

I should point out that a lot of the things I've said here are dependent on whether or not you're a fan of the original Power Rangers

I should also point out that sometimes I just type things and leave them in to give the impression that I'm wittier than I am

As promised.

How long should it take to land your first dev job???

Thomas Hewitt — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 12:10:21 +0000

For newbies this is going to be the biggest question after 'what language should I learn first?'

Unfortunately, like that first question, there's no easy answer.

The internet is awash with people bragging about how they were able to secure a job after three and a half hours working with freecodecamp.org (other code learning resources are available), however what you need to consider is:

What is the situation that person is in?

ie. are they living with the same responsibilities that you are? Do they have the kids and the full time job that you might be having to juggle whilst also trying to change your life?

Are they some kind of sorcerer?

These people exist. I've seen the Harry Potter documentaries. If you've not seen them, they're a documentary series about a young boy from England that shouts a lot and also does magic.

What is their background?

Some people will go in to code as a platform from another technical background, whilst others will be coming to it with fresh eyes for the first time. Code isn't easy. It's definitely something that anyone can do with enough hard work and patience, but nobody is ever going to tell you that it's an easy thing to do.

Do you need to validate yourself against someone else's achievements?

No, you don't. Stop doing that. Yes Karen, even you. Stop it.

So ultimately, you shouldn't be paying attention to what other people are doing. But that still hasn't helped answer the question ...

Next it comes down to where you live, what opportunities are around you and how far you're willing to go to seek these opportunities out.

Some people may find that there are lots of communities around them to help them network and to enhance their knowledge whilst others may find themselves in a much more remote or rural setting where the support isn't nearly as strong.

The point is, it's never going to be a hard rule. I have some opinions which I'll share but that doesn't mean that they'll work for you, same goes for anyone else that claims to be an authority on the subject (editor's note: I don't claim to be an authority on the subject).

Set a target early on as a benchmark.

This could be something like, building a professional looking, responsive website. Once you achieve that target, you'll be ready to begin building a portfolio and applying for jobs.

You're never going to be 'ready.'

If I didn't already have a job I'd probably be sitting at home thinking, 'they won't want me yet.' The question of whether or not I will one day get there wouldn't be an issue. My problem would be that I'm not willing to look at what I can offer, only what I can't. Counter this thought process by punching yourself in the face and applying for jobs anyway. Trust me, that experience will teach you so much (editor's note: don't punch yourself in the face, perhaps a stern talking to might work instead?).

Keep coding.

Literally don't stop. Even if you get the job, keep coding and learning. So much of this industry stems from innovation and in my experience the newbies are the people who've learned about the latest practices and can open the eyes of some of the jaded veterans. Almost everyone in this industry gets excited by something new but we can't know everything all the time so keep going and try to learn as much as you can.

I hope this helps someone. Even if it doesn't. I got to feel really cool by typing super fast for half an hour or so.

How long did it take me??? About 9 months.