Building tech focused around people.
I recently interviewed for a wonderful company with a great founder. She reached out by email, which is much better than hastily posted linkedin messages.
After the initial meet and greet, I was emailed a technical challenge to complete.
I spent the next couple days building a full stack application with database, front-end, and backend integration. I added a lot of documentation, comments, and solid build instructions modeled after one of my favorite open source heroes, Sindre Sorhus.
I wanted this prototype to be perfect. I focused on a bunch of details, software decisions, and implementing my own data structure to make it awesome.
In the end, I misimplemented a part of the written requirements and didn't build a project the team was satisfied with. I even double checked my understanding of the problem before I started working. Once I was caught up in building out the tech, I became more focused on making what I felt was perfect than I was on building the application described. In the end, I built a well-documented application didn't fulfill my client's needs.
Interviewing is hard on both sides of the table. Failing is part of it. A month later, I stumbled upon a different data structure I might have been able to use to create a better implementation. If only I knew that then...
It still might not have worked out.
Some of the best software we use today is written in boring, messy code. Even so, it does a good job of fulfilling a client's needs.
A link to the application.