Fast and Curious: Learning Python in 72 Hours for a Job in Tech

In June 2017, in between watching Fast & Furious 6 movie and thinking about finding work after my final year exams, my phone buzzed and it was a text from a friend telling me about a tech startup that was hiring. They didn't care about experience and their website stated that their rejection rate was higher than Harvard. Their interviews were only conducted in Python back then.

Not only did I know python as a snake, I had also heard that there's a programming language with the same name. Given that I had a fair amount of time, I thought I could learn python from the home study they sent out when applicants apply, but after looking at the content, I knew it wasn't organized to facilitate my learning style and the fact that I had only 3 days left to the first interview, there was no way I could adapt to it and pass their interviews.

I had spent my final year of University teaching myself how to code in C, C++ and PHP, and during that time I had figured that going from one language to another is just becoming familiar with the syntax and learning how to think in the new language. This gave me confidence that If I read something that's easier to read even if it wasn't their home study material, I'd pass the interviews.

I also knew that HeadFirst programming books were easy for me to read and the information used to stick after I read them. The good news was that I had access to the HeadFirst Python Second Edition, but 622 pages of a new language in 3 days after which you had to demonstrate what you learned looked hard but I was up for the challenge, besides it was similar to how I used to prepare for exams for the course units I never liked.

After three days of powering through the pages, doing all the exercises and getting an introduction to python topics like comprehension, decorators, context management & Flask, it felt like I was ready to take on the challenge. I did it the very night I finished reading the book because it was also the deadline and I had a feeling that I had done well. A few days went by and I received that email inviting me to the next stage.

The next stage was building a web app in Python and it was coincidentally using Flask and the last stage was building a REST API which we could later use to build a frontend using ReactJs, I did well on both thanks to HeadFirst.

Overall, the interview process was demanding, I'd say its one of the most demanding interviews I've ever done but it equipped me with new tools in my tool belt. It was the first time I used git and GitHub, i learned about REST APIs, setting up a CI pipeline with Travis, planning projects with Pivotal Tracker, building frontend apps with a modern library like ReactJS, plus I got to learn more features about Flask beyond what HeadFirst Python had introduced me to.

I started working in November and a month after that, I graduated with a first class degree in Telecommunications Engineering. On paper I was a Telecommunications engineer but I knew I was never going to work as one. I was grateful for the lessons I had learned, memories and friends I had made over the course of the four years.