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Weekly Dev Work Check-In – [Week 23 | 02–06 June 2025]

Weekly Dev Work Check-In – [Week 23 | 02–06 June 2025]

Ana Jesus / June 6, 2025

Learning

I’m trying to stay consistent and complete at least one lesson a day.
Here are my current ZTM streaks:

ZTM streak Screenshot

Courses

1. Create a Discord Bot with Node.js

I started and finished this short course (2h20m). Super straightforward and hands-on.

2. Career Accelerator with TechTalk I started this course because I haven’t received any interview invitations since finishing my internship (28/02/2025). Hoping this will help polish my application strategy.

3. Full Stack Ecommerce Store With Admin Dashboard From Scratch - Next.js, Prisma, Stripe, Tailwind A year ago, I started building an e-commerce site for a client, but it got postponed indefinitely. I want to do a better job when it resumes, so I’m watching videos to learn new concepts and best practices.

4. Learn CI/CD with GitHub Actions, Docker and TypeScript I started this course because I know very little about CI/CD. Now I want to learn it properly and use it to streamline my workflow. I’m not a premium user, so my progress isn’t tracked, but I’m on Chapter 6 (Build with Docker). I’ve never used Docker before, so that might be my focus next week.

Backend streak Screenshot

Projects:

(Besides coding along with the courses above, I also try to apply what I learn in my personal projects.)

Reading Bot

I built this bot while taking the Discord Bot course. I integrated a weather API (as taught) but added a twist:
It reports not only the temperature but also precipitation. If it's snowing (I love snow) or raining, it’ll say it’s a great day to stay in and read.

I added a bunch of commands to solve real problems I face during my reading readathons on Discord:

  • We usually use generic bots, not reading-specific ones.
  • We do daily reading sprints, so I wanted to streamline the process.
  • Users always have to tell me their start/end pages or percentages — now the bot handles that.

Reading bot in action

I worked on it for about a day and a half. It’s built with JavaScript using Node.js.

Still to figure out:

  • Where to host it
  • Whether it works on other Discord servers (I want to test it this July during my summer readathon)
  • Sketch out user flow before adding more commands

Books around the world

This was my bootcamp final project, built in under three weeks last year. It was my first time using React — I had just started the ZTM React course back then.

After my internship, I learned a ton about clean code and best practices. So I rewatched the entire React course and plan to revisit the Next.js course (only did ~15% before my internship started).

Currently, I’m migrating this project to Next.js and applying everything I’ve learned.

  • Initially, I thought I could just swap folders and add dependencies...
  • I didn’t want to start a new repo because I wanted to understand how messy a real migration gets.
  • Turns out it got very messy 😅. I got so many errors, I had to take a week off from the project.
  • I restarted the migration process properly, and now it’s looking much better.

This week, I made a list of everything still broken from the migration — taking the time to plan before I jump back in.

Others

Job Applications:

  • Total applications: 2 Rejections 0 Answers 0
  • Outreach 5 Answers 0
  • Sent 5 emails to potential employers
  • Attended a Powercoders alumni meetup
  • Connected with people on LinkedIn
  • Joined another web development Discord server

Favourites of the Week:

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to blend my background in History and Archaeology with tech.
I came across Charlotte Eckstein’s portfolio piece, and it inspired me so much. Now I have new ideas for future projects that could bridge my academic and dev interests.

Personal Reflections:

The main reason I’m doing this weekly check-in is to keep myself accountable — and to recognize that I am making progress.

Sometimes it feels like I’m not doing enough… even though I’m working on things every single day.
This helps me see it more clearly.
It’s also a way to solidify what I’ve learned and share it somewhere.

Goals for Next Week:

  • Redo my CV, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile based on the current career course. Ask for feedback.
  • Apply for 4 jobs and reach out to 3 new people.
  • Create a proper user flow for the reading bot, adjust the logic, and test it.
  • Finish migrating the Books website and start the refactoring process.
  • Finish the YouTube video on Recharts and try implementing it.
  • Use Figma for a redesign of my website (so many updates — curious to see what’s new).
  • Start learning Docker through my backend course.
  • Organize my obsidian notes.
  • (...and the list goes on 😅)