conr.dev

Announcing Discord-RSS

2024-01-10T17:00:00Z

Announcing a fork of Discord-RSS using the latest versions of Node.js, Svelte-Kit and Auth.js. This unique tool will provide an innovative way to manage and share RSS feed content across Discord channels, with a focus on simplicity and speed.

Unique Features #

The new Discord-RSS bot boasts several unique features that will enhance the user experience and functionality.

Simple Web Management UI #

Using modern TailwindCSS, it incorporates a simple web management UI. This is a significant feature, as it allows non-technical users to easily manage the admin user interface. No coding skills are required. It eliminates the intimidation that often comes with managing technical platforms, making them accessible to a wider range of users.

Discord RSS Feed Manager Screenshot

User Mentions in Posts #

This new Discord-RSS bot also brings the addition of cleaner user mentions in posts. This feature enhances the functionality by showing the ownership of posts. It also provides instant notifications to the author when their post is shared.

Webhook Post Screenshot

Enhanced Logging #

The runner outputs more robust logs, which gives the bot better observability on the bot. This better helps to troubleshoot misconfigured, timed-out, or invalid RSS feeds with fun emojis. 🎉

Runner Logging via CLI

Post to Any Channel Webhook #

The Node.js runner gives users the flexibility to post to any channel webhook. This is a notable improvement from most RSS integrations to Discord which limit you to just a channel or server. The webhook is only tied to a channel and not its parent server.

Power of Node.js, Svelte, and Redis #

The bot leverages the power of three key technologies: Node.js, Svelte, and Redis.

Svelte-Kit provides a host of great features out of the box. It offers fast setup, fast development, fast builds, fast page loads, and fast navigation^[1]. At the same time, learn.svelte.dev is a great way to learn with user docs integrated with a coding playground. This makes it straightforward to build and learn quickly. The coding sytax has an old-school "HTML written on Notepad.exe" feel to it, with HTML, JavaScript, and Svelte all in one file, but with tremendous flexibility. Meanwhile, Node.js is just a trusty way to have of a script runner digesting RSS Feeds via its built-in fetch API. The combination of these two technologies results in a high-performing and efficient tool.

Where do you store all the RSS feed meta? Since only an object of feeds is needed, a Redis instance is more than enough because it's a good caching layer, and it lacks complexity. Svelte-Kit can handle the rest with writable svelte/stores and redis/ioredis for a robust, performance-focused, and full-featured Redis client for Node.js^[2].

Promoting RSS Feed Use #

The Discord RSS is not just a tool; it is a medium to promote the use of adding RSS feeds for personal and professional blogs. By integrating this tool, Discord users can easily promote their latest blog posts. Adding an RSS feed to their blog ensures that their content can be easily added to Discord RSS, thereby increasing visibility and engagement.

Open-Sourced #

The best feature of all is that this is available to anyone! Self-host this repo on a VM or locally and get it integrated with your own Discord server. Bug issues and features are welcomed too. Check it out:

https://github.com/conrmahr/discord-rss

"SvelteKit • Web development, streamlined". Retrieved January 18, 2024. ↩︎
"redis/ioredis: 🚀 A robust, performance-focused, and full-featured Redis client for Node.js.". Retrieved January 18, 2024. ↩︎

Polywork is Dead to Me

2023-11-05T17:00:00Z

Going forward, Polywork will enable professionals to express all the things they do through a personal website builder of sorts.

After reading that blog post^[1], I was gutted. Yet-Another-Personal-Website-Builder (YAPWB) should be the name. Now that I'm removing my Polywork references throughout this website, I wanted to write this post to selfishly cope. Thanks for reading.

Polywork v1 was a great place to microblog your projects, accomplishments, awards, wins, cheers, or whatever you wanted. But what made it special was the social aspect of linking others to the same items and building a network of relationships behind those items. Even without it, it was a great portfolio timeline that was live on the internet and linkable. There might have been a website that I built as a side project that didn't need to be listed on my personal site and resume, so this was a great place for it to live instead. You could always link to it later if you needed to show it for a job or for inspiration.

Original Polywork post layout via producthunt.com

I shilled for it. Posting it everywhere that had my personal brand attached to it. I told all my friends and colleagues to sign up and add me as a friend. I even went through the manual process of getting verified through a scheduled Zoom call when being verified actually meant something.

Now I have this...

New Polywork timeline via producthunt.com

That's why Polywork is dead to me. Maybe not to you, which is totally fine, and I hope it can succeed as a product because it has a great team and some pretty nice portfolio templates to use. But back to LinkedIn I go.

"A letter from our CEO: Changes to Polywork". Retrieved September 8, 2023. ↩︎

Flow-State with Centered

2023-03-31T17:00:00Z

https://twitter.com/centered_app/status/1643240753441947648

Working in a world where your attention span is prime real-estate for push notifications from social media, email, text messages, and instant messaging apps, you need a way to block it all out and stay on task. Ok, let me use the macOS "Focus" setting for notifications. Ahhh, here we go, no more distractions, and time to get work done.

It's 30 minutes later, and I've spent the whole time doing a deep dive on The Best of Chris Farley via YouTube. It's like I need something to keep me on-task. A voice... a reminder... a coach.

"Ready to dive in? Let's get flowin'." - Cassidy Williams

Thank you, Cassidy. My colleague and friend, but also my coach, who recommended Centered.app to me to solve this very problem that we face when working on a computer all day. If I do well, there are encouraging messages to keep me going. If I get off-track and start checking Twitter or email, I get ~~yelled at~~, I mean, nudged to come back to my task. That's the core of what I need it to do for me, but it can do so much more. Here are some of the many features:

A coach of your choice to encourage you
Pomodoro technique for time management
An integrated todo list
A variety of music choices
Muted notifications
Nudges when you get distracted
Breathing exercises
A leaderboard

Dashboard of Centered App on macOS

I don't shill for much but why not give it a try? Join me today and get a 14-day free trial of Centered PRO!

Sync Obsidian with iCloud

2023-02-28T17:00:00Z

https://twitter.com/bencodezen/status/1458484105331585028

Being an Obsidian.md Power-User, I always wanted to update my notes from any of my devices and sync them but I didn't have a great use case to host my notes with the paid version of Obsidian Sync. iCloud Drive would be the best option for this, plus it's free! These steps are not the only way to sync with iCloud Drive but I found this order to be easiest.

Requirements #

Setup #

Setup and enable iCloud Drive on all devices you want to sync.^[1]
Open the Obsidian iOS or iPadOS app and select "Create new vault".
Type a vault name and check "Store in iCloud" then tap "Create".

iOS Obsidian - Store in iCloud

Move to your macOS device and open the Obsidian app.
Open the newly create vault with File > Open Vault...
Browse to iCloud Drive > Obsidian > vault name and click "Open".
Create a new note for testing with File > New Note.

macOS Obsidian - Hello World

Return to your Obsidian app on iOS and see if your file synced.

iOS Obsidian - Hello World

Success!

*Existing Obsidian Users: Copy all your previous vault files and directory structure to iCloud Drive Obsidian folder

*Note: You can also download iCloud Drive for Windows and keep your Obsidian vault in sync on a Windows device.

Personally, I have gotten one vault synced across all of these devices, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows!

"Set up iCloud Drive". Retrieved November 3, 2022. ↩︎

RSS Feed in a 11ty site

2022-07-14T23:59:59Z

https://twitter.com/davatron5000/status/1308404187299012616?s=20&t=e4vdBOpt8sEjbCJp21Qz7A

Dave Rupert is right. Really Simple Syndication or RSS is a great way for people to digest their favorite blog articles with a RSS reader of their choice not be bombarded with ads, click-bait, and spam. So why not do your readers a favor and add it to your 11ty blog?

Install package #

Start in your 11ty project folder and install this package.

npm install @11ty/eleventy-plugin-rss --save-dev

Include in your 11ty configuration #

In the .eleventy.js file, require the plugin and include it in the module.exports function with any other plugins you may have.

const pluginRss = require("@11ty/eleventy-plugin-rss");

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
    eleventyConfig.addPlugin(pluginRss);
};

Add to feed metadata #

In the _data/metadata.json file, add the unique metadata for the feed.

{
	"feed": {
		"subtitle": "Tech posts to educate, elevate, but mostly entertain.",
		"filename": "feed.xml",
		"path": "/feed/feed.xml",
		"url": "https://conr.dev/feed/feed.xml",
		"id": "https://conr.dev/"
	},
},

Create a RSS feed #

From your top-level of your 11ty project folder, create this template file.

touch src/feed.njk

Atom has several advantages over RSS: less restrictive licensing, IANA-registered MIME type, XML namespace, URI support, RELAX NG support. ^[1] Knowing this, we will copy and paste the Atom format to produce our feed.njk template. Other formats are available such as RSS and JSON. ^[2]

---
# Metadata comes from _data/metadata.json
permalink: "{{ metadata.feed.path }}"
eleventyExcludeFromCollections: true
---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <title>{{ metadata.title }}</title>
  <subtitle>{{ metadata.feed.subtitle }}</subtitle>
  <link href="{{ metadata.feed.url }}" rel="self"/>
  <link href="{{ metadata.url }}"/>
  <updated>{{ collections.posts | getNewestCollectionItemDate | dateToRfc3339 }}</updated>
  <id>{{ metadata.url }}</id>
  <author>
    <name>{{ metadata.author.name }}</name>
    <email>{{ metadata.author.email }}</email>
  </author>
  {%- for post in collections.posts | reverse %}
  {% set absolutePostUrl %}{{ post.url | url | absoluteUrl(metadata.url) }}{% endset %}
  <entry>
    <title>{{ post.data.title }}</title>
    <link href="{{ absolutePostUrl }}"/>
    <updated>{{ post.date | dateToRfc3339 }}</updated>
    <id>{{ absolutePostUrl }}</id>
    <content type="html">{{ post.templateContent | htmlToAbsoluteUrls(absolutePostUrl) }}</content>
  </entry>
  {%- endfor %}
</feed>

Important: This code assumes you save your date frontmatter in UTC format, not your local timezone.

---
date: 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z 
---

That's it. You now have a Atom v1.0 feed on your 11ty website when you serve or build the project.

Check out mine and subscribe!
https://conr.dev/feed/

"RSS compared with Atom". Retrieved June 14, 2022 ↩︎
"Sample Feed Templates". Retrieved July 12, 2022 ↩︎

Goodbye WordPress, Hello 11ty!

2022-01-06T23:00:00Z

https://twitter.com/conrmahr/status/1479151678637187079

Past #

I have been using WordPress (WP) since 2010. Back then there wasn't a lot of open-source software (OSS) choices for hosting your own website with a blog. The thought of having a live website 24/7 that could be edited with a web browser and access to internet was what intrigued me.

Present #

The Monolithic architecture of WP made it so massive and bulky for a simple blog site with a single-user, it was hard to get away from it until now.

Say hello to the Jamstack architecture generated by a static site generator, Eleventy:

JavaScript
APIs
Markup

The Jamstack architecture has many benefits, whether you’re building a large e-commerce site, SaaS application or personal blog.

Better Performance #

Why wait for pages to build on the fly when you can generate them at deploy time? When it comes to minimizing the time to first byte, nothing beats pre-built files served over a CDN.

Higher Security #

With server-side processes abstracted into microservice APIs, surface areas for attacks are reduced. You can also leverage the domain expertise of specialist third-party services.

Cheaper, Easier Scaling #

When your deployment amounts to a stack of files that can be served anywhere, scaling is a matter of serving those files in more places. CDNs are perfect for this, and often include scaling in all of their plans.

Better Developer Experience #

Loose coupling and separation of controls allow for more targeted development and debugging, and the expanding selection of CMS options for site generators remove the need to maintain a separate stack for content and marketing.

Jamstack architecture diagam via jamstack.org

Code Music: Shostakovich Symphony No. 7

2021-05-14T23:00:00Z

Greatest composer of the 20th century? Well to my ears Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich is the Greatest of All Time. Just listen to this heart-wrenching Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 written in 1940:

https://twitter.com/conrmahr/status/1375132545562636289

Two years later Shostakovich scored one of the greatest public triumphs of his life with his wartime Seventh Symphony. The first three movements were written in Leningrad in the late summer of 1941 as the Nazi armies encircled the city. After the composer and his family were evacuated by air to Kuibyshev, he completed the finale. Throughout this symphony there is a genuinely powerful and profound sense of the unknown which drives the music forwards and makes its quite impossible to dismiss it as one dimensional or propaganda.

It's a one and a half hour journey that you must commit to. Early mornings or late afternoon blocks of coding are great candidates for this masterpiece to drive you through a binary war. Powerful openings, quiet melodies, and a long crescendoing march to the unknown will keep you "in the zone".

https://soundcloud.com/conrmahr/sets/code-music-shostakovich

Code Music: American Football

2020-04-12T23:00:00Z

This post would have never happened if I didn't see "American Football" trending on Twitter last night. NFL? XFL? One of my favorite math rock bands on Minecraft? Minutes later I was tweeting the following:

https://twitter.com/conrmahr/status/1249190216742641664

This eponymous debut album by American Football sparks your memory of what it's like to be a teenager in the late 90's and early 00's. The repeating guitar arpeggios and dream like pace with the low-volume vocals makes it a treat to code too. This album has helped code many websites along with deal with tons of heartbreak. The whole album is only 9 tracks averaging around 4 mins a pop, so it's an easy listen and a great album to put on repeat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_NfnXdXpjL0

https://soundcloud.com/conrmahr/sets/code-music-american-football

Cut the Google Fiber Network Box Please

2019-06-08T23:00:00Z

With my consecutive Cut the Cord Please and Cut the Cord Please, Again, its now about cutting the hardware. The Google Fiber Network Box is not the most hi-tech piece of equipment. A low-end 802.11ac radio, cloud-only admin login, limited networking options, but worst of all, no Bridge-Mode! Advanced users are not going to use this box while routing 1 Gbit/s of bandwidth throughout their home or office. Use your own Wi-Fi router?^[1]

Google Fiber recommends you to Double-NAT it. Yuck.

How about tagging it to VLAN2? Yes sir. Now you can bypass the Network Box and plug directly into your own hardware. Here's how to do it with a Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway (USG):

Ubiquiti UniFi #

Plug the Fiber Jack directly in the USG WAN port
Power the Fiber Jack with plugging in the USB power adapter.
Login to the UniFi controller
Go to Settings > Networks > WAN > Edit
Toggle Use VLAN to on
Set VLAN ID to 2 and QoS Tag to 3
Click Apply Changes

No VLAN Tagging #

There has been user reports that Google Fiber is getting rid of the VLAN tagging requirement.^[2] That has not been the case for me in the Kansas City metro area but it's important to note that I use the GFLT110 compared to the newer GFLT300 model Fiber Jack.^[3] Maybe it's model specific or just Fiber City specific.

https://twitter.com/conrmahr/status/1137258538336772096

"Google Fiber Help: Use your own Wi-Fi router". Retrieved June 8, 2019. ↩︎
"r/googlefiber VLAN". Retrieved September 2018. ↩︎
"Google Fiber Help: About your Fiber Jack". Retrieved June 8, 2019. ↩︎

Cut the Cord Please, Again

2018-06-22T23:00:00Z

Less than a month after publishing the following post, Cut the Cord Please, a number of paid over-the-top content providers^[1] flooded the market. This gave the consumer (me) more options to weigh; Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Now, Amazon Prime Video, Playstation Vue, fuboTV, Philo, Acron TV. During Super Bowl LII, this YouTube TV Super Bowl Kickoff Ad played about 100x in front of my eyes. The $35 price point and stunning UI made me re-evaluate my current plan seen below.

My self-survey came back as sports, sports, and a lot of HBO. That’s why I went with Sling TV Orange/Blue + Cloud DVR & Sports Extra.

Starting a YTTV free 7-day trial made me immediately realize after logging in I was not getting the most for my money and using a far inferior product. Then when I did a simple comparison by dollars, I was roughly paying $15 more for just the NHL Network. But it wasn't just that, it was the YTTV core features that made it elite:

Local Affiliate Channels^[2]
1200x720@60fps Channels
Excellent Latency on Google Fiber
Unlimited Cloud DVR Storage (9 months)
Hi-Res Guide Display
tvOS Integration

I cut the cord again with YouTube TV and haven't looked back.

Comparison #

	Google Fiber	Sling TV	YouTube TV
TV Service	$60	$45	$35
Extra Box/DVR	$5	$5	$0
Sports Plus	$10	$10	$0
HBO	$20	$15	$15
March Hike	$20	$0	$0
Total	$115	$75	$50

"Over-the-top media services". Retrieved June 7, 2018. ↩︎
"YouTube TV Help - Available locations". Retrieved June 22, 2018. ↩︎

Cut the Cord Please

2018-01-14T23:00:00Z

The day that Google Fiber was installed in my front yard was a day I'll never forget.^[1] Gigabit internet, 100's of Channels, a 2 TBs DVR, it was all making my mouth water.

https://twitter.com/conrmahr/status/715578970159333376

But it was pricey. Fiber 1000 + TV base price was $130 when signing up last year and $120 originally. The 1000Mbps for $70 was always worth it because of the value. Gigabit internet is 1000Mbps, that's roughly 14.28Mbps per dollar! For the TV service, it was always a little rich for my blood. Then I got this...

Starting March 2018, the price of TV will increase by $20 a month. - Google Fiber

Today is my first day to #cutthecord.

Choosing Your Subscriptions #

Choosing what services to subscribe to can be overwhelming. But doing a simple survey of all the channels you watch regularly or must have is a good practice to start with. Then you can eliminate the services that don't fit your watching habits by looking at a channel comparison chart.^[2] Or maybe you don't need a traditional channels, but Netflix and/or Hulu Plus work just fine.

Building My Plan #

My self-survey came back as sports, sports, and a lot of HBO. That's why I went with Sling TV Orange/Blue + Cloud DVR & Sports Extra. It had the best channels for the NHL (NHL Network) or the English Premier League (NBC Sports), which are usually extra or not available at all. To get a weekly dose of Last Week Tonight or a full season of Game of Thrones, I subscribe to HBO NOW independently to use their far superior designed app. But the biggest challenge when cutting the cord is watching your local affiliates. The Mohu Leaf Ultimate Flat 50 Mile works for my in my suburb location. Those who live in the city may only need a 30 Mile though. With having Gigabit internet, I've also set up a Gigabit network at my home so I can hardwire my Apple TV 4K via a network cable. Apple TV users: Make sure that you know that the Apple TV 4th Generation or older, do not support gigabit speeds.^[3]

Comparison #

	Google Fiber	Sling TV
TV Service	$60	$45
Extra Box/DVR	$5	$5
Sports Plus	$10	$10
HBO	$20	$15
March Hike	$20	$0
Total	$115	$75

"Ultra high-speed broadband is coming to Kansas City, Kansas". Retrieved March 30, 2011. ↩︎
"Everything in the live-TV-streaming universe: Channel lineups compared". Retrieved July 7, 2017. ↩︎
"Apple TV (4th generation) - Technical Specifications". Retrieved November 1, 2017. ↩︎

Code Music: Hurry Up We're Dreaming

2016-06-29T23:00:00Z

This double-album has kept me going for hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of programming. Being a child of the '80s, the synthesizer has a special place in my heart. The way Anthony Gonzalez of M83 composes all 22 tracks, is like one 80 minute continuous song. No need to skip tracks. It works best when you set "Repeat Album" and enter another world of creativity.

https://soundcloud.com/conrmahr/sets/code-music-were-dreaming

Code Music is My Coffee

2016-06-24T23:00:00Z

Everyone has their own way to be creative when they code. Four cups of black coffee, a "jar" of Peanut Butter M&M'S, a 64-oz 7-Eleven Diet Dr. Pepper Big Gulp, or just music. If you are a former musician like me, than it's your preferred method. Rob Birdwell blogged about The Relationship Between Programming and Music^[1] in 2003. Then in 2009 Jeff Atwood from Coding Horror revisited it with The One Thing Programmers and Musicians Have In Common^[2].

Every website I've built has an album that helped me build it. Even the first one wasn't possible without The Bends by Radiohead.

There would be many others. Others that I will share using this tag: #Code Music

Enjoy.

https://soundcloud.com/radiohead/the-bends

"The relationship between programming and music". Retrieved Friday, November 14, 2003. ↩︎
"The One Thing Programmers and Musicians Have In Common". Retrieved January 20, 2009. ↩︎

Ethernet Priority Over Wi-Fi

2016-06-15T23:00:00Z

Being spoiled with a 100Mbps/100Mbps internet connection in a South Korean apartment by myself 10 years ago, has always made me make sure I'm getting most optimal speeds from my ISP.

What about at your office? Is your main device a laptop? Are you stationary at a desk for a majority of the day Do you have both Ethernet and Wi-Fi available? Which do I choose???

In the contemporary workplace, the answers to all of these questions are usually YES.

Ok, but why would I want to plug in, WiFi is soooo much faster than my home DSL internet, Bro.

Yes, your work WiFi streams Netflix way better at work than home, but unless your corporate laptop along with office APs are 802.11ac 1300+ capable then you're going to see a speed difference between wired and wireless.

I got it. Connect to both of them! Double-Internet!!

Not quite. Without going into the technical details your computer can only use one connection and you would think Ethernet would be the one that gets priority. That's not the case with both OS X and Windows.

Set Ethernet priority over WiFi to maximize your bandwidth.

OS X^[1] #

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network.
Click the Action pop-up menu, Tool icon, then choose Set Service Order.
Drag a service, such as Ethernet, to the top of the list.
Click OK, then click Apply to make the new settings active.

Windows^[2] #

Click Start and, in the search field, type View network connections.
Press the ALT key, click Advanced Options and then click Advanced Settings...
Select Local Area Connection and click the green arrows to give priority to the desired connection.
After organizing the network connections available according to your preferences, click OK.

"OS X El Capitan: Change the priority of your network connections". Retrieved September 30, 2015. ↩︎
"How to change the network connection priority in Windows 7". Retrieved February 7, 2013. ↩︎

Donut Not Doughnut Slack

2016-06-03T23:00:00Z

Today is National Donut Day and my kid-like mind is disappointed not to find a :donut: emoji code^[1], but only the :doughnut: code in Slack.

https://vine.co/v/iYdPJTEQ2gD/

This delicious Salvation Army curated day^[2], served coffee and donuts to soldiers in the trenches of World War I. Now it needs to be celebrated throughout the internets in binary form without regional linguistical bias and don't forget free overpriced donuts!

P.S. - I ❤ Slack.

"Emoji and emoticons – Slack Help Center". Retrieved Friday 3, 2016. ↩︎
"The Salvation Army Metropolitan Division - The History of Donut Day". Retrieved Friday 3, 2016. ↩︎

Testing WebMention

2016-05-22T23:00:00Z

Testing #1 Testing #2 Testing #3 Testing #4 Testing #5 Testing #6 Testing #7 Testing #8 Testing #9 Testing #10 Testing #11 Testing #12 Testing #13 Testing #14 Testing #15 Testing #16 Testing #17 Testing #18 Testing #19 Testing #20 Testing #21

Thanks https://webmention.rocks!

Blog Like No One's Reading

2016-05-06T23:00:00Z

Not having published one blog post in five years is quite embarrassing. More importantly, what I've learned in that time has been invaluable and to hold that in my head is selfish. This is why I'm taking the advice of a Web Legend, Jeffrey Zeldman.

https://twitter.com/jensimmons/status/661240927952875520

You would think after attending three An Event Apart conferences I would of started already... All joking aside, there's no better time to start (re-start) than now. The goal for me is to document the tricks, hacks, tutorials, bugs, and recommendations that I experience in everyday life. Kind of like the everyone else before me who I've learned from. Technology is an infinite continuum of knowledge that needs to be shared and found. It does no good inside the heads of really smart people.

Update: Currently Employed

2011-07-15T23:00:00Z

That's right, I got a j-o-b. Two actually. When it rain it pours. Thanks to all that helped and provided advice. For those still looking, DON'T GIVE UP! The hard work will pay off.

Here's my success story: After a great month in April of applying for jobs and doing good interviews, Company A offered me a contract job at very nice hourly rate, but the week before starting, I had another interview with Company B. Started at Company A, loved it. Didn't hear back from Company B until 3 weeks later. Got a call to do an early morning phone interview, but they gave me no indication if they would offer me a job. That was fine, since I was happy with working at Company A until Company B would call me and offer me the job. It was a full-time permanent position with benefits and a great company to grow with. At this point, most people will be content with what they have, but when a fair salary was mutually agreed upon between us, the decision was made without me having to think about it. It was tough to say goodbye to the great people I just started to get to know, but they understood and agreed that it was the right decision. Now I'm working at Company B and having a blast! Lots of amazing things happening here and hope to make a major impact.

S.T.A.R. Answer: Communication Skills

2011-03-29T23:00:00Z

This post is one of the series of posts in my S.T.A.R. Answers Series in which I response to behavioral interview questions from my experiences.

Question: Give me an example of a time when you were successful in communicating with a difficult person(s) or circumstance?

Situation #

A class of 30 Korean Graduate students with advanced to beginner level of English abilities.

Task #

Teach a non-language subject to a wide range of English abilities in a Graduate level class.

Action #

Taught with visual methods using PowerPoint, class presentations, and group work.

Result #

All students improved their own language ability and were comfortable communicating to myself along with their peers at the end of the semester.

S.T.A.R. Answer: Creativity

2011-02-24T23:00:00Z

This post is one of the series of posts in my S.T.A.R. Answers Series in which I response to behavioral interview questions from my experiences.

Question: Describe a time when you came up with a creative solution/idea/project/report to a problem in your past work.

Situation #

A University updated their daily annoucements and events manually to the website front page through their Web Manager.

Task #

To skip this tedious process and allow multiple co-workers to add announcements and events to the website front page instantaneously.

Action #

Created a Twitter account and embeded it's feed in the main page using JavaScript and CSS which allowed all office members to add their content at anytime.

Result #

The University saw an increase in applications and a 13% increase in student enrollment the semester after it was implemented. But most importantly, it gave more flexibility and time efficiency to the office workflow.

S.T.A.R. Answer: Problem Solving

2011-02-23T23:00:00Z

This post is one of the series of posts in my S.T.A.R. Answers Series in which I response to behavioral interview questions from my experiences.

Question: Some problems require developing a unique approach. Tell about a time when you were able to develop a different problem-solving approach.

Situation #

A local business had no marketing strategy or social media presence for it's new website launch with e-commerce.

Task #

Provide a strategy that involves Push and Pull methods to draw traffic to it's website and provide a channel for customer interaction to promote it's new online catering section.

Action #

Created a Facebook Page with a Facebook Ads Campaign targeting potential customers within the 30 mile radius requirement for catering service.

Result #

The Facebook Page active members increased by 400% and online catering orders doubled during the one month ad campaign.

S.T.A.R. Response

2011-01-15T23:00:00Z

Setting up an interview can be one of the most exciting and scary events if you are not prepared. The interview questions can be straight-forward as "What are your career goals" to complex behavior questions such as "Give me an example of a challenge you experienced and how you dealt with it".

How can you prepare to answer these open-ended behavioral, emotional, and story telling questions that they may ask you?

Look to the STARs! #

Situation-Task-Action-Result

If the STAR technique is new to you, then read more from The MIT Career Office - Successful Interviewing Techniques (PDF).

Let's take it one step further for the digitally inclined. #

Make a flow chart using Excel. Here, use mine to get you started. Click to download.

STAR Responses Excel Spreadsheet

Look at the job posting you're interviewing for. Do you see keywords to match your STAR responses? Some might overlap.

Skills

Strong technical knowledge Strong interpersonal and communication skills Analytical and detail orientated Pro-active and able to work independently Proven ability to work effectively in a team

Now PRACTICE by answering any of these Behavioral Interview Questions from Monster. Matching your keywords with the questions will make your responses prepared for any behavioral question.

conr.dev

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Setup #

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Present #

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Comparison #

Cut the Cord Please

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Comparison #

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OS X[1] #

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Update: Currently Employed

S.T.A.R. Answer: Communication Skills

Situation #

Task #

Action #

Result #

S.T.A.R. Answer: Creativity

Situation #

Task #

Action #

Result #

S.T.A.R. Answer: Problem Solving

Situation #

Task #

Action #

Result #

S.T.A.R. Response

Look to the STARs! #

Let's take it one step further for the digitally inclined. #

Look for my S.T.A.R. Answers based on job keywords in the near future! #

OS X^[1] #

Windows^[2] #