One big sigh of relief: I submitted my final assignment this week, and wrote this term’s last final exam a couple days ago- both for my programming class.

One sharp intake of breath: Job search time.

Programming

The final project for my programming class definitely had the most going on of any applications that we’ve worked on, and we were given a total of four weeks to complete it, with additional requirements released each week. The finished application accessed a database of client records, and allowed the user to add, update, or delete records to and from the database. I realised in this project that I enjoy working with databases way too much- it just makes me happy. It sounds a little basic, but I look forward to working on more projects where I can really learn about the structures and how to work with large quantities of data.

In the main form we used a DataGridView to display the information. The main form also allows users to see some summary information, and launch a dialog to add or edit records. The Confirm Before Delete checkbox indicates if the user wants a MessageBox to pop up and request confirmation before deleting a record.

The use of a ComboBox for the province field was optional- we could also use a Textbox and validate it with a regular expression. I ended up finally getting it working today: I was trying to take a shortcut! The ComboBox was calling the SelectIndexChanged event, but I had manually changed the name of the event handler to SelectionChangeCommitted. The first method fires when the ComboBox is created, so I was seeing an issue where it was not selecting the province associated with that database record, but automatically selecting the first province in the table.

There were some hacky fixes online, and to be perfectly honest, I implemented one of them to check that I was passing correct values. But the hack that I implemented involved adding a method to the form’s designer file, and I knew that it just wasn’t the best way to fix the issue- there must have been a more efficient, more correct way to resolve it. Reading more about the two methods prompted me to check the methods a lot more carefully, and that was when I discovered that the wrong event was being invoked. Cue massive facepalm. But I solved it. …Two days after it was due and I could have got my bonus points… I wish that I’d made this mistake (and discovery!) about three weeks ago, because it’s really helped clear things up for me around events and event handlers, which I was not super confident about.

Systems

My Systems Analysis and Design course has made me think a lot more about the methods and techniques that we use to organise our work and be productive. I stumbled across an article this week: Does Scrum Ruin Great Engineers or Are You Doing It Wrong and I thought a lot of the points were really valid. I also surprised myself in that I had a new interest and appreciation for this type of discussion (looks like that 2 hour lecture about Agile really sunk in!) From my experiences in the hospitality industry, I know that sometimes managers or departments will choose to implement parts of the methodology, and then twist it, or alter it to ‘work better for them’ but that often ruins it. There are also times when it just isn’t appropriate to implement a methodology like this. I think it would be really interesting to work somewhere that subscribes fully to Agile…

Despite this course having been a bit dry, I think I miss it!

Next

In the time before my next term starts, I’m going to be looking over the assignments from my programming class. I’m not as confident in my knowledge and skills as I was at the end of my previous programming class, so I want to use this time to go over the concepts again and find other resources to make sure that I do understand them thoroughly. I’m conscious that I’m still in the beginner courses (though I’m in the 2xxx courses now, not just the 1xxx’s!) so it’s crucial that I get all of the concepts and techniques down if I want to do as well in my upcoming courses!

Also work. Shout out to anyone who received a CV from me and read a whole blog post! I want to get more office experience- ideally in tech, and I’m hoping to get a position somewhere where I can really get invested, and eventually move around in the company. Keep your fingers crossed for me, folks!