Today marks 2 weeks since graduating. And what a strange time we live in.

As the rest of the world, I have been inside for 99.9% of the time since my last post. The hour a day I walk Lola (my quarantine amigo, she is a Labradoodle) with my partner has become the hi-light of the day. It reminds how lucky I am to live in London, and what is normally on my doorstep. I'm sure we will all learn something valuable from this Pandemic, firstly to wash our hands, as if we needed reminding anyway!

Over the past week there have been some ups and downs. Monday hit like a sledgehammer to my brain. With no plan, a vague idea of what i wanted to explore, and low motivation I struggled to be productive. I spent most of my time waling aimlessly around the house, opening the fridge every 30 minutes to see if anything else had magically appeared since my last look. On Tuesday however I had a great Zoom session with my cohort. It was so nice to see everyone, hear what they had been up to, and hear their struggles also. It made me feel i'm not alone, and that it was normal for everyone - not just the job hunters! One of my classmates suggested making a schedule to follow, as we all need some structure in this 'post apocalyptic' feeling time.

I decided I would get the job applications out of the way (the most hard and tedious part of my day) in the AM, with the rest of the afternoon free to code and explore the realms of React (currently!). I set an alarm for 7.30am, left the phone at the other end of my bedroom (much to my partners delight) and threw myself into this new life. A new me!

Today is Friday and it honestly seems to have worked a treat! I have applied for 4 jobs this week, finished my React project and continued to tidy up my own CV and Github, and I feel great! I have also started to collaborate with some classmates on a COVID-19 tracker. To be topical, helpful, and also flex some coding muscle, we decided on using React to build an interface for countries infection rate, death and recovery rate, all on a slick web page. This will take up most of the weekends time, having a focus really is the most motivating thing!

After being on lockdown, many companies have put a further freeze on recruitment, so i'll try to keep optimistic, but realistic about job prospects int he immediate future. Having said that, I did get shortlisted for a role from the job fair last week, one that I really was passionate about! I will hear back in the next few days about what the next steps are! Fingers crossed it is good news!

As always wish me luck...and stay inside!

David