The Monday Byte

Welcome to the Monday Byte where I send you 5 things each week so you can improve your English and land a remote dev job.

📖 Word/Phrase - moonlighting

Have you heard this expression before? Let’s say you have a full-time job, but you do some freelance on the side. That’s called moonlighting.

Typically companies in the US don’t mind you doing this as long as it’s not a second full-time job, you do it outside your work hours and on your own equipment. But it’s always important to check with your manager.

💬 Pronunciation - Practice with ChatGPT Voice

ChatGPT rolled out voice on their mobile app to all free users! This means you can have full-blown conversations with AI and practice your English 🤯 

And what’s crazy is how good it sounds compared to Siri/Google Voice. Like it legit sounds like a native speaker.

Here’s an example of my friend Aaron using it to practice his Spanish. The accent is horrible 🤣 but in English, it’s really good. Give it a try and see how well it understands you!

🗣️ Real World Conversation - When to Decide vs. Ask for Input

One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately at work is when to make a decision on your own vs asking for input from your coworkers. And I’ve learned that it always depends. Here’s an example I faced at my job last week.

I was implementing a new component based on Figma designs given to me from our designer. There was a small problem though. The width of the design system components was 468px but the designs were using 512px.

It’s a small difference. Do I ignore or do I post in Slack and tag the designer/team? I wanted to make the decision and just ship it but I decided to ask on Slack.

And later my manager said that was the right move. Why? Because it was based on work from another teammate. So although it took more time to ship, it was the right call to make.

My plan is to continue refining this skill so I can make decisions quickly on my own but also pull in a second opinion when needed.

🔗 Content - corporate.sween on TikTok

Not specifically programming related, but someone a while back shared this TikTok account with me and it made me laugh. He pokes fun at the corporate world, which you might experience if you end up working for a enterprise US company.

@corporate.sween

Always stay active #corporate #corporatelife #fyp #foryou #workhumor #remotework #workfromhome #remote #sales #tech #finance

Enjoy the week, we’ll talk again soon.

- Joe