How on earth have the last years just flown by like that? COVID-19 probably accounts for some of it (yes, sorry, I know it’s a really draining topic by now and nobody wants to talk about it anymore, but it is what it is). However, in general, life seemed to have taken the motorway without stopping for any toll. Phew. Luckily there were some kind of seatbelts at times!
It’s now been more or less exactly three years since I’ve graduated from a Software Engineering bootcamp and switched my department assignment from ‘HR’ to ‘Engineering’. And what a journey it’s been! I cannot believe how much I was able to grow and learn and how many interesting people I met along the way. That sounds cheesy, I know, but I can’t phrase it any differently.
I remember how impressed I always was when a colleague opened the dev tools in their browser and debugged an issue. I remember how my very first milestone I set for myself was to please one day being able to skilfully pick up a bug ticket and find as well as fix an issue. And I remember the great feeling I had when that day came.
Not everything has changed since the beginning of my new career though. I am still impressed about great debugging skills. I mean, some people are just continuously blowing my mind. I am still striving to become a better and better bug fixer. Not just fixing it for that very moment, but of course also thinking about implications for later. And I am still celebrating the big, but also the small wins. Mine, and other’s.
Another aspect which won’t ever be any different is my passion for people. I may not be working in HR anymore, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t care about people (and processes) ever since my career transition. If anything, my interest has grown and I have gotten into topics such as Web Accessibility from a more technical perspective, but also know exactly how my career plan should look like to combine the people and technical side.
What has changed a lot, however, is the self-doubt I had. That nasty “Imposter Syndrome” I was even writing an article about. Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparison, especially as an over-thinker like me, and as someone who wants to move fast. Getting over the self-doubt is not anything I’d like to give myself the sole credit for though — countless of previous and current colleagues have helped me along the way. You know who you are. Thank you!
Now bring on 2023! And I promise to be back with lots more content for you as career, life and everything is settling!
P.s.: I know that being a Dev is not all about fixing bugs (oh how much easier it would be if there weren’t any to begin with), but I do genuinely enjoy it a lot, so you’ll probably hear me bringing it up quite a bit
