Birthday reflection: my professional progress over the last year 📈
My birthday was this past week so I’ve been reflecting on the past year, and the progress I’ve made professionally. This was a big year for me as I really decided to focus on stretching myself and my personal branding.⠀
I’d like to share some of what I’ve done/learned professionally over the last year:
◈ Created KG.codes: I completely revamped my personal brand to “KG.codes”. Some ask why have a personal brand as a developer(?). A brand is one of the few things professionally that you own 100%. You are the product.
◈ Stopped producing music: I know some were disappointed LOL. But I realized that splitting time between coding and music wasn’t productive. I also realized that music is a hobby for me and my real effort was going toward coding.
◈ Learned new mobile app framework: I finally got out of my comfort zone with building only with Xamarin and started using React Native. This has improved my overall ability as a mobile developer.
◈ Learned new backend technologies: I learned how to build a web API using Node.js and Express in JavaScript. Love the low overhead/simplicity!
◈ Learned new frontend technologies: Learned Nuxt.js to build static Vue.js websites (man I’m loving this now). Learned Forestry as a new CMS option. Learned TailwindCSS framework for styling.
◈ New role at work: I moved onto a new team within our parent company as a team lead. I’ve learned so much so far about development in a larger company.
◈ Refresher in Java: Got a full refresher in Java and Spring in order to build web APIs/services for work. I still like the similar C# better but Java is such a powerful language.
◈ Improved Dev Ops skills: Learned TeamCity at work, GitHub Actions on my own, starting using AWS products, and built my first truly continuous delivery auto-deployment pipeline.
I’m proud of the overall focus I had on my personal brand and I’ve seen it grow tremendously. Equally, I’ve learned more new things in development this year that any other past year I can remember.
I have a long way to go still, but this reflection shows be what I’m capable of with focus.
⁉️ What have you been focused on over the past year?
◈ Created KG.codes: I completely revamped my personal brand to “KG.codes”. Some ask why have a personal brand as a developer(?). A brand is one of the few things professionally that you own 100%. You are the product.
◈ Stopped producing music: I know some were disappointed LOL. But I realized that splitting time between coding and music wasn’t productive. I also realized that music is a hobby for me and my real effort was going toward coding.
◈ Learned new mobile app framework: I finally got out of my comfort zone with building only with Xamarin and started using React Native. This has improved my overall ability as a mobile developer.
◈ Learned new backend technologies: I learned how to build a web API using Node.js and Express in JavaScript. Love the low overhead/simplicity!
◈ Learned new frontend technologies: Learned Nuxt.js to build static Vue.js websites (man I’m loving this now). Learned Forestry as a new CMS option. Learned TailwindCSS framework for styling.
◈ New role at work: I moved onto a new team within our parent company as a team lead. I’ve learned so much so far about development in a larger company.
◈ Refresher in Java: Got a full refresher in Java and Spring in order to build web APIs/services for work. I still like the similar C# better but Java is such a powerful language.
◈ Improved Dev Ops skills: Learned TeamCity at work, GitHub Actions on my own, starting using AWS products, and built my first truly continuous delivery auto-deployment pipeline.
I’m proud of the overall focus I had on my personal brand and I’ve seen it grow tremendously. Equally, I’ve learned more new things in development this year that any other past year I can remember.
I have a long way to go still, but this reflection shows be what I’m capable of with focus.
⁉️ What have you been focused on over the past year?
