2 Years of Being a Software Engineer
Release date: 30 Dec 2024
Views: 124
A year ago I published a video about being a Software Engineer for 1 year.
I wanted to create a similar post again to talk about how the last 12 months have been. It's a good way to track my journey and also share useful information for others.
So what have I done in the past 12 months in terms of being a Software Engineer?
Here's a list:
- Moved jobs and now work for a start up where I have a lot more responsibility.
- Created a website for a community challenge that went successfully.
- Tried creating 3 projects that failed. These were:
- A job description generator for recruiters.
- A PDF to excel tables converter.
- A Gmail storage saver website.
Now, I am working on another side project. It's a free tool used to generate QR codes. You can find it at qrcodeslab.com.
The goal with this new tool is to create the best solution available online to generate QR codes.
This project is not ground breaking. There are hundreds if not thousands of tools already available for this exact problem.
I have two goals with this tool:
- Create something of value that a lot of people around the world find useful.
- Create something so good that people prefer my tool over thousands of others.
Moving job
The new job opportunity came kind of as a surprise. A recruiter on LinkedIn contacted me and then things went on from there.
The decision to move was really difficult at first. I enjoyed the work and loved my team and the people at my previous company.
Asking myself "where would I learn the most?" was ultimately the number one thing that made me choose the new role.
My goal is to continuously improve myself at my chosen craft. In this context this is software engineering. As a software engineer, especially if you are early in your career, that question should be the biggest thing that drives your career decisions (in my opinion at least).
After having been at my new place for the last couple of months, I can confidently say I'm extremely happy with the decision. I am learning new stuff at a fast pace which is exactly what I wanted. Plus my founder is a really good mentor.
Community challenge
The community challenge was very spontaneous. At first the plan was to have a simple google form that everyone can fill and that way we can have everyone come together for the month of Ramadhan.
This was decided on Friday evening. The challenge was going to start on the next Monday.
For some reason I became really excited about the project and thought I could help enhance it by having a custom website. This will make it more interactive and enjoyable for everyone.
I spent the weekend building the website and making sure it's ready for Monday.
It was some of the most fun I have had coding. You just enter the flow state and create something. Extremely fulfilling.
Although not very complex, this is one of my favourite things I've built.
I highly recommend participating in your community with the skills you posses. I've talked about it before as well.
Failing side projects
This year I built 3 side projects. All 3 of them failed. By fail I mean I couldn't create a solution good enough for my targeted users.
But ultimately building these were a win.
It is highly unlikely that my first or second project EVER will be a hit since I'm early to building. I expected that.
With each project I learn stuff and take it across to my next project. And most of all my building muscle gets better and better.
Going through these project cycles ultimately means that I will eventually land on a project that will be good and serve a lot of people.
The only way I can truly fail is if I stop building. To create something of value I have to keep trying and something will hit.
As long as I keep creating and applying lessons from my previous projects, I will keep improving.
So in that case, I feel like I'm making good progress. Quitting is the real failure. As long as I don't that I'm good.
The next 12 months
2024 has been a good year. Comparing myself from the start till now, it's clear to me that I have levelled up as an Engineer.
More than just engineering, I have learned a lot about building useful products to solve people's problems. There is still so much to learn and apply.
2025 will be an amazing year. My aim is to apply my learning onto new projects and continue to level up.
I will continue to build new things, make current projects better and pick up the difficult stuff at work.
I hope you found this read useful.
If you have any questions or tips for me then please feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]