Hell yes. Great post. None of this is obvious. I remember a feeling of being pretty lost early on in my career, not really knowing "how to level up". I knew how to code, but I didn't really know how to develop software and I was actually working solo despite my junior status, so I was feeling quite directionless. I went to my first Ruby meetup and a few things kicked me in the right direction:
Sandi Metz was speaking. I hadn't heard of her, but damn was her talk just what I needed in terms of thinking about writing object-oriented code.
Someone recommended the Ruby Rogues podcast, before this I didn't know about developer podcasts.
I could talk to people about what I was dealing with.
It's hard to imagine now how little I knew about any of these things, but this experience really hit on the value of several of the topics you mention.
Once you have hit on all the checkmarks in your post for the first time, I'd say a goal is to keep yourself from getting too jaded. Keep looking for opportunities to get excited about the technology. Repeated exposure to all of this will keep the fire burning. It's easy to get tired of meetups because you have other priorities, but if you take some time off, remember that you can always go back to this groove to become reinvigorated.
Kim Arnett [she/her] leads the mobile team at Deque Systems, bringing expertise in iOS development and a strong focus on accessibility, user experience, and team dynamics.
Definitely! Thanks for sharing :)
Finding my second wind was how I came across robots! Best thing you can do for your career is keep learning, doesn't matter what it is. Glad you mentioned Podcasts, I forgot about them, eek.
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Hell yes. Great post. None of this is obvious. I remember a feeling of being pretty lost early on in my career, not really knowing "how to level up". I knew how to code, but I didn't really know how to develop software and I was actually working solo despite my junior status, so I was feeling quite directionless. I went to my first Ruby meetup and a few things kicked me in the right direction:
It's hard to imagine now how little I knew about any of these things, but this experience really hit on the value of several of the topics you mention.
Once you have hit on all the checkmarks in your post for the first time, I'd say a goal is to keep yourself from getting too jaded. Keep looking for opportunities to get excited about the technology. Repeated exposure to all of this will keep the fire burning. It's easy to get tired of meetups because you have other priorities, but if you take some time off, remember that you can always go back to this groove to become reinvigorated.
Definitely! Thanks for sharing :)
Finding my second wind was how I came across robots! Best thing you can do for your career is keep learning, doesn't matter what it is. Glad you mentioned Podcasts, I forgot about them, eek.