Backstory 🧾
In late 2022, before all the ChatGPT hype, most of the tech news headlines look something like this "Mass layoffs in [Insert well-known tech company]". It can be very unsettling to see announcements like that. Perhaps on one end, it's a relief to know that certain companies offer good redundancy packages, on the other you'd still be losing your job.
I've had the privilege to make a choice and hand in my resignation letter in March. To be honest, it felt like one of the hardest decisions to make. Here's a glimpse of what the internal battle looks like:
Wow, it's a dream company to work for and you're choosing to leave during uncertain times!
I have experience working on project X/Y/Z, yet I can't land a successful offer - I must be a failure.
I'm still reluctant to admit this sometimes, but I experienced burnout, this story deserves another post on its own. During that time, Monday wasn't as exciting as it used to be anymore and somehow, I feel like I've lost a part of myself who loves tech.
It took me almost a whole year to make peace with my own decision after numerous interview failures, but I'm happy to share I've managed to land a new job offer since the last post. Here I am, sharing the lessons I've learned and things I would do better as I keep going on this journey. I hope you find them useful as well.
Things I would do more ✔
Take care of mental health
Burnout is a huge buzzword since the pandemic. Humans are social creatures and to be confined to a small space over long periods of hours just staring at a computer screen isn't healthy. What is burnout?
Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged stress and overwhelming work demands. It is characterized by feelings of cynicism, detachment, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment.
Coding or tech-related tasks can be mentally draining. A lot of focus or context switching is required occasionally. How to prevent it? By taking breaks in between.
Not just the vacation type of breaks over a week. But limit the screen time after working hours and detach from social media for a while. Exercise to release stress. Go and enjoy your hobby, if you don't have one then try out different things. Even a 5-minute walk or breathing exercises could make a big difference in regulating the stress level in the body's nervous system.
If you're in a bad headspace, you could easily spiral downward and things may look gloomy. Over an extended period, it could even lead to physical problems like insomnia or fatigue. At the end of the day, a job is a job. Prioritize work-life balance because you only live once. ❤
Communicate more
Back in university, things seemed much simpler. Assignments, projects, exams, do all that well enough and being able to graduate is achievable. In the early career stage, things started to evolve. Welcome to the real world: A task gets assigned now go figure out how to get around a large codebase, implement small features and fix bugs.
Over time, the responsibilities get more complex. Being technically sound will only get you so far because it is essential to interact with others. If you can communicate effectively - regardless of whether it is verbal or written, you can go so much further.
For example, I used to get nervous during daily stand-ups because I wasn't sure what to say. As I become more experienced, I've learned that it's mainly to let others know about your progress and whether there's a blocker or if help is needed. Most times, even when there's no progress, it's good to share what led to the dead-end investigation (someone might find it helpful).
I will update this blog more frequently in the future as a means to share my knowledge. Apart from that, it's important to learn how to communicate abstract ideas more effectively and to know your audience, for example: managers, designers, cross-functional team members or even clients.
Growth mindset
Being in technology in this era is a blessing and a curse. There's always something new to learn, always a new way of doing something more efficiently. Constantly having to keep up with something new may not be easy. Therefore, having a growth mindset is important in this field.
We need a healthy way to view challenges and setbacks. You can be a master of one technology/framework/language, but as soon as you try to pick up something new, you may have to start from zero. Having a growth mindset means you believe things can be improved with effort.
Cultivating a growth mindset means that you acknowledge the effort you're putting into learning something new and will be better at it. While learning, even when we make mistakes or receive criticism, viewing these as failures or setbacks probably will do more damage than good. Instead, don't take it too personally and learn from it.
It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.
Mentorship
You learn by teaching.
Looking back, I secretly wish I have a 'big brother/big sister' telling me what will the path ahead look like. Something from career to life advice, getting a promotion to preventing burnout or even ways to improve my interviewing skills.
I had the opportunity to participate in a company-wide mentorship event for a quarter. If your workplace provides such an opportunity, I urge you to participate. It was an insightful experience as I got to meet other colleagues from different departments across different time zones. I volunteered as a mentor for the quarter and learned so much.
In certain companies, mentors are even provided with learning materials such as information on how to host the meeting, how to engage with others during the meeting and how to be committed. One interesting thing was to ask open-ended questions instead of a "yes/no" ones. People tend to explain more and from there, it is possible to ask follow-up questions on topics that have piqued your interest.
While mentoring, you might be surprised by the things you might learn from others that aren't available from the books - it can be called reverse mentoring. It's a great foundation to build relationships with your colleagues.
Things I would try out 🤔
Leadership
At the time of writing this, I can't foresee myself working as a software engineer until I retire. My path forward which I imagine for myself is to keep learning and develop my management, leadership skills and people skills.
In the future, I would like to try out a principal/staff role if I'm still able to keep up with all the technical knowledge, otherwise, I would also consider an engineering managerial role. These are two very different roles with different responsibilities. One is more people-oriented, and the other is less people-oriented but requires deep technical knowledge.
Regardless of the former or the latter, I think more females should be in those positions in tech as they would pave the path for gender equality in tech.
Public speaking
Being able to attend a tech conference as a speaker - the one with maybe a hall full of audience is one of my bucket list items, which can be crossed off one day hopefully.
Speaking in public can be nerve-wracking for an introverted person. I started small by attending panel sessions with other people to share my journeys in tech with students. Those sessions always ended with a sense of contentment as I feel that I've helped others in their journey (hopefully).
Speaking in public is one good way to share knowledge offline, but it can be daunting due to the spotlight effect for a beginner.
The spotlight effect is the psychological phenomenon by which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are.
Start with a small audience to build up some courage. Find a local toastmaster session or public speaking club to practice your delivery - everything comes down to the details. It is also a great way to meet new people!
Things I would do less or stop doing ❌
Comparing to others
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Nothing good comes out of comparison, especially when you're doing that to yourself against an imaginary other person in your head. It is pointless because everyone is on their own journey, with completely different cultures and backgrounds. You don't know what someone else is going through behind the scene. So be kind to yourself.
Try to channel that energy as an inspiration instead:
That person did an amazing presentation on [X] concept, I really could pick something to incorporate some of the things I've picked up in my next presentation.
That person became a [insert position] in [X] amount of year, maybe I could ask for some advice on how to get there too.
That other person manages to convince the entire team to use [X] technology, I will find out what was the reason behind it and how to do it.
Comparing ourselves is not something we can easily get rid of because it's natural to compare as humans, we want to gauge where we stand in society. Moving forward, I would try to only compare myself with my past self.
Being reluctant to ask questions
“Ask a stupid question and you get a stupid answer" is something I've heard a lot growing up. Maybe the adults just wanted some peace and quiet for just a few minutes. But this belief had stuck with me for a long time, so even now, I'm quite reluctant to ask questions that seemed simple.
It could also be my impostor syndrome, I tend to think everyone knows everything there is to get the job done. But in reality, that's not the case at all. Someone could be as clueless as myself or hearing something for the first time too.
As I continue to progress, I will try to be less reluctant to ask something even if it sounds silly. I will do that by using the "time-boxing method", instead of feeling stuck and it gets harder to ask as time passes. If I can't find the required information within [X amount of time], I will proceed to ask someone who may know and provide an explanation on my previous attempt.
Summary - TLDR 🥱
I hope you find these lessons useful in your dev journey. To summarize here are a few points:
To do more:
Take care of your mental health.
Learn how to communicate - it's vital.
Cultivate a growth mindset to have a healthy view of challenges and obstacles.
Mentor others and learn from them.
Try to do:
Leads others
Speaking in public is a great way to meet others and share knowledge.
To do less:
Comparing yourself with others isn't productive.
Being reluctant to ask questions will make you feel stuck.