Shadows Across The Floor
Shadows Across The Floor
I am stuck at Gatwick airport. No really.
[Edit: for anyone reading and getting concerned - I got safely onto a train back to my hometown that stops in my street].
The delays back home from London to Brighton have been so bad today that I have changed trains three times and I still have no signs of imminently getting home.
So what better time or moment to reflect on my software career. Today I had a chat which changed a lot of things for me.
I mean I had a lot of amazing chats.
I had such an amazing chat with a mentor, and it really changed a lot for me.
But first I had a conversation with a staff engineer at work. We talked about growth and goals.
And he really told me what a lot of people have been telling me; to just enjoy the journey.
To focus on learning.
He kept on talking about software engineering being a craft. And about how you should hone that craft. And it’s not always about the rank and the job title you get. It’s sometimes about being an expert - in like in really in one area. Or in one thing.
I have always said - and if you look back to my early blog posts, especially in the months before I got hired - you will see that this is true - I have always said that I became a software engineer out of service.
Now it just so happens that I love it. And I am very very lucky like that. I am very lucky with that. I love the people.
I love the job.
I love the whole role.
I love everything.
But either way, it was never really even a choice
It just became apparent to me and transparent to me that that was what I was really meant to do.
Maybe that’s why I was able to move into it so quickly.
I had no personal agenda at all. I think people don’t realise that. But I never had any goals or anything like that. I just went in with a knowledge that somehow, somewhere, this was what the world wanted me to do.
But then what’s next from there
This lasted for about 9-11 months and then I had that famous one day that I will never forget where I lost motivation (I only had 60% instead of 100% for once). My manager back then encouraged me to do some soul searching and I thought that I found answers.
And then the goals came.
I want to do frontend (lies - I do backend more now). I want to do energy (lies - I do water now). The goals that were enough for me back then are no longer enough anymore.
So then came the big bold goals
Over time the other goals had of course evolved. Become a staff engineer. Learn AI. But what if the goals were just that? Goals? Because after speaking to a staff engineer today - staff engineer’s don’t even get to code as much.
And there is a long process to get there - but again staff engineer is a job title that didn’t exist 5 years ago.
And I would rather be an expert in something and a Senior and an expert in one thing.
So what does that leave me with the goals again
So I am coming back to square one and back where I started. I am back to square one.
Selfless.
Not motives.
No desires.
My only desire is to do what is best for the world. My only desire is to do what is best for the whole of humanity and the whole of mankind. Whatever that means.
Does that mean building something really cool for the environment and technology? I hope so.
Does that mean becoming an expert in one thing and somehow really being able to serve the world in that respect? I hope so.
Does that mean being as kind and loving as I can to everyone around me during the process of this journey? Of course it does.
And speaking of which…
Speaking of which
Speaking of which I am the luckiest person in the world. I have three amazing and incredible mentors who I work with every day.
They are so so so amazing and so so so so wonderful and I love them so so so so much.
But I have this incredible opportunity
And so how do I use this incredible opportunity? I want to use this opportunity so so so much.
What does it mean to me to use this opportunity?
So what does it mean to me to use this opportunity?
- It means to me to treasure every day and to cherish every day this AMAZING INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY that I have - I am so so lucky to be working with such good mentors - and they are so, so so so so so SO good. Every day is to be cherished when I am working with such amazing people. Every day is to be appreciated.
- It means to me to KEEP TRACK OF AND KEEP TABS ON EVERY SINGLE TASK IT IS THEY SET FOR ME AND TO MAKE SURE THAT I COMPLETE IT.
- So for example:
- I am still getting better at this
- I make sure I keep a "Homeworkz" page with every single task that anyone has set for me and that I update it every day
- If I don't do a task then it is rolling - I move it over to the tasks that are set on the next day
- I make sure that I am grateful for every single task that has been set for me - without exception, every single task that has been given to me has been set for me out of a place of thoughtfulness and kindness, and out of a place of helping to learn and to grow and I am so so grateful to have them
- I make sure that I do these tasks because they matter to me and they have been set to me for a reason
- I make sure that I keep track of these tasks and that I keep a monitor of them both through the @Homeworks page and also through any other documents I write to monitor these
- It means to me to think about any of the things that any of them are setting me at any given time.
- For example lets say at the moment I work very closely with 3 specific seniors:
- One of them has set me the following tasks:
- To go through the engineering framework and see where I am at and what I could be working towards as well
- To go through the code that I have written for one of our projects and try to see how I could refactor it by myself
- To go through that same said code and to talk it through with someone else
- To see with that other person how I could improve it or refactor it
- To, once I have done that, implement the next step of the project and change two lines of the codebase to see how that might completely change the way that something is displayed
- And as an aside: to try and figure out for myself, either by myself or with help or with others, how to view the database in Django - is it DBeaver or does PyCharm have its own internal thing?
- With my second mentor:
- He has asked me to build out an app using serialisers in django rest framework and apis
- We might work on some Python together
- Maybe do some work on refactoring that code that I have mentioned above (but I also have a mentor who is external to the team who is very very cool and so I might be working with him - he is not the one I am about to mention below but a 4th one who I meet with about once a week and I can also ask questions).
- With my third mentor:
- I was asked to go away and read through a function and understand it line by line - I have pretty much done this although there is still more to do - this led to me pretty much writing out a whole post on Python logging.
- I am probably going to go over my code with him from my first mentor and talk about refactoring it with him.
- I might ask him about how to write better code in general.
- We work on python challenges together sometimes which is really so awesome and so so cool.
- I might also want to talk to him at some point about how to write better tests...
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