It is literally not possible to code while listening to The Prodigy and not feel like your inside the movie Hackers!

With December, my all time nightmare month fast approaching, reflecting on my career. Long one coming up. All my life, I always ended up in positions I was clearly not ready for, and had to bring the best out of it with minimal help. I could just never afford to get comfortable first, which is probably a good thing. When I came back from Japan, I started teaching students in my uni from higher years... some of my students are translating now, many of them passed exams there and then that I still haven't passed myself. When I started bartending, got into the deep end straight away, and had to build skills way above my level at that point... just wanted to get good at it. I got my first Acting Bar Manager job as a battlefield promotion, days before the December rush, when the manager, assistant manager, and two of the strongest team members left. I had to learn how to lead, unless I want mass staff walkouts, and still ended up working 90 hour weeks for the rest of the month. Always managed venues way above my perceived caliber, in my head I was almost always unqualified. Read all the books I found from the trade, went to all the trainings I could, watch videos from the world's best professionals, and took a real pride in what I do. Studied as a bartender, like I do now as a developer. Trained many excellent bar professionals in the industry, never making it to the big league, top cocktails bars... but many of my students did. Makes me extremely proud that they surpass me in a beautiful, grossly underestimated and ungrateful profession, looking after people as they should. I got fired from the first big league cocktail bar, two days into the pandemic with no hard feelings... which ultimately led me to learn how to code. Year and a half of study all alone, 365 days coding consecutively, and it took me a year and a half to get my first job... as you can guess, way out of my comfort zone. The job was advertised as Senior on LinkedIn... and before everyone loses their marbles, let's calm down. It was not a senior position as a I got it (that would be silly),and we definitely met in the middle, but I managed to prove my worth well enough, so I can get a fair shot. Got a chance from some amazing people who picked me out of the garbage, after the previous life chewed me up and spit me out. Two and a half later now, different challenges await. I've built multiple products end to end with no previous experience, and since the were nobody else in my stack, had to learn everything the hard way. Spent the last 3-6 months refactoring my own questionable code, fired many foot guns... like my late grandma used to say, touched all bricks twice in that house. Built it to the best of my abilities... and always delivered. Employed, but I honestly feel like one of those indie hackers, and grateful for all the great people I get to work alongside, holding our little corner, building something awesome, and punching waaay above our weights. I wasn't ready for it then, made it happen. Now I'm not ready for the next wave of challenges in different codebases, different architectures... need to learn again as I go, and smash it again, whatever happens. Just to spice things up, I am also going to be in charge of training up a new junior in the upcoming future... if playing with my own career is not enough. I'm not afraid of mistakes anymore, but I need to give my best for other people in the future... so they can surpass me once again. I'm very new at this myself, the eggshell is still on my bottom... but this is a recurring pattern in my life. Never ready, but always rise, and grow up to the challenges. Thank you if you made it here to the bottom, it was nice to write it out of myself. If you find yourself in a similar, or much harder positions... remember to bring the best out of it. If you have a shot, make it count.

I've been working as a software engineer for 8 years. Here are 3 lessons I've learned: 1. Technical knowledge is less important than you think I've met people who got promoted to senior levels even though they weren't that great at coding. Their secret? They knew the product really well. They understood how different parts moved and were able to partake in the design meetings. They could easily spot an incorrect feature behavior and report it. Also they were pretty awesome to be around. Programming is how you can get your foot in the door -no doubt about that. But knowing how Promises work won't impress anyone either. 2. People are lazy - use that to your advantage Very few people want to investigate an annoying bug. Nobody wants to write tests, documentation or extensive ticket descriptions. I'm not even gonna mention updating dependencies. Use this to your advantage. It's so easy to stand out nowadays. Just be less lazy than those around you. 3. Be at the bleeding edge of tech or risk falling behind Tech is every changing - everybody knows that. That's why I don't recommended getting a job at a company that uses old tech, like Java 8 or some obscure JavaScript framework from the 2000s. If you need to work there (as a first job for example) - start looking for a new opportunity after 12-15 months. Companies want excellent programmer that know the industry standards. Don't trade your potential for money.

For the longest time I've hated the “light high contrast” theme in VS code...until I had to sit with my back to a bright window at work today and hallelujah that theme saved me! *I actually used a variation from the bearded themes pack called “Bearded Theme Milkshake Mint” 🙌

writing code with my 56y/o dad (20yrs as a physician, pivoted into bioinformatics) is one of my absolute favorite things. makes my heart full

Wow! My last post has reached quite a few people! Thank you all for your kind comments 🥰

I had a special moment yesterday when my brother (a life long programmer & computer science grad) and me (a bootcamp graduate, 2 months into my first tech job) sat down and wrote code on a project together for the first time 🤜🤛

Just got back from an eye opening talk from Oli Winks and Adam Newman at the launch of the Green Software meetup here in Brighton. So many things I'd never thought about regarding software and its environmental impact! 😱 more info here:greensoftware.foundation/ @SiliconBrighton

Today is my 1-year anniversary at my first tech job. I DID IT!!!!! 😁👏 Go me! 🎂

Does anyone else have a notion account or physical notebook full of project ideas for all areas of life 😁 I had a great idea yesterday at work and rushed to jot it down before it escaped! I think this one will actual be really fun...i promise, its not just another idea...😅

Today I turned 3️⃣0️⃣ 🎈

Today was my 8th day at work as a dev and it was a good day! I had some small wins on a project I'm working on which were hard fought but really satisfying knowing that I got there eventually 🙌 tomorrow is my last day before a long weekend for birthday celebrations 😃

Finally fixing a bug that you have been working on for 24 hours is the BEST feeling!!!

The last few weeks have been totally mental at work and in my personal life but its official, today is my last day at my current job after 6.5 years! 😱

Happy Brighton Pride! 🌈 Despite the weather being abysmal, we are celebrating none the less!

RT @Luisa_Donato: sudo 🪄✨

I planned to code before work today which got derailed because we were running late and by the time I had dropped my partner off and put petrol in the car, it wasn't worth starting anything. Now its like an itch I wasn't able to scratch ha ha 🙃@codewars here I come 🥷

Looking a little further into eslint and prettier today to keep my current project looking professional 😀Only ever used the AirBnB standard before so its nice to take more control over my own preferences!