In this blog post, I'll share how this year has been for me, and some ideas to look forward to in the future 😁.

Introduction

I learned a lot this year, so even though we are in the midst of a pandemic, I feel this year was awesome! Moved into another job, changing the stack I used to work with from MEARN to .NET Core & Azure.

Although I didn't write as much as I thought I would, I've accumulated a list of ideas and topics to write about 😃. I plan to launch a new series called "Learning: X", and then a few blog posts outside that series. I know... the series name isn't all that creative 😅, but it gets the main message across: learning! That's what I love, so sharing my learning journey hopefully helps out someone else.

Regarding the blog posts I did write, I'm very glad I did them. The main reason is for retrospective, I can look back and compare how I used to do things, and see if they remain the same or if they changed. That is one of the reasons I want to continue writing, but another is the fact it forces me to think of how to explain something in an easy and short consumable format.

I'm also happy to have joined a community and started contributing more to open-source projects! Huge thanks to Eddie Jaoude! If you're interested, check out our community on GitHub and our issue template to join the organization 😃.

The upside

On the bright side, tons of events became virtual, with more talks available on YouTube. There is one particular channel I'm really happy exists, which is Paulo Pereira's Twitch channel. It would be awesome if more universities and teachers made the content they teach, mostly freely available.
Note: The content on the Twitch channel is in Portuguese 😄, but it's top-notch quality, IMO.

Goals

My goals for 2021 fall into two categories: Communication & Cloud computing.

Communication

Until months ago, I hadn't reallyyyy thought about soft-skills. Throughout my journey, I've simply focused on technical skills, and making sure I write clean code. Although that is essential, I want to transition into another phase now, which involves speaking more to people. But the catch is that I won't be just speaking with other devs, discussing implementation details and solutions to problems. No, I'll potentially speak to Product Managers, Product Owners, business people, architects, Scrum masters, etc. The terms I used are common in the industry, but there might be more roles depending on your company.

There is one other aspect I consider important which is mentoring. As I grow into a more senior role, teaching others is mandatory, IMO. I'd go as far as to say that the more knowledge I get, the more reason I have to share that with anyone that seeks it.

Therefore, communication is crucial if you want to mentor someone, since being able to explain yourself and the way you think (e.g. in problem-solving) helps the mentee.

I still got a lot to learn and grow in this department, but it's clearly a goal to accomplish in 2021.

Cloud computing

I want to follow the path of an Architect on Azure. Currently, I have my eyes set on Azure Fundamentals, then Azure Developer Associate, then Architect.

I've been thinking a lot about the world of back-end engineering, and how vast it is. I looked up this topic many times on Google and YouTube and saw quite some blog posts about this (especially roadmaps). Through my thinking process, I tried to pick something to focus on. Now... cloud computing is indeed an area of back-end engineering, but it's quite a big one 😅, but that's on purpose. While I explore Azure/AWS cloud services, I'll want to delve into various other fields naturally like DevOps, microservices, and event-driven architectures.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading my "year review" post. Leave a comment with any feedback, and I'd gladly respond 😃. I don't know everything and I'm constantly learning, so please do call me out on my BS if you don't agree, or see an area of improvement. Hopefully, in a year from now, I'll write another post, following-up on all my goals 😁.