At the end of January, I started writing about how I want to be a better programmer in 2022. If you haven't read it, you should check out my first article of the series first.

Since not much has happened in the last few months, this article is coming later than intended, but now seems like the perfect time to do it.
Now let's see what I've accomplished so far, what's changed about my plans, and what I've had to adjust.

What I wanted to focus in the first quarter

(and what I actually focused on)

1. FreeCodeCamp and FrontendMasters to deepen React
2. TypeScript
3. Redux, SCSS
4. Java Springboot
5. Scrum and Project Management

My plans to focus on above changed due to the project I have been working on in my company since January. Since the project is in its final phase, I have mainly been doing bug fixes related to the user interface with SCSS and accessibility (a11y).

It was very stressful, so that I had hardly any strength in the evenings and on the weekends to deal with programming in my spare time. 😪 It just seemed like too much and I really wanted to avoid any kind of frustration, burnout or other feelings that would get in the way of my improvements.

Therefore, I could only focus on 2 items on the list: SCSS and Scrum and Project Management.
Through this project I was able to gain a lot of experience in Scrum and project management as well as Git and its workflow. So I won't invest any more time in it, as it is now part of the daily project workflow.

The right time to focus on the other things starts now 🤓

The current project will end on May 31 and a new chapter will begin. The next project I'm participating in will use ReactTS, Redux, Microsoft FluidUI, Storybook, NodeJS.... , and I'm already very excited about it. It will be much easier to deepen my knowledge of React since I will now be working with it on a daily basis.
Not only will I gain a better understanding of React, but also software architecture, design patterns, CI/CD, and much more (I'm already on the team to discuss these things).

Also, a11y will play a big role in the next few months (and my future as a developer in general). Check out my recent article about my journey to accessibility.
I will have to study for IAAP (Web Accessibility Specialist) to get certified. This will be a big deal, as it is not very common in Austria to get certified in this field. So I will be one of the few to have this amazing certificate and gain a lot of knowledge about this very important topic.

To get involved with a11y at an earlier stage as well, I started taking the Google UX Design Training on Coursera.

Furthermore I will take the certification for OCA (Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE 11 Developer) in the next weeks. The cost of these certificates will be covered by my company. It counts as training and I will prepare for these exams during working hours.
❗OCA, as well as Spring Boot, is something I need to be proficient in to some degree due to my contract, but regarding Spring Boot I won't invest any time until I need it for a future project. I want to focus solely on becoming a front-end developer.

To keep everything on track, as I mentioned in the first article, I work with Kanban board in Notion and additionally with GitHub projects in terms of documentation and for my private projects.
Also, I mentioned in my last article that I feel GitLab has a lot more features than GitHub, this has changed a lot in the last few months. We will also be using GitHub for my next project for the same reasons.

💡 Sooner than I thought, when I wrote the first article about my journey to become a better developer in 2022, I started contributing to open source. This was possible thanks to the great EddieHub community.

What I will focus on starting from June, 01

From June I will

• start to learn for the IAAP Certification in June/July, which should take me about a month since I am already experienced in it and we do have a special training at my company
• start to learn for the OCA Certification in June/July, which should take me about a month due our special training at my company
• deepen my knowledge of ReactTS and Redux by working on a new project in my company starting in September
• continue to take the Google UX Design Certificate, on the weekends just for myself

My future is becoming clearer and clearer; I sort of have an idea of where I want to be at the end of 2022. I want to call myself an Accessibility and React Frontend Developer by the end of the year. That makes the next few months even more exciting.

And now let's get going and make progress. See you at the end of the next quarter 👋

Thanks for your reading and time. I really appreciate it!