I graduated just over a year and a three quarters ago and it’s been an eventful period to say the least. I’m using this post to reflect on what’s happened, where I’ve been and what the future holds.

Graduation seems so long ago now and it was an incredibly proud time. Little did I know that there is so much hard work still to go. I started my career at MadeByPi in Leeds and moved onto McCann after around 6 months. It was a risky move so early in my career but it’s been a very good choice. McCann is a very good company, a lovely workplace and the projects are great.

I recently had my review at work so it’s given me time to reflect on how I feel I’m doing, how I could improve etc…Overall I feel pretty good. I’ve come a long way since graduating, both as a professional and a web developer.

I feel pretty competent at Front-End development. My CSS and HTML are at a good standard, I know a fair bit about best practices, structure and speed. I’m good with responsive websites and mobile development. I’m good with SASS, Grunt, Git and loads of other stuff. My Javascript has come a long way these last 6 months and that’s something I’m going to continue to improve on. Other FE skills I need to improve on are AJAX and JSON.
Overall I feel like a good developer but I think I’ve still much to learn. Comparing yourself to others is a good idea and I’m a fair way off some of my more experienced colleagues, but then again they have about 5+ years more experience than me.

My design is good and I’m really chuffed with the freelance and personal sites that I’ve been producing. I’ve embraced a clean, minimal style and I get a fair amount of freelance enquiries so I’m pretty confident people like my work. If I had one negative it would be that my design isn’t versatile enough, this is something I’m working on.

I feel like I’ve changed a lot as a person. My speaking skills are much better and if I’m confident in what I’m thinking I’ll speak up and make myself heard. My English Language has improved both spoken and written. My spelling and grammar has improved significantly and writing is something I now really enjoy.

I’ve come a long long way since university but there is still so much further to go. I thought that once I graduated things would get easier, but they most certainly don’t. The most challenging and biggest learning curve of my uni/work career was certainly the first year of employment. I didn’t really have a clue and it’s only these last six months I’ve started to feel comfortable with myself at work. I wrote a blog post about that.

I got it into my head a short while ago about being desperate for promotion to a mid-weight position (I’m currently a junior). I thought lots about this and after a few tough weeks at work I kind of changed my mind. I don’t feel I’m ready for it yet.
I have seen people in mid-weight or even senior positions who have been working as long as I have, it’s a bit ridiculous and they wouldn’t last five minutes if they came to work at McCann in those positions. I’m chuffed I’m working at a high industry level and alongside some very talented people. My biggest aim is to become more skilled and the junior position allows me to obtain maximum help and advice from my lead developer. My time will certainly come but I don’t want to rush things and hinder my career.

So I’m looking forward to the next few years of my career. I hope you are too!

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