My 2022 Review

2022 was completely a mind-blowing year for me. Lots of changes happened at work. At present, things seem to be going to settle down, I want to look back at my year.

My balcony (2022)

Q1

At beginning of the year, I started with Metaverse and NFT research. I completed my first course about a new technology Blockchain on brilliant[dot]com which became my best favorite learning platform later on. Getting a certified IBM developer certification was also a good experience. I gained more knowledge of technologies including containerization, microservices, DevOps, and Cloud-Native. It triggered me to plan for DevOps toolchain enhancement for the company. Adopting GitOps practice was a good start. It is one of my main focuses for my position role as a Tech Lead. I was really impressed by the book “The Brief History of Time”. The story of Stephen Hawking was so inspiring. To me, it was one of my favorite books of this year. Sadly, this period was the time when some of my good friends were leaving the company.

Q2

Changing the organizational process was so truly difficult. Lots of discussions have been conducted to have the same voice for a group of people since the new role Engineering Lead was proposed for the change. What I experienced well in this period was that whenever I put my energy into something, all related things will come around me. And, franking is the only medicine to treat toxic sicknesses and environments. I started to sharpen my English pronunciation skills with ELSA speak app. I also spent time reading human management-related books including “The Mythical Man-Month” and “Peopleware”. I also spent a month interviewing for a new role as an Engineering Manager in a startup.

Q3

The role of Engineering Lead was adopted well. Working with completely new teams with new projects was an excellent experience. I have learned to work with new people who don’t have the same mindset as me. As a leader of the new teams, I understand more about the effortless approach to leading people. Getting the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) certificate helped me set up my working style as a Scrum Master with new teams. I affirmed that I should not be a hero but rather that I need to give more authority to the team to be self-organized.

Q4

Still, there were many things happened unanticipatedly. Another good member was leaving the company. It was the first time I joined team HR to define a process of annual performance appraisal. It took a huge time and effort. Some new practices were officially applied as a company standard such as Engineering Levels, OKRs, and the role of Team Lead. I also have experience with leading some development teams working on different projects built with different technologies. Giving clarity of the projects' roadmap for developers was my important job. Moreover, I have learned along with teams to solve different emerging project issues.

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