2023 Year in review

2023 has been an extraordinary year for me. It marked my first full year as a Senior Software Engineer, during which I took on the challenge of architecting a system from scratch.

I want to take a look back at all the things I worked on and accomplished this year 2023. This post is inspired by Julia Evan’s yearly “brag document”.

2023 Goals: Did I hit them?

At the onset of 2023, I set a primary goal:

“Become a well-regarded tech lead.”

This goal was two-fold:

  1. Enhancing my capabilities to fulfill the role of a tech lead effectively.
  2. Sharing knowledge to establish myself as a recognized figure in tech leadership.

Reflecting back, I can say that I have made progress toward this goal. Key achievements include:

Projects at Netzon

This year, I contributed significantly to projects at Netzon, an IT consultancy firm. Due to confidentiality agreements, I’ll refer to these projects by codenames.

Charms: a custom jewelry eCommerce site

Charms, an eCommerce platform for custom jewelry, was a highlight project for me. My role involved:

  • Drafting the initial technical proposal, which was instrumental in winning the project bid.
  • Architecting the e-commerce platform using BigCommerce and NextJS.
  • Leading a team of five, handling task delegation and development oversight.
  • Taking on the role of DevOps lead, setting up cloud resources with Linode Kubernetes Engine and establishing CI/CD pipelines using Gitlab.

Launched in October, Charms is now in a phase of ongoing optimization and feature development.

MH: an ADHD coach

In the beginning of the year, I worked on a mobile app codenamed MH, designed to assist parents of children with ADHD.

My unofficial role as a technical project manager involved requirement gathering, sprint planning, and project coordination. The app entered open testing in early March.

Ventures Beyond Netzon

Apart from my primary job, I engaged in personal projects to sharpen my technical skills.

The Cloud Resume Challenge

I built a “cloud resume” as part of The Cloud Resume Challenge by Forrest Brazeal.

This project allowed me to gain practical experience with Terraform, GitHub Actions, and various AWS services.

I wrote my journey on a blog post.

Diving into Frontend Development

Transitioning from a backend-focused developer to a more versatile tech lead, I dove into frontend technologies this year.

I read the React and NextJS 14 documentation from end-to-end. I made a sample project demonstrating concepts such as contexts, app routers and client and server rendering.

I also made a custom React component that reengineered a cool component from the official Pokemon TCG site (I also got into Pokemon Trading Cards this year!).

Podcasts

I made a habit of listening to Podcasts this year. I got fond of listening to stuff geared more towards the tech lead role - like the Soft Skills Engineering with Dave & Jamison which talks about aspects of software development beyond code.

Other podcasts I listened to this year:

What’s in store for 2024?

My goal will remain for 2024: to become a well-regarded tech lead. While I’ve made considerable progress, there’s still a journey ahead. I plan to:

  • Obtain the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certification.
  • Increase my social media presence and blog more frequently.
  • Lead improvements in front-end unit testing and observability for the Charms project.

Here’s to a productive and fulfilling 2024!