So this is a story all about…no. This is about SeanTRobinson, this website, this is a story of learning. I’m a software engineer that graduated university in June 2012, graduated pretty well actually. Almost immediately after getting my cap and gown, I was head hunted and got offered a job in a local startup. The business consisted of me, the Director and someone who managed the web site huddling together in an office we shared with some other business. They are called hot-desks in the UK.
Very quickly I came to realise that university hadn’t actually prepared me particularly well for a working environment; academically I was sound, but practically I was lacking. I’ll discuss the reason I think this happened in another post. Long story short, I needed to get some skills.
Over two years, I launched myself on an unrelenting training and learning program, determined to succeed and be great. I made mistakes, improved, made some more mistakes, got advice and, generally speaking, moved towards a better place.
Quite suddenly, the government announced that it was decimating additional funding for disabled students in education. Despite attempts to pivot into new markets, we still weren’t in a position to successfully transition the business fully. The upshot is that it needed to be scaled back to a skeleton crew. I was one of the ones to go.
So I sit here writing this with a slightly uncertain future. I’m sure that I’ll get work quickly enough, but don’t know exactly what it will be, or what my path looks like yet. This isn’t a sob story, I’m going to be absolutely fine, I have no doubt. I’m certainly in a good position compared to many people in this world, software engineers come at a premium nowadays.
At this natural juncture, the end of Chapter 1, it seems like a good place to recant my journey so far. To codify what I’ve learned, for posterity and reflection. I hope that some of this advice may help others in a similar situation, and I hope to be corrected and advised by others further along this path than I am. I’m a learner, and I want to be the best.
Most of what I say will be a repeat of something I’m sure, just repackaged in a way that worked for me, and that might work for somebody else. I would love contributions by others. Feel free to challenge my ideas, debate my reasoning and offer your own pearls to me and anyone else who may have stumbled across this.
To people further further behind me on this path, I say push, push HARD; you’ve chosen well, but you’ve got a lot of ground to cover. The fact that you’ve chosen this road already speaks volumes, don’t doubt yourself and always be striving to improve.
I wish you all the best of luck.