Exactly one year ago (16th of February 2018) I started a new job because I felt I need a change.
My last job was interesting enough - my team and I were building a game UI editor (imagine Photoshop that outputs ready to use HTML, CSS, and JS files) and I loved it. It was a dream come true - coding all day, some meetings once in a while, a lot of free coffee and plenty of time for research and side work. And then it happened.
In late December 2017, one sunny day, the whole team received an invite for a meeting with the CEO and the project manager. We knew something was coming, but we didn't know what. Only a couple hours later we were standing in one of the meeting rooms shocked - the project was frozen, all work was stopped and we were assigned to different internal projects. None of us were prepared for that. We tried to find a solution, something that could work for all, but it was too late - the decision was made. Then it came to me - it was time for a change.
Two months later I was standing at my new desk, in the new office of my new company, thinking if I have made the right choice, not knowing that the decision I have made was one of my best.
In the first months, I volunteered for some additional activities - I've made a couple of tech talks and took part in our Internship Program as a presenter and mentor. The lead of our Frontend Unit (a group consisting of all Frontend and JavaScript developers inside the company) saw my interest and invited me to help her develop and extend the frontend community in the company.
I felt wonderful - my dream of taking part in something different than coding was finally happening. But the changes were far from over.
In November, our Frontend Unit lead left the company. I was immediately invited by the CTO for a quick meeting. I left that meeting with a new position - Frontend Unit lead. Shortly after I started doing the Frontend and JavaScript technical interviews.
There were some changes in my project too - I was assigned a small team, that would develop and maintain our new public documentation system - both API documentation and written technical documentation - everything from architecture to deployment. I actually plan to write a story about that soon.
Also, last December we started a new initiative in the company - career coaching. A career coach is a person that would help you and guide you to achieve your goals, whatever they are - technical, management or any other. I went through a training and now I'm one of the 15 people in the company that are career coaches.
So, my work is now 60% coding - 30% management - 10% interviews and other company related work. Management and team leading was something totally new for me. It was tough in the beginning, but it was worth it. It is something that I wanted for a long time and it is so empowering and rewarding. The only downside is that my time is very limited now. There are times where I find myself working for 10-12 hours a day. I had to learn how to plan and prioritize work, but in the end, everything went fine and now I can easily say that I'm fully enjoying it.