After finishing my college degree, I was really looking forward and very excited to start my career in the corporate world. No more sleepless nights studying, worrying for the upcoming series of exams and even more travel weekends. Seems a perfect and ideal way to live life to the to fullest.
I was lucky enough to have my first ever corporate job right after I graduated. My client and company are happy with the quality service and quick turnaround I’m providing them.
I was working for almost a year when it came into some point where I started to feel like I’m dull.
Yes, I did enjoy travelling and go to a lot of places, living financially stable, lots of time playing video games and sports yet I still feel that something is off.
I realized that I STOPPED learning.
I’ve been working so hard for a year doing almost same work routine everyday up to the point where days pass by with no new interesting stuffs learned which I think was unhealthy.
“There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don’t know.” – Ambrose Bierce
It really sucks when you realize at the end of the day that you are way far behind on skills and knowledge you think would be cool to learn and acquire.
So I took a leap and decided to go back studying and found the missing puzzle.
I missed the thrill on trying out cool stuffs and great satisfaction learning new things.
Few months ago, I have challenged myself to start learning as much as I can. Acquire new knowledge which can improve and boost my current skills set.
“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
— B. B. King
I’m not aiming to be an expert on any subject or field but rather become more versatile, knowledgeable and efficient on my career. I did some evaluation on my current skills and decided to start on digging deeper on PHP. This is where I set some goals.
Build something while learning
My first goal was to enhance my Backend development skills.
I decided to select a PHP Framework, focus on it and learn as much as I can.
I chose Laravel. Why?
Great Documentation. Easy to learn video tutorials. Awesome framework.
I’m not really a good programmer at all so I need something that is easy to learn. It may be difficult at the beginning, but you will get the hang out of it and surely you will fell in love with Laravel.
“I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.” -Albert Einstein
Learning by yourself is quite tough and frustrating especially for average people like me that takes time to learn.
Good thing its 2015! You can find almost any resources you need in the web. With just few clicks away, you can have instant access nowadays to a vast source of information; from blogs, forums, podcasts, online-courses and tools.
We are really lucky! Learning nowadays is way easier compared to any previous generations.
Also, building something while learning in my case is really effective. It had speed up the way I understand things. It gave me better way to grasp on the concept and while applying it on an actual thing.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.— Ronald E. Osborn
Currently, I’m on my second goal. Learn as much JavaScript Frameworks as possible to level up my Frontend Development skills and speed up my workflow.
For the past weeks, I have been digging deeper on these following frameworks: Angular, React, Backbone, Underscore, Node, Express, Browserify and Gulp.
Just like my first goal, I used the “build while learning” approach.
I started playing on some APIs, gave them user interfaces with different approach using those frameworks I mentioned above.
It’s really a great fulfillment seeing all those different versions working in the same manner. While working on each versions, I have seen and understood the strong and weak points for each frameworks.
It’s still a long way ahead.
It’s never too late to start over. If you weren’t happy with yesterday, try something different today. Don’t stay stuck. Do better.