2015 - 2020 Retrospective: Dat's Progression

Context

This week marks the end of my week 1 at Amazon. It flew by quick but I think I did well: I was able to understand a lot more context, I started to vibe with co-workers, and I formed a pretty clear picture of how my workload is going to look like going forward (Spoiler: Lots of fun and challenges for sure). As I slowly realizing the scope that I will be working with, I hope that I will continue to keep my passion and curiosity at software and technology as my progress my way through this company, despite all the down-point and hardship that I will come across.

That's pretty much all I will say my new job in this post. I am sure there are so many people out there have shared their experiences at Amazon, both positive and negative. It is too early for me to say anything, and I don't think I would add any useful information to anyone. From my perspective, this moment is the start of a new year and my new job. That is why I would like to use this to have a quick look back on the past few years: what I have done and what I wish I have done. Since I am bad at writing a stories (as it will definitely be long and boring), I will use the retrospective format from Agile so that at the end, I might be able to setup a list of action items for the next 5 years.

2015 - 2020 Retrospectives

This is quite a time span to think about. There was so many different life moments that have happened. I went from being fresh high school grad kid to a young adult with stable income. Obviously I can't list out everything I have done. What I can do though is to list out things that I believe making the biggest impact to my life, either changing my perspective or fostered my growth. These things might be a one-off event or a gradual process over time.

Some stuff down here might not strictly related to career but rather more personal. I think it is worth it to put here since I think a good harmony between the two is the key to happiness in life. I will try my best to explain why I put it in 😅

What I have done

1. Frugal Travel Trip

During the Summer of 2015, my sister and I did a road trip from East coast to West coast of the United States solely by Greyhound buses for 2 months. We travelled through the Mid West, stayed in some cities in between and learned a whole lot about its history and culture (mostly through museums). The journey was on a very limited budget, as we both were just graduated (me from high school and my sister from MBA)

During the trip, in order to keep our budget manageable, we made a spreadsheet to keep track of our spending, within every meal, activities, and lodging. We don't want to miss out on any cultural experience (deep dish pizza in Chicago left a strong print for me) but outside of that, making our own meal is so much cheaper and more often healthier than grabbing it in a random store.

Looking back, the trip made me understand about financial responsibility. Early on in your career, this is something that is crucial because it can help you prioritize gaining experience over aiming for high salary. As an extra benefits, it's a good story to tell when you want to connect with people.

2. Being a mentor

I learned a lot of different things during my 3 years in college, but perhaps one thing stands out that I did not pay for is mentorship. After my first semester, I was nominated to be a tutor for math (and eventually CS) at Wentworth. Initially, I was just doing it for that swish swish cash 💸🤑.

As I started to tutor and review class materials to other students, I was able review a lot of insights for myself. Furthermore, I think it is the best way to communicate and explain your understanding outside of your mind. When you are able to teach a subject well and simplify it for others, that means you truly have grasped the core concept of it. This is a unique skill that you can only learn from mentorship. Over the course of my career, I definitely can recall many time I had applied this in order to help my team move forward.

3. Foster a passionate community

During my 2nd year in college, around the time when I got some more knowledge in CS, I wanted to find some people that I can bounce CS related idea with. I decided to form a student organization for it and eventually planned a Hackathon so I could even reach people outside of my school. I have never been a leader before but for some reason, planning all of this feel pretty natural to me. It was not entirely smooth sailing but I guess as we let our passion take the main seat, things tend to resolve itself as that's what draw us in in the first place.

I know passionate CS community is good but I did not know it would be this good. I appreciate meeting everyone here and learn about them as we building up a great event. To this day, we still keep in touch and chat about all things in life. If I have to give a single most important advice to anyone, I think joining a community like this for your hobby/career/passion would probably be my top choice (if there is none around you then take the initiative to build one 😉)

4. Working in startup culture

When I was searching for my co-op/internship for some early work experience, my eyes were fixated on big/well-established software names. After all, it is normal to think those company will teach you much more than others on the market, right? Well based on my current experience, I would not fully agree with that statement. After a bunch of rejections and offers from different companies, I ended up joining TechWorks, a startup innovative organization of Shell (yes the large energy company).

I become part of a small software team that tackles various interesting project, from cost optimization to safety critical applications. We get to apply cutting-edge technologies and taking some aspect of technical ownership of different projects. When you get a high degree of freedom in your work, combined with a decent amount of responsibility, for me, it was the perfect opportunity for me to learn about being a Software Engineer. The culture at TechWorks are extremely fast-paced but also very rewarding and meaningful. Everyone across different disciplinary in the organization will alwaysbe there to help and guide you along the way. I was fascinated by the amount of learnings here and that is why I decided to continue working there right after I graduated. From a career growth perspective, I don't think there are many experience out there that could top TechWorks.

4.1. Extra Point @ STW: Bring Ideation to Production

One good thing I was able to do in TechWorks' startup culture was bringing a project from a whiteboard to a complete application that can be used by our customers within 1 year and 1 month. Throughout the process, I got introduced to many different stages of software development, both from the technical side (full-stack, infrastructure, continuous delivery/integration, etc.) and the program side (Agile, user security, design sprints, etc.). I wouldn't say I am an expert as any of those things but the exposure definitely helped me to figure out which area I would be deeply interested in in the future.

5. Stay curious

This was something I expected to lose after I graduated but for I guess it plays a bigger role in my day-to-day life that I have anticipated. I still actively build random stuff. The other day I came up with an idea to mod a RC car and put a camera with some sensor on it. Then I figured out the best way to stream the feed directly into a VR headset with lowest possible latency (to avoid nausea). It was a fun concept on its own but I have learned a lot about data streaming because of that. Here are some pics of my tech workspaces.

Lots of fun stories were created from here (and also lots of failed experiments as well). The good thing is you always learn something out of it for sure.

What I wish I have done (What I haven't done)

1. Doing More Academic Research

I always have an itch to be at the edge of the next technology. Up until this point, I have done a lot of project, both personally and professionally, but none has been first of its kind nor state of the art. I have tried to be involved on this in college but was not fully commit to it as much as I wish to. Maybe this is why there is some part of me wanting to do even higher education (Master/PhD)

2. Being a good Mentee

I have come across so many bright individual. Each time I was able to learn a little bit from them and grow but I have never make a good effort to keep that connection for a longer period of time, especially when it was something outside my main area of expertise. I think if I can be a better mentee, I would be able to learn as a much faster rate than right now.

3. Stay fit

When I was a kid I climbed then fell down from a tree and heal within minutes. Now if I just slept in the wrong position my neck hurts for the rest of the week. Being physically healthy is something that is truly crucial but I have been overlooked for a while. On paper, it sounds so simple: healthy diet + daily exercise routine. In practice, my brain always find a reason to eat junk food and skip the workout. As I completed other career task, I hope I will bring this goal in a higher priority going forward.

4. Staying aware of Mental Health

This was something I didn't know existed until I reached my 20s. Being able to aware of it and understand the impact of it to other people around (and close) to you was something I should have done a long time ago (initially I always thought it was either being ~~normal~~ or being ~~psychopathic~~). I wanted to make an effort to learn more about the mental health spectrum and help people affected by it the right way.

Thoughts

• One section I excluded was the mistakes I have made during these years. Maybe I might included it at some point once I have materialize those thoughts more fluently
• I hope someone can look and learn something either about me or from me to improve themselves better.

Action Item(s)

As I reflected on these items, I have created a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30. You can check it out HERE (https://www.notion.so/datdo/30-Before-30s-4062ff779b684f4badafa2d63e0e6ef1). Hopefully as I completed each checklist it will move me to a better direction.