Quarter way through my apprenticeship

Time is flying by, I’m already over a quarter way through the year developer apprenticeship program at work. It’s been fun, exhausting, and rewarding all at the same time.

Like all the teams I’ve been apart of so far at Automattic my new team is fantastic. All incredibly smart, dedicated, and willing to give their time and support to help me succeed. There is still a long way to go, but with their help I’ve already learned so much.

I’m working mainly on the web version of Simplenote. It is also used to build the Windows and Linux version of the app with Electron. It’s a React app and not something I’ve worked with before, but I feel like I’m coming along pretty well learning it.

There are so many parts to learn even beyond the code directly. Before this I hadn’t used version control very much, but now feel pretty comfortable using GitHub for most of the everyday use cases. I’ve also had the chance to dig into the build process that is used to build modern web applications like this. Things like Webpack and Electron which are fairly complex in their own way but essential for pulling everything together and making it work.

Recently I’ve started a new project within the web version of Simplenote that I’m the lead of. With help I’ve outlined what needs to be done and have started breaking it down into smaller pieces to work through. I’m looking forward to learning a lot through this process as well.

Though there are a lot of positives it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. I’ve had my share of self doubt and questioning if this is something I’m capable of. I’ve run into problems that I’ve tried hard and spent lots of time on trying to figure out but just couldn’t. Thankful again for my awesome team for helping me get unstuck in these cases.

I also still feel very slow at things. Even when I can figure them out and get things working it seems to take way longer than it should. Each thing seems to send me down a path where I have to learn or dig into to be able to do the task. I think this will get better as I build up experience, but it can still be hard when I close my computer at the end of a day and even though I was busy all day and feel exhausted, I don’t have a lot to show for my effort.

One of the great things about this program though is the group of people who are in it with me. On my team there is another apprentice which is great having someone else right here going through some of the same things I am. We’ve also had group coaching sessions which have been very helpful as well.

Those sessions have ended but I’ve continued on with one other apprentice, who I had a good working relationship with already, having regular peer coaching sessions. I look forward to each one. We have a lot of similarities in the way we work and think and can help call each other out on things that we may not do for ourselves.

Even though it’s still early in I’m so thankful for this program and all the support I’ve been given. This is a role I very much enjoy and hope that things can continue down the path as it is now so that I can do this as a permanent role.