I’ve been finding the process of documenting my work to be very helpful. Even if this site is just for me, it’s useful to have all of this somewhere and putting it online seems to push me to polish it up a bit more than I normally would, and also encourages me to update it. I’ve put off making my website for a while just because of the work involved, but I’m glad I finally did it.

One of the things that keeps me busy is teaching. It’s something I think everyone who works in Software Engineering should do if they have the opportunity. It works on skills that you just don’t get enough practice for on the job, but are so useful for your career advancement that it can’t be overstated. It also helps that I greatly enjoy the opportunity to help others learn. The ability to convey concepts, especially if you can teach something technical, is a skill that is in high demand and is a great way to give back to the community.

Another skill worth mentioning is just organizing. Moving up into technical leadership requires you to juggle more and more. I think a good chunk of that can be alleviated with just documenting. While this site isn’t that for me… I still want private notes for that. The correlation between them is strong enough. Just the desire to note down what I’ve learned and what I’m doing has helped me keep track of things and keep my head above water. Add to the organizing a class or two and you suddendly have a lot of things you’re writing down just to focus your thoughts.