When I started at Chromedia
I had a hard time catching up with the latest technology trends and things related to programming — as I had taken a break from coding and focused on dancing before taking the job. I’ve always loved programming so when I decided that I wanted to code again, I told myself that I would do everything to get into a development company, refresh my programming knowledge, and get up-to-date on trends.
I was hired here and got assigned to the Spoke Health project. I spent my first sprint in the project studying and learning the frameworks and libraries that were being used in the project. I also had to refresh my PHP knowledge because before I didn’t focus on PHP and was instead focused more on Ruby On Rails before. Now, however, it seems like I’m more comfortable in PHP than ROR.
Down the Rabbit Hole of Learning
When I joined Spoke Health I was overwhelmed by its size for it was already a huge system. As I browsed through, it felt like it was not going to end and I thought to myself, “it’s impossible for me to get familiar with everything with a project this large”. But I’m lucky to have co-developers who are always there to answer my questions about the system.
Even now I still have a long way to go to catch up with these guys because as I keep learning, they’re also learning! I never wished to reach their level. I just wanted to maybe relate to things when they’re talking about work stuff so that I won’t feel so out of place. That’s also one of the things that I love about programming: we never stop learning. Everyday, we learn something new and I find it cool.
When I started to work on some tasks for the system, it was really hard for me to finish before the deadline. Sometimes while looking through the system, I would see a functionality that would get me curious. I’d search and trace through the system to find out how they implemented it. Since I was still not familiar with the system, I had to open various folders to figure out how it worked. Later I’d realize that I had spent most of my time on this instead of on my assigned task.
One of the things that I love about programming: We never stop learning.
The tasks that were assigned to me at first were not so difficult. (It was just because I wasn’t quite familiar with the framework and libraries yet). But that was all before, when I was still new in the project. Most of the tasks assigned to me so far have been focused on front-end work and a little bit from the back-end. Lately I got tasks that focus on both front-end and back-end. So far the task that I think was hard for me was implementing the infinite scrolling for when you’re scrolling through the inbox. It was more focused on the front-end using React-Redux and it was my first time to use and get familiar with its lifecycles.
