A Year in the Life!

Today is my 1 year anniversary of being employed in the Data Science/Machine Learning world! Happy Birthday to me 🎉

I want to take this opportunity to look back and reflect on my journey over the last 365 days. I feel like I've changed *a lot* - both personally and technically. It can be so easy to keep ploughing through, good days breeze by and the bad days drag. It can be difficult to actually see the progress when we get so engrossed in the day-to-day. So here goes, maybe you can look back on your journey over the last year in these areas too?

Technically

Well, I started with this one because it feel like for the line of work I'm in, it's the most important thing. At least to me, my technical skills are what I worry about the most in terms of the progress I'm making in this career path. I sometimes sit here and wonder - what have I even achieved in this past year? It's the subject of most of my work worries when I talk to my husband. "What skills do I even have?!"

But, actually, if I look at it not in terms of what I can list on my CV but in terms of what I'm comfortable doing I find it easier to see my progress. Sure, I could write Python a year ago..I still can. Okay, no progress. BUT actually, what am I comfortable with in Python that I wasn't before. Well, I'm *a lot* more comfortable with testing - I think this is huge. Testing means that you have to have lots of skills, it's not as limited as one skill, but actually to be good at testing you need to know the difference between testing methods, you need to be able to write the test. To be able to write the tests you have to be able to understand the code even if you haven't written it. And then that's another thing....being able to work with other people's code. A year ago I struggled to jump into code past me had written, let alone get my head around code someone else has written. And then if it was in a language that wasn't python (maybe terraform of yaml) then no chance was I going to figure it out. Oh and then that reminds me that I'm now not just familiar with Python but also Terraform and Yaml. But wait, what do I use those for...deployments? Okay, so now I'm deploying to the cloud (which in itself I didn't really have experience with/in depth knowledge of), via different methods....

I could keep going, but I have hopefully made my point here. You think you've only developed one tiny little skill and then it just snowballs. I'll be honest, I didn't plan the above paragraph..I just started with testing and then it rolled out of me so organically. I would recommend trying this..it felt quite cathartic actually and I'm pleasantly surprised by what poured out of me that my conscious thought hasn't seemed to pick up!

Personally

This I think is a big part of the journey that can often get forgotten or undervalued. For me, I feel like it links to my technical skills but really I think it's important to separate them, and for me to remind myself to separate them.

I have a confidence in myself that I didn't have this time last year. Now, part of this is due to the personal work I do for my development out of work, but it comes through and can be supported by things I do at work. I find this has come out in two ways, one with the 'extra' things that I do, but also with my technical competence.

Firstly, let's take what I think is the easier one..technical confidence. I couldn't tell you what it was, but I actually had a big mental block with code. It made me really nervous, right from when I first started to learn in my first year of my undergraduate degree. I would see a new challenge or problem or something I didn't understand, heaven forbid a red error traceback and my heart would start to race and my mind would just go into overdrive. (Yes, we may wonder why I took this line of work...the answer to that is still pending!)

I wouldn't say I'm now jumping for joy when those things happen, but I don't get that fear coursing through me that I did previously. I have more confidence in my ability to be able to break down the issues to understand them, find the answers I can and get as far as possible before reaching out for help if I need to. I still get uncertain about things, and I do benefit from guidance. I've made progress but I haven't had a personality change - I still overthink things and get nervous of doing things wrong but the progress is there as I work on tempering my traits.

Then there's the bigger picture confidence that comes from being part of a working environment with opportunities for growth and a safe space to make mistakes and learn. I've been able to lead on projects, from my first month or two and continuing hopefully for a while yet. I've had the confidence to actually reach out and ask for what I want. Of course, I am super grateful for the opportunity to be employed in this industry (especially with all the cuts happening) but I'm also learning that it isn't not being grateful if I ask for what I want. Whether that's working in particular projects or taking on extra training or organising things that aren't directly related to my job but things I care about. Sure, I might get told no for some things, but I also might (and have been!) told yes. When you ask for what you want, it doesn't only benefit you but also there could be bigger impacts that you haven't thought about.

I'm starting to seek out opportunities to work on things that I truly care about, even if this means I need to put in some more time outside of my typical work week to do this. And with these opportunities come learning for myself, visibility and expanding my network. This can be in or out of work. I volunteered to do a talk at a local meet up where I was the one that did the presenting on a topic I really care about, and that let to a talk invite elsewhere. Then in work I volunteered to help run a partnership focused on inclusivity of women - it's isn't me that's the face of things, but I can help run things and meet new people. Opportunities come in different shapes and sizes, and give us different skills. We can't just wait for them to come to us, we need to be proactive in getting them and to me this means that I need a certain level of confidence to go get those opportunities. So far, that confidence in asking for what I want and seeking out support from others has already opened those doors and allowed me to grow skills beyond my technical capabilities.

On reflection, it's been a good year. When I actually sit down to do the reflection, at least, I can see how far I have come. It doesn't change the day to day frustrations that can creep in, or the doubts about my abilities, but rationally I can see that progress. This to me is the importance of the reflection and impacts of the changes in me over my first year in industry.