2020 in Review

Now that this crazy year is finally over, it's time to take stock of what 2020 has turned out to be for me. TL;DR is nervous but productive.

Of course, like many, I was worried about my family and work, but on the other hand, working from home, postponing deadlines, and covid that could be blamed for anything, relieving stress 😅. I was lucky that the virus did not affect me or my loved ones, and I can talk about it so easily. But it turned out that in a situation of self-isolation and social distance, a reserved person like me feels comfortable.

# WFH

For me, a home office is a deal-breaker. It is worth mentioning that we have no children or pets, and my girlfriend has been working from home even before the pandemic. For me WFH has a positive effect on my physical health: there is enough time for a lunchtime run or a bike ride, and homemade food is great 😋. Besides, I think I become more productive because there are fewer distractions for me, and relationships with colleagues take less emotional energy. I have equipped myself with a perfect place to work with a hammock for legs and a pillow for hands. In addition, at home, I finally tried to work while standing and it’s awesome, it's easier to think, less tired at the end of the day and you know that in future you would be proud of you 😎. I don’t know if I’ll agree to work in the office now, except that I will come once a week 😃

# Career

At the beginning of 2020, we at Visarsoft launched our first project, while I was a key front-end developer in this project. It was a big achievement for me personally. However, the startup company was just tiny and kept on personal enthusiasm and responsibility. When the covid struck, it was clear that she was unlikely to survive this economic test. When I announced my resignation, I was asked to help in finding a replacement, and I gained invaluable experience of participating in a technical interview on the other side 🤓.

I took the search for the next job seriously, I made a table where I wrote down the comparative characteristics of the companies. And I end-up with Romexsoft, Lviv outsourcing company, and AWS partner. But in my case, it was outstaff for a dutch company Sinadia. They also an ABC partner and specializes in IoT and manufactory. An interesting stack and projects, as well as pleasant colleagues. In addition, I am their first remount employee, which is a great challenge for my spoken English.

# Technologies

This year I started my first serious pet project, where I learn and experiment with new technologies. I've tried Angular, wrote a full-stack application for the first time, tried PWA, and now I'm experimenting with the Vue composition-api. During Hacktoberfest I received a lot of help with my pet project and I met a code-buddy from Greece, who is interested in the project as well, so we're building it together now. In addition, in my new job, I got acquainted with AWS and got my first certificate Cloud Practitioner. I've learned Quasar framework and created a hybrid application using Capacitor. It's so cool to see your apps running on phones and using native device abilities. I also registered for StackOverflow and began to answer questions, this strengthens my knowledge and allows me to give back to the community. Also, the gamified process is fun and the reworking, now I have 830 points 😃 Anyway, work from home and self-isolation have positively influenced my technical growth.

# Hobby

• First and the most obvious: I got into the game of content creating and started this blog. Writing articles is quite difficult, but it is useful for generalization and self-reflection, and well, yes, I hope it is useful for the readers 😃
• I started a Twitter account, it turns out this is a great place to be in touch with the tech community.
• Board games are love. Isle of cats, Vampire Empire, Fox in the Forest, and Inis have added to our home collection this year.
• I bought a new camera and continue my journey into the world of photography.
• Started an insta-blog about lions of Lviv
• And I learned to whistle 😃

# 2021 Goals

My goals for 2021:

• I would like to lead a healthier lifestyle, I would like jogging to be more regular.
• I'd like to better understand AWS, learn how to write GraphQL API and pass the AWS Developer Associate exam.
• Release a new version of Geek Score rewritten with typescript and composition-api.
• Survive 2021 🙃.

Hope your 2020 wasn't too bad. And I wish you all the best for the new year. I hope that this year's curse will finally be lifted 😃