So it’s been a while since my last post. The last time was when I first landed my first full-time job after college, but now I’m back to update you all on my second full-time gig. 2022 was quite a ride (kinda), and 2023 is already looking like it’ll be even more exciting. I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some of the things that have happened and share my plans for the coming year.
— 2022, what went not (really) well
Honestly, I feel like 2022 was pretty uneventful for me. I think this was mostly due to the fact that I was working from home the entire year and didn’t have much in-person interaction with my coworkers. As a result, I felt pretty demotivated and stuck for a while. My work didn’t seem fulfilling anymore and I was just going through the motions of my daily routines. I tried to turn things around by building good habits like working out, reading, eating healthy, etc. but eventually, I fell back into my old ways.
—2022, what went (quite) well.
As I was feeling demotivated, I tried to figure out why. One of the things that came to mind was that my current job wasn’t challenging enough for me. So I started to look for new opportunities around October to November. I went through a ton of live coding and interviews, some of which were easy and others made me sweat like crazy. I even went through a hiring process that took three days of my PTO and ended up not getting the job, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I eventually landed an offer from an overseas startup in mid-November, just before my current Company’s Group, GoTo, had a mass layoff of 1300 people. Luckily, I wasn’t affected, but my team was almost halved :’(
While I was still at GoTix, I was able to ship some of the projects there. One of them that I’m especially proud of is that I lead (and also implement myself) the integration of the one and only movie theater in my town into the GoTix platform. Before this, we have to book the ticket through the ugly 2010’s vibe cinema’s website, but now we can book tickets through the Gojek App, splendid 🤩
Another important lesson I recently learned is “how to enjoy things”. I used to be really cheap and always focused on saving as much money as possible. But now I realized that I actually have a decent amount of disposable income and it’s okay to spend it on things that bring me joy. Last year, I went to my first-ever music convert (it was Neck Deep!) and took two vacations. I read a quote that really struck with me: “when was the last time your first time?” I want to create more of this “first-time” experience in my life.
— 2023, what to do next
A new journey is on the horizon for me. I’m still a bit nervous since I haven’t officially started working at my new employer and yet I’ve heard about a lot of tech companies rescinding offers lately. But, fingers crossed for the best. This new job will bring a new work environment and new challenges. My new company is a Hong Kong-based startup and I think over 90% of the employees are Hong Kong residents. They’re implementing a hybrid working arrangement, which to be honest isn’t ideal as it leads to proximity bias. But we’ll see how it goes and I’ll just give it my all.
I also want to be more consistent with my habits. I recently started investing in home gym equipment since I think going to the gym is not worth the time and effort (it’s quite far from home and I hate rush hour in the morning). Next year, I want to focus more on calisthenics. I'm also considering starting a new Instagram account to track and share my calisthenic progress. Let's see how far I can go this time.
I also want to make reading a more consistent habit. Last year, I barely used my Kindle. This year, I hope to read more consistently. My plan is to read for an hour in the morning (around 6-7 AM) and another hour before bed (around 9-10 PM).