It’s been a while! More than a while, actually.
I redesigned my blog in 2025 with the aim of starting to document my coding journey again, but just sort of… forgot about it. Life happened, I lost momentum and I didn’t make enough of an effort to keep going. So here I am again – new year, new goal- new committing to documenting my journey once more.
Where I’m at now:
For over a year, I’ve been working as a Software Tester for a non-profit organisation. It’s my first tech-based role and I’ve learnt a lot so far. I’ve gained hands-on experience testing applications, performing manual and (some) automated testing, using Jira, and testing API’s with Postman, among other things. From partaking in stand-up’s for the first time and learning to understand the different styles of project management (I work within an agile environment), I have gained valuable knowledge but I’m also aware I still have a long way to go and a whole lot more to learn.
I feel a little more comfortable and my competence is growing thanks to my experience over the past year. That said, I can’t help but feel as though I could should have learned more and be further ahead than I am now. This is is one of the main reasons I have decided to start blogging again, to hold myself more accountable and be more intentional about my learning.
So, what’s my plan?
My original goal was to learn web development, which took a bit of a backseat once I started working as a Software Tester. That hasn’t dampened my desire to learn how to build software from start to finish though – if anything, it’s reinforced it.
Due to that desire, I’ve still been learning JavaScript on and off using resources like Codecademy, 100Devs, and The Odin Project. As you can probably guess, it’s no use using so many resources at once, so I decided to strip things back and focus on building a stronger foundation. I now have a 100+ day streak on Mimo (yes, I am proud of that) and I am working through SuperSimpleDev‘s JavaScript Full Course to really get my coding brain back into gear.
I also plan to start actually building projects. This is something I’ve avoided for a while due to fear and self doubt. I tell myself things are too hard, that I’m not creative enough, or that my projects won’t look as good as other people’s. But I know that mindset has only been holding me back, so I’m committed to pushing past that doubt and build things anyway, even if they do look a bit crappy.
For now, my focus is on continuing to learn and understand JavaScript, which I’m really getting the hang of now. From there, I’ll decide what to explore next, whether it be React, TypeScript or something else entirely. Ultimately, my current goal is to reach a point where I can confidently say “I have the skills of a junior developer”.
This blog is once again where I’ll document that process, the learning, the challenges and the progress along the way.
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