A note on giving back

Recently, there has been a spate of tweets about developers admitting their weaknesses. A bunch of people I know even made into the Moment created by @ThePracticalDev. And then there's this tweet:

Hi, I’m aurynn, and even though I’ve been coding for 15 years, as a woman in tech anything less than a display of perfection is a risk https://t.co/DMYMPTQh1R

— your pocket friend (@aurynn) February 26, 2017

Go ahead and read that whole thread. It's important.

Over the last months I have talked to a lot of women in tech, and one thing I realised is that I am not alone.

I'm not the only one worried about making a mistake.
I'm not the only one who preface everything she says with "You all know this already, but...".
I'm not the only one who double-, triple-, quadruple-checks every. single. thing before saying anything.
I'm not the only one who constantly worries about being seen as stupid when she asks a question.
I'm not the only one afraid to write something for fear of being called a know-it-all.

I am not alone.

There are people who will feed on your fears. I made a post about a new discovery three days ago. And true enough, I got replies like this:

Uhmmm... Okay... I'm sorry for making you see something you already know. I'll be more careful next time.

But then a few hours ago, someone left this comment in one of my posts:

And this, my friends, is why despite all our fears, we should never stop sharing.

Winging It: How I Got to be an Android Dev And What I Learned From It

They say all relationships go through a rough patch at two, seven, then ten years. I don't remember who said it, but someone told me that many years ago.

Next week will be my moving-to-Sydney second anniversary, so I figured this is a good time to write this post.

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During I/O last May, I met one of the coolest ladies ever, Yasmine. She asked me how I got into Android development, and when I was done telling her she said I should blog about it. So here it is, Yasmine. Better late than never. ;)

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In the beginning...

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I find it very hard to make decisions. Who's your best friend? What's your favourite food? What should you name your stuffed panda? I don't know the answer to these things. So imagine 16-year-old me, about to graduate high school, and I had Zero Idea what I wanted to major in. The first university I applied to? I wrote down what major I was applying for right in front of the registrar, literally before handing her my application form (Business Economics).

I ended up going to another school, majoring in Electronics and Communications Engineering. I had one computer programming subject in freshman year. And I hated it. I hated it with a passion. I couldn't figure how anything works, and I swore I would never do that again.

My first job after uni was with Intel as a product engineer. I worked there for two years. Lived in the middle of nowhere, worked long hours. But I thought that's par for the course; part of being an adult is working hard, right? And then the semiconductor industry in the Philippines started flipping out. A lot of other factories closed down, some of the products we used to look after were being transferred to other sites. I decided I'd rather look for another job now, than being retrenched and not knowing how long I will be jobless for.

What Now?

I wanted a job back in the city, and I kinda don't want to stay in a sinking industry. But then again, there is nothing else I know how to do. Yeah, I am a licensed engineer, so technically I could work for a telco, or a TV station even! But at that time, if you want to for a telco, you'd have a better chance of getting hired if you interned with them right out of uni. And I didn't, so that's out. There were a lot of job postings for software developers though. But I hated programming! I don't know how to do it!

And this is when my first lucky break came. I am so fortunate that I met a manager who trusted in me. I was upfront with her, I don't know shit. I would have to learn on the job, so it would be a slow start. Needless to say, I learned a lot in that job. I worked on some pretty cool stuff (we made apps installed in SIM cards), and met a lot of really nice people. But more importantly, it kickstarted my foray into software development.

I eventually worked on more enterprise-y stuff (boring). Until the time we ran out of projects. I mean I'm all for coming in puttering around the office doing nothing and getting paid for it. But after two days it turns out it kinda sucks. It was 2009 and I keep on hearing about this new OS from Google called Android and that the SDK is Out Now! and that You Should Try It Out. So I installed all the things and started Android-ing.

Things Get Interesting

So now that I have built a shiny, new Hello World app that runs on an emulator, I took that as a sign that I have the creds to apply for an Android development job. I joined a start up, and again, I was upfront about it -- I don't know how to do this, I have just been playing around, but if you want to pay me to play around, then we can be friends. And so I was met with another lucky break.

It was an encouraging time to be a dev. The Android Dev StackOverflow community was much smaller, we are all learning at the same time, and honestly, I think everyone was kinder and more forgiving⁺.

I eventually worked for a company whose mobile team is distributed across offices in Manila, Sydney, and New York. I was the first Android developer in the Manila office, but by then I was so used to it that I didn't mind.

It was there that I met the guy who would eventually refer me to Domain, and for that I am forever grateful to him. Domain has done so much for me, both personally and professionally. I work with a really talented team, and I have never seen a company love a product so much. Domain made my dream of attending IO a reality, and through my work with them I got to work on a lot of pretty sweet features that I never dreamed of⁺⁺. Another lucky break, and I mean to make the most out of it.

And?

I guess what I mean to say is that I have just been winging it all these years. But at least I'm honest about it, right? It there's anything I have learned, it is that there is nothing wrong with saying "I don't know". There are times when we need to pretend to know things, but there are a lot more times when we need to accept that we do not know things.

Do not be afraid to try something new, no matter how scared it makes you feel. Easier said than done, I know. But sometimes it really helps to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and just jump⁺⁺⁺.  Lundagin mo, baby!



⁺ I was looking at my old StackOverflow questions, and I seriously think that if I asked them today, I would have a lot of "What are you, stupid?" comments. Or maybe I'm just old and cynical. I don't know. The point is, we have all been there, so be kind to another, okay?
⁺⁺ This merits a post all on its own
⁺⁺⁺  I distinctly remember that's how I applied to my first Android job. I wrote my cover letter, proof read it, hovered my mouse over the Send button, took a deep breath, then clicked it before I could change my mind.

Hello, it's me again.

To my two readers out there, hello! It's been a while since I posted here. I was transferred to another (non-Android) project and lost all my Internet privileges, hence the silence. I still can't believe almost every other site is blocked by the office firewall! Makes software development ten times harder. Ugh.

Anyway, as of the last three months, I have been working on backend development (J2EE). I don't know a lot about it, and the past months have been a great journey of learning. It is quite a shock being exposed all in one go to so many technologies and tools, I'm lucky my head didn't explode.

Happy as I am to learn new things, I am quite sad to leave Android development behind. I'm still hoping though that I would be given the chance to go back to it, and pick up where I left off. Hopefully the Android train won't be too far off by then.

In the meantime, I will be posting stuff that I've learned while working on J2EE, and hopefully somebody can learn from my mistakes. :)

*stealth ninja mode on*

Over the past couple of weeks, this blog has been getting unusually high traffic. Which means I get more than one hit per week.

So if it isn't too much to ask, can I please know how you got here, and what you were looking for. And please please let me know if I said anything wrong, or if you know of a better/easier/more optimized way to do the stuff I'm trying to talk about. Thanks! :)

A test, a test

I was thinking of starting a quick-tips style blog for software development (mostly for myself, since I tend to forget stuff a lot recently).

And since I am working on Android now, this would most probably focus on tips and notes on application development for that platform.

And now, I test SyntaxHighlighter.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  TextView text = new TextView();
  text.setText("Hello, Droid warriors!");
  setContentView(text);
}