The beginnings
This blog started as a way to “pay it forward” to the amazing community out there that helped me solve my day-to-day programming issues, to practice my English writing skills and to do networking. That’s why I started sharing just a bunch of solutions to technical problems google didn’t know yet.
My “brand”
That worked great. I got new gigs from people that saw my posts and that’s when I realized the blog was an effective way to build “my brand”; I don’t attend lots of conferences, I had never worked on any noteworthy projects and I live in Uruguay (my degree is from our state University, ranked #1591 in the world). The blog would be my way to show that I’m a let’s-give-this-guy-a-chance kind of a developer. That’s when I paid for adwords and monitored the analytics.
At one point, I found myself without a job (not because I chose so) and I started a job hunt for the first time. I can’t tell how big of a factor the blog was, but Stack Overflow takes into consideration depth (that you’ve played with something beyond the surface) and passion. I think my blog helped me getting those ticks and eventually landing my dream job.
My present
Now, it’s the first time I don’t feel like I have to prove anything (on my blog :P). I’ve successfully finished my 6th month at Stack with more As on my review than I expected (I even convinced my manager to change a couple of them to Bs).
Seeing my amazing coworkers speak freely about their struggles, their feelings, their shortcomings and their journeys I realized I want that for my blog. I want it to be my place to randomly share thoughts, my place to be vulnerable in the open. I don’t need analytics or comments. I welcome interesting discussions on twitter / in person / chat / email / whatever, just not here.
I’m about to finish therapy (after 7 years) and I’m suspecting that writing could be a great way to think. I plan to write a couple posts per week on a private blog. Maybe some articles will make it into this one, maybe none of them will. It doesn’t matter, that’s for me.
I’m lately noticing that some of my struggles are really not that unique. If sharing my approach helps somebody else or if I get alternative ideas, that’s great. If it doesn’t, it won’t be the first or the last time that I fail and that’s ok too. I expect this experience to teach me things mostly about myself, just like therapy does.