My Ka-Globe Experience
- 3 minsI finally decided that it’s about time to look for a new venture to another place…
I’m sharing this article for my future self.
And I hope that you would be able to get a thing or two insight on my Ka-Globe journey.
I started working for Globe last Feb of 2018 as a vendor employee for a year and three months. One of the decision I never regretted. I remember my first task is to create a software addressing a concern on data security — It was mind-fuck and fun at the same time. Thanks to my lead at that time for the guidance and of course for giving this opportunity to me.
To cut the long story short, I got absorbed as a full time Data Engineer on April of 2019. I struggled a lot trying to fit in the Data Engineering space for various reasons:
- Perspective is way too different from software engineering
- I’m the only software developer at that time
- I simply suck at SQL
Fast-forward, I was given a lot of opportunities to create softwares and automate shits — They prolly noticed that I’m more useful in that area. LOL!
At that time, feels like I’m drinking on a fire hydrant coz I’m learning a lot and I was given all the resources I needed to get shit done and the fact that I’m surrounded by people who know what they want and know how to get it — makes me a lot excited to put my 100% day-in and day-out.
Eventually, I was given an opportunity to lead. I was so excited and also afraid that I’m not really cut off for this role, considering the fact that I am so used to be put on where the action is — coding. It was hard as hell but I can’t discount the fact that I learned a lot from it.
So, as I prepare for a new horizon, I wanted to look back at the things that I learned the hard way.
- Don’t just dwell on tech skills — learn the domain and understand the pain points, it will be a lot more nimble to code and craft a solution if you know the language of your intended users.
- Don’t settle for “okay” quality — challenge your limit and fucking put your value-added services. And don’t you dare forget to take pride in your work. Whatever it takes, coz that’s what it takes.
- Trust your teammates — don’t take on a task simply because you think you can do it faster, enable them coz this pays off in the long run and you wouldn’t want to be the single point of failure. Wanna bet?
- Know where your yeses are — exciting opportunities pours but that doesn’t mean you need to take on everything. Take one opportunity at a time coz guess what, multitasking and context switching is productivity killer. (You may argue that you can brush your teeth while peeing — Okay that’s cute)
And I’m leaving…
- to step out of my comfort zone
- to know what is it like to work overseas
- to have a chance to work with top talents across the world
- to be proficient on speaking other languages
Lastly, I wrote this article to express my gratitude for the people I work with in Globe, especially to John Bibal II and Mark Joseph Lagatao for the guidance and opportunities.
Thank you.
Alvin Cris Tabontabon
An Asian man who codes to eat noodles