Truly wonderful the mind of a child is

It was an action packed week at work: we migrated our infrastructure to the Google Cloud Platform and into Kubernetes. Pods, nodes, deployments. Oh my!

Not that I helped much with the migration; I'm new and still learning the ropes.

I know it's a tech cliché, but there is so much to learn! Feels like something new is coming out every single day.

Just finished Nigel Poulton's Getting Started with Kubernetes course on PluralSight. Great introduction to the topic, I highly recommend it! Also planning on digging into Kubernetes the Hard Way the day after I hand in my final paper in early-December.

So that I have an interesting use case, I've spent some time thinking of side project ideas. Nothing complex, but enough moving pieces to help me understand the basics of Google Cloud. Need to build something beyond the limit of my current abilities, it's the only way to grow.

Speaking of which. I've started building out a Falcon-based backend as a fun little practice project. Being fairly new to the web development game, the project is coming along slowly. Fortunately, one of the Senior Engineers at work has been helping me out by conducting informal code reviews to make sure I'm on the right track. What. A. Guy. I can't describe how great it is to have somebody to bounce my ideas off of and to help me solidify my understanding.

Lots of reading on my own time so I have "intelligent" questions to ask. I think this is key.

Making an effort and showing others that you are willing to put in the work required to learn complex concepts makes a huge difference in how you are perceived. Having the right attitude indicates you are worth investing time in. If people see that you care, they will start to care and become invested in your learning. Pretty soon you'll have a network of folks smarter than you who are willing to impart the occasional wisdom your way.

This does not have to be an IRL mentor-mentee relationship, it could be somebody you reach out to online. People want to be surrounded by other passionate individuals who are interested in the same things they are.

When I look back at my interview process, it was my enthusiasm (and knowledge of healthcare) that got me the job. I wasn't hired for my web development experience, it was about everything else I brought to the table.

Stating that, there is an unspoken agreement between my employer and myself that I will have to figure out how to do my job and how to do it well.

I'm doing my part. It's what's expected of me.

Also because service guarantees citizenship.