5 Technical Goals Sarah Wants to Accomplish in 2022

My biggest technical goals are centered around my main goal of finding a front-end web developer role. Throughout my coding journey, I have been looking at job postings and reading the descriptions to get an idea of what employers are looking for when they hire web developers. After identifying common keywords, I started learning specific skills and tools to increase my chances of getting more interviews and eventually getting hired.

As I do more job interviews, I jot down notes on what languages and tools hiring managers mention so I can learn these items in the future. 2018 wasn't an easy year for me so I started to set goals I could accomplish throughout the year. These goals helped me stay focused throughout the year and I've done this every year since then.

At the end of each year, I like to look back on how the year has gone and identify goals I want to accomplish in the new year. 2021 was all about balance and trying to set aside time for coding while making time for all the non-coding things in my life. As it came time to set technical goals for the year, I looked back on the notes I took during the interviews I've done and everything I accomplished throughout 2021 to see how I should approach 2022.

So far 2022 hasn't been easy. The first two months have been rather rough so I feel like I've been on a slow start on my goals for the year. As March began, I started thinking about my yearly goals and began evaluating my plan for accomplishing them. For this year's SheCoded post, I wanted to share my list of technical goals for 2022 and what I hope to accomplish from each of these goals by the end of the year.

1. Finish learning Ruby on Rails.

Ruby on Rails has been one of the skills I frequently see on job postings. Although I have seen different languages and frameworks listed, Ruby on Rails was constantly on most requirements for front-end web developers. When 2021 started, I immediately set learning Ruby on Rails as one of the big coding goals for the year.

Last year, I started learning Ruby on Rails and it was very frustrating. A lot of my frustrations come from using a virtual box to run Rails. The tutorial I was originally using recommended a virtual machine for the web development environment.

So I downloaded the VirtualBox program and created my virtual machine. After a year of using the virtual machine, I felt like I wasn't making any progress at all. Instead, I found myself spending more time just getting programs to open on my virtual machine rather than writing code.

This took forever just to work on projects since the virtual machine took several minutes to open VS code so I could access my code files. By the end of 2021, I had only completed one project and was still at the beginning stages of another Rails project. When 2021 ended, I was determined to find a better way and already looking for different ways to run Rails on my computer.

I eventually found a solution through a Ruby on Rails course I found on the freeCodeCamp YouTube channel. It wasn't an easy installation. I ran into lots of issues I needed to resolve before Rails was successfully installed. This included installing different software and updating the version of Ruby installed on my computer.

Once Rails was finally installed, I felt a sigh of relief. Everything was working and moving at a fast pace. I can open VS Code and not have to wait five minutes just for my code to appear in my file as I am typing. Now I was able to worry less about my tools working and concentrate on learning the Rails concepts so I could start building web applications with it.

2. Build more projects with React.js and Node.js.

After I finish with Ruby on Rails, I plan to go back to JavaScript. I especially want to go back to React.js and Node.js. As I redo my portfolio website, I noticed one of the areas I'd like to improve is my projects.

I especially want to add more projects that use React.js and Node.js. I don't just want to build new projects with React and Node. I plan on finding time to revisit past projects I've made with React and Node to see if I can make them better or update past projects to work with React and Node.

I'm still trying to figure out when I will be tackling React and Node, but I'm debating on doing another round of 100 Days of Code. This way I can set aside an hour a day to review React or Node while building a project with it.

3. Learn Vue.js or Angular.js.

I probably won't be able to learn both of these frameworks this year, but I'm hoping I'll be ready to start learning one of these frameworks for the rest of 2022 by June. Vue and Angular are the two frameworks I commonly see on job postings in my area. Although hiring managers have asked me questions about React and my experience using React, I often see openings that mention these two frameworks.

I'm not sure what framework I will learn first or what tutorials I'll be using for either of these frameworks quite yet. I plan on starting with the freeCodeCamp channel to see what I can find. Then I plan on searching for other tutorials on YouTube to supplement what I've been using as well as documentation these frameworks have available to play around with on my computer.

4. Do more algorithms and programming interview questions.

Coding tests and take-home assignments are my least favorite part of job searching as a developer. I've never been very good at test taking and coding tests of any sort bring out that same anxiety I felt when I was a kid. As I continue job searching, I need to be prepared for any coding tests and assignments that employers might want me to take.

So this year I want to start setting aside more time to do more algorithms and interview questions so I can get more practice and comfortable solving programming problems in the interview situation. I plan on revisiting the freeCodeCamp algorithms as well as using resources such as Codewars, Interview Cake, and Hackerrank to help me get even more practice. I will try mixing up these algorithms in a possible 100 Days of Code round as I figure out a way to make interview prep a habit I do each week.

5. Start building my series from the CNC2022 Learn in Public Challenge.

Right now I am doing the CNC2022 Learn in Public Challenge. During the challenge, Code Newbie challenged participants to focus on one topic or project so they could walk away for a series on the Code Newbie community. I originally planned on making a quiz app with Ruby for my series.

As the challenge came to a close, I didn't quite get a series anywhere on Code Newbie. A lot of that comes from my decision to use video as my teaching medium. Besides planning my series and implementing my timeline, I was also trying to learn how to make and edit videos so I could start making my series.

I quickly realized I wasn't getting anywhere. I was instead trying to do both things at the same time that was resulting in nothing getting done. I decided it was best to concentrate on one thing at a time.

So I decided to put the quiz app series on hold and concentrate on learning how to make a video first before I started making more content for the series. One of my personal goals for 2022 is to launch my YouTube channel so I decided it was better to learn the skills needed to start my channel first and work out any issues that might come up before I put my series together. I don't think I will be able to finish my entire series by the end of 2022. However, I'm hoping I can have at least one installment for the series done and published on Code Newbie while I get a good head start on the next installment in my series plan.

This post was originally published on March 1, 2022 on DEV. I made minor changes to the original post for CodeNewbie.