About differentiating yourself
I like competition, but the competition I like more is a competition where the game is infinite, meaning it is not the one who win that matters, but the one who will last that matters. For that matters, I learn about how to be able to adapt and able to zoom in and out the scope of my thinking easily in any problem (whether it is engineering or daily life problem). Today I want to discuss something related to myself, so if you don’t like a selfish article, feel free to leave this page now, but I try to make this article as much as useful as my other article. So, if you like my other article, maybe you also like this one.
There is a story. Let’s start with the fact that I am new to software development, only 1.5 years of experience and many things to learn. I’ve been fortunate to join as a Software Engineer in my current employer right now, Midtrans, where before I starting developing application code for the company I help them as Software Development Engineer in Test, where I help them automate many things related to test and CI/CD.
The story is it was a small company (doesn’t mean small impact, it has a huge impact in e-commerce landscape of Indonesia) and I got appreciated as one of the top engineers here in 6 months because I can give the quality of work that contrast to the team I am in. The team I am in was very good in terms of writing software, but need more touch in the testing (functional and nonfunctional), CI/CD and documentation. I can give the quality that I develop throughout my career as a student (where I learn to give a high-quality assignment where possible) and now turned out that high-quality standard is something that made me stand out. Every time I write code, I also create proper documentation for both business and engineering perspective. Every time I create a change request I made it in my style where it is not just copy paste, but I write a little better about the detail of the matters that asked, like business justification, analysis, solution, etc.
One of the reason is, I was fortunate enough to be interned at Microsoft in my last year of study in college and was writing a bunch of research papers when I still a student. I learn that in business your worth can be approximated via how much value you give to the organization. I also learn how to see the business big picture there. That internship was a very good complement to my study in engineering physics where I learn how to zoom-in-and-out in multiple different engineering systems from electrical, mechanical, chemical, thermodynamical, even information system.
Turned out that my employer merged with a bigger company called Go-Jek at some point, where it has a very big employee-base and having many subsidiaries. And when I moved to its office, the Go-Jek office, I see a lot of bright guys/gals and I think this is where the next challenges come. It is even harder for me to differentiate. Now, I remember a lesson that very important. I better double down in something that I can be top 5% in the world, yes in the world instead of double down in something that we are not good at. I good at writing and operating software system and I want to double down here.
Well, but there is a challenge. People that work with us most likely have a similar skill set and similar potential like us and this makes it harder because I need to stand out, be a little bit wiser every day, improving faster (but not in hurry). The fact that other people are also smart is an important point.
It is already 8 AM and I need to work, will write about this again later.
Vale.
