I am really fortunate to be working at RevenFlo at this point in my life. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this thought, but it’s one I had again during a recent conversation with a fellow student about past and present work experiences. His first job in the field of software development was as part of a large, enterprise-scale project. He told me that, while it was valuable work experience, his role was so narrowly focused that he learned almost nothing about the software cycle as a whole. Someone would walk in and plop a stack of papers on his desk and tell him to turn them into requirements documents, which is what he would spend all his time doing. He said that he felt like a small cog in a large machine.
That hasn’t been my experience at RevenFlo. In the year and a half since I’ve been here, I’ve had the chance to get my feet wet and my hands dirty in SO many different roles relating to website and application development. I’ve done some wireframing, testing, some coding sites from scratch, and lots of time in WordPress and Drupal. I’ve gotten comfortable using PHP, MySQL, CSS, JavaScript, and RESTful web services. I’ve even gotten experience on the business-side of things by meeting and interviewing stakeholders. I now understand how important it is to be aware of client expectations at every stage of delivery.
I’m probably most excited about a new web tool we are building for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ department of Community Partnerships and Family Engagement. It’s an MVC framework built in the newest iteration of ASP.NET, so besides all the requirements gathering and user interface development, I’m also learning a lot of C# and test-driven development. Sometimes at RevenFlo, I’ve been frustrated by my seeming lack of mastery over any one particular job role. I just need to remember that I’m totally diversifying my skills portfolio. Not everyone gets the opportunity to become well-rounded in their field.