The last blog post I wrote was in May 2021. In the last 6 months although I wanted to write actively there were other priorities and I had to sideline this blogging. Now is thanksgiving week in the US, and I thought that I need to write a post about the things that happened these past 6 months. It is a rainy day here in Berlin, and we might witness the first snow for the season soon.

Engineering Manager at Anaconda

I started a new job in September 2021; Engineering Manager at Anaconda. The job search was not easy and even difficult was deciding which offer to take from the final 3 offers I had in hand. The post I wrote in May 2021 about salary negotiation was a reflection of my interview preparation material. I have a lot of topics to cover about my job hunt process which I hope to write about soon.

Leadership Fellow at Women Who Code

I had also applied for the Women Who Code Leadership Fellow in July and got accepted into the Fellowship program. In late August 2021, I started as a Leadership Fellow for the Women Who Code Frontend track in a part-time capacity.

Time management

While I have tried different things in the past which did convince me that I can successfully pull off multiple things at once, starting two new jobs at the same time was at a different level. I was not sure what I was signing up for, but 3 months now I can proudly tell I have balanced both of these things quite well. This is definitely a new feather on my cap and I will cherish this throughout.

Handling priorities has been the key. Realising when to communicate expectations well and making sure everyone is aligned about the things I am able to do are the top things I focused on to pull this off. In October, I ran 5 events for Hacktoberfest, moderated a GitHub study group, took care of social media promotions, speaker facilitations, slack moderation all while balancing a new full-time job. During mid-October, I realised I cannot proceed with WWCode at this rate alone, so I tried to be as vocal as I could and was able to gather help.

The full-time job at Anaconda was always the top priority, I had to gain both sense of belonging and a sense of accomplishment while also proving to colleagues I could do this job and being able to gain their trust.

3 months into balancing both these gigs, I am happy without burning out myself.

Exercise management

Before I started these 2 new jobs, I did have a short break in August. I enrolled myself in a gym and swimming lessons. My lazy body is still terrible at keeping up with these exercise goals, but I am slowly getting there.

Every Friday the jumping lessons are my favorite, where you can see me jumping like a madwoman for one hour and not caring about what others think.

Every Thursday I also eagerly look forward to the swimming lessons. Given the current covid situation, not sure how long these classes will continue, but I am making slow progress.

Learning to swim was one of my goals for this year, and at the point of writing this post, I can float and able to stand up in the water.

Thankful and grateful

The last 6 months have definitely been busy for me. From deciding to resign from my former job, Head of Frontend Engineering at Curalie, job hunting, interview marathons, choosing the offer from Anaconda, and also accepting the WWCode’s Leader Fellowship I am thankful and grateful for all these things.

Also thankful and grateful for the luxury and privileges I have now, but I also try to remain humble and grounded with my life. I am blessed abundantly but I have also made my way here through hardships and struggles. I will continue to work hard and I will not settle here.

Humblebrag

I have been practicing buying minimal things while buying new things making sure to donate off old things. I was never crazy about black Friday deals, but this week I did a bunch of shopping through Zalando. 6 years ago, when I was new to Berlin, I still remember shopping via the lowest price filter on. But this time I shopped via the highest price filter. This is a humble brag about me being able to afford all of this on my own. Financial independence is the best gift you can offer oneself and for women, this can be great empowerment.

Thank you for reading this far. What are you thankful for?