Performance Review

Today was my end of year performance review, an experience I have been somewhat dreading. Not because I was particularly worried about the outcome, but more because I find getting any kind of positive feedback, particularly in a professional setting, deeply uncomfortable, and find a lot of the aspects of the review largely box-ticking, hoop-jumping-through exercises. With that being said, it wasn’t anywhere near as painful as I’d expected and I came away feeling fairly positive about the immediate future, all credit to my manager. I think programmers often suffer for not being able to see the wood from the trees, caught in a neverending cycle of Jira tickets, and the exercise of taking a step back, evaluating what progress has been made as well as considering what course I’d like to be on and recalibrating appropriately was a valuable one.

I have plenty to work on, most notably my attention to detail and quality mindset, and being more engaged with things other than ticket work. I also have lofty ambitions - the goal is to be a senior engineer in two years time, and from there move into people management. I find the human aspect of my job a lot more rewarding than the technical aspects, and increasing my seniority will allow me to maximise the opportunities to do the kind of fulfilling work I want to do.