Appalling Farrago

A blog about stuff

A year at thoughtbot
03 Oct 2015

Over a year ago I started as an apprentice at thoughtbot. For those three months I managed to post once a week about what I’d learned and how things were going. I haven’t posted here for a while, so I thought it was high time for an update.

My first year has been fantastic. There’s not a single person in the office I wouldn’t want to be working with. A real highlight has been spending my days with so many passionate developers, it significantly improves the quality of life to be around those who enjoy writing code.

Investment time has been a challenge to manage but it feels like something I have a handle on now. I’ve written four blog posts for the company blog, on being lazy, having style, willingness to commit and on playing games. I wrote an ember addon for authentication with firebase, and then had it merged into the official firebase addon. This even got me a mention on the firebase blog, twice!

I’ve had 4 client projects since finishing my apprenticeship, and have learnt a shit ton about managing expectations and setting up for success. There have certainly be high and low points, but I’ve become far more aware of what needs to be done. Thankfully, there’s plenty of support available from other thoughtbottles, and all of the projects I’ve been on have continued forward to success.