Before I start, I want to take a step back and revisit the goals that I set for myself at the end of 2024. I said my goals were to:

• Level up my technical proficiency in modern JS stack, focusing on React and TypeScript.
• Complete and launch the side project that I’ve been working on all year.

Now looking back at these goals, I can say that I achieved this. I believe that I am fairly competent and productive on both React and TypeScript even though my preference for backend stack is still PHP with either Laravel or WordPress. That said, I had lots of learning opportunity when working on Kanbatte. This is totally a separate side project that I am using internally.

The original side project I mentioned in 2024 recap will continue development again this year so hopefully I launch it next year.

hmn.md

Work-wise I had the privilege to lead the migration of a global bank from one provider to another. I considered the project a success without major hiccups, and only took us three late night launches to get it right (easy, next?).

In the other big news, I finally got promoted to senior web engineer. It’s been four years since I downgraded myself from principal level role at my previous company in order to be a part of Human Made. I have to say it’s harder to get promoted and taking longer than I thought.

of AI

While vibe-coding and AI explosion have been all the rage this year, I haven’t been able to immerse myself with AI-related workflow in any of my work. I do however start having ChatGPT replacing Google search, to bounce off ideas, explain technical concepts that are foreign to me and help generate some generic boilerplate codes.

However, there are still lot of things being thrown around that I’m not familiar with that I want to start upskill myself so that I can be more effective in my role. That’ll be another goal for the next year.