I have so much news that I have no idea where to start. This one would be one of those posts that I will revisit many times to be able to look back and analyze what were my feelings and where I've stood and how I coped with them.
Leaving Sudolabs
Let's start with a shocker. After 2 and a half years I've decided to part ways with Sudolabs. It was a really hard decision to make but we have decided that it would be the best for both parties. Parting ways took only 2 days which should make things easy. I've made strong bondings with my colleagues and it was heart-crushing to leave them. It's not easy to write about these emotions after 2 weeks, either.
I want to thank everyone who helped me to grow and for all those amazing moments we spent together. It was by far the best experience I've had in a company. I hope we will still see each other and help each other even without any obligations to do so.
Treasure hunt
As I haven't had any other job in sight, I've started to look around the job market. There are too many companies and even more recruiters. It's going to be hard to find and pick one that will fulfill my expectations and I'd fit in. I have a pretty good vision of what I want to do next. Certainly, I'd like to have a much bigger focus on the development than on management. I would love to teach/mentor/coach my colleagues to perform at their best. That was the one thing I enjoyed the most.
I haven't realized that I have built up a work routine. I have a hard time not focusing on programming during my time off. I have time to learn a lot about myself. I would like to use as much time effectively even if I don't have to.
I have some interviews planned, but I don't want to overdo them. I'm surprised by the variation between these processes. The job market is oversaturated and it shows in the interviewing process of companies of different scales. My prediction for the future is that we will have many smaller companies with their own little cultures and bubbles. Just like in code, we want our functions to be small, granular, composable, and focused on doing one thing only and doing it well, we will have many small companies focus on doing what they are good at and doing it well.
Scaling companies is hard. And it will be hard. People are searching for liberation. They are going to find a job that will allow them to work whenever they want in terms that, they are going to be satisfied with. Diversification is also a very important aspect. Having hard-stop rules, ladders, and a complicated onboarding process suited only for one type of developer is exactly what makes the stereotype jokes in your company target every single one of your employees.
Maybe I should build my own company. It is something I've been thinking of for a few months. I am just avoiding having responsibility for all the shit I'd have to deal with around bureaucracy. I'm still giving a chance to someone who is not scared of that and is more educated about managing finances and people.
DevBreak episode #2
So on the exact day that I've left Sudolabs, I have been able to save the DevBreak talk. Not me exactly. It has been saved by my awesome friends Daniela, Samuel, and Filip. They've attended HackKosice hackathon and were generous to talk about their experience and impressions on the DevBreak talk. Go check out the episode. They've brought a very good vibe and I had a great time talking with them.
I've already contacted my next guest for episode #3 and I am very excited for this one. As I have a wedding to plan and attend I don't know when we will air the episode. But it will be a great one! Can't wait.
Stream updates
We have set up a Discord server where you can chat with our community whenever. We share dev tips and memes, but I'd also like to receive feedback on the stream content.
The last 3 streams have been devoted to game development with Bevy game engine. I've started to fulfill my childhood dreams and started a journey full of learning stuff that I haven't been used to. I've made some games before. But I would say that this one is going to be of a larger scale.
I want to build a card-based strategy game. Something similar to Hearthstone and Heroes of Might and Magic. There is a lot to learn about the engine itself so the mechanics of the game will be developed in later stages.
We have agreed with the community that we would like to also do some l33tcode challenges. So the variety will still be there. I'll just want to gain more people to start doing exercises like this so we can compare our solutions with each other.
Getting married
This post is already filled with so much content, but I can't skip this chapter.
My and my soon-to-be beautiful wife are getting married next Saturday. Very exciting times. I am going to meet my whole family after so many years. It's going to be not only the party of the year but of a whole life.
Picks
As I've been doing research on Bevy game engine, I've stumbled on this amazing series of tutorials by Logic Projects. It's a really fast walkthrough of challenges during game development when starting with Bevy. It helped me build a better mental model of how should I structure entities and components for my own game.
I've discovered a great podcast by Michal Truban. I've listened to some episodes and I have to say that it is educational. Nice tips from Andrea Vadkerti on coaching. Or from Matej Ftáčnik on how to run a successful company.