Just passed my two years of work mark at Fuego Leads as a junior frontend developer and thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on my time there.

Short story

So far it's been amazing! Every day I’m thankful I get to do what I do - the work is fascinating, I'm being consistently challenged, and I have the opportunity to learn and implement new tech on a regular basis.

Longer reflection

But what has it really been like? What are the achievements I’ve been working so hard towards and the struggles I’ve overcome?

Hard and Soft Knowledge Development

I’ve picked up so many skills since starting this job. Of course the first is Vue! That’s what I knew I’d be using when I was initially hired, and so I started delving into its intricacies straight away. I’ve made great strides and have begun to think in terms of Vue now (while React is but a distant memory). More recently I’ve been learning how to do many cool things with Nuxt, since we are transitioning one of our codebases from using Assemble IO and Gulp to Nuxt. So much fun!

I’ve become friendly with Vite, as I was in part responsible for updating another of our codebases from using Webpack to Vite. While in the backend realm I’ve started picking up some Laravel, and even started a side project that uses a Laravel and Vue together to produce vocabulary quizzes in Latin.

Playwright has been a cool skill to delve into. My second week on the job my team lead was out of office, so I asked our director of tech what I should do with myself and he said “learn Playwright!” There was a project that had been wanted for a while, to validate that insurance quotes (we sell insurance, more or less) on one external platform matched those on our internal platform. I basically learned to scrape the web with Playwright and compare the results; it was tricky and sticky and not always fun, but I’m proud of the finished product.

One thing I wanted to point out, that I really had no idea about until I started a big girl job is how helpful it is to learn about the business. If you want to become a more effective developer, I cannot emphasize this ENOUGH. If you want to make really good software you can’t just know how to build it, you need to know why you’re building it. You need to get in touch with the needs of the users and support them, not just build a thing a certain way because it’s cool. Your code should serve the end needs of your users. When you learn the business ins and outs you get a lot better at anticipating those needs, asking appropriate time saving questions, and generally maintaining a better context for future developments.

Collaboration, Communication and Friendship

I love my team and get along well with each of them - they truly enrich my life and make me glad to be a part of something! I especially look back with fondness on long pair programming sessions, QA sessions, and brainstorming together. Each of my teammates has provided me with valuable advice and support in my career and made me feel valued and included. Also cat photos!

But sometimes there’s a tough side to communication as well. I’ve had to speak up about things that weren’t working for me, and I’ve had to learn how to do that in a way that is clear and firm while still considering others' needs. No one is going to know what I need unless I explain it to them, so it’s been an important part of my growth to speak up. I think it reflects well on my company and the people in it that when I’ve done so I’ve been listened to and taken seriously.

Extra: Cool Experiences!

As an added bonus I’ve been able to participate in some fun activities and experiences, like traveling more and attending conferences. When I initially began my job as an intern at my last company, we had a company event that I had to travel for and I was sooooo nervous! I’ve been able to reduce my travel anxiety significantly by continued practice (although I will never enjoy air travel). I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Florida several times for events, funded by my company, as well as New Orleans for Vue Conf and soon Tampa (also for Vue Conf 2025).

I also was able to fund my own travels to Render ATL last year which was an amazing and exhilarating experience as a developer. I connected in person with many friends from twitter and bluesky and just enjoyed delving into conversations with them and also complete strangers. Everyone was so welcoming and encouraging and I had a really great time. (Planning to return this year as well - let me know if I’ll see you there!)

The end…

Hahaha, not really. I’m looking forward to more learning and building at Fuego, and can’t wait to find out what developments the next year brings!

Thanks for taking the time to read about my adventures.