Technical skill learning update: switching to projects

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I wanted to learn three new technical skills this year. The reason I want to learn these skills is that I’ve identified roles that interest me that require these skills.

In this article, I’ll share my progress on these goals, the obstacles or I’ve faced, and some solutions I propose to address them.

Progress

I stated that I wanted to learn SQL, full-stack development, and GIS. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

  • Created a mapping project using Leaflet.js and web-scraping (I did this before posting the other article, but I’m counting it)
  • Signed up for a 6 week DBT course. DBT is not SQL, but I was advised that it’s useful for data analytics roles
  • Signed up for the Commons Strategy + Operations sprint, which also includes a SQL component
  • Created a workplan for the Mode SQL tutorial
  • Created a workplan for the QGIS documentation
  • Published one dev.to article about my full-stack dev journey

Obstacles

By far, my biggest obstacle with this challenge is sticking to it. My goals are vague and generally uninteresting, and I know myself well enough to know that sheer willpower alone will not teach me these skills.

Instead, I need to switch my approach to be project based. Instead of trying to work my way through a series of documents, I’m going to generate a list of projects that I can do to flex each technical skill, and then build something that uses it. I will probably end up needing to read through the docs, but I’ll do it with the intent to apply the knowledge to something in particular.

Also, some specificity around my goals would be helpful. Here’s how I’m going to pursue these going forward:

  • SQL – I’ll be learning this in a course I signed up for, so I don’t need to learn it independently
  • QGIS – I’m going to defer this until later. I want to focus on:
  • Full-stack development – I’m following Full Stack open, but I need to break down these goals further