Post-Graduation, Off-the-Clock Growth: Exploring My Software Engineering Learning Methods
Key Takeaways Up Front:
- Action Drives Growth: Doing projects, reading, listening, and observing fuels advancement as a software engineer.
- Sharing Deepens Understanding: Presenting knowledge through writing or teaching solidifies and deepens understanding and improves communication.
- Embrace a Varied Approach: Combining active learning with knowledge sharing creates a powerful, holistic, and motivating path for growth.
A Passion for Growth Through Projects
Personal projects have always been a significant means to gain knowledge and advance my skills. They provide opportunities to experiment, apply theoretical knowledge, and grow both technically and creatively. What I’ve also discovered is that these projects and my active pursuit of knowledge don’t just lead to a narrow, technical skillset; they’ve broadened my perspective and fostered a multidisciplinary understanding.
Looking back, I believe the majority of my post-graduate knowledge has come from two primary sources: hands-on projects and actively seeking information through books, articles, and other resources. These two approaches have shaped my understanding of software engineering and continue to drive my development in the field.
Writing Articles: A New Chapter in My Learning Process
The articles I’m writing now came as an idea to support my current—and probably greatest—personal project so far. They aim to provide technical insights into the background concepts and methods I’m using to develop this project. But writing also came as a natural extension of my personal knowledge management process: it’s the final phase of sharing what I’ve learned. Documenting these topics has been a way to share knowledge with others, and deepen my own understanding.
Although I’ve prepared teaching materials in the past—mostly on the job—writing articles for a broader audience is a new challenge for me. It’s different from creating materials for specific tasks or teams because it requires more extensive research and a deeper level of knowledge consolidation. Writing forces me to organize my thoughts, revisit concepts I’ve encountered before, and articulate them in a way that’s both clear and engaging.
So far, this process has been both rewarding and eye-opening. It’s not just about sharing what I know—it’s about learning more deeply in the process. Writing has become another tool in my learning arsenal, complementing the hands-on work I do in projects and the knowledge I gather from external sources.
The Value of Combining Different Learning Methods
Each of these approaches—practical projects, active knowledge collection, and writing—brings something unique to the table. Projects provide hands-on experience and foster creativity. Reading and observing help me stay informed about trends, theories, and best practices in software engineering. Writing challenges me to synthesize what I’ve learned, communicate it effectively, and reflect on how it all connects.
All three methods also offer a way to stay motivated by exciting myself with new knowledge gained. As I understand it, learning to motivate yourself is one of the two primary goals of education, alongside learning how to learn. Together, the methods described in this article form an eclectic learning approach that keeps me engaged and constantly evolving as an engineer. They offer different perspectives on familiar topics while encouraging me to explore new ones. In many ways, they complement each other perfectly, creating a cycle of continuous growth.
Conclusion
If there’s one thing I’d recommend to anyone reading this, it’s to try writing as part of your own learning process. Whether you choose to publish your work or keep it private within your personal knowledge management system (a topic I”m exploring in a separate article), writing or teaching can be incredibly powerful tools for growth. They help you organize your thoughts, solidify your understanding of complex topics, and create a record of your development that you can refer back to over time.
For me, writing has become more than just a way to share insights—it’s become an integral part of how I learn and grow as an engineer.
