322: Focus, Go Deep and Remember To Have Fun with Annie Liew

In this week's show, Phil talks to Annie Liew, who graduated from a Front-End bootcamp in summer 2019 and is currently the Front-End Engineering Lead at Pastel. She's passionate about bringing the technical and visual aspects of digital products to life and cares deeply about the user experience, beautiful pixels and writing clean, accessible code. Her goal is to become exceptional at Front-End built on strong foundational UX concepts. She is also very active in the tech and design community. Annie talks about how effective focus can help you to dig deep into a problem set, as well as help to develop your skills. She also discusses the importance of retaining the fun in everything you do during your IT career.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   TOP CAREER TIP Honing your ability to do deep work, and concentrating your focus can help you to achieve a deep focus in tasks and help to develop your skill set going forward.   WORST CAREER MOMENT While creating an app from scratch for her tech challenge during an interview process, Annie found that some of her skills were a little rusty, and was forced to retrain herself while also relocating her life and healing from a hand injury!   CAREER HIGHLIGHT Annie won out against impostor syndrome by working hard and showing resilience. The result was an offer from a very large tech leader   THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T Digital literacy is an incredibly powerful tool in today's world. Being able to bring ideas to life in the tech space marks you out as someone who can make real, impactful change in the world.   THE REVEAL What first attracted you to a career in I.T.? – The financial rewards which were very attractive. What's the best career advice you received? – Mentors are invaluable and can guide you when your career hits choppy waters. What's the worst career advice you received? – Always follow your passion so that you never work a day in your life. Passion shouldn't always be the driving force in your career path. What would you do if you started your career now? – Annie would not change anything in her journey so far as all experiences brought her to where she is now. But she would spend less time on social media. What are your current career objectives? Getting better at Javascript, as well as developing back end knowledge. What's your number one non-technical skill? – The ability to ask for, and take on board, constructive feedback without being offended. How do you keep your own career energized? – Annie makes sure that she brings her creative side to her work. What do you do away from technology? – Hiking, reading and travelling.   FINAL CAREER TIP Try to have fun and enjoy the process. Sometimes things can get tough, but remember that all struggles are temporary and all challenges provide lessons.   BEST MOMENTS (5:47) – Annie - "Something that is very useful is the ability to focus and go deep" (6:04) – Annie - "It helps to think of your skills and abilities as your career capital – valuable tangible assets that you can trade for things like salary and a great work environment" (10:20) – Annie – "We're often more capable than we think especially in times of stress and pressure" (12:42) – Annie – "Only you can decide who you want to be and where you want to go"   ABOUT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil Burgess is an independent IT consultant who has spent the last 20 years helping organizations to design, develop, and implement software solutions.  Phil has always had an interest in helping others to develop and advance their careers.  And in 2017 Phil started the I.T. Career Energizer podcast to try to help as many people as possible to learn from the career advice and experiences of those that have been, and still are, on that same career journey.   CONTACT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms: Twitter: https://twitter.com/_PhilBurgess LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/philburgess Instagram: https://instagram.com/_philburgess Website: https://itcareerenergizer.com/contact Phil is also reachable by email at [email protected] and via the podcast's website, https://itcareerenergizer.com Join the I.T. Career Energizer Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITCareerEnergizer   ABOUT THE GUEST – ANNIE LIEW Annie Liew graduated from a Front-End bootcamp in summer 2019 and is currently the Front-End Engineering Lead at Pastel. She's passionate about bringing the technical and visual aspects of digital products to life and cares deeply about the user experience, beautiful pixels and writing clean, accessible code. Her goal is to become exceptional at Front-End built on strong foundational UX concepts. She is also very active in the tech and design community.   CONTACT THE GUEST – ANNIE LIEW Annie Liew can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms: Twitter: https://twitter.com/anniebombanie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/anniebombanie Website: https://anniebombanie.com