Cedar Career Growth & Development

Give us a snapshot of what you do to stay on top of your engineering knowledge and skills. 

As an engineer in this ever-evolving technology industry, sharpening my engineering skills is a continuous and paramount endeavor. My personal learning routine involves a balanced combination of practical, hands-on exposure to real-world engineering challenges within my professional role and dedicated time each week for external learning after hours.

A key principle for me is maintaining a genuine interest in the topic at hand; motivation alone can only sustain learning to a certain extent before it is no longer perceived as relevant and engaging. To maintain this engagement, I often connect my learning objectives to a side project or task that provides real-time feedback and tangible outcomes as I am a very hands-on learner.

In addition to actively seeking out learning opportunities, I’ve found ways to integrate learning into my daily routine. For example, I’ve started using my commute time or the time I spend doing chores to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. This allows me to passively absorb information and learn new things even when I’m not actively reading.

What are your go-to resources for keeping your engineering skills sharp? 

Before embarking on any learning journey, I find it crucial to acknowledge and overcome the fear of venturing outside my comfort zone into the unknown. In today’s era, the sheer volume of available information, both digital and physical, can be overwhelming and deter many from even starting. I’ve learned from past experiences that the best recommended resources are often subjective; there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The key is to start somewhere and gradually, through the learning process, develop preferences and opinions that enable the identification of key concepts and valuable information sources for personal and professional growth.

My go-to resources include reading books — and I like to read them in various formats, whether that’s physical copies, e-books or audiobooks — on subjects that pique my interest. Hacker News for staying up-to-date with industry news, GitHub for exploring code and trending projects and AI-powered tools like Perplexity to gather and synthesize information from diverse sources. Of course, I also rely heavily on the internal resources at Cedar, like the meetings, forums, demos, programs and team initiatives.

What does the learning culture look like at your company or on your engineering team?

Cedar is genuinely invested in the growth of each individual.

Internal recurring sessions like the ASG (Architecture Steering Group) meetings, Tech Lead forums, Tech Talks and Engineering Demos have been invaluable for my growth. These open forums for discussion and knowledge-sharing broaden my perspective beyond my day-to-day work within a specific domain. For instance, a recent engineering demo where a colleague showcased their use of GitHub Copilot and the resulting efficiency gains led me to adopt the tool and experience similar benefits. In addition to these recurring events, Cedar offers numerous other opportunities like hackathons, onsite meetings, a mentorship program and a partnership with Hone, all of which provide practical and interactive learning experiences that foster engineering growth.

Beyond the resources available to everyone, each team has the autonomy and encouragement to develop their own processes that promote collective learning. On top of regular retrospectives, teams have implemented various initiatives like book clubs and team tech talks to foster a culture of continuous learning.