I want to grow. What do I need to learn?

Everybody says that you need to learn—continuously. No matter who you are—a trainee, junior, or experienced person—you need to develop your skills (especially given the current market situation).

When you start to dive into a topic, you discover a set of connected themes to learn. As a result, the list of topics grows exponentially.

There are many resources available: books, courses, webinars, mentors, and coaches. But many people still struggle with one question: how to understand what to learn.

The secret is that there is no secret at all. Everyone has their own unique context.

An approach

Let me share an approach that I have been using for years now.

The following four questions will guide you on the way:

• What are you interested in? Is it a frontend, backend, leadership or, DevOps, testing, or fundamental knowledge and theory? (Pay attention to what you can do or learn and "forget about the time").
• What skills are you lacking at work now? It can be domain knowledge or current framework; it can be some technology or a tool.
• What skills do you lack for promotion? Ask your manager about it. It can also be a source of topics.
• What does the market need right now? Go to chat and forums, and talk to people at conferences. Everything can happen—even layoffs. So, you need to prepare in advance and keep your skills "marketable."

At the intersection of those circles, you will find a few topics that you need to learn right now.

Practical tips

1. It is better to dive into a topic for some time, learn the first skills, and put them into practice straight away rather than reading thousand-page books without any idea how to use them at work.
2. I am using mind-mapping tools to visualize a list of skills and interests. In my case - it is the Canvas plugin in Obsidian.
3. Learning is deeply context-oriented. So review the list of skills and topics at a certain cadence. I do it every quarter. Range skills by value and priority. Do not fear putting some topics away for some time as they become less important to you.

Learn wisely.