In December 2019, I left my job as a help desk technician at UH Manoa’s Information Technology Services and transferred to a different department to become a web developer. Although it didn’t seem like much at the time, this was actually a pretty big moment in my life because I was finally getting started with some real development experience.
The project we’re working on is called UH Groupings, and it’s an online service that provides users with the ability to create groupings for UH members. Membership within these groupings have things like email lists, role-based access to certain resources, distribution list membership, and lots of other things. People can create groupings and allow certain people to be included or excluded, depending on their relevance to the intended purpose of the group, or affiliation, and members of each grouping can also opt out of the grouping as well.
A larger overview and more information about the project can be found here.
The project uses the SpringBoot framework, with Maven for the build tool. AngularJS is used for the front end, and ThymeLeaf is used for creating HTML templates. Java is used for the API, and also uses Internet2’s Gropuer API as it is based off of Grouper’s technology.
With this being my first development job, I really didn’t know what to expect. My software engineering class, ICS 314 taught me a few things that I take advantage of like a basic understanding of Git/Github, Agile software development, and having a professional persona for the job. However, there really is no substitute for getting your hands dirty with actual experience. I’m taking full advantage of the opportunity that I’ve been given, as there is minimal pressure for meeting deadlines, as the project is a free resource that people can take advantage of. Whenever we get stuck on a particular task, we’re all up for helping each other out. Our weekly meetings are for everyone to chime in on their progress on the project so far, and to ask for additional insight, so it’s definitely an environment that promotes our growth. I’ve learned a lot more about how to use Git effectively with a team, and how to effectively in a team in general as well. I’ve also been introduced to various best-practices that I can definitely use at future points in my career.