Passed autumn and last week I have been working on learning new things in android and getting skills in some of this new API (since API 25). I have to say a few words about my professional growth and professional growth in general.

I intentionally have been developing my android expertise since 2010 (Android 1.6, API 4). When in 2015 I left an outsourcing company and joined a product company I faced with the issue where only 15-20% of my expertise was in demand in that company. Of course I was able to learn new things such as building customer profiles, product manager surveys with end users, building ecosystem of products, but it brought me to the issue how to plan my growth, maintain my skills, stay competitive on the global market. At the end of 2016 I left that company and joined the team of freelancers, where I have to actually build the company. Besides new for me business activities I have to follow market demands and deepen my expertise not only in Android, but also in different technologies that were demanded among our potential customers.

A few years ago I shared my thoughts on how do we should plan our professional growth. In short, we have to work deep in one direction as well as look at others fields and go deeper in new direction when it would be necessary. Switching on new tech stacks as well as keeping up with Android after and even in parallel to this is a regular and essential part of my professional growth.

Mind map of this new API is available by link. Here is an instruction how to open it on google drive.

The same publication on LinkedIn