Have you ever wondered what makes you stand out, in your career and as an individual? What gives you unique value, both professionally and personally? Your USP isn’t about being the best at everything but mastering your chosen niche exceptionally well.

Think of your USP like picking a favorite coffee shop or restaurant—it’s about finding that perfect blend/sweet spot that truly speaks to you, not just the cheapest, tastiest or latest option.

Identify Your Unique Value

What sets you apart? Reflect on:

• What special quality makes you stand out?
• What do you wish to contribute to the world?

Sharing My Journey: It took me a while to see my business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit as the assets they are. As a software engineer, nobody really asks about these skills during interviews or exams. My parents ran a small family business, so I naturally learned entrepreneurial skills just...

Belated Happy International Women’s Day!

My take on women empowerment is to focus on developing inner strength; work on things that cannot be taken away from you - like your personal growth - skills and character development. It goes beyond just advocating for empowerment—it’s about truly embodying and living it.

It’s all about stepping up, challenging norms, and constantly evolving.

True empowerment is when you embody it so fully, it’s just who you are, no need to declare it.

In my personal journey, I’ve had a couple of game-changing mottos guiding me that I’d like to share:

1. “To make a stand, you’ve got to win the fight.” - This reminds me that empowerment often requires us to push ourselves beyond our limits, to work ten times harder for causes that matter deeply to us.

2. “The system might try to swallow you whole. So, work it harder than it’s working you.” - A compelling...

PyLadies Manila is holding an Intro to Python Workshop for GDG Women Techmakers Manila 2016 Tomorrow, March 19, 2016 at 1:30pm

(photo credits to Chelle Gray)

Shout-out to all participants! You have no idea how excited I am to introduce your coaches to you ;-) See their names and profiles below:

Nadine Jamila
Nadine is a co-founder of Spectrum One IT Solutions, a Python development company. She graduated from University of the Philippines ITDC and Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in BS Management Engineering. She’s also the treasurer of Python PH.

Matt Lebrun
Matt is a data wrangling pythonista and lead developer for Save22, Inc. He is also a co-founder and Trustee of Python.PH. He spreads his love for programming by conducting trainings and volunteering in the Python community.

Micaela Reyes
Mickey is a freelance Python/Django Dev and co-founder and Trustee of...

I wrote my retro for 2013 really, really late so I’m now forcing myself to write a retrospective for 2014 before I forget :D

Code

• Hackathons I’ve been lucky enough to be able to participate in at least 3 internal hackathons in the office (freelancer.com Manila) and 3 others outside of work (WebGeek DevCup, TadHack and KabantayNgBayan Hackathon 2014).
  

Had a blast from Freelancer Hackathon VI

Team PySomething at WebGeek Devcup (photo creds to WebGeek PH)

We won second place for KabantayNgBayan hackathon. It’s definitely one of the highlights of my 2014. Had a lot of fun hacking with my awesome team mates, Ray Diño and Matt Lebrun. It’s our first time to have a picture taken holding a big-ass prize cheque.

Team SillyWalk at KabantayNgBayan Hackathon (photo creds to Open Data PH)

• TipTheGeeks at Mozilla Maker Fest Our app is still a bit rudimentary but we felt honored to be...

“Take Your Dream Seriously” I just saw it printed on some dude’s shirt on my way home, after work. It reminded me of my thoughts yesterday after reading an article that said I should start taking my career seriously and exercise everyday since I’m already on my late 20s. Whatever path I decide to choose now will determine how my life will look like 10, 20 years from now and so on. So yeah, no time to waste! I’m gonna stare at this thing everyday to remind me of it :D

(just something I wrote circa 2012)

Last year’s departmental activity prompted me to write this piece. During an ice breaker activity, I was asked to complete this sentence: “The weirdest thing that ever happened to me was _________”.
Being a private person, I didn’t tell them my real answer :P

This is the real story:
There was a time I challenged God to prove me wrong. Challenge in a way that unless he gives it, I wouldn’t be in any way interested in “non-platonic” relationships.

Being a feminist, I just couldn’t accept the fact that a lot of people from the opposite specie looked like spineless bastards. Add to the complication, I also couldn’t accept the fact that society doesn’t quite treat men and women equally.

Talk about being hard headed. I was really difficult to deal with because I had a lot of “non-negotiables” .

But here are some of the reasons why I held on to my...

This is supposed to be a new year post but better late than never! :D Just a look back on all the cool stuff that happened last year:

PythonPH

• Got a chance to organize the first few meetups for PythonPH.
• First after-meetup drinkup with Python peops
• Organized a friendly hackathon for PythonPH together with MrValdez and other python peops. It was also my first time to participate in a hackathon
• Remember, remember the 8th of October: PythonPH got Incorporated! :) Established and incorporated PythonPH together with team. Became a Trustee.
• Started preparing and organizing for PyConPH 2014

Career

• Learned Python, OpenERP, PHP, JQuery and basic web dev
• Got to work for 3 companies: Auberon, Eastvantage and Freelancer.com
• Got a new job, started a new adventure with a web product company. Have to say their technical exam and interview is one of the toughest I’ve had. It’s also my...