For quite a long time I have been interested in coding or doing something with a software bent. During COVID I started learning Python to automate my budget. I never completed that but managed to build a piece of software for a client that automated a 2 day grind task to 15 minutes. I felt like a God, and I was even pain for it!

Over the last few years, my interest in tech hasn’t diminished but I have always flip-flopped, am I a coder? I should do it again, it would be great to turn this into a business. The only thing that progressed was time – and seemingly quickly I might add.

Word out on the coding blogs is that you need a project to work on, instead of getting stuck in ‘tutorial hell’. I agree and when I have achieved rapid progress was when I was working on my own projects to achieve an end goal.

So, I have chosen the following project:

To become a mid-level GIS engineer within 12 months.

Why this project?

Well, it was arbitrarily selected when I was browsing job postings on the SEEK website. I don’t have a particular affinity for GIS, but use a bit of it in the work that I currently do and it seems like a worthy pursuit.

I am unsure if this ‘GIS Engineer’ end game target is necessarily so important, but the job description had a more or less specific requirements list that I figured, if I worked consistently at, with a 12-month deadline that I would develop a really solid skill set that could be leveraged in many, many different ways.

A lot of the ‘requirements list’ is currently outside of my realm of understanding, so this is a stretch goal. But also, why not attempt something like this?

The caveat is that as this is a self directed project the direction is allowed to change as it progresses.

I am of the belief that once you start working on things (anything) and engaging with people that opportunities present themselves, so (finally taking my own advice) focus on action, any action.

Let’s see what happens, with the motto; “We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

So where does 12-months take us to… 27th September 2025 – alright, that just got a bit more real.