Micaela Reyes

Designing Your Career with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

2024-03-13T20:12:06-07:00

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 by being around them. At first, I didn’t see how important it was. However, surrounded by tech enthusiasts, my grasp on the business aspects—such as the purpose behind our software projects and considerations of costs and resources—enabled me to make meaningful contributions to my team.

Embrace Your Specialty #

Even if it were possible to outperform everyone in everything, do you really want to be everything to everyone? Ask yourself:

What drives your passion and keeps you motivated?
In what way is your approach distinctively yours?

T-shaped skills are key: broad knowledge across many areas, with deep expertise in one.

Sharing My Journey: I kicked off with Visual Basic in college, then dived into Web Development with PHP for thesis and right after graduation. My path led me to a telco as a Software Development Analyst, blending software development with business intelligence reporting (using Shell Script and Oracle/PL SQL), and I continued web development on the side with Java. Over time, I narrowed my focus to Web Development and discovered my real passion lies in backend development. I loved the challenge of ensuring the application’s stability and core functionality. This passion led me to Python as my tool of choice, making my work not only smoother and more efficient but also more enjoyable, since it saved me from fighting with the programming language’s syntax, freeing up my time for more important tasks.

I’ve also grown quite passionate about productizing ideas, focusing on crafting things with practical and sellable outcomes.

Experiment and Iterate #

Taking the first small step can lead to big discoveries:

What’s a simple action you can take to test your idea?

Sharing My Journey: Stepping into data analytics as a PyCon PH organizer, I began applying my new skills to develop event reports and define success metrics for PyCon PH 2024. This hands-on approach not only diversifies my use of Python and backend skills but also significantly contributes to the event’s success and furthers our non-profit’s mission. It’s not a solo journey—working together with fellow volunteers passionate about the same cause not only amplifies our collective impact but also encourages the sharing of ideas.

Build Trust and Showcase Your USP #

Getting your skills noticed is crucial:

How can you showcase what you bring to the table?
How do you ensure you’re seen as trustworthy and genuine? (And yes, I really believe these qualities are at the heart of your USP)

Go Out There and Do Things #

Action beats overthinking. Start with:

What’s one thing you can do today to move forward with your USP?

A close friend shared about reading the book “The $100 Startup” and read somewhere in the book “just do it” (or something along those lines). The funny part is, he literally closed the book after reading that part, went out there and founded a startup! To this day, he’s still out there and still hasn’t finished the book! 😆 For me, this really highlighted the importance of acting on your ideas. There are tons of experts out there ready to tell you how to do everything under the sun, but honestly, nothing beats learning from your own experiences–especially the experience of having your skin in the game!

Remember that you’re in charge of building your own adventure, career, and path in life. Celebrate your uniqueness, dive into your talents, and put them to work to create something amazing!

…and that’s what being all-in has taught me! So, here’s my takeaway:

Defining My Niche #

My USP: ability to blend technical software development skills with a strong entrepreneurial mindset
What it allows me to do: excel in Python backend development and a knack for building software products with purpose

What’s your USP? #

How did you find it, and how has it shaped your career or personal growth? Feel free to share your journeys and discoveries with me on linkedin. Let’s connect and celebrate our unique strengths and paths together. Your story could be the inspiration someone else needs to hear! 🙂

On Women Empowerment: Finding and Developing Strength from Within

2024-03-12T05:46:01-07:00

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:

“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.
“The system might try to swallow you whole. So, work it harder than it’s working you.” - A compelling takeaway from the movie “Project Power” that encourages me to leverage my unique strengths to navigate challenges and shift the odds in our favor, asserting that we’re more than mere victims of a rigged system but can also be agents of change.

So, as we nod to Women’s Day, I’m curious, how do you live and embody empowerment in your daily life? Let’s inspire and uplift each other with our stories.

Meet Your "Python for the Curious" Workshop Coaches

2016-03-18T06:37:46-07:00

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 Python.PH. She’s a big fan of Dicta License and believes that life is indeed “more than just eating, breathing and accumulating”–it’s cheesy but there’s no point denying it. She’s also a strong advocate of women in tech and called to arms a rare group of idealistic women through PyLadies Manila. (Fun fact: They’re mostly INTJs and they actually think you could pick-up good relationship advice from The Zen of Python!)

Paula Tañada
Paula is a Freelance Software Developer. She graduated with BA in Humanities and MA in Education from the University of Asia and Pacific.

Clau Yagyagan
Clau is a Developer at Silicon Valley Insight. She loves learning and building cool stuff for web and mobile and aspires to be a game developer. She has a knack for thinking on her feet, database design, troubleshooting and nails last minute fixes during hackathons. (Fun fact: She’s the youngest member of PyLadies Manila.)

Mark Steve Samson
Steve is a self-taught web developer and open source enthusiast who dreams of creating his own game someday. He’s the sole developer of blankhq.com and the newly elected president of Python.PH, Inc. He also helps organize Docker Manila meetups and regularly show up to Manila.js events.

Mary Ann Gabrang
Ann is a Software Engineer by the day and a hobbyist web developer at night. At her spare time, she spends it on her pet projects and exploring new knowledge, whichever comes first.

Russel Onato
A software engineer specializing in java, Russel is a “lazy perfectionist” going by the code “measure twice, cut once”. He spends his free time wondering and contemplating about various topics.

Leigh Lunas
Leigh is a geographic information system (gis) developer specializing in spatial data optimization using python. She is a python enthusiast and an awesome map-maker but a poor map-navigator. She contributes in mapping the world one polygon at a time.

Janelle Lagmay
Elie is a software engineer for X-Team. She loves creating web apps with Python and Javascript. She is a life long learner, eager to share new ideas with fellow enthusiasts.

Rolando Cruz
Lando is a software engineer for Freelancer.com currently working on its software infrastructure which is, sadly, written in PHP. He has always valued learning above everything else in his work, ever since he started learning programming on his own while taking Psychology during his undergrad.

Mark Anthony Roldan
Mark is one of the most approachable software engineers at Freelancer.com. A jack-of-all trades dev that runs on caffeine. He knows a lot about just about any topic you can imagine–from boardgames, music, tech, food–name it!–try asking him! ;-)

Alysson Alvaran
Alysson is a Google Student Ambassador Alumni who first encountered Python through the awesome women of PyLadies Manila last Women Techmakers Manila 2015. When she’s not busy converting sweets into codes or being an active member of the community, she spends most of her time broadening her knowledge through MOOC, with Python and UX as her current interests.

Aira Joan Alonzo
Aira is a graduating student taking up BS Computer Science. She aims to be a game developer anytime soon. She is an enthusiast of OOP languages and studies some in her free time. Other than that, she is a Game of Thrones fan, Kdrama lover, an idealist and a bit of a geek girl who wants to be learn and be certified in Hadoop. The Women Techmakers Manila 2015 has inspired her to be determined in her goals and it gave her a heads up in her Python language class. Enjoying her “twenteen” life in a nerdy yet fun way!

Charmyne Mamador
Cham is a web geographic information systems developer, which is a fancy way of saying “I make maps”. She is easily amazed with awesome data visualizations specially if its cartographic in nature, which is a nerd term for “If it’s like a map”. She currently taking up her MS Energy Engineering in UP Diliman.

Ray Diño
Ray is a Python.PH trustee, and a programmer and data engineer at Thinking Machines Inc. His current goal is to affect public policy with data-driven decision making. He believes that coding is for absolutely everyone, without exceptions.

Beato Bongco
Beato is a CTO and Co-Founder at Beknowntho.com and Web Engineer at Insync

My 2014 Retrospective

2014-12-30T09:23:00-08:00

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 invited to showcase it at Mozilla Maker Fest in Glorietta5 Atrium. GlobeLabs was kind enough to support us and even blogged about it here
Sideline Gig I also achieved my goal of finding a sideline Python/Django gig this year. So far I’ve been enjoying it and getting good feedback from employers. Yey!

Passion

Sadly, I had to lie-low a bit from some of my passions and duties around the first half of this year since I noticed myself getting burned out. Luckily though, I got back on my feet with the help of Matt and some new found friends. Shoutout to the following people:

my Sydney guide and gala buddy Jendar
my WebGeek DevCup team mates Clau and Trina A.K.A. PySomething
board game buddies Ray and Marian
Paula and Python girls

Freedom

Had my hair chopped into a pixie. Probably not the nicest thing I could do with my hair but it just felt very liberating to not have to wait for it to dry or put too much effort in styling/combing it every single day hehe.

Making a Difference

Haven’t done any huge “giving back” stuff this year aside from being part of the organizing team for PyConPH 2014. I resigned from my treasurer role in Python.PH shortly after PyCon since I really needed to rest and recover from burnout. I still tried to help out in some minor tasks though.

With some PyConPH Volunteers and Speakers

Random Stuff

Sydney trip Our company is so awesome for sending me and pretty much all new engineering hires to Sydney. I enjoyed my stay there for the whole month of March. It’s my first out-of-the-country trip and my first time to travel to a first world country. I did my usual work there but it wasn’t stressful so I really felt like I was on vacation. SyPy Meetup SyDjango Meetup
Board Games First time to try board games this year and I absolutely enjoyed it! So far, it’s the only thing that can “consume” my mind so that I can stop thinking about work and other serious stuff
First Hike went on a hiking trip to Mt. Batulao with Matt, his siblings and cousins. It was a fulfilling adventure but I couldn’t move my legs the next day lol At the top of Mt. Batulao

So that’s it. For me, 2014 is a year of hackathons, burnout, idealism taking a backseat, travel opportunity, new adventures and hobbies, nailing my first sideline gig and finding new friends. Wasn’t easy but it was definitely a blast and made me a few steps closer to my dreams! :)

Welcome 2015! :)

Take Your Dream Seriously!

2014-07-17T06:56:01-07:00

“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

The Weirdest Thing That Ever Happened To Me

2014-07-17T05:59:41-07:00

(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 “non-negotiables”:

In our Theo: Marriage and Family Life class we were taught some valuable insights such as: a.) “Genuine love implies commitment and the exercise of wisdom”, b.) “True love does not come easy and has to be worked on in order for it to be successful.” c.) etc.
I simply took it as: assholes and cowards are incapable of true love.
I love reality. I probably don’t have the ability to trick myself into thinking that fairy tales and fantasy worlds do exist. In short: I probably lack imagination (sigh) but being an idealist, I always had this desire to change/ improve the reality I have. I always believed that things could get better.
I believe I grew up with a cool dad who almost always makes sense. I just couldn’t accept a standard if it had to be less than what I already have. To me, that’s like downgrading your computer’s software to an old, buggy version.

Of course, I also knew that these were merely based on my observations back then. It’s unfair for others to consider them final.

The surprising thing was: no matter how terribly stubborn I am and no matter how high or extreme my request was, God gave me exactly what I asked for —I met Matt.

Having a BF-slash-part time best friend-slash-geek stuff buddy-slash-accountability partner is the weirdest thing that ever happened to me. Weird because amidst all the world’s imperfections, God sent me a living proof/constant reminder that life is still worth my greatest efforts. It compelled me to give the world’s imperfections a “second look”. Weird because the simple act of welcoming him in my life caused me to undergo a lot of drastic changes. It made my life more challenging and it helped me push myself to go outside of my comfort zone.

2013

2014-07-11T10:21:05-07:00

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 first time to see a room full of software engineers with 2 big ass monitors each and everyone had to use a Das (blank) keyboard.

Other Stuff…

Gave a talk about Python and Google App Engine at GDG Devfest Women
Sealed the deal with Padlamat, our future abode. Matt and I got ourselves a pre-selling condo unit in Makati. A pretty huge monthly “burden” on our pockets but it’s definitely something to look forward to :)