“Technology changes fast, but the principles that guide great technologists are timeless.”
Introduction
Twenty years in the IT industry feels like a lifetime — and in some ways, it is. I’ve seen programming languages rise and fall, witnessed the transformation from on-premise systems to the cloud, and led teams across multiple continents and cultures. But more than the technologies themselves, it’s the people, the principles, and the problems we solve that have left the biggest impression on me.
In this post, I’ll share my journey, structured through five pivotal phases:
- The Coder Years – Building a foundation
- The Architect’s Mindset – Designing for scale and change
- Leadership Lessons – Growing through people
- Product Thinking & Strategic Impact – Moving beyond engineering
- What’s Next – Adapting to AI, platforms, and global shifts
Along the way, I’ll share practical code examples, team patterns, architecture approaches, and the mindsets that have helped me (and my teams) thrive.
1. The Coder Years: Learning by Doing (2003–2010)
I started as a developer in the early 2000s. My initial projects involved writing PHP scripts for a multiple service industry related website. We worked with Apache servers, XML files, and MySQL databases. CI/CD? Not in the vocabulary. Manual deployments on Fridays were a thing.
Example: Legacy Integration with PHP (2005-style)
<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "user", "pass", "logistics_db");
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}
$status = 'IN_TRANSIT';
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM shipments WHERE status = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $status);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
print_r($row);
}
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();
?>This is the kind of code we wrote daily — functional but tightly coupled to the DB and hard to test. At the time, I didn’t realize it, but this was my first exposure to the idea of technical debt.
What I learned:
- Writing clean code matters.
- Version control (Git) is a career skill.
- Mentorship from a good senior can be career-defining.
2. The Architect’s Mindset: Designing for Scale (2010–2015)
As I matured into a tech lead and then an architect, I realized that writing code is the easy part — designing systems that last is the real game.
I worked on a platform for a financial services firm where uptime and performance were non-negotiable. It forced me to dive deep into:
- Domain-driven design
- Service-oriented architectures
- Resilience patterns
Example: Handling Failures with Try-Catch and Logging in PHP
<?php
try {
$response = file_get_contents("https://payment-service/api/initiate", false, $context);
$data = json_decode($response, true);
} catch (Exception $e) {
error_log("Payment service failed: " . $e->getMessage());
echo "Payment temporarily unavailable. Please try again.";
}
?>
Key takeaways:
- The best architectures are evolutionary.
- You can’t anticipate every failure, but you can design for recovery.
- Documentation is not optional.
3. Leadership Lessons: Engineering Is a People Business (2015–2019)
My transition to engineering leadership was both exciting and humbling. The biggest lesson? Technology doesn’t build itself — people do.
Instead of obsessing over frameworks, I began to focus on:
- Creating psychological safety
- One-on-ones that mattered
- Growth paths and career ladders
- Aligning tech work to business outcomes
Template: Career Ladder for Engineers
| Level | Title | Expectations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software Engineer | Writes production-ready code with guidance |
| 2 | Sr. Engineer | Owns components, mentors juniors |
| 3 | Tech Lead | Leads design, partners with PMs |
| 4 | Architect | Owns systems, drives cross-team decisions |
| 5 | Principal | Strategy, org-wide influence, tech evangelism |
What I discovered:
- Leadership is not about control, it’s about context.
- The best engineers are multipliers.
- Feedback is a gift — when given with care.
4. Product Thinking & Strategic Impact (2020–2023)
In recent years, I’ve gravitated toward product-led engineering. That means:
- Asking why before how
- Partnering closely with other PMs
- Measuring outcomes, not output
Example: Our team once refused a feature that added complexity but had no measurable user need. Instead, we ran an experiment, gathered real feedback, and shipped a leaner version — which got better adoption.
Framework: Product Mindset Questions for Engineers
- Who is the end user?
- What’s the user problem?
- What metrics define success?
- Is there a faster way to validate this idea?
- What’s the smallest valuable thing we can ship?
Being technical is table stakes. Thinking in terms of impact is what separates the great from the good.
5. What’s Next: Navigating the Future (2024+)
As we step into an era shaped by AI, low-code, and distributed workforces, I’m more excited than ever. But also mindful:
- AI will change how we write and review code
- Platforms will abstract infrastructure further
- Developers will need stronger systems thinking and business empathy
I’ve started exploring prompt engineering, LLM integration with APIs, and AI-assisted architecture — not as a replacement for human judgment, but as an amplifier.
Example: Using OpenAI to Validate API Responses with PHP
<?php
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
$headers = [
"Authorization: Bearer YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY",
"Content-Type: application/json"
];
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
$data = [
"model" => "gpt-4",
"messages" => [
["role" => "user", "content" => "Check this API response for anomalies: { \"status\": \"OK\" }"]
]
];
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $response;
?>
Final Thoughts
Twenty years in tech taught me that tools change, but foundational skills — communication, curiosity, and clarity — never go out of style.
If you’re early in your journey, focus on learning and relationships. If you’re mid-career, think about leverage and impact. And if you’re a veteran like me — pay it forward.
This blog is my way of doing that. Thanks for being here. Let’s keep building.
