Quarterly career checklist

Published on 2026-04-13 19:35

Past 12 months were a bit more chaotic than I would like them to be. Drowsy Don's actions as the POTUS made the world quite unpredictable. So when my time on a project ended last Spring, I had to scramble. Since a bigger economic upheaval is on the horizon, let's look at some things what I can do every quarter to avoid chaos of Spring 2025.

Look at the job boards

For a generic React developer this might be a pointless exercise because most roles that touch frontend development involve React. But as a developer who got paid for writing React code for the last time in December 2017 (with small exception of modifying Storybook), this is about keeping tabs on what's going on in non-React world. Whether I like it or not, finding non-React projects is more akin to finding a needle in the haystack.

Interviews and other stuff

Job interviews suck, there's no question about that. With this acknowledgement, tenth interview is easier than the first. By that tenth interview I've usually straightened out my basic pitch and how my career has gone so far, why I'm looking for a new role &c. So going to one interview per quarter is a good way to keep those things sharp. This is not about improving interviewing skills, it's about maintaining them.

For some recruiters and HR people the previous paragraph might sound like I am a prick who wastes their time. That's not my intention. My main responsibility is to my career. Job interview is so far the best way to assess if a company is a good fit for my career.

There's an exception to this and that's going freelance, in which case keeping an eye on the job market won't be a must. If I were a freelancer, going to one job interview every quarter would be optional as I'd be having sales meetings with clients more often. From my point of view potential client meeting and job interview are functionally very similar, in both we are trying to figure out if we are a good fit.

Note: Considering what kind of roles are available and me needing to do creative coding once in a while, it's more likely that I'll freelance on the side in those types of projects.

As a bonus, getting a job interview makes me update my CV throughout the year. Which is a segue to the next section.

Update portfolio/projects on website

Keeping one's CV and portfolio fresh is important because what you put there will attract people who are looking for similar work. Also after three months there should be some progression in one's work. So having outdated projects visible might signal that a person is not progressing. (Or is too busy, so clients will go elsewhere.)

Read one technical book, take one course

This one is not about keeping up with the technology. Quite frankly past three years AI Bros have been coming up with industry changing tech almost every day (at this point it feels like noise). This is about learning what's out there, what I might not need right now but in six months it might become handy.

Also reading books and taking courses are about staying curious and keep thinking about things around me.