My 2025 Dev Retrospective

My 2025 is coming to an end, and I want to highlight the importance of doing a retrospective. For me, it’s a way to learn from the past in order to build a better 2026.

In this article, I reflect on my successes, talk about my failures and the lessons learned from them, adjust my goals, and think about growth on both a personal and professional level — once again creating a solid foundation for new achievements and a more conscious and strategic mindset.

Motivation and purpose

My motivation for working in software development has never been about money, but always about loving what I do. Programming, to me, is an art.

And because it is art, with the freedom I’ve always had, every difficulty along this journey has been a source of pride. I’ve lived from this for years, with little or with much, because what truly matters to me is living from my craft and being able to make a difference in the lives of the people around me family, friends, and others.

Every fall became more than a thousand reasons to keep going. If it’s only about money, with the way things are today, you might as well stop now.

Work and projects

I had ups and downs. On a professional level, I had the opportunity to work on two projects: one contract and another ongoing freelance project.

Between January and February, I signed with Hctech Solution, which was a major achievement. Jefferson gave me an important opportunity, and it was a very good and challenging experience especially because it involved making relevant technical decisions within a team.

Unfortunately, due to administrative issues within the company, we had to terminate the contract. Still, I’m grateful to Jefferson and to the company.

After that, I spent around three months without a project. I decided to do things differently.

Hackathons and learnings

During that period, I participated in hackathons — also as a way to learn and make some extra money (and have fun 😄).

The first one was organized by JUNITEC, the largest university hackathon in Portugal. It was an incredible experience and, interestingly, it was thanks to this participation that I ended up working where I am today.

It was in this context that I met Afonso Cavaco.

To learn more:
What I Learned Participating in a Hackathon

After that, I went to Spain to participate in a hackathon organized by Telefónica and MongoDB. Even without a final highlight, the learning was huge, especially by exploring areas I had never worked in before.

This experience culminated in a presentation at Banco BPI, by invitation of the MongoDB User Group. I was also invited for an interview, but at the time I felt I wasn’t ready to embrace the opportunity mostly because I wasn’t open to change yet. That conversation remains open for next year.

People, talks, and community

During this time, I met important people such as Carla Barata (BPI) and João (MongoDB), with whom I still keep in touch. João has been a mentor and guide, someone with much more experience in the field.

This year, I gave three presentations:

One on YouTube
One at a meetup in Braga (it was terrible 😅)
One at BPI (this one went well)

Public speaking is still something I’m working on. Sometimes I have a shyness disguised as energy and nostalgia. Writing and speaking have helped me a lot.

People who marked the year

This year was about meeting incredible people and great professionals. Each one added something to who I am as a person.

Some of them:

Agny (Portugal)
William (Madrid)
Milson (Germany)
Amós (Lisbon)
Diego (Lisbon)
Carlos Mota (Braga)
Alexi (Google Community Manager)
Elizabeth
… and many others

Meeting new people almost became a hobby this year, always taking some life lesson from each connection. It was truly inspiring.

International events

At an events level, I participated in at least two international ones.

For the second time, I went to Berlin to attend Google I/O Connect, one of my favorite events. Each country changes everything people, energy, connections. This year, I connected deeply with the African community present at the event, which was extremely inspiring.

I also went to Lagos for the first time to attend DevFest Lagos, invited by Fellyph. An amazing experience, with great people and lots of learning.

Finally, I attended MongoDB Local Madrid, where I participated in three MongoDB workshops. Madrid surprised me as a city. This year alone, I went there twice and came back twice.

Berlin, on the other hand, already feels like home between family and friends, it feels like a second home.

End of the year and ADHD

The end of the year comes with a sense of victory. I learned to celebrate every achievement, even the small ones, because an achievement is an achievement there is no such thing as small or big.

This year, I discovered that I have ADHD, which completely changed the way I think and relate to people. The constant feeling of never being ready, never being enough, and not recognizing my own achievements has strongly affected my productivity, routine, and relationships.

William has been a major reference for me in this journey. I’ve read everything he wrote about ADHD, and whenever possible, I talk to him about it. I’m still learning.

I know this has affected some relationships, often due to lack of understanding both mine and others’ about how an ADHD mind works. But it’s part of the process. I plan to document here what works for me, knowing that every experience is unique.

Looking to the future

The future? 😅 As I usually say, it’s uncertain.

For next year, some goals:

Focus more on university
Reduce distractions (I still haven’t found the perfect formula)
Speak more in public
Write more blog posts
Improve my software engineering fundamentals
Build more things
Learn more about embedded systems (part of my work involves this)

I’m also interested in joining a specific company. I’ve already spoken with the manager, done my research, and it’s a company that inspires confidence in me. I’ll explain more about this process soon.

This is a brief summary of how my 2025 went and how I hope the coming months will be more productive and happier.

I hope to continue growing both as a developer and as a person.