Most of us, here in DEV, have tech-oriented jobs. Whether you are a frontend developer, backend developer, software analyst, project manager, team leader, etc., our job’s final goal is to build software.

However, everyone has a different background, and that’s what makes each of us unique in some way. Even if we have a similar goal, we may approach our careers differently because of our unique skills and background, and I think that’s awesome.

In my case, I love to create stuff. When I was a kid, the easiest way to do that was drawing. I was always drawing my favorite characters from movies or tv series. And as an adult, I decided to keep drawing in my free time.

Here’s one of my latest drawings:

I love drawing whenever I can because it’s nice to do something that’s unrelated to work and it helps me connect with my childhood in a way. It’s also kind of relaxing.

My passion for creating stuff has obviously affected my career: That’s primarily why I decided to work independently and on my own projects. And the fact that I was able to draw and design has helped me a great deal with the branding and design for those projects.

For example, I created the logo and most of the icons for the app Get rid of it, which I launched along with @maurogarcia_19.

A screenshot of my app Get rid of it displaying the logo (which is a white open box) and grid with icons representing the things that you can get rid of (E.g: Football, a bunch of cd's, tools).

I also designed the logo and the octopus in our latest project Cephhi.

A banner design I did to promote cephhi.com. It displays the logo (which is a red octopus tentacle with a green background) and Cephhi the octopus sitting in a desktop working on the tweets you asked him to publish!

It’s kind of weird because I specialize in backend development, which is pretty far away from the UI design, colors and logos. But I like weird, so it’s ok.

I honestly believe that embracing our own unique backgrounds (and even weirdness) can help us become better developers because it helps us understand ourselves and what we really love to do. At least for me, when I love what I’m working on, I do it so much better.

Does your background make your work unique? 💬

What’s the skill, hobby or weird habit that makes (or could make) your work unique?

I love this subject and I know there’s much more to discuss about it. But I have to study for 2 finals 😱, so I’ll leave it here for now and probably pick it up in future posts.

This post is also available on DEV.