A Drupal Destiny
A great Drupal passion has driven career and volunteer efforts, leading to a deep level of Drupal expertise and four levels of Acquia certification.
Bakul Ahluwalia is a software development manager at Adcetera’s Houston office, who works closely with teams in our Chicago and The Woodlands offices as well.
My Drupal journey so far
To tell my Drupal story, you need to go all the way back to my high school days, when I started coding in C++/Java. I was interested in how to make something new with just a few lines of code and began exploring a variety of different approaches and programming languages. I went on to study software development as an undergraduate in RTU India, so I was working with many programming languages and frameworks, but Drupal caught my attention. As I experimented with different technologies, Drupal just kept popping up as a good way to approach a particular problem. After graduation, I started working with the widely acclaimed version, “7.0,” which was favored by the community, and my most significant Drupal 7 project was for CNN Arabic. Once I saw the ease and elegance of creating that solution, the rest is history.
I spent nearly five years in the industry in the Noida area of India and decided to pursue a master’s degree in the United States. While a graduate student at the University of Houston, Drupal resurfaced again and helped me land a remarkable opportunity with Adcetera, an advertising and marketing agency with extensive digital and interactive experience and an expert development team covering a breadth of industries, in the same city where I was studying. Although I could have taken a different career route (cybersecurity), Drupal was persistent.
At Adcetera, I acquired proficiency in designing and developing websites on Drupal 8, 9, and 10. Some of the award-winning projects that I’m proud of are: KBR.com, CPChem.com and Loomis. Up to this point, I had only been a beneficiary and had not contributed to the Drupal community. That all changed when I witnessed colleagues at Adcetera volunteering for food banks and other charities. I was inspired by their actions, and I inquired if we could also contribute to Drupal. Before I knew it, I was volunteering for the DrupalCon marketing committee and contributing to several initiatives such as “Project Browser,“ “Promote Drupal,” “Rebranding of Drupal — Open Source CMS” as well as providing little bit code patches for core and contributed modules.
Adcetera graciously sponsored me to sit for the Drupal Certifications, and in 2021 I earned the title of “Triple Certified Drupal Expert — Drupal 9”. The three certifications are:
- Acquia Certified Developer — Drupal 9
- Acquia Certified Front End Specialist — Drupal 9
- Acquia Certified Back End Specialist — Drupal 9
- (Bakul Ahluwalia | Acquia Certification )
Volunteering at DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 and DrupalCon Portland 2022
During my first trip to DrupalCon Seattle in 2019, I was one of two individuals Adcetera sponsored to attend the event. The experience was quite overwhelming, and it became apparent that the community relied heavily on the support of volunteers and sponsors to organize such events. That persuaded me to find a way to start volunteering and give back to the community.
In 2022, I applied to volunteer for the marketing committee, which is responsible for posting content on social media. Given my background in coding, writing social media posts and adopting a marketing-oriented language proved to be a vastly different experience. Nonetheless, I applied my proficiency in coding, which enabled me to produce a more technical angle to the posts. As a result, I have decided to volunteer again in 2023 with renewed vigor and enthusiasm (Meet the Committees | Drupal Events).
I also volunteered at DrupalCon in 2022, and it afforded me the privilege of interacting with several exceptional members of the Drupal community. Through these interactions, I acquired invaluable insights that proved useful both in my personal and professional life.
Other Contributions towards Drupal
Presently, I am actively participating in two “Promote Drupal” initiatives. In the first, I am responsible for crafting educational and technical Twitter posts. In the second, I offer my developer insights regarding the rebranding and redesign of Drupal — Open Source CMS ‘s Download page. I find it fascinating that there are numerous avenues through which one can make a contribution to the Drupal community.
I consider myself fortunate to be part of the “Project Browser” initiative, and one of my most significant contributions was when we discovered that the “Package Manager” could be utilized not only to automate Drupal upgrades but also to facilitate module installations.
As a coder first, I make it a priority to seek out patches or provide suggestions for issues in both contributed modules and core whenever possible. I have also developed two modules, but I’m currently working to ensure their compatibility with Drupal 10.
Takeaways from DrupalCons so far
My initial attendance at DrupalCon 2019 served as a catalyst for my contributions to the community. The virtual format of DrupalCon 2020 brought together the entire Drupal world, while DrupalCon 2022 provided a refreshing experience following the pandemic. Being a part of DrupalCon has become a tradition for me, as I eagerly anticipate the latest updates in Drupal and relish the opportunity to be a part of a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse community.
If you’re interested in participating in Drupal, leave a message or connect with me on LinkedIn so we can talk.
