2018: Year in Review

I liked doing this recap last year, so I figured I’d make it a tradition. :) 2018, like most years, held a lot, so I’m trying to jot some of it down here.

Speaking, Teaching, and Writing

• Two larger talks: This year I was able to speak at both CodeOnTheBeach and TechBash – two great conferences. I was grateful to be a part of them.
• More talks: I gave 7 talks in total this year to various groups on subjects including Akka.NET, ElasticSearch, and an introduction to OSS.
• Blog posts both here and on Excella’s blog on a smattering of things – VS Code, WSL, Azure Functions, agile tech leads, and more.
• AMAs: I answered 7 questions on my AMA site:
  • Not great after 10 years; what to do?
  • Is coding a young person’s career?
  • The best tool for the job?
  • Maintaining your regression suite as your application grows
  • Imposter syndrome
  • Proprietary languages for software development?
  • How can one know one’s own level of technical maturity?

Work Stuff

• Became Excella’s .NET Specialty Lead: It’s no secret by now that I’m a big fan of Excella, my employer. This year, I got to take on the role of .NET Specialty Lead, helping to bring my team to the next level of our .NET practice. It’s a big responsibility but one I’m really excited to tackle. I think it’s going to lead to a lot of growth for me as well.
• Promoted to Managing Consultant: I was promoted two levels, from Senior Consultant to Managing Consultant. This is a big deal for me. Work goals of mine at any company are generally to have the broadest possible impact, and to create positive influence and trajectories for others. This promotion allows me to work to be the best I can be in those categories, and it shows faith in what I’ve done so far. Really excited to continue that.
• Co-taught 5 instances of two of Excella’s training courses – our Certified Scrum Developer course, and our Agile Testing & Automation course. Learned a ton doing that, and looking forward to more of it!

Personal Stuff

I try not to be too personal on this blog as it’s mostly tech, but there are some things I just had to mention. I’ll keep it brief. :)

• I got a house! I never really imagined myself as much of a homeowner, but this year my wife and I saw a place in Arlington that we thought was worth putting down some roots in. I love it. While maintaining and improving a home is not something have the skills for currently, she has been very patient and I’ve been learning a ton. I have an office with a view, which I hope to start writing more of these posts from soon.
• Brothers’ retreat: This year, my brother and I went on a 4-day trip to a cabin. We caught up on life, hung out, enjoyed the scenery, and got to code together a little bit too. I see that time as one of the highlights of my whole year, and I can’t wait to make it a tradition.
• Politics: I don’t think I can avoid saying this here because it factored into so much of my energy this year: The U.S. is in crisis and the depths of the current administration’s ethical and leadership failings are hard to fathom. I’ve been trying to pitch in where I can to combat this, and intend to continue to do so in the coming year. Hope the crazy train stops soon; we’ve got a lot of damage to repair.

Blog Stats

• I had 100,963 page views on the blog this year as of the time of this writing. It feels great to crack 100k views, and is definitely inspiring me to write more next year.
• All of my top 10 blog posts were written over 1.5 years ago. Working on some fresh content is still probably a good idea. This is unchanged from last year.
• I noticed that a lot of the articles I have in my queue may be short and I think I’ve been holding back a little bit because of that. I’m going to try to err on the side of publishing in the future.

What’s Next?

This is one of my favorite questions of all time – it’s where the work happens, and where I get a lot of my energy.

• Personal connections: I’ve gotten a bunch done this year at work, but honestly, my personal connections have suffered. I’ve never been great at maintaining friendships, and I really need to change that. Things don’t run on auto-pilot nearly as much as I’d wish them to, and I want to focus especially on maintaining friendships that aren’t just physically in front of me.
• Finishing. I started many things in 2018. Too many. I want 2019 to be the year of finishing things.

Bring it on, 2019!

I’m looking forward to the year to come – challenges and joys alike.

Anything here catch your eye? Looking forward to something yourself? Drop it in the comments!

Wishing you and yours all the best in the coming year.