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[Photo: Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on my flight home to Scotland from Florida back in September.]
My 2022
My 2022 was a year of highs, lows, and lots of new experiences.
However, my highlight of the year has been the many amazing people I’ve connected with throughout my personal life, work, tech community and elsewhere. Some people I’ve known for years, others I’ve met for the first time this year.
I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me on this journey. There are too many people to thank so I won’t attempt to name everyone (and I don’t want to miss anyone) but if we’ve connected this year then thank you.
If we haven’t met yet, feel free to connect with me!
Work
Back in February, I started a new role as Senior Developer for Quorum in Edinburgh, which involves an interesting mix of consulting, development, and architecting.
I’ve enjoyed learning and using Power Platform, Azure, C#, ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript, SQL Server, MySQL, and many other technologies!
Public Speaking
2022 has been the year that I’ve grown my public speaking at various user groups, YouTube channels, podcasts, and conferences. Some highlights:
- Speaking at the Data Relay 2022 conference in Leeds and Birmingham, even giving a talk in a cinema!
- Presenting on community legend John Lunn’s Jonnychipz YouTube channel
- Being interviewed for the Smart Cherrys Thoughts podcast, my first time on a podcast.
- Having a Tech Top Trump card created for me by Laura Webb!
Public speaking is something I really enjoy, and hope to do more of going forward.
Events
I’ve attended several user groups, conferences, and other events in-person and remotely. There’s nothing better than meeting wonderful people and learning new things.
One of my highlights has to be attending the first ever Microsoft Power Platform Conference in Orlando, Florida back in September.
As well as attend, I’ve had the privilege of volunteering for Scottish Summit 2022 and DATA:Scotland 2022, both hosted in one of my favourite cities, Glasgow.
I was also grateful to co-organise the amazing Festive Tech Calendar 2022, which holds a special place in my heart as it’s the first event I gave a presentation for back in 2021.
Blogging and Social Media
I eventually started a blog, which you’re reading now.
Twitter and LinkedIn are social media channels which I still enjoy using, too.
I also started a monthly newsletter this year.
Learning
I passed the following Microsoft certifications:
- Azure Data Fundamentals
- Power Platform Fundamentals
- Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals
- Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM)
Instructing
Another first for me was becoming a LinkedIn Learning Instructor and creating my first course, Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) Cert Prep: 3 Working with Non-Relational Data on Azure.
As well as instructing, I’ve really enjoyed helping people with Power Apps questions on the Power Apps Community.
Mentoring
It’s been my privilege to start mentoring two fantastic, driven individuals who I know will go on to do amazing things.
Mentoring is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and I’ve been honoured to learn so much from them, too.
Other Experiences
As well as work and tech community activities, I also enjoyed many other experiences such as:
- Visited family and friends
- Travelled in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, USA, Germany and Austria
- Ran the Edinburgh Marathon Festival 10K
- Went to several concerts and events such as the Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Yeah, but…
I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah, yeah, it can’t all be positive…”, and you’d be absolutely correct! Things I could have done better (and will work on going forward) are:
- Healthy work/life balance
- Have more fun: Playing video games, creating art, watching movies - anything fun!
- Study for more certifications
- Create more videos for my YouTube channel
Looking Ahead
I’m looking forward to what the new year brings, and hope that you have a happy and successful 2023!