Today will be my last day with Sogeti.  I’ve been with Sogeti USA for just over 4 years.  In that time I’ve gotten to work on some great projects, develop relationships with some brilliant and passionate people, participate in the .Net developer and SharePoint communities, and grow my skills in a number of areas I’m passionate about.

    As with all good things they must come to an end though.  I’ve accepted a position with another company and will provide more details once the transition has completed.  This decision was a difficult one to make but it provides a great career opportunity on many levels.  As much as my new schedule allows I plan to continue participating in local user groups, speaking at conferences, and blogging.

    Speaking of which, you may have noticed my reduced blogging activity in the past few months.  In addition to a career change I’m also in the process of moving to a new residence (only a few miles from my current residence, so I’ll still be in Columbus.)  Searching for a new place, filling out paperwork, and all of the other work associated with this move has taken away a good chunk of the time I used to devote to blogging.  Once everything gets settled out with the move and job change I’ll re-evaluate how much time I can devote to blogging.

    A big thanks to Sogeti and everyone who has been so supportive over my time with them.  It’s hard to move on, but I am excited for the prospects that the future will bring.

      -Frog Out

    Recently I posted a recap of my goals from 2010.  Now it’s time to post my goals and focus areas for 2011.  Just as I did in 2010 I’m splitting goals between professional and personal.

Professional

• Blog – I intended to continue blogging at least twice a month, sometimes more frequently when time and motivation allows.  I have begun looking at other platforms or distribution methods for my blogging and will continue to investigate those.  I’ll post details on here if anything changes.
• Speaking – In 2010 I spoke at a conference, user group, or other venue about once a month.  While I gained much from those opportunities it was also very time consuming, expensive (many times paid out of my own pocket), and emotionally draining.  This year I already have 3 engagements lined up in the first 2 months.  In 2011, if given the opportunity, I will probably limit myself to speak at 6 total events outside of Columbus / Ohio and then do 1-2 locally.
• Open Source – Last year I started an open source project on CodePlex called SavePSToSP.  You can read about the origins of that project here.  The idea has been implemented into a PowerShell module which assists with saving script files to a SharePoint document library.  I plan to support this project with monthly builds at least through June of this year.
• Volunteering – Last year I helped out with SharePoint Saturday Columbus and Stir Trek conferences as well as serving on the steering committee for Buckeye SPUG.  I’m already helping the volunteer board for the next Stir Trek conference and the steering committee for Buckeye SPUG.  Nothing official has started with SharePoint Saturday so nothing to report on that front.
• Windows Phone 7 Development – Sometime in Feb this year I should be getting a corporate Windows Phone 7 device.  I’m really looking forward to this so that I can develop on real hardware.  I plan to develop at least one application by year end.  Most likely it will have hooks into SharePoint or PowerShell.  I don’t know if it’s something I will submit to the marketplace yet.
• Portal and Collaboration Lead – This year with the Sogeti Columbus office I have a more official role of Portal and Collaboration Lead within the new Application Development and Integration practice.  This new role means that I will be expanding my scope of knowledge outside just Microsoft products to include IBM and other open source solutions for portal and collaboration solutions.  This will be an interesting challenge, but I hope to learn about at least 2 other solutions aside from SharePoint.

Personal

• Volunteering – I plan to continue volunteering at my parish’s high school youth group with weekly meetings and side events.  I also plan to continue doing an event once every other month with the Columbus Gives Back organization (website).
• House/Condo – I plan to buy a house or condo this summer when my apartment lease runs out.  I’ve already begun the search and talked to a realtor and lender so it is quickly becoming a reality.

Conclusion

    Once again I’ve outlined some goals for myself this year.  Many are similar to ones from last year but I have a few new ones.  All of these along with work, social, and other commitments will keep me busy as always.  If you have any goals for 2011 that you’d like to share feel free to leave a comment.  Thanks and good luck fulfilling your goals as well.

      -Frog Out

    As we approach the end of 2010 I’d like to take a  few minutes to reflect back on this past year and revisit the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year (click here to see those goals).  I feel it is important to track your goals not only to see if you accomplished them but also to see what new directions in life you pursued.  Once we enter into 2011 I’ll follow up with a new post on goals for the new year.

Professional

• Blog – This year I intended to write at least 2 posts a month.  Looking back I far surpassed that goal by writing 47 posts (this one being my 48th).  As with many things in life, quantity does not mean quality.  A good example is a number of my posts announcing upcoming speaking engagements and providing links to presentation slides and scripts.  That aside, I like to at least keep content relatively fresh on this blog  which I was able to accomplish.  At the same time I’ve gotten much more comfortable in my blogging style and it has become much easier to write.
• Speaking – I didn’t define a clear goal for speaking engagements, but had a rough idea of wanting to speak at 2-3 events.  Once again I far exceeded that number by speaking at 10 separate events and delivering 12+ presentations.  I’m very thankful for all of the opportunities that I was given and all of the wonderful people I have met as a result.
• Volunteering – This year I intended to help out with the COSPUG (now Buckeye SPUG) steering committee and Stir Trek conference.  I fulfilled both goals and as well as taking on lead organizer duties for the first ever SharePoint Saturday Columbus.  Each of these events and groups turned out to be successful and I was glad to be a part of them all.  I look forward to continuing to volunteer with each next year in some capacity.
• Android Development – My goal for getting into Android development was a late addition, but one I didn’t necessarily fulfill.  I spent a couple nights downloading the tools, configuring my environment, and going through some “simple” tutorials.  I say “simple” because in my opinion the tutorials were not laid out very well, took a long time to get running properly, and confused me more than helped.  After about a week I was frustrated with the process and didn’t think it was a good use of my time.  On a side note, I’ve dabbled in Windows Phone 7 development over the past few months and have been very excited by how easy and intuitive it was to get started and develop some proof of concepts.

Personal

• Getting in Shape – I had intended to play on recreational sports leagues and work out on a semi-regular basis.  For the most part I fulfilled this goal by playing on various softball and volleyball leagues as well as using the gym.  At the same time I had some major setbacks.  In the spring I badly sprained my ankle and got hit in the knee with a softball which kept me inactive for almost 2 months.  More recently I broke my knuckle (click here to read about it) which I am still recovering from.
• Volunteering – On the volunteering front I kept my commitments at my parish’s high school youth group.  As for other volunteering opportunities I got involved with a great organization called Columbus Gives Back (website).  I’ve volunteered with them a few times and really enjoy their goal to provide opportunities to people with busy schedules.  They  offer a variety of events typically after work hours and spread out around Columbus with no set commitments on time you need to put in.  If you have the time or motivation I highly recommend them.
• House/Condo – I had been thinking of buying a house or condo this past summer, but decided to extend my apartment lease for another year instead.  I have begun the search for a place in the past few weeks and am excited begin the process of owning a home.

Conclusion

    This year I was able to set and achieve many of my goals.  For next year I’ll try to put more specific numbers to all of my goals.  If any of you readers set goals for 2011 feel free to send me a link as I’d love to see what you are aiming to accomplish.  Have a great end of 2010 and best wishes for the start of 2011!

      -Frog Out

I typically post technical content on this blog, but I have a personal note this time around.  As some of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may know, last week I found out I fractured my right index knuckle and strained a ligament between my index and middle finger.  In order to heal this injury I’ll be wearing a cast for the next 3 1/2 weeks.  This is day 4 and I’m starting to get used to it, but my typing speed is still reduced and causes pain over long usage.  As such I am cutting back on a few side activities such as this blog, the SavePSToSP CodePlex project, and general research I do at nights.  I’ll still be responding to comments on this blog as they come up, but new content will be most likely be on hold until mid December when I get my fracture re-examined and hopefully can get rid of this cast for good.  Below is a copy of one x-ray showing the fracture and the other a shot of my cast today with some of the signatures I’ve collected.  I look forward to my hand healing and getting back to normal.  Have a fun and safe Thanksgiving holiday to all those that celebrate.

-Frog Out