Once again, the new year is upon us and it's time to layout my professional goals for the year ahead. As I like to say, this is my time to prune the old and irrelevant, expand on what is solid and good, and gain exposure to the new and exciting. Here are my goals for 2015.
In 2014, I set out to write a blog post per week, and ended up writing 13 posts. That's pathetic. Though I fell drastically short, I still recognize the fruits of my labor, namely a more confident interview, encouraging me to try again and write more frequently in 2015.
In 2015, I will write a blog post a week. These posts will focus on Ruby on Rails, Ember, Jekyll, and web development in general.
In addition, I will finish my ebook, Apprentice Guide to Web Development, something I've been struggling to finish for a while now.
Most of my freelance time in 2014 was spent writing code for BooksTo.Me, an Instagram based product, and I really enjoy it. A dream job for me would be to maintain and refine my own products, enough to earn my living solely based on these products. I know that I'm not the only one with this goal, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.
As a start, I have a three simple product ideas of my own that I would like to launch in 2015. More details to come.
If I can launch each of the three products, as well as my ebook, I will have successfully completed this goal.
I realize this is a poorly stated goal, but I don't know how to quantify depths of knowledge. I'm hoping to become a senior-level Rails developer, and a proficient Ember developer. There are gaps in my knowledge in both frameworks that I can identify and fill. This goal ties in nicely with my writing goal, as filling in my knowledge gaps makes for great blog posts.
At the end of 2015, I would love to look back and say that I really did significantly deepen my knowledge in both frameworks.
In late December 2015, I would love to be able to say that I wrote 52 meaningful blog posts, launched three products, published my ebook, and significantly deepened my knowledge of Rails and Ember. If so, I would consider 2015 to be very successful.