I’m a few days late posting this due to festivities and taking some time out to spend with family and friends, but I just wanted to put up a short review post about the past 12 months. Mainly for my benefit as it is good to write about positive things that have happened.
Normally I would write about all the cool Pluralsight courses I have released, and I have released 2 this year (Lean Fundamentals and RabbitMQ by Example) which are doing vey well, but that is not the best thing that has happened this year. First of all I started speaking at large conferences. This was a big deal for me as I originally started talking at user groups last year to get over a fear of public speaking, so getting accepted at major conferences was fantastic. Last year I spoke at the following events, NDC London, Techorama in Belgium, and NDC Oslo. It felt like a personal triumph to speak at these world class conferences, especially as my talks all received good ratings from the attendees.
Also in 2016 I changed jobs to work at a start-ups (well 2 linked companies) called Buying Butler and RightIndem. I started there as their Head of Development, which means I run both of the teams producing our main products. My circumstances starting at Buying Butler are quite unique though. I have known the founders for nearly 3 years and the plan was that I would always go and work there, but with start-ups being what they are it takes time to get funding. But the funding came and things really took off and I started working there in May. We went from 5 people working in a small office to 30 people in a larger modern office in the centre of Nottingham by Christmas. We are also now about to enter a new growth phase by recruiting more staff. Very exciting times ahead.
In 2017 I am planning on more of the same. I am speaking at NDC London in January (OMG 2 weeks away, I best do more rehearsing), SDD Conf and hopefully more conferences around the world. Buying Butler is going from strength to strength and I am genuinely excited to see what we can achieve this year. I will of course be working on more Pluralsight content. I have a course in production at the moment and I am also recording a Play by Play live course with colleague and friend Lars Klint at NDC London.
Here’s to another action packed and fun year 🙂
Stephen Haunts { Freelance Trainer and Writer } 