I am sitting here in the back of a coffee shop in December 2019, thinking about what I want out of 2020. In August, I turn 40 (which is slightly frightening). I want to move my career forward in 2020. I do not particularly know how to do that but by the time you read this, I will have been at UWM‘s ITA office for 4.5 years (assuming that I didn’t leave for somewhere else in 2020?).
I recently became a member of the Office of Research’s Talent Management Working Group. The UW System is trying to revamp performance evaluation to align it more with professional development goals. It is an exciting concept but it also doesn’t involve increasing training budgets, so I am not sure how successful it will be.
I recently pushed for my position description to be rewritten. Before I left for the year, I even wrote an early draft of it. I am angling for a formal position title of “Web Systems Engineer V” and a business title of “Lead Web Systems Engineer”. The title change is driven by the UW System’s Title and Total Compensation project so I have finite power over what happens.
In the second half of 2020, I am planning to submit my packet for indefinite status. I don’t know if I will get indefinite status or not but I have hope. I think that it would be a big win.
I recently bought Sparrow’s Challenge Vault and I am planning on mastering it before Cyphercon. I have my eye on that safe cracking village.
I went crazy with the international travel goal in 2019. In 2020, I just want to do one trip. I am currently looking at a trip to the Golden Triangle in India and a few days in Kathmandu. I haven’t booked anything yet, though.
I started working on a side project, recently. “Joe’s App” is running on firebase (a platform that I have had very mixed success with). The current goal is to use Skyscanner’s APIs to build something that could be more holistic for travel planning. I want it to go beyond the price of the flight and include things like the price of food and lodging. I figure that (at the very least) it could be good fodder for technical blog posts.
Let’s hope that I met some of these goals, this year. 🙂
[ Cover photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash ]