In this post I’m going to reflect on the year that’s almost finished and the year to come.

I came up with a few topics that are worth discussing in this post.

My career

I don’t think I ever mentioned where I work. The first of January I will be working 18 months for Ferranti. The only company I’ve worked for since I graduated.

The first project I’ve ever worked on was a rather big one. Firestation Antwerp. Last year we heard that sales scored another firestation for us (Firestation Ghent). So I’ve been working on these two projects since I started.

Do these projects get boring? Well, not boring, exhausting maybe. These projects are very complex (Dispatching, telecommunication, web applications, GIS, ..) and the requirements are very high. Although these projects are exhausting from time to time, I don’t think there are other projects where I would’ve learned as much in such a small period of time. As a developer I have touched and worked on lots of stuff: ASP.NET, WindowsServices, WCF, WebServices, GIS, API’s, Telecommunication.. You name it.

Blog

I’ve been blogging since October 2008. When I just started out the quality of the content was rather poor. Although I’m not totally satisfied with the content I produced this year, I hope the quality has improved noticeable. I saw the traffic increase significantly this year, so I hope that’s a good sign.

There are a few posts that scored pretty good out there. You can find them here.

By blogging I’ve made lots of new friends. I enjoy reading through all of your Tweets. Bart De Smet in particular has been a very good mentor.

Community

I managed to go to two events this year:

• TechDays Belgium
• Scott Guthrie in Belgium

I hope I will get the opportunity to go to some big event next year. I also plan on going to more VISUG sessions.

I’ve been neglecting the ASP.NET forums lately. In general I think the quality of the questions is rather poor and there are plenty of good answerers. I’ve been a long time StackOverflow lurker. Next year I’ll try to contribute to that community.

Travelling

I managed to travel four times this year:

• France (Albi)
• Spain (Madrid)
• Belgium (Ardennes)
• France (Normandie)

In 2010 I’ll try to go abroad at least three times.

Wrap up

In general, my year was pretty fun. I hope 2010 will be at least as good. Excited about hearing how you did this year and what you hope to achieve in 2010!