I just came home from the 25th MVP Summit and as always it has been a blast. As I ended up tweeting, "tech by day and beer by night, what's not to like".
Sadly I am not allowed to write much about the tech, because it is still confidential, but it should be safe to say that things are continuing to move fast with ASP.NETCore, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code and of course Azure, which have been my main areas of interest.
Growing an online presence
Another thing I can talk about are some of the points from pre-summit sessions. I went to a couple of talks by Troy Hunt and Scott Hanselman about how to further your careers by seeking opportunities and taking part in (online) communities.
A key piece of advice from Troy was actually given to me about 15 years ago as well, which was how important it is to have an online identity. Something I have had since before I even finished school. When you are looking for a job or other opportunities for that matter, just claiming stuff on a piece of paper is not all that convincing. Anyone can claim to know about a certain topic, but if you have writen about it or shared code publicly, it becomes tangible.
Both speakers also touched on the fact that you should not be afraid to make mistakes. If someone calls you out on something that was incorrect, take it as a learning experience and now you have the chance to write a second blog post. Nobody will eat your lunch for making a mistake, if you are open about and treat others kindly.That being said, "if you are not upsetting someone, you're not trying hard enough!", as my favorite slide of Troys talk read.
Another point Troy made was you should look to leverage everything. If you solve an interesting problem, or answer a question, don't just leave it at that. Share it and see if it can be used in other contexts. Scott elaborated on this to say that you should share it in a forum that you own, most commonly a blog. Make sure it lives on, so you and others can get use of it again and again.
I think all of this is solid advice, which is why a want to share it here. I often hear people talk about blogging as something hard that would take up a lot of time. I really don't think it is, as long as you don't treat it as writing a book where you are scared of being wrong. As the Thomas Edison quote goes: “I haven’t failed, I’ve just found10.000 ways that won’t work”.
Opening doors
Even though it is kind of hard to quantify what you get out of activities like blogging, I can say for sure it has helped me land jobs, opened the door to public international speaking and helped me become an MVP, which in turn ensures that I continue to enjoy my everyday job. Events like the MVP Summit where I get a few days with people who care as much about the craft as I do are just another piece in that puzzle, but it helps tie everything together and I always learn a lot from sessions, as well as all the people that I get to meet. In the end all I can do is recommend that you give blogging and community participation a shot if you are passionate about your work - and maybe I will see you at a future MPV Summit?
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