Professional Goals of 2015 [Updated!]
For the first time ever, I'm making a list of career goals for the year. I'm shooting for some low-hanging fruit here, but hey, I have to start somewhere! [If you judge me on any of these, maybe YOUR resolution should be to BACK OFF... Ok, phew, sorry. That was uncalled-for... I'll calm down.]
- Read Code Complete. This book has been on my nightstand for years. It's my book version of Dumb & Dumber. Before I actually sat down and watched Dumb & Dumber straight through, I watched about 90% of it in bits and pieces [some of them many times over] through re-runs on TV. With Code Complete, I've read most of it by just picking pieces here and there to read. But this year, I'm going to finish what I started! Probably. Err... Hopefully!
- Get business cards. Ok. So this one is probably more of a personal goal, because I don't actually think I need them and basically just want something to show off, but I have enough personal resolutions as it is, so this goal put in for a transfer.
- Increase my StackOverflow reputation by 1,000. Right now I'm at a mildly-respectable (I think?) score of 3,165 [I'm no Jon Skeet]. By this time next year I hope to be at least at 4,165.
- Make one contribution to one open source project. When it comes to open source, I've made a habit out of feeding off the goodwill of others without giving anything back. So this year I just want to contribute something. My primary road bump has always been thinking, "what could little ol' me have to contribute?" So I guess part of this goal is to gain a little confidence, scarecrow style. [Update: done!]
That's it for now! Check back in about 365 days to see how I did!