Previous articles: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
A decade ago today, I gave my first conference presentation.
Talk 95 - Where should I run my code? Dublin, Ireland, Nov 2019
~ much time passes ~
Talk 124 - Present like a pro, Wellington New Zealand, Aug 2024
Well. The last five years. What can be said that hasn’t been said many times already.
I ended up working for exactly one year as a Developer Advocate before the lockdowns started. My ““Googleversary”” was the first day I would work from home. I have since moved to perma-remote (and moved cities!)
Turns out when you peg your career on the ability to travel and speak, and travel stops…
During the height of lockdowns, I did more podcasts than anything else, but I did do a few remote events. The lack of feedback and energy from presenting online is definitely… something. Being in UTC+10 with online events spinning up left and right (and in mostly UTC-negative timezones) didn’t help with the inclusiveness. But the joy I felt giving my first in-person talk in two years in a small meetup room where the front row was full of humans I adore and hadn’t seen in a while… that is why I do this speaking thing. The ability to help people learn technical concepts, and learn from others, in both an event structure that works well with my brain (and having months to plan the words that will come out of my mouth during my presentation), it really works for me.
However, my career has pivoted again during the lockdowns. I ended up working more on that scalable advocacy thing I mentioned last time, helping to develop tutorials and written work that then resulted in moving from Developer Advocacy to Developer Programs Engineering (in not-company terms: moving from the talky talk to the codey code). Google has since consolidated both roles into a general “Developer Relations Engineer” role, so I have scope to do both talky and codey! (Obligatory “Look mum, I’m a Google Engineer!”)
I haven’t stopped speaking though! I’ve definitely hit that experience level where I can genuinely give the ‘speaking about speaking’ talk (which I was presenting internally before taking it on the road), and the feedback I’ve gotten about being inspiring to the next wave of speakers has been delightful.
Oh, and I’ve also presented talks at company events in Las Vegas, London, and Tokyo; given a few more keynotes, including one in two languages with live translation. I’ve spoken at more meetups, and I’ve also gotten to present in proper recording studios. But I’ve also guested on podcasts. You know, like a proper thought leader.
What will the next decade be like? It’s been a while since I’ve created a brand new talk, so that’s something I look forward to having the time and space to do again. Not to say that repeating talks isn’t work: the refinement and polish some of my encores have given makes them some of my proudest work. But the blank canvas is always appealing (and terrifying!).
Here’s to another decade of making the words on a stage. 🎤