8 min read
So 2020 has been a year right?
We kicked off the year full of hope, toasting to a better and brighter year at midnight on the 1st of January, blissfully unaware of the trials we would face in the coming months.
For me personally, January had me in a great place. I had freshly passed my probation at work and my responsibilities were gradually building, not only that, but I had finally unlocked what I thought of as the Holy Grail of workplace perks - Flexi-Time! Things were going swimmingly.
January - The Calm before the Storm
For me, January started off with a bang! I was on track to be the most active I'd been in the community for a while (by my standards) with January's Tech Nottingham firmly in the calendar, having just gotten done with the wonderful #NottTechParty a couple of weeks prior, I was ready for my head to get as comfortably stuffed as my stomach had been at the end of December. In January I reached a personal milestone of being sponsored by my company to attend the New Adventures Conference, opening up my world to the wider effects of the work I do as a member of the Tech Industry (alongside themed Design Exchange and Women in Tech events to top it off).
February - Trials by Fire
February was when my New Year's Resolutions started coming into effect. I suddenly found myself getting super involved in the regular Pulse Sessions my company held. The first was a mini-talk about Design Trends that were beginning to pick up steam at the time, this being a collaboration between the Development Team of the Client Team I was on at work. It was a good practice run for what would be happening next.
Which was...
Yes! Another mini-talk alongside newly acquired Work Buddy and fellow Tech Nottingham-ite, Melody! This time about our experience having gone to New Adventures and (kind of) representing our company, reporting back on what we took away from it. This was when I started to really get my research on. I'd had experience in previous roles with Web Accessibility, working with a college for the blind on a project and being shown around and given the opportunity to see first hand how those with disabilities navigated the websites we built, but this time it was building on the wonderful talk Liz Jackson gave at New Adventures, showcasing her highlighting of the attempts made by Lego and other companies of making their content 'accessible' but not quite hitting the mark with it, something I felt was important to highlight in our particular line of work.
After all of that, we got wind of a new kid entering the scene! This of course being in the form of Level Up Notts! a new meetup hosted by Rebel Recruiters, focusing on life at the Junior level of the Tech Industry and ways to break into it that weren't just your conventional CS Degree. I then had the pleasure of watching two of my colleagues plan a talk about How to get into the Tech Industry, a subject I myself was planning to write a talk on - if I only had the time...
March - "Mr Stark...I'm not feeling so good..."
Ah March...the beginning of...well...everything we're experiencing now. March started off well. We did have the odd Yikes now and again, with the Virus slowly making its way through the country, but nothing extreme, not a single case in Nottingham back then. It would all be fine...right? While we pondered what might happen in the next few months, life moved swiftly onward. The aforementioned talk at Level Up Notts become top of my itinerary along with what I didn't know back then would be the final In Person Tech Nottingham I've been to since.
At Level Up, I was able to watch two of my best friends at work do their thing and do it well, with the Pulse Sessions and Women in Tech NAConf Edition under her belt, Mel was unstoppable. The rest of the night went really well too, I was slowly breaking out of my usually very introverted shell, being coaxed out by free merch and free pizza, I'm sure many of you reading know the feeling! And then...a week later...
The orders started coming in to start trialling Working From Home in the office. Each Client Team would take it in turns to Work From Home, when it came to be my team's turn, I left my new favourite mug I had won at a previous Design Exchange as part of the one and only Team #Quizamblings and my favourite mousemat along with my much beloved desk toys at the office, assuming I would be coming in to return to them the next day.
Of course, as these things go, that isn't what ended up happening.
March heralded the start of a new regime for many, some having already had ample experience working from home, some, like myself, still being wet behind the ears when it came to home-working. Suddenly, mercifully, my commute was removed from the equation entirely, my early morning chats at the tea-making pod replaced by morning Google Hangouts calls with my team, the new 'normal' was beginning to show itself in earnest.
Then, just as I was starting to get into the swing of working from home, a call comes over the new phone system we've set up for home-working. Then, suddenly and swiftly...I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands. My last day of work for the foreseeable future was to be the 27th of March. Just in time for my birthday on the 29th.
April - July - Furhighs and Furloughs
On the 27th of March, I was put on Furlough leave on an indefinite basis from my job. Admittedly, I had it a little better than others. Suddenly, for the first time in 3 years, I had a long amount of leave off, which would turn out to be longer than any Summer Holiday I had in my student days back in Ireland (And our summer holidays were long! As one of my lecturers once said, the main reason people become teachers back home is for 3 reasons, June, July and August. A whole 3 months holiday!) but this time, with a lot more uncertainty and a building sense of unrest as to the state of the world as it was becoming.
Of course, I did not waste this time (I absolutely did) , I played a lot of Animal Crossing and a lot of Breath of the Wild. I also built this blog! One of the goals I had set over the lockdown period! So I feel as if I have been successful in that regard.
Towards the end of this period, things were getting turbulent for me professionally, the current state of the world has shaken almost every industry throughout all sectors, and, unfortunately, mine was no exception. In light of this, I made the difficult decision that I’m sure many have had to make in 2020, and that was to leave the job they love/were very much enjoying to secure a future for themselves and their family.
And after a couple of tries and a new state of work life later, I was able to achieve, what I feel, is just that.
August - Riding the Wave
After a brief breather period towards the end of July, and a Game Jam that reignited a passion for Game Development that I have written about here , I managed to find myself in the job I’m currently working and enjoying my time in at the time of writing. So far, this has involved taking a field trip down to Cambridge for initiation/induction, a place I’ve been wanting to visit since I came to the UK, so what better time to do so than in the wake of a new position?
This month also heralded my full-time switch to Remote Working as well as a moment I never thought would come, the moment I set up a big bugger-off iMac plonked right in the middle of my WFH setup.
So far, I feel as though I’ve managed to Level Up (Geddit?) in many ways, not only in a professional sense, but also in a personal sense.
September - December
As I’m sure is a sentiment shared by everyone else in the country, I can’t say I got up to much in the intervening time! Sure there was a new routine to get used to, a new way of working here, a new work-out routine there (Consisting almost entirely of excessive use of my Oculus Quest and Beat Saber). Other than these, there have been a few exciting projects I’ve had the opportunity to either be a part of or start after months of deliberations.
Conclusion
So, dear reader, for one, thank you and congratulations for making it this far in the post! (And if you scrolled down for TLDR; I don’t blame you), and for another, as I sit here, albeit, slightly tipsy, typing this post as the clock creeps further to midnight, I wish you and yours all the best for 2021.
All the best!
- Jamie