Today marks a new chapter in my professional career. It isn’t a new start. It isn’t a career change. It isn’t a new book in the life of Lars. However, it is tremendously exciting, and even more so as I haven’t been able to talk about it until now.
From today I am a full-time author with Melbourne based A Cloud Guru (ACG). Some of you might have heard of them especially in the AWS world. They are an up and coming online learning content provider, that has a focus on not only high quality content, but also entertaining material that won’t make you fall asleep.
I have been working with them as a contractor since January to author, present and produce The Future of Tech, as show focused on showcasing the latest trends and buzzwords within technology. I like what they are doing, and they like my, and I quote, “eccentric and quirky approach to content presentation”. I’ll take that as a compliment. Several times the conversation of full time authoring has come up, but I have declined every time. Until I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. And to be honest, if it wasn’t for Sam and Pete, I wouldn’t even have considered it. I trust these guys implicitly, and I have full confidence in their ambitions and goals for the company and platform.
My main role from the start will be to author Microsoft Azure content, as well as focusing on other content to improve and advance the platform. It is daunting, exciting and exhilarating, all at the same time.
Pluralsight
For those of you that have followed my journey and work in the last five years know that I have been particularly productive with Pluralsight, both in authoring courses, writing articles, speaking at their public and private events and more. Pluralsight is a big part of the reason I have been able to do a lot of the projects and events I have been involved with. I have loved working with them and I am grateful for everything this relationship has brought about.
ACG is a competitor to Pluralsight, both offering online training in the technical space of development, cloud computing and more. This means that I am likely not going to produce any further content for Pluralsight. The decision to move to ACG has been one of the hardest to make in a long time. On the one hand I am giving up building on the existing content and relationship I have within Pluralsight, and on the other I am receiving a new opportunity to build up a course catalogue from scratch and be an integral part of the way content is authored and delivered. It took months to weigh up the pros and cons, discuss the options with friends and family, and come to a final decision. You are only seeing the result of all those deliberations.
In the end, I made the decision that in the long term would provide me with the best set of opportunities, not just for me, but also for my family. Over the next month or so, you will continue to see Pluralsight content coming from me, but it has been completed and delivered before today.
Consulting Work
The second big choice is that I am moving from a freelance role to a full time permanent position. For the past three years I have been in charge of my schedule, my projects and my choices in clients. I have learnt a huge amount that I never thought necessary, such as doing multiple projects at the same time, filtering out the projects that aren’t worth the time and effort and saying “no”. One thing I never thought I would do as much was chasing invoices. It still amazes me how bad some people are at paying bills.
Obviously with a full-time role, there will be a large chunk of my time filled up with that role. However, I am terrible at sitting still and doing one thing, so I will still be working with a couple of exceptionally excellent clients. I will still be running our Bed & Breakfast, and I will still buy and sell classic cars. I also have several mentoring clients that I will continue to support. Some things I just can’t give up.
I will also be working from home for the most parts, so expect to see lots more photos of the gorgeous part of the world we live in.
Community Involvement
Another large part of my professional life is contributing and participating in community events all over the world. ACG even have their own ServerlessConf, which takes place a few times a year, and they are a big supporter of the community that a lot of their users are coming from.
I will still be heavily involved in DDD Melbourne and I will still be speaking at a number of conferences globally, including KCDC in July, NDC Sydney in September and TConf in November.
It’s All About Growth
If you read this far, you might be asking “why the change now?” or “why give up the freedom of freelancing?” or any other question along those lines. In the end, any decision I make must first and foremost benefit me and my family. If you don’t make decisions with the same aim in mind, I would question your reasons. Of course, community work is giving as much back as possible, but it is also about me scratching an itch in some way.
For me it is about growth. I only have this one life to try out all the various things I want to do, and all of it is to grow more as a person in any which way. The opportunity with ACG gave me just that: a new avenue of growth. And the best part? I didn’t have to give up very much of everything I love doing to start the journey.