In Readify we have a weekly beer-o-clock email on Fridays based around 3 questions, the first 2 being work related and the 3rd usually something off the wall, where we can talk about the week that's been and share it with the rest of the company.  As the year approached it's conclusion we did a similar thing called Year-O-Clock.  For those who may be interested here's the questions and my responses:

 

1. Did you achieve your goals for this year?  -- OR --  Give us your year-in-review

Year in review for me:  I started out the year in a very, very, different position to where I am now.  January last year I was CTO for a company going through a rough patch.  I was really enjoying working with my team and still value the times I can catch up with them but the hassles of management and other internal issues were combining to slowly sucking all life out of me.  I decided I would leave and my plan at that point was to try and find another CTO style role elsewhere.

As it happened I quickly got offered a Technical Director’s role with another software firm, but I think I was too worn out by my recent experiences and wanted to try something less stressful that gave me a bit more balance in life so in the end I passed on the role even more unsure of what I really wanted to do.  In the end I just gave up trying to find a new job whilst still burdened with the current one and handed in my resignation without anything specific to go to thinking I would take a breather and refresh before looking again.
It's funny how good timing can be though.  At the time I resigned I had Readify in for an architecture review of an application we were developing and when they found out I was leaving they immediately asked if I'd like a job.  I thought about it and decided it might be fun to try consulting.  I really like to help people and consulting for an elite firm might give me some exposure and a bump in my profile that I'd have trouble getting as a CTO for a smallish software firm. I accepted and started with Readify in June.

6 months in and it's so far, so good.  Actually, I’m loving the job.  I was recently given a Principal Consultant role, I'm feeling a lot less stressed and my family know who I am again! I also can’t believe the calibre of people that Readify has employed.  I know how hard it is to get just a few top notch people in a team but to get a company together with sooo many of them including a large number of MVP's is just unbelievable.

2. What was a work-related highlight during the year

My work highlight so far has to be landing this job!  I’ve had a great variety of engagements in the last 6 months and this has forced me to get un-rusty very quickly, and to pick up a helluva lot of knowledge across areas that I’d only dabbled in before.  Great stuff and lots of fun.

3. What was a non-work related highlight during the year

My non work highlight has been being able to spend some time working from home when doing professional development or internal development work.  Being able to pick up my eldest daughter from school, have lunch with my wife and youngest daughter, go to swimming and dancing lessons and just being more involved in their days is priceless.

 

I hope your 2007 has been a fantastic one, and that 2008 is even better than '07 was!!