Year in Review - 2022 Edition

Another year has come to its end, and it's time to look back and reflect on it. I wrote a similar post last year: Year in Review - 2021 edition, and it was interesting to compare these years.

This blog post reflects on my 2022 - highs and lows, interesting new things, and some hard times. It doesn't include everything, but it has many important things that happened last year. Let's dive in.

Accomplishments

Looking back on 2022, I can see some real highlights and accomplishments. Many materialized this year and have been in the works for years. I am proud of them, and I've earned them.

WTM Ambassador

In November, I got a mail that I was selected as Women Techmakers Ambassador. What is WTM Ambassador, you ask? Here's how Women Techmakers' site defines the role:

Women Techmakers Ambassadors are leaders around the world who are passionate about empowering their communities through organizing events, public speaking, creating content, and mentoring. With access to a global community and exclusive resources, Ambassadors are helping build a world where all women can thrive in tech.

It's an honor and a great recognition of my work in past years. Not everyone gets selected, so it means that I've done something right.

NWITA Nominee

Last year (2021), I was one of the finalists in the Nordic Women in Tech Award's category, Rising Star of the Year, and this year, I was nominated in the category Developer of the Year. I didn't make it to the final five, but the nomination is an honor.

Dev Top Author

To my surprise, I got an email that I'm one of this year's Dev's Top Authors. Being recognized for the time and effort I've put in writing my blog feels good.

Career Switch

One of the most significant turns this year has taken is my switch from frontend to Android development. To be honest, I was already a bit tired of frontend things. I already knew so much, and even though there's always something new to learn, I've realized I wanted something new. And Android development has been just that.

Blogging

I've written some blog posts this year too. I haven't been as productive as in 2021, but I'm quite happy with what I've written.

Three of my blog posts got to Dev's week's top 7. Interestingly, they were quite different from each other: The first was my International Women's Day post (Nevertheless, Eevis Still Codes), the second was Results of Quick Testing of Documentation Tools' Accessibility, and the third was Hey Tech Recruiter, Here Are Some Tips from a Developer.

My personal favorite posts for this year are:

Results of Quick Testing of Documentation Tools' Accessibility

Eevis ・ Aug 11 '22

#a11y #documentation #webdev #programming

I tested four different documentation tools (Swagger, Read the Docs, Docusaurus, and GitBook) and used some accessibility testing tools and techniques with them. In the blog post, I summarise my findings from these tests. Writing this blog post was fun because I like to do these accessibility tests.

Hey Tech Recruiter, Here Are Some Tips from a Developer

Eevis ・ Dec 3 '22

#career #javascript #webdev #a11y

One of the most popular posts for this year was this one. It started as a LinkedIn post, and in November, I finally had the time to write it into a whole blog post. I share some frustrations I've faced when communicating with recruiters, and this blog post resonated with many developers.

Android, Animations and Reduced Motion

Eevis ・ Dec 14 '22

#android #kotlin #a11y #mobile

This blog post is the first I've written about Android that's about something other than learning Android development. As the reduced motion/animations off-theme is close to me personally, I wanted to understand how I can respect that setting on Android. And as always, I love to share what I've learned, so I wrote a blog post about it.

Speaking

I did some speaking, and for the first time in a while, some talks I gave in person.

I was talking in:

Turku <3 Frontend
Women in Tech Summit
React Native EU
React Finland
Tyttöjen päivä
Twig the Code
We are developers live

I also had to cancel a couple of events:

React Meetup in Helsinki
Modern Frontends

The first meetup I've ever spoken at was in January 2020. And as we all know, Covid hit pretty soon after - and as I've continued speaking after that, it's been all remote until spring 2022. The first in-person meetup was Turku <3 Frontend in April, and let me tell you, I was nervous! I had thought that I was way better at speaking in front of a camera, not seeing the listeners, but I surprised myself with how well speaking in front of a live audience went and how good it felt.

The number of events for 2022 was lower than for 2021. However, I'm happy about that, and I'm glad about how my speaking year of 2022 turned out. I wouldn't have the energy for more.

Projects

This year, I created some (web) projects. The first was neule.art, a visualizer for knitting patterns. It has one pattern (an Icelandic sweater), but I hope I'll have some time and inspiration to add other garments. If you want to read about the progress, I wrote a blog post about it: How I created Neule.art. Neule.art is made with Eleventy and doesn't use client-side JavaScript.

Another project was a guest book app for my sister and her friends for their birthday party. It was created with React and used AWS for storing pictures. I wrote a blog post about that project: Learnings From Creating a Guest Book App.

The third project for this year was an accessibility-themed advent calendar. It was created with Eleventy, too, and used Github Actions to reveal each day's content. I've been writing a blog post about it and will publish it probably in January.

Helping with Theses

I've had the honor of helping with three different theses - one master's thesis and two bachelor's theses. My role in the progress has been as an accessibility specialist. Depending on the thesis, I've answered more general or technical questions.

Things You Probably Didn't See

I could copy some of the lines from last year's post here. I've been struggling with the same things - I had to take some days off because of burnout symptoms. In the summer, I wrote about the theme a bit: On the Edge of Burnout... Again.

Even though I wrote in the blog post that I'm better now, the following months weren't easy. But after some changes at work (like switching roles to Android development), things have started to look better step by step. The feeling during the weekends has turned into "Monday doesn't suck." I'm even excited about the projects I'm working on and what the future will bring.

I also spent lots of time outdoors. I visited five new national parks and acquired a kayaking instructor title. And on the last day of the year, I ordered my own kayak, which I'm super excited about, and I can't wait for it to arrive.

What's Next?

I've learned not to promise too much - the world changes so fast that I cannot know where I will be in a year. But from what I know now, I will learn and code more Android, I will probably write my master's thesis with an accessibility theme, and I definitely will spend some time in a kayak!

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