Looking back on 2015, I’d have to say it was my year of “breaking free”. I finally started to do many of things that I had been only dreaming of for the past several years in my career as a Software Developer. Instead of feeling like I still didn’t know enough, I embraced what I did know and used that to increase my visibility in the Android Community. So here’s a recap of some of the highlights.
Public Speaking
With some encouragement from fellow female developers I submitted my first conference proposal. And I’ve been speaking around the world ever since! Below is a recording of my first conference talk at Droidcon NYC.
Appearances
I’ve also had the opportunity to make a few appearances speaking about my passion for Android Development on the Android Dialogs YouTube channel and the CodeNewbie’s podcast. This was a lot of fun and pushed me to “go with flow” in an environment that wasn’t so scripted.
YES! 💖 Love this podcast episode with 2 of my favorite role models, @saronyitbarek and @brwngrldev Don’t miss it! https://t.co/lqqvq4OcBa
— Kelly Shuster (@KellyShuster) December 21, 2015
Teaching
I love to share my knowledge with others whether it’s through conference speaking, blog posts, one-on-one, etc. So I was able to try something completely different this year and that was creating my own video course, Developing High Quality Android Applications. This enabled me to learn a new form of engagement through video and I hope to continue to explore this medium in the future.
Connections
One thing I never fully anticipated was the number of connections I’d be able to make in such a short time span. Meeting people from different backgrounds has been one of the best parts of this year. I had no idea that there were so many people out there just as passionate about producing quality software as I am, it’s been a great feeling! So I have Twitter to thank for exposing me to so many supportive people that I would have never had the chance to meet.
So here’s looking forward to what lies ahead for 2016!
