The Snook is a big fan of Stella Parks’s recipes, and at some point in the last year, I bookmarked her Classic Chocolate Yule Log with the idea of challenging him to make it for Christmas. Folks, I didn’t think he’d actually do it. I throw out these ridiculous schemes and he’s usually game for an attempt, but I figured with this one, he’d roll his eyes and settle for something simpler. Instead he blew me away. I mean, look at that! THERE’S A PISTACHIO PASTE FROG. This is literally 200% better than I expected, and I knew he was a good baker. I’m still amazed, and we’ve already eaten most of it. Lucky for you, he documented a great deal of the preparation.

This was a multiple day endeavour, and it all started with him making the homemade pistachio paste. We ended up ordering the pistachios from Amazon.de, because they were the only ones we could find that weren’t already roasted and salted. We couldn’t find orange flower water at all, so he just left it out.

The next day, he toasted sugar in a skillet in the oven. He took that photo to show the difference in the toasted sugar vs. untoasted.

The next step was to use the pistachio paste to make pistachio buttercream frosting. He ended up doing a lot of complicated math to adjust the quantity of the recipe, but all you need to know is: he had to separate some eggs, mix them with the toasted sugar, and add booze. Then he cooked the mixture over a makeshift double-boiler until it reached the appropriate temperature. Then he whipped it in the KitchenAid, added loads of butter, and then eventually the pistachio paste. The end result looked a lot like guacamole!

Next up were the meringue mushrooms. For these he had to mix egg whites with toasted sugar and vanilla (we couldn’t find cream of tartar so he used a tiny bit of vinegar) and then again cook this mixture on the double-boiler. Then he whipped it up, put it in a piping bag, and piped out dozens of mushroom caps and stems. He used his finger to smooth the points, and they cooked in a low oven for the better part of a day. He finished them by rubbing on cocoa powder to look like dirt.

On the final day, it was time to bake the cake. He used one of our oven trays and spread the batter, and then baked it for only 12 minutes (because it’s so thin). He took it out and let it cool to nearly room temperature. Then he spread on the pistachio buttercream and rolled it up. He left it rolled up to set for a short time, and we were amazed to see that it didn’t crack at all! He cut off a bit to fashion the branch…

…and then it was time to decorate! He made chocolate ganache (with cream, melted chocolate, and sugar) to ice the log and to glue the mushrooms together, and he used fork tines to sculpt the “bark”. He dusted the whole thing with cocoa and pistachio dust, and he used some of the leftover pistachio paste to fashion a tiny tree frog. Isn’t it AMAZING? The best part is that it tastes so good – like the chocolate cake of your dreams. He’s the best. ❤️ Thanks, Snookums…

So this is a thing that I’m doing now. It was partly inspired by the fact that I’ve had to do some Twitch streaming in recent months for my new job, and I’ve been learning more how it works. It was also partly inspired by the fact that we’re in lockdown in Germany, and I think I’m really, really missing having people around. (Besides Rodd, of course, who is great, but this extrovert needs a crowd, right?)

And so I decided to stream myself knitting, live on Twitch, and I’ve kept it up at least once a week since. I generally go for about an hour at a time, and some days I’ve done an extra session in the evening (which works out better for the folks in the US). If you haven’t ever used Twitch before, it started nearly ten years ago as a platform where people live-streamed themselves playing video games, but nowadays there’s all sorts of creative content on there. It’s one-way – not a video-chat like Zoom or Hangouts – and the only way you interact with the streamer is through text chat. You don’t need an account to watch a stream, but if you sign up, you can subscribe to different channels and get a notification when they go live.

Here’s what the end result looks like when I stream, but in the photo at the top of this post you can see what it looks like on my end. I have two cameras set up – a webcam sitting on my monitor pointed at my face, and then my iPhone pointed down at what I’m knitting. (I’ve used a small flexible tripod to attach the iPhone to the end of my microphone arm, which works well for getting it in the right position.) I have some LED lights set up on either side of the monitor so you can see what I’m doing. I wear headphones with a microphone so I can talk. I use software called OBS to pull everything together and send the stream to Twitch. Before I start, I set up some “scenes” with different layouts of cameras and images so I can switch to different views. I keep the Twitch site open on the other screen so I can see the chat and respond to any messages that come through.

Things that have worked well: Using the iPhone with the OBS Camera app to show the actual knitting has worked great! It’s got good resolution and I’m able to position it just right thanks to the microphone arm. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many folks have watched the stream and joined in the chat. It’s never more than a few at a time, but it’s early days and I’m sure I’ll build up an audience as I go. Lastly, I’m surprised each time I do this by how quickly the hour passes by. I thought that it would be torturous sitting there talking into the void by myself, but I find that I actually really enjoy it! Maybe I should’ve been a deejay. 😂 Videos on Twitch only last for maximum two weeks, so I’ve been archiving each “episode” over to a playlist on my YouTube channel and I’ve picked up some additional views there.

What hasn’t worked well: Because I’m using the microphone arm to hold the iPhone in position, I haven’t been able to use my fancy microphone for audio. I tried mounting my iPhone on the ring light and pointing it down, but the view wasn’t as good. I feel like the video is more important, so I’ve accepted the trade-off with only having the headphone mic for narration. I’d also love to be able to play some music on the stream, but Twitch Soundtrack is thus far only for Windows 10.  Also, my MacBook Pro is due for an upgrade and doesn’t have a lot of memory, so it struggles sometimes and the fan runs constantly when I’m streaming. I tried sharing my desktop to show off a pattern on Ravelry and it really didn’t like that, so now I restrict my OBS scenes to just webcams and static images. I also suspect our home internet connection upload speed isn’t great, and on a couple of occasions I’ve had the stream die in the middle and then reconnect. Not much I can do about that though…

And because I was having such fun with the knitting streams, I decided to have a go with sewing as well! I was able to reorient everything around to point at my sewing table where I live-streamed myself over two days making the Peppermint Mag Ruffle Sleeve Top. It took me about eight hours all up, which I did in four separate streaming sessions. That included assembling the pattern, doing a Full Bust Adjustment, cutting the pieces, sewing the shirt, making continuous bias binding and attaching it to the neckline (rather than using facings), setting in the sleeves, and hemming the shirt, all while using French seams throughout. The fabric is some leftover quilting cotton, and I think it turned out pretty great!

As part of my team’s Christmas festivities, we held a virtual Cocktails and Pizza making competition. I knew that my pizza wasn’t going to win any awards (#teampineapple), so I decided I had to go all-out on the drink. Since there were points for creativity, I felt like I need to go SEASONAL and SPECTACULAR. After some research on the Internet, I settled on the aptly named Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. 🌰🔥

I did run into some problems with the recipe though. First hurdle – chestnut syrup. We couldn’t find any! So I had to make my own using this recipe. First step – roast the chestnuts.

I’d never actually done that before. You have to cut an X on the curved side so they A) don’t explode and B) are easier to peel after. Once they popped open, I peeled the skins off and then mixed up the syrup.

There’s a lot of spice in there! After letting it simmer, I strained it and we stored it in a bottle in the fridge.

The next hurdle – eggnog! It turns out that it’s not available in Germany. Undaunted, I decided to make my own using Alton Brown’s recipe. First step was to beat egg yolks with sugar in the mixer…

At the same time, I began heating the milk, heavy cream, and nutmeg on the stove.

Then I had to bring them together by “tempering” – pouring just a tiny bit of the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture while the Snook whisked like crazy to avoid making scrambled eggs. I added more milk until we were past the danger point and then we combined them fully. Then it went into the fridge to chill (along with a bit of brandy). Once that was cold, I whipped up the remaining egg whites with sugar and then we folded that into the cold nog.

Okay, so with all the prep done it was finally time to make the drink! I started by filling a rocks glass 3/4 of the way full with egg nog. Then I added another shot of brandy for extra kick and a few bar spoons full of the chestnut syrup. After a stir, it was time for the FLAMES. I poured a tiny bit of Stroh 80 (a 160-proof Austrian spiced rum) over the back of the bar spoon to float it on top of the drink, and then I lit it on fire. 🔥 After blowing it out, I garnished with a sprinkle of cinnamon…

I’m happy to say that all my hard work won the Best Cocktail award! Also, it’s very taste and festive, and I will be working my way through the rest of that nog over the next few days. ❤️🏆

As for the pizza… I went very, very quick and easy.

That’s a packet of pre-made German pizza tough. I also bought a big handful of salami pretzels to go on top, along with canned pineapple. I mixed up a fresh sauce from canned tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, oregano, garlic, and olive oil, and I had some leftover grated Emmental cheese. I also couldn’t resist cutting up some of the salami-kabel-trommel to put on top.

Here it is ready for the oven! And fifteen minutes later…

Hey, even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. 😜 #teampineapple

I’ve always loved riding a bicycle, ever since I was a kid, but there were several years after university where I didn’t regularly ride. Mostly it’s because I lived in big cities (London and then Sydney) that aren’t super conducive to cycling. I eventually got a bike in Sydney and even commuted for a while, but honestly, it never felt very fun or safe there. In fact, at times the attitude towards cyclists felt downright hostile. As the Wikipedia page for “Cycling in Sydney” states,

Cycling in Australia has, until recently, been a minority interest sport, and hostility on the road is also common. One Danish cyclist, Thomas Andersen, who had cycled around the world for four years, singled out Sydney in 2014 as being the worst city he had visited for cyclists.

Not only are Australian drivers hostile, but separated cycleways are few and far between. Sydney is also pretty hilly, and in the summer even a short ride will get you sweaty. There is also a mandatory helmet law, which puts off a lot of casual riders. As a result, the percentage of trips in Sydney that are made by bicycle is less than 2%.

Guess what? In Munich it’s closer to 20%.

In Munich, lots of people ride bikes. I’ve seen old people, business people, parents towing kids and dogs in trailers, delivery people, all sorts. Sometimes they’re in lycra and helmets kitted out like serious athletes, but most of the time they’re just normal folks going about their day. (This photo and others are screengrabs from a video I filmed of a ride through Munich today.)

We sold our bikes in Sydney before we left, mostly because we weren’t sure whether we’d have appropriate storage for them in our Munich apartment. Once we were settled here, I started looking on FB Marketplace and Ebay for bikes. Around the same time, we had a presentation at work from the folks at Swapfiets. This is a Dutch company that offers fixed price rental for bikes, and they take care of all the maintenance for you. We decided to give it a try, reasoning that we could always cancel if we decided cycling here wasn’t going to work. Swapfiets offer a few different types of bikes in Munich, including a cruiser-style (with no gears) and a luxury “e-bike” (with an electric motor). We went with the middle option – 7-speed hub gear commuter bikes with dynamo-powered front and back lights. All of their bikes have a distinctive blue front tire as well as both a chain and tire lock for security. (While this is an unsolicited endorsement, if you want to sign up and use my referral code “KRISTINE77165” we’ll both get a a €7.50 discount!)

I’ve been experimenting with recording some of my rides. I don’t have a GoPro or anything; I’m just using my iPhone with a handlebar mount that I bought. This was a ride I filmed last week going around the Theriesenwiese and Bavaria Park. It’s bumpy and rough, but you get the idea. (I’ve sped it up; I’m not a very fast rider!) The remarkable thing is that from our house – which again, is really close to the city center – you can ride quite a while without ever having to go on a main road. You can just as easily get to Westpark, which is a massive park with beer gardens, playing fields, and picnic spots.

However, sometimes you want to ride into more trafficked areas. I rode into the city today to visit a special bakery and pick up some Christmas treats. It was about 3.5km (2 miles) each way. I filmed my ride, and I’ve grabbed a few screenshots to show you some of the cycling infrastructure I encountered. (Apologies for the blur!)

Our neighbourhood is directly next to the Theriesenwiese, the massive open showgrounds where the Oktoberfest happens each year. There’s a big, heavily trafficked ring road around it full of cars, but across the middle there are paved areas that you can ride across. To get to it, rather than crossing the road I can go down a ramp with stairs and zip through a tunnel straight on the Wiese. Much faster and safer! If you watch that little video above, you can see me go down the ramp and across the Wiese…

On the other side of the Wiese, there are some quiet residential side streets. This one is labelled “Fahrradstraße” (bicycle street), which means motor vehicles are limited to 30 km/h (19 mph) and cyclists are allowed to use the full width of the road.

Most of the main roads in Munich have separated cycleways alongside them. This is the one that runs along Lindwurmstraße all the way up to Sendlinger Tor. In most cases there’s one on each side of the road, so you ride in the direction of traffic. As you can see, while the cycleway is completely separated from the traffic, there’s no real barrier between the pedestrian area. It’s literally just, like, a difference in the paving. Most pedestrians seem quite conscientious of cyclists though, and it’s become quite natural to me when walking to look out for bikes. The cycleways vary in width, and sometimes there’s not a lot of room for overtaking so faster riders will occasionally swing onto the pedestrian part to pass. I am not a fast rider, and I am content to pootle along in the cycleway watching for pedestrians and knowing I’m not going to get flattened by a truck.

Of course, there are still places where you have to cross main roads. At Sendlinger Tor there is a major intersection where Lindwurmstraße runs into Sonnenstraße, and it’s a very busy wide street with the added complication of Strassenbahn (tram) tracks. There the separated cycleway turns into a dedicated bicycle lane on the road, complete with its own traffic light! I was a little confused about how to turn left the first time I hit this intersection until I realised they use the same trick as Melbourne – hook turns! As a cyclist, you ride straight across the road and there is a dedicated spot for you to turn to the left and wait for the signal to continue onwards.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There is a small bit – only about 100m – along Sonnenstraße where there is construction blocking the bike path, so you’re forced to ride alongside traffic. Thankfully, as soon as you get around the construction there is a ramp that takes you back up onto the separated cycleway.

Oh hey, look, I made it to the bakery!

The return trip on the way home is much the same, albeit on the other side of the road. I’m pleased to see that for the most part, German cyclists follow the rules of the road and don’t run red lights and such. A few do, but not nearly as bad as I’ve seen back in Australia.

For some reason, the first part of the return cycleway on Lindwurmstraße is on the road. Presumably it’s because there is a park on the right, and the footpath isn’t wide enough? At any rate, there’s only a short stretch before the cycleway separates again. And then it’s an easy ride back to the Theriesenwiese.

One last thing – a few months back, the city turned part of the Wiese into a “Fahrrad-Übungsplatz” (bicycle practice area). They painted lines and lanes and cars and traffic lights on some of the concrete areas, and anyone can go and use them to practice their cycling skills. How cute is that?

So that’s cycling in Munich. It’s amazing what a difference some infrastructure makes! More people cycle, which makes more pedestrians and drivers aware, which makes it safer, which means more people cycle! It does crack me up though how negative the  “cycling in Munich” Wikipedia page sounds. I don’t think the people who wrote it understand how good they have it! As I said to the Snook, unless we move to Copenhagen, this is probably the best it’s ever gonna get for us in terms of cycling. That said, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow… so I guess we’ll see how that affects things! 🚴‍♂️❄️

Two weeks ago today, I got a message from OSS Shipping that our shipment from Australia had cleared Customs and was finally going to be delivered! All up it was about ten weeks door-to-door, which is actually incredibly fast for shared container shipping. (Normally you have to wait until an entire container load is filled up with multiple people’s shipments, which can mean a wait time of 15-20 weeks. We got very lucky and our stuff was the last to go into one that was already nearly full.) We had considered air freight, but it’s ridiculously expensive especially as there are less flights right now due to Covid. So instead our stuff went the long way around on the boat to Rotterdam, and then over land to get to us in Munich…

Right on cue, early that Wednesday morning, a truly gigantic semi-truck pulled up in Theriesenhöhe. I spent several nerve wracking minutes directing them through narrow streets with very tight turns so they could pull up as close to our building as possible. A pair of very friendly and funny Dutch guys then proceeded to quickly unload and move all our stuff inside. I read out each box number as it came in and the Snook checked it off the manifest to be sure we didn’t miss anything. Incidentally, the Dutch guys thought it was hilarious that we moved from Sydney to Munich. “Pardon my language,” one of them said laughing, “but why the fuck would you move from Australia to Germany?!” 😂

And then they were done, and the Snook and I were left with a lot of boxes to deal with. To be completely honest, we didn’t even fully remember what we’d brought! Once you live out of suitcases for a few months, it’s hard to remember what you deemed essential enough to ship halfway around the world.

It took us a couple days to unpack fully, and even longer to get rid of all the packing materials. Rodd had the brilliant idea of asking at work if anyone wanted moving boxes and bubble wrap, and a couple folks came over (masked and distanced!) that weekend to take the majority of it away. We also had to make several trips to our landlord’s storage unit down in the parking garage, where we carefully packed away a few of his furnishings that we didn’t have room for anymore. And finally… it feels like home!

Our TV was the thing that gave us the most worry. It really is giant, and we spent the past two months nervously looking at the entertainment unit and crossing our fingers. Thankfully, it just fits! (If you don’t count the fact that it sticks out past the frame, that is.) 😅 The Google Home, AppleTV, and Nintendo Mini fit nicely underneath.

Around it are a small selection of books (we left most of them back in Australia), photos, some Lego, a wooden star made for us by Rodd’s Mom, as well as a pair of gorgeous wooden birds – Gonzo and Gertie – his parents gifted us many years ago. Unfortunately Gonzo’s head was the one casualty of the trip, but it’s a clean break and we think we’ll be able to easily repair it.

Chicago, Sydney, space and robots… ❤️

Do you know, we almost didn’t bring the Dyson? It was literally the last thing the movers packed up back in Sydney, just because they said they had a tiny bit of room left. And I’m so happy we did! I really missed it. No other vacuum compares. (I should also mention that the voltage here is the same as in Australia, so all we needed was some converters to be able to use our Aussie electronics and machines.)

The Moomin poster was too large and heavy to hang, but it stands nicely on top of the dining room cabinet. We’re also using that as the bar (which the Snook gleefully stocked via an online liquor store). See the lovely rose gold cocktail making kit? That was my going-away gift from my team back in Sydney. 🥰

The KitchenAid came, of course, and fits in quite nicely alongside the Snook’s new coffee machine and grinder.

We also brought along a bunch of other kitchen stuff: cast iron skillet and Dutch oven, fancy frying pan, favourite utensils, tea towels that friends gifted us, sous vide machine, Instant Pot, kitchen iPad, and beloved old chopping board. The magnetic knife block and fancy new Wusthof knives were Rodd’s going away gift from his team. (Yep. They went from Germany to Sydney and back again!)

Since our new fridge is built into the cupboard, magnets don’t stick to it. I had a flash of inspiration though and realised I could put our old magnets on the spiral staircase! I love seeing them when I go up and down.

Our landlord kindly allowed us to replace the three artworks in the upstairs hall with these framed travel posters we brought with us. London where we met; Sydney where we lived; and Las Vegas where we got married. We’ve never had them all hanging up together before, and I think they look great.

My Gudetama collection came with me, as well as the Baby Groot my friend Jane crocheted for me. And how nice is it to wake up and put your feet on an Aussie sheepskin in the morning?! (Apologies to the vegans…)

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love my office/craft room. I have my work setup in the corner with my ridiculous gaming chair, fancy microphone, and LED lights for streaming. On the wall are framed artworks from my friends Leonie Connellan and Stuart Spence. On the left my sewing area, with my sewing machine and giant cutting mat. (The desk is an IKEA electric standing desk, so I can raise it up for cutting fabric!) On the right is my vintage Fler rocking chair with the Hamilton blanket custom made by my friend Sarah Spencer. On the pull-out couch are quilts made by my Mom and me.

On the bookshelves are my sewing, knitting, and office supplies, as well as a few pattern books I brought along. (The bookcase on the left is full of the landlord’s books; I didn’t bring that many!) The Alice in Wonderland painting is another one by Leonie. The garland of mini sweaters was made by my amazing group of knitting friends back in Sydney, and it makes me smile every time I see it!

And of course, there’s one more room… the man cave. We disassembled the small bed in here to make room for the Snook’s giant electric standing desk and gaming chair. (Don’t worry; we can put the bed back together if anyone ever visits!) And on the wall is a gorgeous framed girly illustration from our friend Anton Emdin.

Again, I really didn’t anticipate what a big psychological difference it makes having these little touches of home! It finally feels like we’re settled in, right before the long dark winter sets in…

This blog post is based on a talk I gave on November 13, 2020 at the Build Stuff software development conference. I was also a presenter at the 2019 conference, where I stood on stage and talked about shiny geeky tech – machine learning and computer vision and reverse engineering knitting patterns. And that stuff is fun, and I love it. But this year… this year feels different. I know people who’ve been laid off this year. I know people who’ve had trouble finding their next contract. And I know folks who have really struggled to adapt to changed working conditions. 2020 has really sucked for a lot of us. And that’s why this year I chose not to talk about how to build something cool, but instead how to build a career that makes you happy.

I think all of us start out with a picture of how we expect that to go. We land the right job, do the hard work, put in our dues, get recognised and promoted as we climb the ladder, and eventually we end up rich and successful. And hey, maybe working in a unicorn startup that IPOs along the way too, right? I started my career in the tech industry 20 years ago, and this was pretty much how I expected it to go. I was a web developer, and everybody knew that the Internet was the land of opportunity and riches. Six months out of uni I was at a startup in London going through hockey stick growth; I’d been designated a Subject Matter Expert, helping to hire new devs and setting company-wide standards; and on top of all that, I was outearning my Dad. The path seemed really straightforward and clear.

Reality was somewhat different. What I have learned over the last two decades is that very, very few people actually have that straight path. For most of us, there are zig-zags and detours and loops. I’ve gone through three major job ladder changes over those years, from a developer to a business analyst, to a people leader, and now developer advocate. I was a contractor for a while. I’ve lived in three different countries. I’ve worked in techbro startups and traditional corporates. I’ve had big promotions, but I’ve also taken pay cuts. I’ve been laid off three times, and I burned out and quit the industry entirely for a while. I’m sure many of you would be able to draw a similar picture.

The really interesting thing is – I don’t think it’s just chaos and random chance. Each of those experiences taught me something that I was able to put into practice down the track. And somewhere along the line, the end goal changed. It went from “Success” to being happy, which ultimately means living and working in alignment with my personal values. And believe it or not, that’s how I ended up

moving from Australia to Germany in the middle of a global pandemic. It makes total sense, I swear! But more on that later.

In this post I really want to dive deep on values.

Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. This is true whether you actually acknowledge those values or not, and deep down, they’re how you judge whether your life is turning out the way you want it to or not. Values determine your priorities and help you make plans and choose between different options. In a nutshell, when you make decisions and behave in ways that are aligned to your values, life is good. You feel satisfied and happy. But when things aren’t in alignment… that’s what you can get stressed, or unhappy, or frustrated.

Right now, at the end of 2020, is a great time to take stock of your own values and see whether the career path you’ve envisioned actually matches up with those. For me, it’s taken me the better part of two decades to figure this stuff out. I’m hoping that by sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned, I can help you get to that understanding faster. And at the end of this post, I’ll show you  an exercise you can do to determine your top personal values so you can start using them to guide your way in 2021.

For me, the first big sign that my career path wasn’t going to be a straight line from A to B was burnout.

I was five years into my career as a developer at this point. I’d been through the dotcom boom in London, working 60 hour weeks building dating websites and ecommerce shops, and when the bust happened, it all just disappeared. I’d moved halfway around the world to Sydney, Australia, where I had no friends beyond my partner. I hustled as a contractor, trying to win jobs to build websites that no one needed. Eventually I ended up as lead developer at a printer company, building websites with the explicit goal of getting people to print stuff out and use up more ink. One day my boss gave me feedback that my code “needed more div,” and I just couldn’t take it anymore. You know that bit in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where a planet sends off all its most useless people, like telephone sanitisers? I felt like that’s where I belonged, like I wasn’t adding any value to the world, and I hated every bit of it, and I quit.

I’ve given talks that touched on burnout in the past, and I can tell you that the majority of the folks in the industry have either been there or felt on the verge. And look, there are lots of reasons this happen. Sometimes it’s an emotional or spiritual crisis, like I was having, where what you’re doing just isn’t fulfilling. Sometimes it’s because you’ve been working in crunch mode for way too long without a break, and your body just can’t take it anymore. Sometimes it’s because a global pandemic hits, and you have to figure out how to work from home with all the kids and the pets and get toilet paper delivered without losing your mind.

The way I recovered from burnout – and granted, this will NOT work for everyone – was to go work a real, physical job for a while, in a small business. I spent more than three years working in an independent craft store. I rang up customers, I counted stock, I swept the floor, I taught classes, and I stood on my feet all damn day. And I absolutely loved it. Eventually I took over their website and revamped it, building in all the features that I wanted as a customer, and filling all the orders as they came in. It turns out that it wasn’t the tech that was the problem; it was that the jobs I’d been in hadn’t delivered on things that were important to me. I learned that, rather than the stereotype of a developer sitting alone with a computer, I like talking to people and interacting with them, and understanding exactly what it is that they want, and delighting them. I like being creative and getting to express myself. I like projects with tangible outcomes, that make a real difference in people’s lives. And through some of the programs we ran

like this one where I taught smokers to “knit and quit,” and gave interviews to newspapers and radio – I learned that I liked being recognised for my ideas as a thought leader.

I didn’t have the language yet to identify these as my values; all I knew was that even though I was working harder for less money, I was a lot happier. Unfortunately sometimes people don’t have the luxury to leave the tech industry, which – let’s be honest – pays a lot more than others. And that’s ultimately what pulled me back in – I got married, I got a mortgage, so I went back to tech for the money. But this time, I was able to use what I’d learned about myself to jump to an entirely new career ladder.

It took me just under a year to make the change from a web developer to a business analyst. Actually, I didn’t even know that was the role I wanted, or even that it existed – I just knew that building websites to sell ringtones to teenagers (which was the only job I could get) was not going to make me happy. So I began laying to groundwork to change roles. If you’re in a similar boat, you have have felt that this is a catch-22 – no one will hire you in the new role because you don’t yet have experience in it, but you can’t get experience without the role.

So my advice is to get that experience WITHIN your current role as best you can. First, look for opportunities to take on new responsibilities outside your day job, ideally ones that align to your strengths and interests. For me, that meant I took on the task of writing documentation for our users, which no one else on the team cared about or wanted to do. I also put my hand up to run the demos at our fortnightly showcases, which meant that people from other teams started to recognise me. For you, maybe it’s improving your team’s testing framework, or conducting user research, or attending a sales training course. Basically whenever you get an opportunity to learn or practice a new skill, jump on it. When the product manager needed someone to fly overseas on short notice to run training sessions for users, I was the first person he came to. And even thought it was scary – and it really had nothing to do with my day job of building custom Joomla modules – I went for it. And eventually I realised that I actually liked doing the new stuff better, and I wanted that to be my job. And crucially, when you want to change roles, you need to let people know. I made sure that the product manager and other leaders knew that if a role opened up, I wanted to move to that team. When the company eventually fell apart – because it turns out premium SMS was not a sustainable long term business strategy – one of the former leaders invited me to interview for a business analyst role at his new company, and I ended up doing that role for 4.5 years.

During my time as a BA, the single most important thing I did to grow my career was to begin public speaking. Look, I don’t think every person in the industry needs to aspire to give conference talks. But I honestly believe that if you put the effort in to practice and improve how you communicate, it will pay dividends. At a bare minimum, unless you work in a team of one, you will need to sell others on your ideas. That’s a lot easier when you know how to construct a compelling pitch. Being a better presenter also helps you with job interviews and annual performance reviews. It’s basically a cheat code, a way to stand out from the vast majority of your peers.

For me, I started by volunteering to give talks at local meetups. I can tell you right now that every meetup organiser is desperate for speakers, and most of them are happy to have first timers. If you’re really lucky, you can find a meetup where they actually provide mentoring for new speakers. There are also formal training options for speaking, including Toastmasters groups all around the world, if that works for you. One of the best talks I’ve ever attended was

this session by Damian Conway on giving Instantly Better presentations. It’s actually online, and I highly recommend you watch it if you’re interested in taking your career as a technical speaker to the next level. I was there that night and I scribbled notes for 90 minutes straight, learning about different ways to tell stories, to avoid “death by powerpoint”, to present code effectively, and to handle nerves. I was fortunate enough later to attend a training session with Damian, and I am still using the things he taught me.

And I want to be clear – every single time I gave a presentation – from meetups, to bigger events, to actual tech conferences, and eventually speaking on the TEDx stage – I was terrified. Everyone is. But one of the other big lessons I’ve learned in my career journey is to do the things that scare you.

I saw a talk at a meetup about this book, Mindset by Carol Dweck, and it immediately resonated with me. Dweck is a psychologist with a focus on motivation, personality, and development. According to her, some people believe their success is based on innate ability; these folks are said to have a “fixed” mindset. They believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. Others, who believe their success is based on hard work, learning, training and doggedness are said to have a “growth” mindset. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it. And one of the biggest differences in these groups is how they handle failure. Fixed mindset people fear failure because to them, it’s saying that they failed as a person. A growth mindset person doesn’t mind failure, because they know they’re learning and believe they’ll get better.

How many of us in this industry, as kids, were praised for being smart rather than for working hard? I know I was. I was in the “gifted” class – I mean right there, it’s a gift, right? I didn’t work for it. And when I read this book, I suddenly realised how many opportunities I’d missed due to fear of failure, for being seen as not good enough. Since I read it, I’ve made a point of doing things that in the past I would’ve avoided, due to a fear of being bad at it. I attended a three day functional programming course on Haskell. I learned to solder and weld. And I’ve said yes to job opportunities that might not have otherwise… like taking the leap into people management.

When I got offered a promotion to lead a team, I knew nothing about performance management, or how budgets worked, or what CapEx or OpEx were, or how to approve an expense, or even what managers actually did all day long. But I had had bad bosses in the past, and if nothing else, I figured I could add value to my team by protecting them from that. And hey, GROWTH MINDSET, right? So I made my second big career switch. And I made one really smart move that helped immensely – I got a mentor.

Whenever I talk about mentoring, the overwhelming response I get is that a lot of people don’t think they’re qualified to be mentors, but they’d really like one themselves, but have no idea how to make that happen. And that’s pretty much how I started out too. I thought of mentors as some wise older sage on the mountaintop that would dispense wisdom and tell me exactly what to do. But this is a myth, and it turns out mentors come in lots of different shapes and sizes.

• Some mentors INSPIRE you – You can think of these as role models. It could be someone you’ve seen present at a conference, or who’s written a book you admire. You might not even know them personally, but they provide a vision that you’d like to emulate.
• Other mentors provide CAREER GUIDANCE – this is probably closest to the sage on the mountain. They’ve been there. They can help you see the big picture; plan for your future; and provide accountability.
• Some folks can help you with the day-to-day aspects of your job and how to get better at it. TECH MENTOR; better name might be COACHES. Maybe someone you pair program with. Maybe old colleague in the industry that you occasionally ask questions to. Could be a Slack community.
• Some mentors go beyond just giving you advice to become CHAMPIONS or SPONSORS. These are the folks who make you feel confident, and who actively advocate and campaign on your behalf.
• And then there are your PEERS, your friends, your colleagues – who you can share your frustrations with and get advice and ideas.

To get a formal mentor: if you’re lucky enough to have a mentoring program available through your work, take advantage of it. Ideally you’ll be paired up with someone outside of your reporting lines. I was able to get into a manager training program with external coaches who were really helpful at identifying some blindspots. There are also external mentoring programs out there. Maybe your university offers one, or a local professional body, or even your local tech meetup.

Or you can just ask somebody. This is the hardest one, and it feels so awkward, almost like asking someone out on a date! Several years ago I was at a meetup and saw a talk from a Sydney CTO that just immediately resonated me. I thought, “Wow, she seems like she has it all together. I wish she could tell me how to become like her!” But I couldn’t work up the courage to actually contact her. I assumed that someone in a C-level role would be far too busy and important to have time or even to bother meeting with someone like me. So instead what I did was basically… stalk her. Over the next few years I followed her career, I saw her speak at the occasional meetup, and I even introduced myself once or twice. One day I even got the courage to send her a LinkedIn request, and that was quite a highlight when she accepted it!

Fast forward a couple years, and I was at a real crossroads in my career. I was venting to my friend Cath and said I really wished I had a mentor to guide me. And she said, “You know who you should have as a mentor?” And she said this person, the one I’d been following for years! And I said, “Of course, right? But she’s far too busy and important to have any time for me.” And Cath looked at me and said, with all love, “Kris, you’re an idiot. Here’s what you do…” And she gave me a tip. An amazing tip. Call it my ONE WEIRD TIP TO GET YOUR DREAM MENTOR. She said, “You email the person and introduce yourself, and say that you’re looking after a mentor who has X, Y, Z qualities. And obviously, you’d be amazing, but I know how busy you must be. So do you have any time where we could grab a coffee so you could suggest some potential mentors from your network?”

And this, my friends, is the genius. It gives the person an out. If they really are too busy, you will still probably get a list of names that they recommend for you! But what is more likely – and what happened with me – was that we met up for a coffee, and by the end of that conversation we’d set up monthly mentoring sessions going forward. My only regret is that I didn’t reach out to her a lot sooner. Eventually I told her the whole story, and she laughed at me and confirmed that I should’ve asked her years earlier. Learn from my experience!

And I don’t want you to think that mentoring is a one-way street, where it’s all about somebody else helping you out. I also want to encourage you to think about stepping up as a mentor yourself. There are so many benefits, even if you don’t think you’re quite ready for it. It’ll give you confidence – Imposter Syndrome affects like 70% of us. When someone else gets value from your experience, it validates your skills and all the hard work you’ve put in. It also gives you perspective on your own problems, which are probably not as unique as you think. It’ll help improve your communication skills because you’ll get practice explaining your ideas in different ways and seeing how your ideas are received. It’s also a great way to learn leadership skills, where it’s often not about what you do, it’s about influencing other people to get things done. So mentoring can be a really good stepping stone and give you an idea of what people leadership could be like. And even if you’re the most senior, grizzled developer in the world, mentoring someone outside your team will give you exposure to new trends and techniques you aren’t aware of. For me personally, mentoring is also about making the tech industry better, and paying it back for all the folks that helped me along the way. It helps keep the spiritual burnout away. If you value connecting with people, as I do, seeing them accomplish something they didn’t think they could is just the greatest feeling in the world.

So at this point I was more than ten years into my career, and finally starting to figure out the things that were important to me, that made me feel happy and satisfied. And what’s more, I could tell that the company I was in – a traditional free-to-air media company – was not lining up with those. I felt bored and constricted. I felt the need for adventure and excitement. I felt the siren call… of the startup.

It all started when I went to an event in Sydney where I heard one of the founders of Canva speak about his company. This was years ago, and they were still small, but I started researching them and I really liked everything I read. People seemed to really love what they were doing, and they were willing to pay for it. Think about how rare that is in this industry! You build something and don’t have to, like, trick people into using it, or slap ads all over it. I commented about it to my husband who replied, “Oh right! I’ve heard of them. They keep trying to hire me.” He explained that one of the founders kept messaging him on LinkedIn with links to their open developer roles. I had a look on the Canva jobs site but there weren’t any non-coder jobs listed, and my coding days were behind me. But I took a deep breath and figured “What the hell.” I sent one of the founders an email and basically told him he was chasing the wrong person in the family. To my surprise he suggested I come in to have a chat, and less than two months later I was working there. They created the role of an all rounder for me.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. I think for a lot of us, we opt out of potential opportunities because we assume they won’t pay off. This was the example that really showed me that I needed to trust my gut and swing for the fences more often. I joined Canva when they were undergoing massive growth, and in many ways, it reminded me of the start of my career in the dotcom boom. The entire company was changing every other month. I loved my time there, and I’m so proud of the massive things we were able to accomplish. Nothing was too hard or out of scope. But also, we were scrappy and always working within tight constraints, and I found that some of the ideas I had for things we could do, it was just too early for them. I recognised that while I love the energy and innovation of a startup, I also thrive better in an environment that’s a little more established, with a bit more structure, where I could execute on my ideas rather than helping fulfill somebody else’s. I also wanted to share with the wider tech community some of the stuff we were doing, but oftentimes in a startup that just isn’t possible, because of competitor pressure or even just time constraints. So it was time for my third major career shift – into developer relations.

I got the opportunity to join YOW Conferences in Australia, where my job was to help put on tech events and to help represent the voice of the community in the topics we covered and the speakers we featured. I went to hundreds of meetups – both as a speaker but way more as an attendee – and I got really serious about building out my network. And again, I think this is a massively underrated tool you can use in your career journey.

Someone once complimented me early on in my career as being one of the best networkers in the industry, and I actually took that as a bit of an insult. I think sometimes technical people can get the idea that “networking” is something that just salespeople do, that it somehow means being fake or accumulating LinkedIn followers just for the sake of it. For me, it’s actually about being authentic, and legitimately wanting to talk to other people and learn from them. I’ve benefited massively from people in this industry – job and speaking opportunities, mentoring, exposure to new ideas, and making lifelong friends. So it’s not about being transactional or becoming an influencer, but rather how we can all support each other.

That said – I SUCK at remembering names. I’m sure that goes for many of you. So I’ve had to build out some actual infrastructure to help me. You used to be able to record a note for each of your LinkedIn connections, which was super helpful for remembering how and where you met people, but when Microsoft bought them they removed that feature. I’ve since tried a few different “personal CRMs” over the years – and yes, that’s actually a thing – and eventually settled on one called Contacts+. (Unsolicited endorsement; I just like them a lot.) It’s basically an address book on steroids, and you can tag contacts and add notes that you can later search on. And then to populate it, well, if one was so inclined, one could search Github for “LinkedIn Scraper.” And then one could hook that up to a shortcut on their laptop, so one could simply hit a few keys and have the current LinkedIn profile scraped and uploaded to Contacts+ via their API. I couldn’t possibly comment. But you know, hit me up if you want more details about how one might hypothetically do that.

And just to give you a concrete example of the benefits of my network, it was through a conference speaker I met, Lynn Langit – who’s since become a good friend and champion – that I got recommended as a speaker for Build Stuff, which is why I was able to travel to Vilnius last year, and which helped inspire the decision to move to Europe.

Okay, so we’re nearly at the end. While YOW offered me lots of opportunities to talk to people, to have autonomy and to grow my network, I started to get envious of people who were out there building things instead of just talking about it. And that’s when AWS happened to reach out. And while I was scared – this felt like the big leagues – I repeated my mantra (“Growth mindset! Growth mindset!”) and decided to go for it.

If you ever find yourself in a similar boat – and I know right now there are lots of people looking for new roles; I did a mentoring panel at a meetup about it just last week – there are some practical things I think you can do to increase your chances of getting hired. First and foremost is to polish your CV. Ideally this shouldn’t be something you do only when you’ve decided to go for a new job. And if you really want to shine, you should get someone else to review it and give you feedback. Maybe this is a mentor, or someone from the community – I’ve participated in CV review sessions at meetups – or best of all, a recruiter! Believe it or not, there are actually really good recruiters in the tech industry who will help you make sure your CV represents you at your best and is tailored to the type of role you want. Next, leverage your network. It turns out I knew lots of folks who worked at AWS – one of them had even referred me – and I had coffee with a few of them to learn more about the company, its Leadership Principles, and what makes a good Amazonian. This really helped with my preparation for the interview.

And lastly, when you get the job, you need to resist Imposter Syndrome as much as possible. I have a couple mechanisms that help me with this. I keep a text file open on my computer where I jot down my accomplishments, just a couple bullet points, every single day. I means you never get to the end of the week, the month, or the performance review cycle, and think, “What did I actually accomplish?” I also have a doc that I refer to, embarrassingly, as the Good Stuff File. This is where I make a note whenever I get a thank you, or some good feedback, or an award or something like that. Whenever I’m having a bad day and the Imposter Syndrome hits, I can look back over this file and remember that I do know what I’m doing, and it really really helps. A Daily Log and a Good Stuff File will also help you in the future, if you decide your current role is no longer right for you and you need to course correct your career path again.

I’d like to wrap things up by bringing it back to values again. Remember – your values exist whether you recognize them or not. Life can be much easier when you acknowledge your values – and when you make plans and decisions that honor them. If you value family but you’re working 60 hour weeks, is that really going to make you happy? If you crave adventurousness and creativity, are you going to be happy in a conservative megacorporation? It’s also important to note that your values can change throughout your life, and what you think is important for success when you’re 20 might be very different to when you’re staring down the barrel of 40.

It’s taken me a long time to figure out what makes me happy in my working life, but thankfully, there are ways you can shortcut that process. If you are feeling unbalanced, or on the verge of burnout, or even just unsure if which direction you should take, this exercise can help. I learned about it through my friend Jody Podbury, and I’ve gone through it with my own teams as well as people I mentor.

Start by taking a few minutes to think back on your life to identify when you felt happiest, at your best, and really confident that you were making the right choices. We’re not just talking career here; I want you to think about your personal life too. If you can, grab some paper or open up a text editor and jot down the experiences you’re thinking of.

For me, I think about finishing my first (and so far only) marathon, which involved months of planning and hard work and meeting a really tough goal. I also think about the AWS Sydney Summit last year, when my team helped put on a conference for 25,000 attendees, and everyone worked so hard, whether giving talks at sessions, or helping customers at the Ask an Architect Booth, or hosting 20+ streaming sessions on Twitch like I did. I was so, so proud, and even though I was tired, I loved every second of it. I think about the travel adventures my husband and I have been fortunate enough to go on, like coming to Europe last year for Build Stuff, and getting such great feedback for my talk from all of you, and getting inspired in 2020 to relocate.

Whatever experiences you’ve got, keep them in mind for this next bit. I’m going to show you a slide with a LOT of common personal values on it.

I want you all to take a few minutes and read through this list, and just start noting down the ones that resonate with you in light of those experiences from your life. The ones I have chosen for myself are highlighted in green.

Now the next step is actually the hardest – we need to whittle this down to just your top values. You can do that by prioritising them, or by cutting them in half and continuing until you get down to your top 3 or 4 values. So if you had to choose the top priorities, the ones that make you feel good about yourself and that you’d be proud to share with others, what would they be?

For me, right now, those are Adventurousness, Community, Positivity, and Teamwork. And now, I think, you can see why I chose to move halfway around the world to join the AWS Developer Relations team less than three months ago. Sure, there have been challenges and bad days and hard work, but because the decision was rooted in my deeply held values, I feel happy and fulfilled.

So just to bring it all together: I took you on a little journey throughout my own career history. We started off by talking about career paths, and they are very rarely a straight line from A to B, and that’s okay! Your career goals will change throughout your life along with your values, the things you believe are most important in the way you live and work. As long as you’re behaving and making decisions in alignment with your values, life is generally pretty good. When things are out of alignment, you risk burnout – whether from overwork, stress, or unhappiness. It’s never too late to make a career change though, and by hustling to expand your responsibilities and your network in your day job, you’ll open up the door for new opportunities. I also think that working on improving your speaking and communication skills is vital for anyone in the tech industry, regardless of whether you ever step onto a stage. (And do remember to check out that Damian Conway video.) Many of us fall into the trap of avoiding activities that we think we won’t be good at, and then we miss out on the chance to learn. If you make the effort to cultivate a growth mindset – like in Carol Dweck’s book – you’ll stop fearing failure and starting seeing it as a chance to grow. I also shared with you some of the different types of mentors I’ve had in my life, as well as my secret tip for getting your dream mentor. I also told you how I talked my way into one of the hottest startups, and why it’s you should always swing big. We also spoke about networking, and how it’s less about gamifying your influence, and more about being an active, supportive part of the community. And lastly, once you identify the role that lines up with your top priorities, some steps you can take to land the offer and set yourself up for success.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my career path, and I wish you all the best for 2021!