2022 Year In Review and 2023 Goals

It’s time again for a year in review – 2022 edition! This year has been a doozy for me, personally and professionally.
Work-wise, I left my job of 9 years, worked with Jim Holmes for a few months, then my dream job came calling. As of July 18, I work at Microsoft, in the Xbox Studios Quality team, working on Flight Simulator!!! I truly have been working the past 15 years of my career to work in games, and at Xbox, and here I am! Still pinching myself, even after seeing my name in the credits of the 40th Anniversary Edition of Flight Simulator! I work remotely still from Michigan, but who knows – may be relocating to Redmond in a few years 😀

Personally, we had some tragedies this year. I touched on the death of my father-in-law on my birthday post. What I had not posted about on here (I did on Instagram though), was that we had to say goodbye to Cooper on July 19th (if you’re paying attention, that was my 2nd day working at Xbox and of course I got the day off without issue). His cancer spread to his lungs very quickly, and we had to make the very tough decision to say goodbye.
On the lighter(ish) side, I set some personal goals to continue my recovery from back surgery and get back getting into shape. I set a lofty goal of riding 1500 miles on a bike (outside or the Peloton), and to walk 1500 miles as well. I had some health issues crop up (seeing a pattern? lol) so had a little hiccup there but I’m still set to exceed 500 miles ridden and over 200 miles walked this year! I even bought a new bike to ride around outside, and I love it!
I got two new tattoos – my first since 2018 when I got a memorial 1/2 sleeve for my brother.

Let’s review my professional goals for 2022 I laid out in that year in review and goals post!
Give at least 1 new talk
I finally gave that talk that was “rolling around in my head”! It’s all about diversifying your heuristics using social media. I wrote a blog post about the concept, and another with resources from the talk. I was wary of speaking in-person, but I tested every day and masked everywhere I went. It’s exhausting, but it was successful!

Give 5 total talks (talks, AMAs, podcasts, workshops included)
This year I gave 5 talks (4 virtual meetups, and Targeting Quality conference), co-hosted a Twitter space, hosted PowerPoint Karaoke for TestBash World, did an AMA at TestBash UK, gave a new full day workshop at Targeting Quality, and was a guest on 3 podcasts (Testsphere Roulette, Software Testing Advocacy with Karen Todd, and Testing Tales with Lee Marshall)! I far exceeded this goal! Wow!

Write 1 (professional, not personal) blog post per quarter
This blog post will be the final one for the year, and I will meet this goal as well as soon as it’s published! Woohoo!

What’s ahead for 2023?
To start off, I’m giving my diversifying heuristics talk at CodeMash in January.
Then, I’m giving my first keynote (!!!) at Romanian Testing Conference in June!
I’m not setting any other goals for this year yet, and not sure I’ll apply to speak anywhere else. I want to rock this keynote, so I’ve got a lot of prep to do!

Hilary

I’m Hilary Weaver, also known as g33klady on the Internets. I’m a Senior Quality Engineer working remotely near Detroit, I tweet a lot (@g33klady), and swear a lot, too.