April 2013. After years of being a consultant and having seen some of the best/worst that enterprise software development entails, it was time to see how’s life in a product company. And having already used/advocated Telerik products for years, I didn’t have to look around much either. Thus started work as a Senior Technical Trainer for the Telerik Services team. Now, trainer is an interesting word. If you already develop cool software, like to play with & talk about new technologies, and have a big involvement in the developer community, you’ll be surprised how easy training comes to you. It’s no more than dev to dev straight talk! Now, don’t get me wrong – training is plenty challenging. If you’re teaching a group of 30 enterprise developers for a week, you better know your stuff inside out, for the utter fear of humiliation. Prep, practice & repeat, no shortcuts! The past year has been a lot of fun – I travelled & stayed at home; did offsite, onsite & remote training on a whole slew of Telerik products suites. It’s always great to see what clients are actually building with your dev tools; and you grow with every new experience. But all good things come to an end .. I’m starting in a new role inside Telerik today!

Now, I can’t move on without mentioning what’s been the biggest influence on me for the past year. Steve & Michelle Smith, and the whole Telerik Services gang (ex-NimblePros) at the Hudson office. I’ve worked with many dev teams before, but no where else have I seen so many software craftsmen under one roof. Folks like Steve, Brendan, Jimmy, Kevin, Todd, Jeff, Chris, Craig, Weston, Caitlin, JoLene, Molly and others – are just crazy smart; and I’ve learnt a lot from each. Not only are they some of the best developers/designers I’ve seen around, but the whole team is like a family that values each other. Cheers to everyone at the Hudson office; it has truely been a pleasure!

Now, on to what’s next. When you find a position that’s a perfect fit, but challenges you with new work – you dive in. Starting today, I’m a Developer Advocate for Telerik in the Developer Relations team, lead by the awesome Rey Bango. My partners in crime? Glad you asked – how about a team with Michael Crump, Jeff Fritz, Burke Holland, John Bristowe, TJ Vantoll, Brian Rinaldi, Jim Cowart, Dhananjay Kumar, Lohith Nagaraj & other super smart folks. Humbling for sure with the kind of reputation each have in our community, but exciting because we’ll get to do awesome stuff together!

Is .NET/Microsoft and Telerik DevTools your bread & butter? Do Windows apps excite you or the ubiquitousness of the web? Have you embraced JavaScript as the assembly language of the web? And off course, you are into all things mobile & the cloud/backend services. And cross-platform development isn’t for the cool kids any more; you cannot afford to not reach every potential user across any technology stack. Just like you my polyglot friend, I love it all! Let’s bridge the gap between the enterprise & hipster world. Using or considering Telerik products? Hit me up & let’s talk.

Cheers!