At the start of 2015, I wrote down some goals for 2015. Around half-way through the year, I revisited these goals with some thoughts on how well I’d done. Now 2015 is over, I want to reflect on what has been achieved and what hasn’t.
I also want to comment on the fact that I am discussing personal things here. A few years ago I was decided that I was going to keep this blog professional and pretty much dry of any thoughts or feelings on my personal life. I have moved away from that though, inspired by blogs such as Iain’s, where personal thoughts and feelings are mixed with technical observations. I would like to think that this isn’t a bad move; after all if potential employers come to look at this 5 years from now, and don’t like what I’ve done here, then I probably don’t want to work for them anyway. There is the argument that blogs should be ‘themed’ or targetted towards a particular subject to garner followers, and that too much sharing is possibly a bad thing. However, my current thoughts are that dry techncial info is boring, and I’d rather mix it with other things that are important to me.
Retrospective for 2015
With that said.. 2015 was an eventful year, some things were awesome, some not.
The “Not Awesome”
My mum started treatment for cancer, which is a non-curable kind, Myeloma. The treatment was a success and she is currently in remission for the time being, so that is a good thing, but how long she will stay in remission we do not know. Both my remaining grandparents also sadly passed away. I also split up with my girlfriend of 5 years, which was difficult and still haunts me to a certain degree.
The “Awesome”
The money that my parents were going to put towards the wedding of the ex-girlfriend, they gave to me so I could put a deposit down on a house. So in August I bought and moved into a house in Withington, which I am in the process of doing up. It is *incredibly* cheap to buy in Manchester compared to the south-east of England, where I’m originally from, where the dream of having my own 3 bed, semi-detached house would not be possible in any area with a reasonable number of IT jobs in short distance. I don’t drive, so the fact that the tram stop is 10 minutes walk away is great for getting to work.
I met my current girlfriend, Conny in May, and things seem to be going very well; she is even planning to move from Berlin to Manchester to live with me. This is obviously great, and I don’t know where I would be without her support.
Work
With all these things happening in my personal life, work took a secondary focus as I got things sorted. It also made me rethink what I wanted from my career. At the start of 2015 I had a new role, as Test Manager; the first level of technical management in my area at the BBC, and a big career move for me. Although I liked some aspects of the management role, I missed the technical challenges that had pretty much characterised the last 10 years of my career. There was not much direct coding, and I felt I was in danger of losing that aspect of my work. I took a 6 month attachment to R&D, which had me working in an extremely challenging technical role, on a HTML5 360 VR engine. In April when this attachment ends, I am looking to continue in a technical role of some description, and not return to pure management, at least for the meantime.
Goals of 2015 – How Did I Do?
Work Goals
- Settle into my new role at the BBC as Test Manager – As I mentioned before I’ve taken a move towards another route in my career
- Pushing for a place to be opened up in Platform Test to employ someone from the Extend Scheme – This was achieved, and Ben has joined the BBC on an Extend placement.
Creative Goals
- Get better at music production – This has been achieved. I worked with my friend Gio, who taught me quite a few tricks about Ableton. I have released a 3-track EP called ‘Planetary Orbital’ on Bandcamp. I am also helping to organise a Music Production Meetup.com in Manchester.
Social Goals
- Getting married – Nope. Maybe later.
- Making friends with more people that share the same interests – Partly achieved. The Meetup groups will help this. I have also helped start a ‘Virtual Reality Manchester’ Meetup group, for VR fans in Manchester, the first meetup is next month.
Financial Goals
- Saving more over the course of the year – Partly achieved. I have bought a house, so now I am in a quite a bit of debt, but the money I will be putting towards my mortgage will be money I am effectively ‘saving’ because it will be put into the value of the house.
- Joining a pension scheme – Achieved.
Health Goals
- Adopt a regular form of keeping fit – Partly achieved. I have now setup a return commute which involves walking past a gym that I’m a member of, so it is quite easy to go in there for 30 mins on the treadmill 2-3 times a week. I’ve just got to maintain the discipline.
DavidCraddock.net 
This is the first time I’ve been part of someones goals. It feels interesting (in a good way).
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