In this post, I will review the year 2023 from my personal perspective and share an exciting writing opportunity that I'm opening to everybody who wants to try.
Table of Contents
2023 Summary
As the year draws to a close, it's the perfect time to reflect on the remarkable journey of 2023. This year has been the busiest and the most rewarding in my career.
But it's not just about looking back; it's also about looking forward to what lies ahead. And I'm excited to share a big announcement in the second part of the article.
🌟 Becoming an AWS Hero: Back in June, I was humbled and honored to get selected as an AWS Serverless Hero. I think it's even more special to me because the AWS community has helped me a lot - starting with open-source contributions, getting accepted into the AWS Community Builders program, and continuing from there. I wrote a blog post about my journey and how that open-source contribution changed my career.
🌟 2 AWS re:Invent Breakout Sessions: I had the honor of presenting not one, but TWO breakout sessions at AWS re:Invent this year with my good friend Heitor Lessa. It was a fantastic experience to share insights with the AWS community on a global stage in Vegas. You can find the recording here.
📝 24 Blog Posts: The support and engagement from the tech community have been truly overwhelming. Thank you! Your feedback provides me with tremendous motivation to continue writing.
🌐 2 AWS Summit TLV Sessions: Speaking at AWS Summit twice was an incredible opportunity to connect with fellow AWS enthusiasts and professionals. This was the first time I spoke in person to more than 300 people, and I will never forget it.
🎙️ 15 Other Conferences and Podcasts: Participating in 15 conferences and podcasts allowed me to delve into various aspects of cloud computing, platform engineering, technology trends, and more. Each interaction was a unique learning experience. You can find most recordings at the event section of the website.
📚 3 Articles Published on AWS Blog Website: Contributing to the AWS blog website was special. It's different than writing on your personal website. It takes technical writing to a whole new level of professionalism and perfectionism. I've learned so much about structuring the message in such posts from fellow AWS employees who co-authored the blog with me. You can find the articles in the articles section of the website. The articles range from topics such as serverless tenant management and customer onboarding designs to AWS AppConfig and feature flags.
GitHub Highlights:
🚀 aws-lambda-env-modeler: My new open-source project has been downloaded over 15,000 times monthly over the year. AWS-Lambda-Env-Modeler is a Python library designed to simplify managing and validating environment variables in your AWS Lambda functions with Pydantic.
Read more about it here.
⭐ aws-lambda-handler-cookbook: It's incredible to see this project receiving nearly 400 stars on GitHub, a testament to the community's support and appreciation. This repository provides a working, deployable, open-source, serverless service template with an AWS Lambda function and AWS CDK Python code with all the best practices and a complete CI/CD pipeline.
Next year, I want to focus on collaborating even more with the community, helping others grow, and getting out of their comfort zones.
This brings me to the big news I'm thrilled to share with all of you below.
Come Write with Me!
In 2024, I'm opening the doors to my blog for guest writers and aspiring tech enthusiasts who want to share their insights and gain exposure on my website. Knowledge sharing and collaboration are essential for the growth of our tech community.
Suppose you're passionate about AWS and serverless technology and have valuable knowledge to share. Getting started is always the hardest, but I can help you!
What Can I Offer You
I will mentor you and help you write the best article you can. I will not write it for you but provide feedback, reviews, and guidance.
A blog template and help to get you started with a post skeleton.
Exposure and social sharing through my website and my LinkedIn/Twitter: Your post will be shared with over 500 mail subscribers. My posts are viewed over 150000 times a year.
Publish an article you own as a co-writer on my ranthebuilder.cloud.
I'm the editor - I will publish only content that fits the standards and theme of my website.
The Process
You will submit a blog idea according to the form in the 'How to Submit an Idea' section below. I will let you know via email if I can help you and/or if I find your blog post idea fits my website. Please kindly remember that in a case of rejection it's not personal.
Once accepted, we will define a flexible publishing date so we have something to look forward to and start working.
Some general notes:
Take it easy - We will schedule a few meetings along the way. However, don't expect daily 30-minute meetings or daily emails - We are both doing this to learn and have fun; this is not a job; you are not working for me and vice versa.
Format - The blog format will match my other blog posts (look & feel), but the voice and content are yours. I will, however, review it and offer feedback and suggestions.
Publishing - I will publish blog posts up to ranthebuilder.cloud's standard. You are the owner of the content. You may publish your post on other platforms even if I choose not to publish it eventually.
My Expectations of You
Mutual respect & professionalism.
Put in the effort and time - I will give my time for you and expect the same level of seriousness from you. Writing good content takes time - a blog post takes me anywhere from 5 to even 20 hours.
Be open to feedback and criticism - it's part of the learning process, nobody writes a perfect blog post on the first try.
Write about something you are enthusiastic about and want to tell the world about.
Read a draft before you send it to review. Use Grammarly or other text-proofing tools.
Don't submit an already published subject (by you or others, research first!). If it has already been done before, think about that new perspective you bring to the table.
What am I looking For
Subjects need to relate to AWS and preferably serverless.
Subjects that I think will be interesting:
Serverless takeaways, use cases, problems you solved with serverless, thought leadership posts.
Review a new serverless feature (deep dive) and best practices suggestions.
Technical AWS posts with Python code (Type script might be ok, too)
Technical AWS posts with CDK examples/Terraform/SAM.
Platform engineering stories & tips
How to Submit an Idea
Use the following template and send an email to ran.isenberg@ranthebuilder.cloud :
Name: []
Introduce yourself in a few sentences: []
How did you hear about me? []
Timezone: [GMT]
What subject number does your post fit (look at the 'What am I looking For' section) - [1-5]
Blog post idea: [be as detailed as possible. What do you want to write about? Why? what's the story you want to tell?]
Do you have a 'hands-on' experience with the blog post idea? [Yes/No]
I will get back to you as soon as I can!