It's time to re:Wind 2022
Tags: appreciation, devrel, rewind, 2022
Published: 2022-12-30 18:35:12

2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣ has been quite an interesting year and a year of learnings for me. 

Some of the highlights is what I tweeted about 
{% embed https://twitter.com/zachjonesnoel/status/1607813236266762240 %}

### 📜 Authoring blog-posts
This year has been *content-ful* with this being my 25th blog-post this year. And also have been contributing to -
+ [AWS Heroes](https://dev.to/aws-heroes)
+ [AWS Community Builder](https://dev.to/aws-builders)
+ [AWS Community ASEAN](https://dev.to/awscommunity-asean)

Most of the blog-posts were focused on AWS Step Functions and some of the sessions that I've delivered over this year. 

Numbers from December
![Numbers from December alone](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/i9cxgmasnai2az2tnuut.png)
This year my blog-post (https://dev.to/zachjonesnoel) crossed 
**500+ reactions** and **100k+ views**, cheers to all my readers who have been benefitted from my writings. 
{% embed https://twitter.com/zachjonesnoel/status/1605483967385178112 %}
One of my blog-post - [When to : SNS or SQS](https://dev.to/aws-builders/when-to-sns-or-sqs-2aji) contributed to [AWS Community Builder](https://dev.to/aws-builders) org was recognised as one of the top viewed blog-posts.

The growing trend of AI and how ChatGPT constructs the responses for my blog-post, [Walter Lee](https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterwlee) compares one of my blog-post verses ChatGPT and shares about how human authored content would be more relatable and good for skilling up.
![Walter Lee's take on my blog-post vs ChatGPT](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gcuu86kqyxpfbq5x3pq2.jpeg)
Check out the [LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7013773242511347712/) by Walter Lee.


### 🎤 Speaking engagements
Breaking back from the practices of the pandemic, going back to in-person events has elevated my learnings in a special way. 

+ Skilling up with latest happenings.
+ Networking with peers.
+ Understanding how tech is in action.
+ Looking into the cool things folks have developed.
+ Sharing my knowledge

![Lanyards from in-person events](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/flv3d5y48enih1b6bjag.jpeg)

In every in-person event, I've made it a practice to get feedbacks which has helped me to level-up and improvise my content, how I deliver, my pace and more things.

Have delivered sessions at *AWS APJ Community Summit, Bangkok* (first-ever international in-person session), *Freshworks Developer Summit, Bengaluru*, *AWS Community Day Kochi*, *AWS Dev Day, Bengaluru*, *AWS Community Day Pune* with a total of **6 in-person sessions**.

We all have our first-times and this year it was my first time being part of the Serverless Panel Discussion at AWS APJ Community Day, Bangkok sharing the stage with [Farrah Campbell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/farrahcampbell/) with an amazing moderator [Donnie Prakoso](https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnieprakoso/)  along with [Raphael Justin Jambalos](https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-justin-jambalos), [Takahiro Horike](https://www.linkedin.com/in/takahiro-horike-69894a133) on the panel where conversation and views was about different development practices, things we love about AWS Serverless, what we love to see in AWS Serverless.
![Serverless Panel Discussion](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p0897w2fkn8a9wq1jr0q.png)

*Virtual is the new norm*, have been contributing to several [AWS User Groups](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/community/usergroups/?community-user-groups-cards.sort-by=item.additionalFields.ugName&community-user-groups-cards.sort-order=asc&awsf.location=*all&awsf.category=*all) globally (until last year it was in APJ region). A huge shout-out to all the AWS UG Leaders to accommodate and also hosting me virtually - battling the hassles of timezone, streaming setups, internet hiccups and what not! In total sharing my knowledge about Serverless in **10 virtual sessions** which also includes Freshworks Community Hours where I had the opportunity to evangelise about some of Freshworks Platform features, AWS Summit India 2022. Guest at the AWS GameDay. 

Great to be part of AWS Community Panel at AWS Innovate Modern Apps Edition with the host [Derek Bingham](https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekwbingham/) on virtual stage along with [Ali Haydar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahaydar/), [Dipali Kulshrestha](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dipalik/), [Faizal Khan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/faizal-khan/) and [Wendy Wong](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendywong7/).

###🥑 Developer Advocate transition
Being part of the AWS Community and working with Developer Relations team got me to aspire for the responsibilities of the Developer Advocate role. While I interviewed and cracked a couple, I decided to make a move to [Freshworks Inc](https://www.freshworks.com/) as a *Senior Developer Advocate* starting from end of May 2022. 
Coming from a background of a start-up borne *Full-Stack Developer* transformed to a *Cloud Architect - Serverless*, *Developer Advocate* role was a transformation which I embrace a lot. 
Cheers to my fellow DevRels and teammates - [Satwik Hebbar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwikhebbar), [Kaustav Das Modak](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaustavdm/), [Raviraj Subramanian](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravirajsubramanian/), [Saif Ali Shaik](https://www.linkedin.com/in/saif-shines/) who supported me to transform from a solution and architecture focused person to empathised, community focused, helping developers solution on Freshworks Developer Platform and focusing on Developer Experience (DX) for the new features.

![True Friend of Customer Q3, 2022](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0dbvhx7uuferf1da0i8s.png)

###🗞️ Sharing via Serverless newsletter
I started the newsletter [Everything AWS, Serverless and Architectures ☁️🚀👨‍💻](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/zachjonesnoel) which is currently powered with Revue. The newsletter is semimonthly where the issues are published on 15th and 30th of every month. The newsletter features some of the commendable content from AWS Community, AWS Serverless announcements, some of the events happening in AWS Serverless community. 
{% embed https://twitter.com/sheenbrisals/status/1553454520742690816) %}
<!--
![Growth over unique opens](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ijlvfy6ses4nxwa7y6h4.png)
-->
![Newsletter engagement](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/u3g7sctu494b9vdu1g42.png)

With Ruvue shutting down, the newsletter is successfully migrated to Substack and the new link is - https://everythingawsserverless.substack.com/

If you had already subscribed, nothing to worry! But if you hadn't and want to stay on top of Serverless happenings, I would recommend you to subscribe right away! 

![Growth on Substack](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5nqghrr6wg0t75v4lp5h.png)

###⭐ AWS Community Builder - Serverless
AWS Community Builder journey began in Q4 of 2021 where I had the opportunity to spread the word of Serverless to folks globally via blog-posts, virtual and in-person sessions at various AWS UG meet-ups and AWS Community Day and also contributed via building samples for different AWS Services.

Honoured with a two quarter *Top Contributor* in APJ region and once globally!

AWS Community Builder program has not only facilitated me with opportunities but also has helped me learn from peers about things into Serverless to how to improvise on the personal level. 

![AWS Community Builder in a picture!](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/faswqkg7jzt29d5m0grq.png)

This year had the opportunity to meet folks in the APJ region during AWS APJ Community Summit, Bangkok. And I was nominated for the *AWS Community Builder of the year*! Which is huge for me, being close to 1 year into the AWS Community Builder program.

![Nominees for AWS Community Builder of the year](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gzy43uszped68z6mxaaa.png)

{% embed https://twitter.com/zachjonesnoel/status/1570092172099325954 %}

{% embed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPwuq3tARiA %}
###🎙️ Kickstarted a podcast - The Zacs' Show - Talking AWS
Through the AWS Community Builder program, I even met [Arshad Zackeriya]() at AWS Community Day ASEAN and we decided to spread the word of DevOps and Serverless with our podcast [The Zacs' Show - Talking AWS](https://www.youtube.com/@thezacsshowtalkingaws5034). 

Here is the latest episode where Zack and me re:Capped about re:Invent 2022. 
{% embed https://twitter.com/zachjonesnoel/status/1604363947230265344 %}

A lot is in plan for the coming year so stay tuned! 🤩

###👥 Co-organizing AWS User Group Bengaluru
From May 2022, cheers to the opportunity by [Jeevan Dongre](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeevandongre/) to be part of the [AWS User Group Bengaluru](https://meetup.com/awsugblr) as a co-organizer. While we started getting back to post-pandemic normal, in-person meet-ups have been a challenge and it's with Jeevan and [Chethan Ramegowda](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanramegowda/), we were able to kick start in-person meet-ups in Bengaluru, India with a successful 4 meet-ups! 🎉

![AWS UG BLR Meet-up](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4e5jgycwycakcmeniy7d.png)
We had a collaborative meet-up with cloud - AWS, Azure and GCP along with Kubernetes and Docker communities which has got amazing response.

We will gear up and have more meet-ups in 2023. 🚀

Tech enthusiasts from Bengaluru have always been receptive and an amazing when it comes to tech meetups. Cheers to everyone actively participating. 🙌

###🦸‍♂️ AWS Serverless Hero
In Nov 2022, honoured to be recognized as the *AWS Serverless Hero* along with AWSome community members! 
{% embed https://twitter.com/awscloud/status/1592650265739812865 %}
Being an AWS Community Builder and graduating into AWS Serverless Hero is one of my most pride takes from this year. It's been over a month of being a AWS Serverless Hero, I'm on a journey continuing Serverless Advocacy.  
More details in [Heroes profile](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/community/heroes/jones-zachariah-noel/?did=dh_card&trk=dh_card).

---
That's my 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣! Thanks to everyone who have been part of it making it more memorable and wonderful for me. 🎉🤘 Have met some super AWSome folks this year. Hope to meet y'all again in 2023 and also the folks whom I've missed to meet.

Have a great time! Happy New year 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ 🎉🎉🎉

Some tips for a cheerful 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣3️⃣
⚡ Be kind to each other. 
⚡ Encourage folks to be a better version of themselves. 
⚡ Share your knowledge.
⚡ Focus on mental and physical health. 
⚡ Skill-up.