Best of 2024 + Special offer on subscriptions

Wrapping up an amazing year & what's in store for 2025

I’m writing this final piece of the year on a plane to Colorado, where I’ll spend the holidays and my birthday snowboarding with loved ones and sipping hot chocolate.

The end of the year, being so close to my birthday, always makes me reflective.

How did I spend this year? Was it aligned with the intentions I set? What did I learn? Am I on track with my goals? And what are my intentions for 2025?

But first, today is my birthday! 🥳

To celebrate, for the first time, I’m offering a limited time, only 40% off on annual subscriptions. Lock your price in forever!

Now let’s look back at what happened in 2024 and what’s in store for 2025.

Highlights of 2024

2024 was my first full year as a solopreneur. When I left my Tech Lead Manager role in July 2023, I planned to take a break and then job hunt. Until then, I had been working full-time while running a side coaching business I started in 2020.

The newsletter's growth in 2023 and the chance to teach a course on Maven shifted my direction toward entrepreneurship.

So, I dedicated 2024 to coaching, teaching, creating, and writing. Solopreneurship brought discomfort and uncertainty, but also growth. As a one-person company, I had to navigate areas outside my expertise—challenging but rewarding.

What I learned in 2024

My first year of solopreneurship taught me so much. I’ll likely write more about this, but here are a few of the key takeaways:

• It’s okay to not know and do it anyway – Uncertainty is part of entrepreneurship. If you don’t get comfortable with it, you’ll get stuck.

• Don’t take things personally – Viewing yourself as a business helps you detach emotionally. Just like in business, some ideas succeed, some don’t.

• Take the leap – Not having a cushy tech job was scary, but not pursuing my calling felt scarier. This year, I helped people and made a living from it. I’m proud of that.

Here’s how the year looked in numbers

• Taught my Maven course “Impact through Influence” to 100+ students from Meta, Google, Dropbox, and more.

• Partnered with my first corporate client to deliver a custom version of the course!

• Spent over 200 hours coaching 1-1 clients.

• Wrote 36 newsletters and 140 LinkedIn posts.

• Each newsletter article now averages 30k views—unreal!

• Substack and LinkedIn grew significantly:

  • Substack: 14435 → 52454 subscribers

  • LinkedIn: 22898 → 52470 followers

• Spoke at 2 international conferences:

  • Craft Budapest - “Beyond Coding: Individual Leadership is here to stay”

  • LeadDev Berlin - Keynote: “Leading through scarcity” (video not available yet for the general public)

• Guest appearances on 5 podcasts – Full list here.

On the stage at Craft Conference in Budapest Hungary, June 2024

LinkedIn highlights

A few posts went viral this year:

• My most viral post with over 1 million views was about being a woman in tech.

  

• Another one focused on the power of self-advocacy.

• I also wrote about the super skill of senior engineers at Google and Uber.

I was able to get my word cloud for my LinkedIn posts, it looks something like this:

Newsletter highlights

This year’s articles centered on evergreen themes for engineers and leaders: influence, communication, emotional intelligence, and career growth.

Top 3 most viewed articles of 2024

• 3 Critical Skills to Grow Beyond Senior Levels

• How to Self-Manage (Even if You Have a Manager)

• 7 Mindsets Slowing Down Your Career Growth

Main newsletter themes

Influence

Influence was a major theme in 2024—a crucial skill for everyone:

• Why influence is a vital skill for anyone

• Top mistakes people make when influencing

• Why influential people have a lot of social capital and How to build social capital

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is vital but often lacking in tech. Key articles:

• The difference between being kind and being nice

• How to cultivate clarity and kindness in your team

• Tips for staying kind and open in high-pressure situations

Communication

A pillar of “The Caring Techie Newsletter.” Highlights include:

• Why repetition is key for effective communication

• The wrong and the right way to deliver bad news to your manager

• How to answer the “Tell me about yourself” question

Podcasts

2024 brought some incredible opportunities such as being invited on some amazing podcasts. Some of my favorite ones are:

• The Pragmatic Engineer’s Podcast in September - Promotions and Tooling at Google

• Refactoring with Luca Rossi - The Power of Influence

• Ethan Evans’s Community Chat - How to Influence without Authority

Intentions for 2025

2024 was amazing, but I might shift gears in 2025. I’m still deciding between entrepreneurship, a 9-5, or doubling down on coaching and teaching.

One thing’s for sure—my mantra for 2025 is “be bold.”

I’ll continue sharing leadership, influence, and personal growth topics and prioritize quality over quantity.

Thank you for being here. Cheers to a bright future!

How was your 2024, and what are your plans for 2025?

Until next time,

Irina - Your Caring Techie

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Ready to grow your tech career with me? Here are 3 ways I can help:

1. Book a one-hour call where we can tackle your most pressing issues.

2. Private coaching - I am opening a handful of coaching spots to work with me 1-1, email me at thecaringtechie@gmail.com or DM me to learn more!

3. Join the next cohort of my course “Impact through Influence in Engineering Teams” where in 2 weeks of live classes you learn the mindsets, frameworks, and tools you need to build your personal brand, build relationships, get buy-in and become influential at work.

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