On July 10th, I received my 10th MVP Award! 🤩 I became a Microsoft Data Platform MVP 2024-2025 in the Data Integration and Microsoft Fabric technology areas 🤓

(My puppy, Pixel, couldn’t care less. But she’s really cute! So I decided to pose with her instead of a piece of MVP swag 😁)

10 years. Ten. Years. Holy moly. I still remember the thrill and panic of receiving my first MVP Award. Back then, I felt like I didn’t really deserve an award. I saw myself as a shy nobody, definitely not a most valuable professional! But I was also proud and extremely grateful to be recognized for what I had done for my local community.

I’m no longer shy and I no longer think I’m a nobody, but I’m still extremely grateful for the recognition. I don’t take it for granted, even after 10 years. Or perhaps I should say especially not after 10 years, because a Microsoft MVP award doesn’t come for free. It takes time, energy, sometimes money, and occasionally some literal sweat and tears. (Hopefully not a lot of blood, though!)

In return, the stamp of approval from Microsoft has opened doors and opportunities I could only have dreamed of. I’ve forged a career I love, found some of my best friends, helped countless people in their daily jobs, and inspired others. Most importantly, I’ve grown so much as a person through this journey.

What’s next?

Over the past 10 years, tech and community has been my life. I’ve called myself a full-time geek, working with Microsoft tech during the day and having fun speaking, blogging, volunteering, and organizing community events focused on Microsoft tech in my free time. It’s been fun trying to explain to those outside of our community bubble that yes, I’m doing this techy thing, but no, it’s not work, but it’s technically what I work with, but it’s also my hobby, and… you get the point 😂

I’ve loved it. It’s been a helluva ride.

But you see that cute little teddy bear in the picture? Pixel? She is the most important thing in my life now. I’ve been dreaming of and longing for a pet for 15 years. It was just never the right time… until this year. Pixel has made my life so. much. better. I love her with all my heart 🥰

I’m not stepping away from the community, but maybe like… a step to the side? There are still events I won’t miss, knowledge I want to share, and people around the world I might be able to help in some way. But tech and community won’t be my entire life going forward. And I think that’s a good thing. It feels right.

See you soon, somewhere 💙

Nope, I did not get a new job 😄 But! My company has officially merged with four other awesome companies into one super awesome company, and I got a promotion! I’m happy to announce that I’m now a Solutions Architect in Evidi, yay 🥳

New Employer: Evidi

We used to be Skill, AITC, Communicate, eSeven, and Pilaro. Today, we are finally Evidi, one of Norway’s largest independent consulting companies with over 300 people specialized on Microsoft technologies. Our name comes from evidence and reflects the importance of data-driven decisions.

…seriously, it couldn’t have been more perfect for me. I’m already proud to say I work in Evidi, and I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and do my part to help make Evidi the go-to partner for all things Microsoft in Norway 🤓

I’ll keep it short here, but if you want to learn more, check out these Norwegian articles:

• Slo sammen fem og sikter mot milliarden
• Nytt IT-konsern legger lista høyt: – Skal omsette for en milliard kroner
• Bytter navn: har slått sammen fem selskap og sikter mot milliardomsetning

And of course, our fancy new website: evidi.com 😁

New Role: Solutions Architect

If the new company announcement wasn’t enough… I ALSO GOT A PROMOTION! 🥳

Ok, so, this wasn’t a surprise. I started working as a Senior Consultant with a goal of getting promoted to a Solutions Architect within a year. And I did it! It was important to me to have a goal to work towards, to get the opportunity to prove my worth, and to show that I do in fact have the skills and experience necessary to call myself a Solutions Architect.

I did it, I’m proud of myself, and I look forward to new goals and challenges, yay 😊

Today is a very special day. It’s Monday, it’s a new week, and it’s a new month - all sorts of new beginnings. The most important new beginning, however, is that today is my first day as a Senior Consultant in the Data Management and Analytics team in Skill! Yay 🥳

Skill is a Norwegian IT consulting company with over 100 consultants working from two locations. They have teams focused on everything from cloud infrastructure to cloud productivity, from security to business applications, and from collaboration to analytics.

What do they all have in common? They all deliver solutions built on Microsoft technologies! Just like me 🤓

(And just like me, there are many people in Skill who love giving back and helping their communities! I’m honored that I can now call fellow Microsoft MVPs Jan Vidar Elven, Magnus Goksöyr, and Ulrikke Akerbæk my coworkers 🤩)

I’ve joined the Data Management and Analytics team, and will continue to focus on Azure Data and the Microsoft Data Platform. I get to dive deeper into fun things like Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Data Factory, and I’m hoping to learn even more about Power BI and the rest of the Power Platform. Maybe I’ll even pick up a thing or two about infrastructure, networking, and security?

I’m very much looking forward to this new chapter. Great people, a supportive workplace, and exciting technologies…? I’M SO EXCITED! 😊

It’s been one month since I migrated from WordPress to Hugo. In my original post, I mentioned some of the immediate benefits of migrating: I saved money, performance went up, and I was totally geeking out about getting to learn new skills. It was all about the tech, really. Today, I want to reflect on some of the less obvious benefits and how migrating has had a positive impact on me this past month 😊

I think I can summarize it in one sentence:

I enjoy blogging again because I’ve taken back control of my website.

That sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? I mean, this has always been my website and I have always been in control of it. But what I’ve realized is that for many years, WordPress and its features and plugins shaped how I used - and didn’t use - my blog.

I can’t and I don’t really blame WordPress. This is mostly about my habits and thought processes and how I started changing them. However, that change only happened because I migrated to a new blogging platform. It was only after I started using Hugo that I realized how I could do things differently.

So what’s different now?

Long story short: I’ve been working intensely on my website for about a month. After a couple of years of thinking about moving away from Wordpress, I finally did it! I’m so excited and so happy to be up and running on a brand new platform. Hello Hugo! 🤓

What’s new!?

For you, very little has changed. You may notice a few things, like:

• New dark theme available! (Click the button in the menu to switch between themes 👆🏻)
• Improved performance, especially on mobile devices
• Comments are gone

For me, everything has changed:

• Saved money by eliminating expensive web hosting
• Complete control of all functionality and code
• Access to local development environment
• New workflow using Hugo, GitHub and Netlify

This has been a massive project for me. I’ve worked day and night for weeks, I’ve learned new concepts and technologies and coding languages, and I’ve loved every minute of it 🤓