2025: A Year in Review - From Engineer to Manager to Blogger to... Whatever This Is
Well, That Escalated Quickly
When 2025 started, I was a network engineer doing network engineer things. Troubleshooting routing protocols. Managing infrastructure. Collecting certifications. The usual.
Then July happened.
I became a manager. Not because I had it all figured out. Not because I was the obvious choice. Just because the opportunity appeared and I said yes before my imposter syndrome could talk me out of it.
Now it's December, and I'm sitting here trying to make sense of what just happened.
Spoiler: I still don't have it all figured out. But I've learned a lot. And apparently, you all wanted to come along for the ride.
This post is part recap, part thank you, and part "holy crap, what a year."
The Management Transition: Six Months of Figuring It Out
July 2025: I officially became a network engineering manager.
What I expected: More meetings. Some people management. Still doing technical work.
What I got: SO many meetings. Constant context switching. Budget spreadsheets I didn't know existed. Performance reviews. Compensation discussions. Politics I didn't see coming. And way less technical work than I wanted.
What I've Learned About Management (So Far)
It's Harder Than I Thought:
Not the technical part - that's actually the easy part. It's the people part. The emotional labor. Being responsible for other people's well-being and careers. The absorbing organizational dysfunction so it doesn't reach your team. Making decisions with incomplete information and living with the consequences.
I wrote about this in Both Sides of the Desk: Burnout (The Manager's Perspective), and honestly, that post was therapy disguised as a blog. Writing about the isolation of management, the impossible expectations, and the constant battle between team wellbeing and business demands helped me process what I was experiencing.
Nobody Prepared Me for This:
Not the certifications. Not the years of technical experience. Not the leadership books. Management is one of those things you can only really learn by doing it - and doing it badly at first.
I captured a bunch of this in 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Manager, which remains one of my most personal posts. The imposter syndrome is real, people. Six months in, and I still occasionally wonder if someone's going to realize I'm making this up as I go.
The Technical/Management Balance Is Real:
I wrote about this in The Technical Manager's Dilemma: Staying Current While Leading People because I was actively struggling with it. How do you stay technically sharp when you're in back-to-back meetings? How do you keep your skills current when your days are consumed by one-on-ones, budget reviews, and putting out organizational fires?
Still figuring this one out, to be honest.
You Can't Fix Everything:
Some organizational dysfunction is beyond my control. Some decisions I disagree with are happening anyway. Some team members have problems I can't solve and that's hard to accept when you're wired to solve problems.
But You Can Make a Difference:
Even within constraints, I can create an environment where my team does good work. I can advocate for them. I can shield them from some of the nonsense. I can be honest about what I can and can't change. That matters.
The Best Part:
Watching team members grow and succeed. Helping someone work through a career challenge. Creating space for people to do their best work. When that happens, the meetings and spreadsheets and politics are worth it.
The Blog: More Growth Than I Expected
Layer8Packet started as a side project. A way to process what I was learning. A creative outlet beyond configuring VLANs.
I had no idea if anyone would read it.
By the Numbers
2025 Blog Stats:
55+ published posts (mix of technical and management topics)
Steady monthly traffic growth
Increasing engagement on LinkedIn
Messages from readers saying posts helped them
The numbers aren't huge. I'm not running a viral blog empire. But they're growing, and more importantly, the feedback tells me the content is actually helping people.
What Resonated Most:
The management content. By a lot.
My technical posts do fine - they get steady traffic from search, and they help people solve specific problems. But the management posts? Those get comments. LinkedIn engagement. Messages from people saying, "This is exactly what I'm going through."
Turns out, network engineers transitioning to management (or considering it) are hungry for content from someone who's actually in the trenches. Not theoretical advice from someone 10 years removed from the day-to-day reality. Real talk from someone still figuring it out.
Content That Connected
The "Both Sides of the Desk" Series:
This was a risk. Taking one topic and examining it from both the engineer's and the manager's perspectives. Would people care about hearing both sides?
Apparently yes.
Both Sides of the Desk: Burnout (The Engineer's Perspective) and Both Sides of the Desk: Burnout (The Manager's Perspective) generated more discussion than anything I'd written before. People appreciated seeing both viewpoints, understanding what's happening on the other side of those frustrating conversations.
I followed up with Technical Debt: What Engineers Wish Managers Understood and Asking for a Raise (The Engineer's Perspective), and the response was similar - people want to understand both perspectives, even if they're currently only on one side of the desk.
The Honest Management Struggles:
Posts where I admitted I was struggling resonated way more than posts where I had answers. Your First IT Budget: A Survival Guide was literally me processing my confusion about budgeting by writing about it. Same with Managing Up as a Technical Manager - just trying to figure out how to advocate for my team within organizational realities.
The vulnerability worked. People don't need another expert telling them how to do it. They need someone in the trenches saying, "Yeah, this is hard for me too."
The Practical Decision Frameworks:
Should You Move to the Cloud After AWS and Azure Outages? and Job Hopping Every 2-3 Years: Career Strategy or Red Flag? did well because they didn't take sides. They acknowledged complexity, presented trade-offs, and gave frameworks for thinking through decisions rather than declaring one right answer.
Turns out people appreciate nuance.
The Technical Topics (Still Matter):
My AI tools post (AI Tools for Network Operations: A Reality Check) got solid engagement because it wasn't hype - it was "here's what actually works and what's marketing BS." People are tired of vendor pitches and want honest assessments from practitioners.
The Newsletter: October's Experiment
In October, I launched a monthly newsletter. Honestly, I wasn't sure anyone would subscribe.
The idea: once a month on the first Tuesday, send subscribers a digest of recent blog posts, industry insights, management tips, and the random stuff I'm learning. Keep it conversational. Make it valuable. Don't spam people.
What Happened
Steady growth since launch. Not explosive, but consistent. People are signing up, open rates are solid, and feedback has been positive.
The format is working. Mixing blog recaps with additional insights that don't make it to the blog, plus curated industry news and quick management tips. It's become my "Director's Cut" version of the blog content.
Engagement is better than expected. People are replying to the emails. Asking questions. Sharing their own experiences. The newsletter created a more intimate conversation than blog comments or LinkedIn ever did.
What I'm learning about newsletters:
They're more work than I thought. But they're also more valuable for building relationships with readers. The blog is for SEO and discoverability. The newsletter is for the people who actually want to follow along consistently.
Thank You for Subscribing
If you're a newsletter subscriber - thank you. Seriously. You letting me show up in your inbox once a month means more than you probably realize. It's a vote of confidence that what I'm writing is worth your time. Don't take that lightly.
If you're not subscribed yet - here's the link. I promise not to spam you. First Tuesday of every month. That's it.
What I've Learned About Creating Content
Six months of management plus consistent blogging taught me some things:
1. The Messy Middle Resonates
People don't need another expert with all the answers. They need someone willing to share what they're learning in real-time, mistakes included.
My most popular posts aren't "Here's how to do this perfectly." They're "Here's what I tried, what worked, what didn't, and what I'm still figuring out."
2. Hybrid Technical/Management Content Is the Sweet Spot
Pure technical content helps people solve immediate problems. Pure management content helps with career and leadership development. But the intersection - where technical decisions meet management realities - that's where people struggle most and where I can add the most value.
Technical Debt, Cloud Migration Decisions, AI Tools Evaluation, and Budgeting - these all sit at that intersection. They're about making technical decisions within organizational constraints, which is the reality of being a technical manager.
3. Specificity Beats Abstraction
"Here's the exact conversation I had" beats "Here are some tips for conversations" every time. Real examples. Actual numbers. Specific scenarios. That's what people remember and apply.
4. SEO Matters, But Authenticity Matters More
I optimize for search. I think about keywords, internal links, and structure. But if I start writing for algorithms instead of humans, the content suffers.
The posts that perform best in the long term are the ones where I forgot about SEO and just wrote what I actually wanted to say.
5. Consistency Compounds
Weekly publishing for months creates momentum. Each post builds on the last. Internal links connect topics. Returning readers see growth over time. It compounds.
But consistency is hard. There were weeks I didn't want to write. Weeks I didn't think I had anything valuable to say. I published anyway. Not every post is great, but showing up matters.
The Support That Made This Possible
I don't write in a vacuum. A bunch of people made this year possible:
My Spouse
Who tolerates me disappearing into writing on weekends, who listens to me process blog ideas over dinner. Who believes this side project is worth the time, even when I'm not sure. Thank you for the support and patience.
My Kids
They’re too young to really know what the Internet is, let alone a blog (although my 7-year-old really likes her Amazon Fire Tablet) but they inspire me to be better and keep pushing me outside my comfort zone to try new things.
My Team
The network engineers I now manage. You all have been incredibly patient with my learning curve as a manager. You've given me honest feedback. You've trusted me with your careers and concerns. You've made me a better manager by being good people doing good work. This blog exists partly because I'm trying to be the manager you deserve.
My Manager
Who took a chance on “an outsider” with no previous management experience on paper. Who's been patient with my questions. Who's advocated for my team and I. Who's modeled what good management looks like, even when I didn't realize I was learning from it. Thank you.
My Readers
Every person who's read a post, left a comment, shared on LinkedIn, or sent a message saying something resonated - you're why I keep writing. Knowing this content helps people navigate similar challenges, makes the effort worthwhile.
My Newsletter Subscribers
You're the core community. Thank you for trusting me with your inbox space. For reading consistently. For engaging with the content. For sharing your own experiences. You make this feel like a conversation, not a monologue.
The LinkedIn Community
The network engineers and managers who engage with my posts, share their perspectives, challenge my thinking, and add value to the discussion. You've expanded my thinking and made me reconsider positions I thought were settled. That's valuable.
The People Who Inspired Me
The bloggers and content creators who came before. The network engineers writing honestly about technical challenges. The managers sharing leadership lessons. The people willing to admit they don't have all the answers. You showed me this was possible.
What's Coming in 2026
I'm not making grandiose promises about what next year will bring. But here's what I'm thinking about:
More "Both Sides of the Desk" Content
This series resonated. I want to continue exploring topics from both the engineer and manager perspectives. Topics I'm considering:
Career progression and promotions
Remote work and hybrid teams
Managing (and being managed through) organizational change
The relationship between engineers and their managers
Deeper Technical-Management Integration
More content that sits at that intersection. How do you make technical decisions within budget constraints? How do you evaluate new technologies from a manager's perspective? How do you balance innovation with stability?
More Real Examples and Less Theory
I want to share more actual conversations, specific scenarios, real numbers, and concrete examples. Less "here's how you should think about this" and more "here's what actually happened and what I learned."
Growing the Newsletter
The newsletter is working. I want to make it more valuable - maybe adding exclusive content that doesn't appear on the blog, Q&A sections, or deeper dives on topics that don't fit the blog format.
Potential Guest Contributors
I'm one person with one perspective. I'd love to feature other network engineers and managers sharing their experiences. If you're interested, reach out.
Maybe a Podcast?
I co-hosted "Breaking Down the Bytes" podcast a few years back, but I've been thinking about a management-focused show. Conversations with other technical managers about what actually works. Not sure on this one yet, but it's swimming around in my head.
Better Community Building
I want to find ways to connect readers, not just with me. Maybe a Slack community? LinkedIn group? Still figuring out the right approach, but I want to facilitate more peer-to-peer connections.
The Bottom Line: Thank You
2025 was wild. Unexpected. Challenging. Rewarding. Frustrating. Growing.
I became a manager and discovered it's harder than I thought but also more meaningful than I expected.
I kept blogging and learned that sharing the messy process resonates more than polished advice.
I launched a newsletter and found a community of people navigating similar challenges.
I'm not an expert. I'm just someone willing to share what I'm learning in real-time, mistakes and all.
And apparently, that's what people needed.
So thank you:
Thank you for reading. For subscribing. For commenting. For sharing. For engaging. For trusting me with your time and attention.
Thank you for being patient with my learning curve as a manager and as a content creator.
Thank you for the messages saying a post helped you navigate a difficult conversation or gave you language for something you were experiencing.
Thank you for being part of this community, whatever form it takes.
Here's to 2026:
More learning. More writing. More honest conversations about the realities of technical management.
More content that hopefully helps you navigate your own career transitions, management challenges, and technical decisions.
More growth - for me, for the blog, for the newsletter, and hopefully for you too.
I don't know exactly where this is going. But I'm excited to figure it out with you.
Let's make 2026 even better.
Whether you're an engineer considering management, a new manager figuring it out, or a seasoned leader still learning - there's a place for you here.
Welcome to Layer8Packet. Welcome to the journey.
Let's keep growing together.
Join the Community
📧 Newsletter: Get monthly updates, management insights, and blog recaps delivered the first Tuesday of every month. Subscribe here
💼 LinkedIn: Connect with me for daily insights, discussions, and updates. That's where the real conversations happen.
📝 Blog: New posts every week covering network engineering, technical management, and career development.
What was your biggest lesson from 2025? What are you working on in 2026? Drop a comment or connect with me on LinkedIn - I'd love to hear your story.
Here's to growth, learning, and figuring it out together.
See you in 2026. 🚀