New Year, new chances, and new challenges

Happy New Year to all my readers, and many many thanks for continuing to visit this nonsense of a blog and sending me questions. I was sent some great questions at the end of last year, and I know I need to get to them (and so I shall). As we step into this new year and say goodbye and good riddance to 2010, I do have a few observations, comments, and predictions:

1. 2011 is shaping up to be a decent year economically, but don't dare expect a good, solid recovery to 2007 levels. Here in Colorado, we've seen a sizeable uptick in healthcare and smaller movements in educational work, but it might be a while (six months, perhaps) before we see movement in other sectors. Real estate has to get moving again for some sectors to move forward.
2. That slooow increase in work should add some entry level jobs in architecture for interns, but some of you may benefit in unexpected ways from the downturn. Some of your cohorts have left the profession due to being laid off for too long, or due to being laid off from a profession that they've realized they really didn't like. Either way, depending on your market, you might be able to find a job more so than in 2009 and 2010.
3. Tired of the public debating who designs better museums, Frank Gehry will fight Daniel Liebskind in a no-time-limit MMA match on pay-per-view. I predict that Gehry will win by tapout.
4. Personally, I think some firms are going to lose people as the economy comes back, especially if those firms didn't treat their employees very well. (Some of you may fall into this category. If so, I say carpe diem.)
5. Some of you who are still at firms will find yourselves getting stretched a little thin when the work comes back but your firm is scared to hire more folks. While this can be frustrating and exhausting at times, use this lack of staffing as a reason to learn about more/unusual parts of a project and a firm and get those overdue IDP credits.
6. If you haven't had a performance review, now is a good time to ask for and/or schedule one. It's a good opportunity to ask for feedback on what you do well and what you could better as well as share your thoughts on what can make work easier and more productive for you and your colleagues.

I don't really make resolutions each year, but I do plan to learn how to set some limits and use my energy a little more wisely this year. What about you?