Professionally, it was a year of growth. Personally, it was one of the most intense years of my life. And none of what follows would have been possible without the support, trust, and patience of the people around me, starting at home with my wife.
The biggest change came early in the year: our second child was born. Navigating work, travel, and learning how to be a family of four put everything else into perspective very quickly.
What 2025 Looked Like in Practice
A lot happened this year, but very little of it happened in isolation.
I had the chance to speak at a Security Day at one of the largest pharma companies (basically I had my first booking). I traveled multiple times across continents, and in many cases took my family with me, including a six-month-old. That was only possible because we made these decisions together.
We combined work and travel as family and spent time in Barcelona, later did a two-week road trip around Austin, TX where I spoke together with Rico at LASCON, and I spoke at OWASP AppSec Days Singapore (this one by my own without conference or employer sponsorship). From there, we continued traveling as a family through Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. None of this would have worked without flexibility from my team at Sage and an incredible amount of support at home.
Along the way during 2025:
- I delivered a 90-minute seminar on Ethical Hacking at my former university – Aalen University.
- I was featured twice on Germanyâs largest smart home YouTube channel for projects that originally started as late-night experiments which gained +300k views and much feedback on my GitHub gists.
- I delivered my first conference training at NDC, later in August at BSidesLV and DEF CON. This training initially existed as an internal session for our Sage Security Summit and grew through feedback, discussions, and iterations with participants.
- Running workshops and trainings at conferences such as DEF CON was a big milestone.
- I continued running the training at a regional OWASP chapter and later at the German OWASP Day in DĂźsseldorf.
- I stayed active on my blog and continued sharing what I was learning, not just what worked but also what didnât.
- I was lucky to collaborate on several talks (thanks Rico – it was so fun!), which reminded me how much better ideas become when you build them together.
- I was humbled to see conference rooms fill with people standing in the back, because the topics resonated.
Throughout all of this, I stayed fully committed to my role at Sage. The space to grow, experiment, and speak openly comes from working with people who trust each other. And I am very thankful for the challenges and opportunities I am able to solve during my work at Sage – elsewhere I would have nothing to speak about ;-).
Parental Leave, Travel, and Re-Learning Priorities
I took two months of parental leave this year.
We didnât slow down. We travelled. Parenting didnât stop, it just happened in different countries, time zones, and hotel rooms. It wasnât always easy, but it was grounding. It reminded me that work is something I care deeply about, but itâs not what everything else should orbit around.
At a networking reception on the Barcelona beach, I had my two-year-old with me. While I was having conversations with co-workers and friends, she was playing in the sand just a few metres away. No one minded. No raised eyebrows. No awkward comments. Just a quiet understanding that life and work donât have to be strictly separated.
Measuring Impact Beyond Stages and Numbers
One of the most meaningful moments of the year didnât happen on stage.
During one training, a participant asked if there was a book covering this material. There isnât one yet, mainly because the topics are still very new, and they suggested I should write one. Another encouraged me to expand the content into further, longer-form trainings. Which I am now working on.
That feedback meant more than any metric. It meant something I built helped someone think differently about their work. That it connected to real challenges they were facing.
Looking Ahead to 2026
While 2025 felt fast and intense, Iâm already shifting my focus.
I found a great PhD supervisor Sebastian Roth and started working on my first research project. I reworked my personal sites, including about.javan.de, to better reflect what I actually do and care about. I created two new training concepts, the kind I wish had existed when I was early in my AppSec career.
Iâve started submitting those trainings to conferences. Weâll see what happens.
2025 set a very high bar. Not because everything was perfect, but because it showed me whatâs possible when youâre supported, challenged, and surrounded by people who care.
Whatever comes next, I hope itâs built with the same mindset: learning together, sharing credit, and staying grounded in the people that make the work meaningful.