I started 2022 with a lot of uncertainties. I had just completed Microverse, a fast-paced peer-to-peer software engineering program/school, where I went through some very demanding but worthwhile processes and I was applying to quite a several jobs to put my newly acquired skills to work - also to get the moolah, lol. Applied on platforms like LinkedIn and other job boards. I aced Turing and RemoteBase's technical tests and got to the interview phase with RemoteBase but I didn't get the job (just like I didn't get a couple of other ones too).
PS: I used a platform called TotalJobs (a UK job board) and my advice to you? IT'S NOT WORTH IT!! They almost drove me mad 😅. I got anxious. Sometimes, they send me four notifications in a day containing about 25 jobs each that I'm not even sure are real jobs. Also, I wasn't even getting responses from the jobs I applied to through the platform.
If you're job hunting, use pramp to schedule and practice mock interviews. Also, use huntr to track your job applications as you probably have a lot of them.
DEPRESSION v1? I GUESS
At some point at the beginning of the year, I battled depression and anxiety. It was crazy. One day, I called my Fiancee over the phone and I cried (something she had never seen me do before 😄). I needed a win. A solid win. I poured out a lot of what has been holding me back and we talked it over. We had the back and forth over the next couple of weeks and I gradually felt better. One thing was certain from that conversation, I knew I have a woman who's got my back no matter what. It spurred me to push on. Apparently, there comes a time in all of our lives when we can't go through life alone.
GETTING A NEW JOB
I got my current job in a funny way. I was scrolling through Twitter, saw a tweet pop up on my timeline and I tagged myself (since there was no one to tag me):
Thing is, I have known this company for about four years prior. I have followed the amazing founders and know they have a collection of smart people I would love to work with. I also knew they use ruby/rails (a programming language/framework I've been learning for less than a year at Microverse) and reckon other applicants might not know that, which was why I mentioned it in the above tweet. Got a DM from the tweeter (now my engineering manager) with an engineering challenge I have to complete and send within the week. It involved writing an API endpoint with Rails and GraphQL which I have never used and has a steep learning curve. It also involved other stuff (Pure Levenshtein and Demarau-Levenshtein algorithms) I had to learn on the fly and explain why the one I used was a better use case. I dug my claws learning, did the challenge as best I could and submitted and waited for a response. Bruhhh, that wait time was excruciating 😂.
Got a call afterward inviting me for a paid 3-week trial, thankfully I scaled through and was offered a Backend engineering role. Guess who was around on the day I got the Job? My fiancee 😄! Super glad we could share that moment with my family. I accepted the job on the fly, even though I was supposed to submit the job offer to my career coach at Microverse for an appraisal (no time, lol). I knew they would have asked me to push or wait out for a better offer, but I had already fallen in love with this company. Also, the pay was good and in USD ("better than anything I've ever gotten" as I told the Microverse team 😂).
Settling In and Depression v2
For the first few months of my new job, I was overthinking a lot of things. My performances, my standing with the rest of the team etc. So much so that I spiraled and wasn't even working again. Can you believe that?! I got this job that I wanted so much and now I'm self-sabotaging? Well yeah, it does be like that. Also, we had a distributed remote team (between the UK and Nigeria), so it wasn't like I was seeing my colleagues on a day-to-day basis. In fact, up until the time of writing this article, I have only met some of them once. I got so depressed that I had to ask my career coaches in an email:
Not that I didn't know the answer to this, but I just wanted to hear this from an experienced source that I trust. As I said, I was no longer working on my tasks and the company had to assign them to someone else. Can you f**king believe that? But guess who was right by my side again?! My fiancee, who had been my emotional mentor since my Microverse days. She nudged me to request a week off work (at a time I was still on probation 😅) and it felt like a crazy thing to do. She kept on pushing that I do it so I can look after myself and re-evaluate, so I did. My 1 week's leave was granted and I sought some therapy. I resumed back to work at a time the company was going through a major product shift and needed all of us engineers to be on our A-game. If I hadn't gone on that break, I would have tanked. I came back to fix ALL broken unit tests on our core backend system and got the codebase to green (amongst several other cool stuff, like our migration sprint where we were working day and night):
The biggest takeaway from this was that I was able to go into deep parts of the codebase and understand how it works more. Shout out to TK for holding it down with me all through the year and always listening ❤️. She's probably heard more engineering jargon from me than she cares to know, haha.
AROUND AND ABOUT LAGOS
See, I hate going out! So much so that I find the flimsiest of excuses to cancel/postpone even important outings. Spending too much time alone might have done a number on me so I was pushed (by my fiancee, of course 😂) to go out more. From going to the beach at Barracuda (where I almost puked on the way) to visiting the cinema countless times, to nice hangout spots like Afefeyeye and attending a few weddings (actually puked on the way back from one of these, haha). Came to realize that the Cinema is my favorite place to go. It gives me my own little private space despite being in the midst of people. It's like going out without actually going out. While Lagos has a lot of solid places to visit, moving around Lagos itself is strenuous and not good for someone like me, lol. But I must admit that going out like that helped me refresh and recharge my mind, so I'm probably going to do more next year.
GLOSSING OVER THE REST (CUZ MI O FE F'EJO PA YIN)
Got introduced to my fiancee's family and got engaged. Now, we are getting married in a few days. It feels so surreal!
Dabbled into investment in the lower leagues, haha. Tested the waters with tiny investments via GetEquity 😅. Also joined Hoaq club and Thrive Africa Syndicate.
Met my (Nigerian-based) colleagues at the company's close-of-year party and it was worth it.
Also super grateful for my end-of-year performance review!:
NEXT STEPS
I'm thankful for all the amazing people that helped make my year worthwhile. My Dad and mum for their continuous support, encouragement and prayers. My sister, for being a solid helpmate. Through every up and down, I'm grateful to have y'all in my corner. Most importantly, I thank Allah, the almighty for every single turn that my life has taken.
For the coming year, I intend to:
Double down on career development - Started drafting a growth-focused schedule for this and will probably share it when I'm done. I believe that if I put in the kind of energy I put into upskilling at Microverse or more, then my career growth will be exponential. Of course, the ment will ment but by Allah, we'll scale through.
Altruism - I've wanted to do something truly altruistic with my technical skills, especially in the healthcare sector. I have a rough idea of what I want to build and I've discussed this with a few people. Couldn't proceed with this earlier because this year was quite a handful. But if I'm able to do this in 2023, it will easily be my most fulfilling accomplishment.
More Investments - I expect to be more audacious with my investment portfolio, both online and offline. So help me God.
GET MARRIED - you suppose understand 😄
See you on the otherside, by the grace of Allah ❤️. Cheers to 2023 and everything it brings!