2021 in Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Published: 2021-12-30 16:30:44

Uh yeah, 2021 is indeed a wonderful year.

For me, the tradition of publishing annual reviews began last year ([2020](https://blog.idrisolubisi.com/2020-year-in-review) in review). I'm also glad for the opportunity to write another review this year.


I'll start with a list of things I expected to get done but didn't.

> Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. — Henry Ford


## The Bad and Ugly

This list contains some things I hoped to achieve or failed to do or some rejections in 2021. 🥲

- Got about 150+ rejections, and some didn't even respond
- a San Francisco based Company rejected me after the hack week test, which was meant to be the final step to get on board as a full-time software engineer
- Got introduced to a Startup, became the CTO and was betrayed after it was silently acquired(a story for another day)
- I wanted to engage in more speaking opportunities than writing, but I failed; I hope to do more in 2022
- I was depressed at some point but thanked God I found my love(Technical writing)
- Applied to speak at several events but was rejected for some reasons I don't understand 🥲


## The Good

### Growth

- I got a new job as a Backend Engineer with a startup in the US. 

- I Started Building several solutions for GT Bank and Contributed / Co-founded some projects, both paid and unpaid.

- Finally, i bought a new Macbook 2018 15' (16gb, 512 SSD, corei7, 4gb dedicated).

- Got several calls and referrals on Backend Engineering Role.

- One of my favourite projects that I actively/currently contribute to went live [FundmyLaptop](https://fundmylaptop.com).

- Another Big WIN, I was Nominated as a GitHub Star.
[Announced here](https://twitter.com/olanetsoft/status/1431212394894827522?s=20)

- I Became [AngelHack](https://angelhack.com/) Country Ambassador, a San Francisco based global hackathon Organization

- Became [Section.io](https://www.section.io/engineering-education) spotlight member with over 66k+ views on the [articles published](https://www.section.io/engineering-education/authors/idris-olubisi/)

- Creator Spotlight interviewed by Taelfeed, [check here](https://tealfeed.com/creators-spotlight-write-enjoy-write-currently-iy4gu)

- Got five interview requests in the last quarter of the year on a Developer Advocate / Technical writing / Full-stack JavaScript Engineer Role. (More info later)

- I was Promoted at my current workplace to a Backend Lead ( Got Fresh news too✌️)

- Won 2 awards (Top 10 Writer 2021 and Top Reader 2021) on @hashnode with over 50k active members


### Content Creation 

- Made my first million (NGN) from content creation

- Wrote over 69+ articles this year, including paid articles

- I became a FreecodeCamp author, and I wrote solid technical content [Check Here](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/idris/). Big thanks to the FreecodeCamp Editorial team for making the process seamless

- I started writing for [Section Engineering](https://www.section.io/engineering-education/authors/idris-olubisi/) I was paid in $$(Big Win 😌)

- I started writing more articles on my [blog](https://blog.idrisolubisi.com/)

- I became an Author at [HackMamba](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hackmamba-io/mycompany/), and I was also part of their editorial team during the Content Creation Hackathon sponsored by Auth0 and Cloudinary.

- I was invited to join [Showwcase](https://profile.idrisolubisi.com/) founding creator.

- I did live coding building a NodeJs app using HarperDB as the database. 
[Link to Video](https://youtu.be/13YHkG7F6oQ?t=501)

- I became a contributing Author at Aviyel, Did a live coding demo and finally, I got a beautiful swag box from Aviyel.
[Link to Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4YJzPlRQ-8).

- Wrote an article on [dev to](https://dev.to/olanetsoft) that got 40k+ views within 48hrs  and topped the trending list on day 5.

- Got an invite to write a paid Content ($$ of course) from 3 different companies worldwide within a week.

- Participated in the [Auth0 and Cloudinary hackathon](https://content.hackmamba.io/content-hackathon)

- I accepted an invitation to become an author of Contentlab.io and [AppSmith](https://www.appsmith.com/blog/upload-and-manage-files-on-cloudinary-with-the-filepicker-widget)

- Hit 160k+ views on [dev.to](https://dev.to/olanetsoft) 🥳🥳🥳

- I was Featured on global [Teach Blogs](https://tech-blogs.dev/) created by @[Marko Denic](@denic)


### Community Engagement

- I got accepted as Open Source Africa Hero in Yaba, Lagos. (One of the things I love to do more in 2022)

- Became a mentor in the Nodejs track at DSC X SCA OAU Mentorship Program.

- After mentoring for months, I Became the backend development channel lead @ [SheCodeAfrica](https://shecodeafrica.org/).

- Volunteered at the Unstack 3.0 tech event/workshop on the 6th of November 2021

[All the Experience captured here](https://medium.com/@franklinoladipo/unstack-africa-conference-3-0-everything-you-need-to-know-d4decc6ba49)

- Volunteered at the GDG DevFest in Lagos on the 3rd of December, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqLF5Idmd1Y


### Speaking Engagement

- I spoke at the Frontstack.io event. Super excited about this because it was my first speaking event for the year and my second speaking engagement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzyoqRNVzsI&t=2318s

- Another Speaking Engagement at Solo learn: About Burnout(On telegram)

- Invited to speak on "Job Opportunities for Junior Developers" organised/coordinated  by @[Ayodele Samuel Adebayo](@unclebigbay) and [W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6_2ozQilE&t=2971s


### Gifts

- Received my first international gift(swags) from daily.dev
- Received another beautiful SWAG box from [Aviyel](https://aviyel.com/)

And lots more.



> I created a link to view all my contents, both paid and unpaid; check it out 👇

https://linktr.ee/olanetsoft


## Conclusion

Thank you for going through this content. We will go harder in the year 2022. ✌️


I'd love to connect with you at [Twitter](https://twitter.com/olanetsoft) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/olubisi-idris-ayinde-05727b17a/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/Olanetsoft) | [Portfolio](https://idrisolubisi.com/)

See you in my next blog article. Take care!!!