Looking Back On 2021 - A Year In Review
Tags: career, yearinreview, 2021
Published: 2021-12-31 16:15:36

A life they say is full of sweet and bitter moments and I'm grateful my sweet moments outweigh the bitter ones even though the pandemic made things a lot more difficult.

I started this year thinking of transitioning from web development into cloud engineering and although it has not been a bed of roses, I'm really  glad I took the leap. Thanks to my friends and the communities I joined  that make the journey worthwhile. Y'all are the best!

##The Good
- Got selected to participate in SheCodeAfrica (SCA) Cloud School.
![sca](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147829646-29e9849b-5b53-4f59-85ea-8bcd9981a845.png)

- Got featured in [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/open-source-booming-in-nigeria-fintech-startups-paystack-nigeria-2021-1?r=US&IR=T) about the growth of open source in Nigeria.
- Got serious with writing technical articles. My articles have gotten more than 20,000 views on Dev🎉🎉. Thanks to all my readers!
![dashboard](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147829842-22eba9ec-1d1d-4f7d-8f5d-620750b6b34c.png)

- Awarded the **top 7 author of the week** on Dev.
- Awarded the **top Node author of the week** on Dev.
- Got a full-time role as a Software Engineer.
- Got three technical writing gigs from international companies. Oh my my!🤩
- Volunteered and got selected for SCA cloud school Person of Contact.
- Interviewed with a few FAANG(MANGA, now :)) companies. I'm going to write about this another time.
- Volunteered and got selected for SCA summer Code Camp Person of Contact (POC).
- Got enrolled into the Udacity Cloud DevOps Nanodegree through an IA scholarship.
![Ire scholarship](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147829934-dbfbd723-d414-45b1-aa32-e7f277b2a571.png)

- Received good reviews on my articles (one of the best wins)💃.
![review](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147830062-7f40da3d-a78d-4f13-9d36-0807fd9a6903.png)

![review2](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147830393-e45445d3-79b9-4f22-bb8c-b05bfe008b70.png)

- Aced two out of three DevOps interviews. Got an offer from one of them🔥.
- Left a toxic workplace.
- Completed my [National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Service_Corps).
- Improved my mental health.
- Passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam🎉.
- Got a lot of swags from different companies (the sweetest).
- Got selected as a Runner-up for the 2021 GitHub actions hackathon on Dev🔥🔥.
![hackathon](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147829961-5b06d7a6-57f1-4fa5-885e-628c700733a1.png)

- Successfully transitioned from web development to cloud engineering.
- Made new and amazing friends.

##The Bad
- Burnout. I was doing a lot of things together, a full time role with two writing gigs and a Udacity course were just too much for me to handle. I had to drop the writing gigs at some point.
- Got a rejection from one of the  two DevOps interviews I thought I aced.
![zcash](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/33374159/147830015-fcee416b-6cef-453a-adac-7b20b6b7f706.png)

- Turned down the opportunity to speak at two events  due to imposter syndrome and lack of preparation time. I hope to do more public speaking next year.
- My social life was a mess and I hope to fix it next year.

In summary, I’m happy for my growth, even with the obstacles and challenges. I hope things get much better next year.

Thank you for reading and wishing you all the very best in 2022!