My Year in Retrospect - Dev Retro 2022

2022 has been an illustrious year for me, I've had to learn, re-learn and unlearn. So, in this article I'm going to highlight the different events that shaped my year, not excluding the highs and the lows.

I can't promise it's not going to be a long read but I hope it inspires one or two people to keep going.

The Challenges

  • I planned on writing a 2021 end-of-year review, but I eventually couldn't get myself to do it, mostly because I was still fighting imposter syndrome, you see everyone experiences it.

  • I've always been one to always show up and put in the effort, my resolution at the beginning of the year was to take technical writing very seriously but I couldn't get myself to write more than two articles this year because I was afraid I couldn't get to do it perfectly, little did I know that there's no such a thing as being perfect.

  • Another challenge I particularly faced this year was the issue of taking up many jobs, I had to battle the issue of stress, especially when trying to meet deadlines. Some I did meet, some I didn't. In this particular concept, I'll advise that it's okay to outsource jobs to someone else if you feel you're too occupied to handle it. Trust me, your health is very important.

  • You see consistency is not an easy feat to hack. In so many instances this year, I had to deal with the issue of trying to be consistent in either completing a course, a project or in reading a book. Looking forward to improving in this particular aspect come 2023.

The Wins

  • At the start of the year, someone reached out to me on Linkedin, a German, and said he's been seeing my posts on blockchain topics, and he has this project that he'll want me to partake in. I mean I didn't know how to feel because then I was only sharing what I was learning and to be recognized by someone especially internationally, gave me this good feeling of accomplishment. Although I couldn't continue with the project, mostly because I didn't have advanced knowledge of the Blockchain ecosystem at the time.

  • Later in the middle of the year, I was going to be approached by another individual still on Linkedin to partake in building a software product, this was a paid gig and still currently in the works. I also onboarded one of the best teams that I'm currently working with, so look out for the magic we have cooking.

  • After completing my internship earlier this year, say around July, I was able to bag a Full-time role as a Software Developer in a startup in Port-Harcourt. This was the first time I am going to be earning as a Software Developer. (I was referred for this job by a very good friend, so I'll point out the importance of networking in a later part of this article).

  • At around the first week of September, I secured my second Full-time role as a Software Developer, I even tweeted about it.

This was to be the highest-paid role I was to receive as a Software Developer since I started my Tech journey and it was a job I was referred to again, (still on the importance of networking). The interview process was smooth and to top it all, it was fully remote.

Wrapping Up

  • One of the best parts of the year for me was the friends I came to make on Twitter and AltSchool, we even started a hashtag #ShowMeYourWakatime to keep us accountable by sharing our code metrics as measured by a visual studio code plugin known as Wakatime. Being surrounded by amazing friends and having a good team working with really spurred me to keep going.

  • I can't also overemphasize the immense advantage of networking and joining a community. I had a couple of rejections over the year, but most of the gigs and roles I secured were mostly ones I was referred to and as a result of increasing my social media presence.

  • Being a software developer can be very very tasking and you most times find yourself in that position questioning if this path is actually for you. Trust me, it is for you, don't let the noise from seeing people who are doing better on social media get to you. I always leave by these two words Life-long Learning. Software development is a journey and not a destination, you never stop learning.

Conclusion

2022 is a year I won't forget so easily because I had to learn a lot, making a couple of mistakes along the way and whenever I come back to read this article, I'll be reminded of how much I've grown.

2023 will be a year I'll set out to conquer my fear of technical writing, setting out to hit the 50 articles mark. Also looking to reading a lot, and resuming my open-source journey.

I'm not always a fan of making resolutions, but I've always been someone who believes in the result of hard work and putting immense effort into getting something done. I'm very grateful for some folks, I call them my Sensei; I've always watched them and read their tweets, and articles and watched their videos to get the needed motivation to reassure me that no effort comes unrewarded.

My advice for anyone reading this article, forgive yourself of your mistakes, dust your back and carry on. Your major win is closer than you think.

Cheers to writing more articles come 2023. Let's go get the Life we've always wanted. WAGMI


Please feel free to connect with me on Twitter, Linkedin, and GitHub.