# 2021 in Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 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. β€” Henry Ford Quote from @[Prosper Otemuyiwa's](@unicodeveloper) post ## The Bad and Ugly This list contains some things I hoped to achieve or failed to do or some rejections in 2021. πŸ₯² - 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 πŸ₯² ## 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. %[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 $$(Big Win 😌) - I started writing more articles on my [blog](https://blog.idrisolubisi.com/) - I became an Author at [HackMamba](https://www.linkedin.com/company/hackmamba-io/mycompany/), and I was also part of their editorial team during the Content Creation Hackathon sponsored by Auth0 and Cloudinary. - I was invited to join [Showwcase](https://profile.idrisolubisi.com/) founding creator. - I did live coding building a NodeJs app using HarperDB as the database. %[https://youtu.be/13YHkG7F6oQ?t=501] - I became a contributing Author at Aviyel, Did a live coding demo and finally, I got a beautiful swag box from Aviyel. %[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4YJzPlRQ-8] - Wrote an article on [dev to](https://dev.to/olanetsoft) that got 40k+ views within 48hrs and topped the trending list on day 5. - Got an invite to write a paid Content ($$ 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) πŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸ₯³ - I was Featured on global [Tech 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 %[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 πŸ‘‡ %[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!!!