My Year in Review 2020

Wow! What a year! 😔

Almost everyone I have met says that phrase:

I am not exempted, I also said it too but in a positive way because this year is my most productive year and also my most achievable year.

I call this year my Best and Worst Year Ever!

As stated in my 2019 reviews, one great skill you can achieve is the ability to track your process, to measure your success and failures along your way of executing and actualizing your career plan. As usual, in this article, I’m going to show you my last year's resolution and what I have achieved so far and/or what I couldn’t achieve.

Appreciation

First thing first, I want to appreciate God for keeping me, my family, and my friends safe during the Covid-19/Pandemic times.

Also during the #ENDSARS protest nationwide.

Again, so many people lost their jobs family members, and properties. I want to appreciate the management and staff of Gerocare where I worked before for not dropping any staff during those hard times.

As you might have noticed, this year has been my most successful year of all, I will start by listing my last resolution to what I achieve and what didn’t, I will move further to plans for 2021.

MY 2019 RESOLUTION

In 2019, I had a couple of things I wanted to learn and achieve, and they are listed below.

Things I wanted to learn

Things I want to learn were split into quarters like below:

1. Blockchain Development => First Quarter

I achieved this goal somehow because I enrolled in a couple of Blockchain training programs such as 500nigerian4ETH where I learned a lot about blockchain development using tools such as Gnacche, Truffle, Solidity, etc

2. DevOps => Second Quarter

I also achieved this goal, I got accepted into Google Africa Developer Scholarship(GADS) for the Cloud Track where I learned uncountable lessons on Cloud engineering using GCP, It also broadens my horizon on DevOps and positions me to be a better DevOps engineer.

Though I was not made it to the final stage of gaining a certificate, the lessons are superb, and expect more articles from me in this area.

3. More on Front End Engineering => Third Quarter

I also achieved this goal, in 2019, I started learning Vuejs as a backend developer, in 2020, I have expanded my expertise in Vuejs even to Nuxtjs, I all my projects are built with Vue.js and Nuxt.js, even in my current company I work daily with Vue.js.

I have also built a couple of packages in Vue.js/Nuxt.js, I have also written more the 10 articles on Vuejs/Nuxtjs this year.

Just to add, my CSS skill is improved and my general frontend skill is also improved as a core Backend Developer.

Though I haven’t tried out REACT or ANGULAR before in my life, looking forward to that challenge come 2021.

4. More on Software Engineering => Last Quarter

Last but not least in my learning list, I have improved greatly in this aspect as it is my main career, I have added more Node.js skills and more advanced PHP/Laravel tips and tricks.

I now write more clean and readable codes, more TDD is written, and more design patterns, engineering principles used.

I have also added more DevOps skills to my belt and now clearly understands Pipelines, CI/CD, Github Actions, Jenkins, more DevOp specific skills, cloud engineering, AWS, GCP, etc.

Intended Engagements in 2020:

1. More participation in Mentorship programs

I won’t say this is a major achievement because I didn’t get any mentorship opportunity as of last year ( though I didn’t search for it ) maybe it because of the Covid-19 and remote activities that bump up this year.

However, I have given more assistance to many people personally, through WhatsApp groups, DMs, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. I have assisted a lot through their coding and writing challenges.

2. More Speaking engagements

This year, I only spoke at 2 events:

I moderated the Gnome Africa virtual event, this was my first virtual event that I am moderating aside from my normal YouTube Weekly Live Stream for Backend Developers.

I was also selected as Techrity Evangelist this year too. Thanks to Owanate Amachree

3. More technical Writing

This is the most achieved activities this year.

This year, I turned my free technical writing skills into a profitable one that paid me more than 60% of my yearly income in 2020.

Take a look at this article to give you a clear idea of one part of my Technical Writing Income stream.

How I made $6,550 As a Freelance Writer.

This year also, I finally started a stable blog called MASTERINGBACKEND where I write and teach users everything relating to Backend Development and Careers opportunities within the industry and scaled it as seen below within 3-4 months.

The overviews above show that within 3–4 months I started masteringbackend, I have recorded a total of 1,592 clicks from Google Search only.

And AHrefs analysis shows that I have ranked for 78 Organic Keywords and 159 BackLinks in Ahrefs and 1,139 External Links in Google Console, All these with 3–4 months.

This is a great achievement for me because in 2019 I couldn’t believe it even if I was prophesied to.

I am proud to say that every 30 minutes, I have at least 5 people reading my blog all over the world according to my Google Analytics.

In my Freelance Writing career, I have written for more than 6 different paying companies.

Looking forward to increasing these numbers in 2021.

4. My Job

This year, I had significant success and breakthroughs because this year marks the beginning of an International Remote Software Engineering position and I am proud to say that I earn in dollars too.

Consult my LinkedIn to learn more about my journey.

5. YouTube video production

I won’t say I failed in this aspect because I deliberately left it to grow my blog and when I will return, it will be fire for fire with fresh new content every week and top Backend Developers in the industry grazing us with knowledge.

Subscribe now and anticipate.

6. Multimega Technologies

This year, I wanted to bring this company to the limelight, but currently, it’s still virtual and we keep building products to push forward. Hopefully, by next year we will be announcing them.

You can follow on Facebook while you anticipate.

7. Social Media Engagement.

My social media engagement was a success, I helped and connected with lots of people through my social media, I share helpful content and tips almost every day.

Twitter:

I grew my Twitter from around 500 followers last year to 1,413 followers this year. Hoping to get to more than 6k next year.

If you’re reading this, you should be Follow me now: https://twitter.com/kaperskyguru (I follow back immediately).

LinkedIn:

This is my most active social business media, less talk, take a look at my SSI (Social Selling Index) currently.

Currently at the top 2% and 3% respectively.

Let’s connect immediately.

Financial Goals:

I had none last year, but I made a lot more than I asked for in a particular year.

I made enough to pay for my parent’s rents, pay for my own house rents, and furnished it the way I can, bought a Macbook this year, and also purchased a piece of land too.

My next year's financial goal is almost ready, Follow me on Medium to never miss a thing.

Lifestyle Goals

I didn’t set any lifestyle goals or relationship goals last year, but one thing I can remember was that I prayed in the church to fell in love for the first time in my life (as a programmer).

And guess what, it happened, I fell in love with this Beautiful Damsel (don’t worry, I will show you next year )

I also connected with lots of friends, but these ones are very close to me Anumadu Moses, Owanate Amachree, and Kingsley Ihemere, and thousands I can’t mention names because of space.

My Best Moments

A lot more in my Google Photos but you can’t see it SORRY.

Next Year Plan

Just a tip of my next year plan:

1. Study more on Backend Engineerings with either Node.js or Golang and DevOp Engineerings to become a thought leader in the industry.
2. Try out REACT for the first time.
3. Improve more on Content Creation and Technical Writing (look at documentation creation).
4. Generate more than $2,000 monthly from Technical Writing aside from my 9–5 job.
5. Get a Job Abroad and Relocate.
6. Go out and connect with more people
7. Love more.

That’s all from me and thanks for reading.