July 1, 2026

Last April, I landed a full-time remote dev job. I had worked really hard to get it, and when the offer came through it felt like things were finally falling into place. I was making over 2m a month and for the first time I felt like I had some real stability. I started planning long term. I thought I could breathe for a while and build my life from there.

Then, exactly a year later this April, I got let go.

The team and I built the MVP, shipped the platform, and the company decided they could not justify keeping four developers on payroll for a completed product. They kept the lead dev for maintenance and cut the rest of us. It was not personal and it was not about the quality of my work, but that did not make it easier. I had poured a full year into that role and it ended the moment the product was done.

The savings I thought would carry me burned through way faster than I expected. I went from comfortable to barely holding on in what felt like no time.

So I went back to work. I went back to the fundamentals. Distributed systems, DSA, self-contained projects I could build and write about, anything I felt I was lacking in. Solidifying foundations. The stuff that does not look flashy but holds real systems together. Things I had let get rusty while I was comfortable. Because that is the honest part. When things were going well, I got complacent. I stopped pushing myself the way I used to. Funny how I needed a reality check for that.

I have been applying for jobs too. A lot of them. Some days it feels desperate and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But I keep sending applications and I keep writing code between them. The frustrating part is that it is not always about skill. I have had four separate situations where companies got back to me saying I was a good fit, only to follow up with the fact that they could not hire from Nigeria, or that they would prioritize candidates from their country or within Europe first before considering anyone overseas. The job market is rough right now on its own, and being in a region that companies treat as an afterthought makes it harder. But it is what it is. I can only control what I put out there and keep getting better.

Today is July 1st. The second half of 2026 starts now. The past year was rough but it was not wasted. I have more clarity now than I did when things were easy. I know what kind of engineer I want to be, and I am putting in the work to get there.

This is a temporary setback.

Selah