This post is about successes, goals, but most importantly, community and support. Being active on social media and in the community has helped me get to where I am today.

2022 was a pretty interesting year for me

I had just found my first job in tech 3 months before the start of the year and wasn't quite sure what to expect now. Actually, I wasn't expecting much. I thought, "This is it. I made it into the tech industry, and now I'm just doing what you're supposed to do: my job."

But someone (call it God, fate, or whatever) had other plans for me. Now was not the time to get lazy, but to start trying new things.

I didn't put so much effort into learning and improving just to stop now.

Being active in a community can take you so much further professionally than trying to do everything on your own. I wouldn't have thought it myself. But that's how it was for me, at least.

Unexpectedly, someone wrote me...

...a message on Twitter in February. His name was Eddie Jaoude, and I wondered what he wanted. He wanted to do an interview with career changers who have made it in the technology industry. Well, that sounded interesting. But I've never talked to anyone about this journey before, certainly not in English. When I looked at his profile, I noticed that he had a huge community behind him, and a huge number of followers. I was like, and he wants to interview someone like me?

I think this is where it all started.

After the interview was published, people started contacting me wanting more tips on how to get started in the tech industry. So I started writing more blog posts and have been writing 2 posts a week for over 20 weeks now.

The community keeps me going, encourages me to stay consistent, which makes it much easier when there are people who are happy and grateful for my content. And I, in turn, am grateful to them for standing behind me and notifying me when they get a job or an interview after taking some of my tips for improvement or learning something from me.

Over the summer,...

... I caught the interest of another person. She wrote me on LinkedIn, giving me tips on accessibility and introducing me to IAAP, an organization that offers exams to become an accessibility specialist.

The more time I spent with accessibility, the more I realized how good I was getting at the subject. I rarely feel confident about topics, but this one has captured my heart. I've been creating a lot of content about accessibility, and after a few weeks I even applied for my first online conference: Frontend Foxes Day in September.

Lo and behold, my application was accepted and I gave a 30-minute talk on accessibility. I can't remember a time when I was as proud 🥹 as I was in 2022.

It did not end there.

The tech community is awesome. During Hacktoberfest, not only did I participate in great accessibility issues or great communities like EddieHub or AccessibleForAll, but I also started my own organization, YurisCodingClub, to introduce CodeNewbies to technology, open source, and accessibility.

And around Christmas, I also launched my own YouTube channel for my new organization Accessibility First, where I share my very first video, a Thank You video for my dear followers who have helped me get to where I am now.

I'm grateful...

... for what the community has done for me this year 💟. And most of all, I'm thankful for myself, because at the end of the day, it was me who did the hard work and didn't give up. But this is not the point where I stop. This is just the beginning. I have a feeling that 2023 will be even more amazing. Stay tuned.

My achievements 🏆 this year at a glance

(in chronological order)

• Interview Eddie From Poker Dealer to Coder

• Q&A Who is Responsible for Accessibility

• Google UX Design Certificate

• CPACC Certificate

• First Talk at Frontend Foxes Day about Myths & Misconception about Accessibility

• Organization YurisCodingClub founded

• Organization Accessibility First founded

• 1st time Hacktoberfest (Maintainer, Participant)

• 99 articles written at dev.to

• Winner of Hashnode's Writeathon

• Talk at The Monthly Dev about Developer Soft Skills

See you next year 🎆!

Thanks for your reading and time. I really appreciate it!