Let’s Go Back To 2021 One Last Time!(My 2021 Year In Review)

I was on twitter recently just before 2021 ended and I came across a brilliant idea for a blog. A review of how my 2021 was! Although I had already come across this idea, it was more of how people’s lives were in general and, in pictures! I don’t take much pictures so that was already out of the picture haha. I’m sure it will also play a huge role in motivating me for this year and others when I look back. So here’s my review of 2021, how it was for my tech career and what I was able to accomplish, what I learnt and some down times here and there. The idea of this blog came on the last day of 2021, this is why you are reading it in 2022 lol. But a little excuse is that, my year hasn’t officially started since I also happen to have a birthday before mid-January 😂. So, if you’re reading it before mid-January, that’s a good sign that this year I will be productive 😊

A little Background

I seriously started my cybersecurity journey around mid-2020. That’s when I was completing many courses in one week<I still look back and thank myself for that>. I took many courses on a lot of things to build my foundation both in tech and cybersecurity. I had finally settled and gotten the motivation I needed to pursue my passion. By January 2021, I had done a lot of theoretical work. However, I still had some fear that I wasn’t good enough (skilled enough) to jump into the practical bit of things. So, for the better part of 2021, I struggled with a feeling of inadequacy. Although I had started well in 2020, I didn’t know how to continue with the tech journey. I sought help indirectly and everyone pointed me in the same direction, to continue learning, re-learning and unlearning.

Around January

In January, I really wanted a hardcore practical ethical hacking course e.g. (the Cyber Mentor’s one). Some of the similar ones I came across were ones from Udemy. It is great to mention that I have never finished them even as I am writing this, I’m even smiling (it’s never that serious😒😒well it is). So, I would start the courses but when it came to the ‘serious’ parts, I would procrastinate and eventually throw the whole course away. I however knew I needed to move past the ‘cybersecurity fundamentals’ theoretical courses. I should also mention that I was now getting busy with school stuff and looking for some jobs to keep me going. In 2020, I was home and didn’t have to worry about any bills (not that I pay much).

We’re now in March

Quick forward to around March and I got a part time job that was cybersecurity related. This was much unexpected. I could now do something that I am passionate about and earn from it. So, in 2020, I had applied to be a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador but by 2021 I had already forgotten about this. From this point onwards, I will stop quoting the month since I am too lazy to go back to my emails and LinkedIn is only giving me very reliable information like ’11 months ago’. Back to where we were. I received an email from Microsoft that I had been accepted to their #MLSA program. Honestly, I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know much about this ambassador thing. However, I am now grateful that I got accepted. Few months later, I unlocked the ‘Alpha’ milestone.

Sorry, your application wasn’t successful

In this particular month, ‘8 months ago’ as per LinkedIn, I decided to actively start blogging and working on the #shikothetechgirl blog. We made the move from WordPress to Medium. I’m hoping to have more content this year, so help me God 😊. I should also mention that around this time, I think I had gotten my hands on the good ethical hacking course I told you about, by Heath Adams. During the same year, 2021 (I think) I had applied for a great mentorship program (Kamilimu Mentorship program). During the application process I really gave it my all and wrote out all the reasons why I wanted to be in the program. And such other questions we are asked during scholarships and program applications. I was 60% sure I would make it. I researched on past mentees, structure of the program and the mode of delivery before application and for sure, it was a worth try. Months later which is 7 months ago, I got the rejection email. Although I felt bad somehow, I was still happy since I knew I needed that time to work on my technical security skills. I don’t want to overshadow that failure is part of the process and we always have to accept it and work around it. I hope to attach screenshots of all these things I’m mentioning. (Don’t judge me if I don’t). Hopefully, I may apply for the next mentorship cohort.

In the same month, (7 months ago). I wrote an article about my cybersecurity journey. This was a great reminder of how my journey has been and how lucky I am to have discovered my passion and have the resources to pursue it. We are about to jump into 4 months ago. In between the months, I was working on practical courses, like the 30 day python challenge, the ethical hacking one etc. I want to be honest and mention that, I didn’t finish 90% of those courses. I started many learning tasks which are still incomplete. All this time, I knew that I deeply needed a strategy and that my 2020 strategy couldn’t work anymore. You see, I was relying on the same strategy I used in 2020 while in that year, I didn’t have school, work and personal learning all together. There was no way that could work but for the better part of the year, I beat myself about it.

Hosting my first tech event

During these months, I also attended many security events, still worked and attended class (I had to mention class). I also helped people in ways I could, start their security journeys. Back to 4 months ago. When you are a Microsoft Learn student ambassador, you have to host an event and have other requirements to achieve the ‘Beta’ Milestone. So, during this month, I was planning that event. I was so anxious. I had never done this before. So to boost my courage and get some help here and there, I accepted to co-host. I did my first ever tech event ‘Getting Started with Cybersecurity’. It was great, well, apart from the many ‘please mute’ lol. The event was reviewed and a month later, I advanced to the ‘Beta Milestone’.

This article is already 1130 words long 😂😂 but let’s continue. Things were going fast now since a few weeks later, the great community, #SheHacks, reached out to me to speak at one of their campus edition sessions. I was really happy about this session. You see, I was used to being on the other side (listener) during their sessions. The experience was great and I enjoyed it. I hope to remember to attach the recording of that session. During that session, we also agreed to finish our Udemy courses, I came up with the idea, but I haven’t touched any Udemy course since then. I hope to bring ‘finishing Udemy courses’ to my non-existing New Year resolutions. The event was ‘Improving your Cybersecurity Career Beyond Technical Approaches’. In the 2 events so far, you should have observed that I am avoiding handling technical sessions. This is because, I am not confident in my skills so far. That should not be an excuse for anything though.

Internship hunting

So 2 months ago, I started looking for cybersecurity related internships. The internship is a school requirement. Before I started officially looking, I had earlier on applied to some places. So, while Iam waiting for my end of semester exams, I receive an acceptance email from one of the companies. This was a great opportunity. However, my mind was settled on security places only, not IT. So, believe it or not. I rejected the offer. Let me even take a break before I continue.

My 20 hour break is over haha. Although I was still not done with the semester when I received this offer, my main reason for rejecting it was that it was not security related. I could always juggle school and internship. I thought finding another place could be easy since getting this first place was also easy. But, it was hard, really hard. The job hunting process is hard and disappointing in Kenya. I had lost all hope of finding a place since everyone was either not replying to my emails or telling me that they are not taking interns. This is when I talked to my mentor and they told me that since I’m still in school and require every experience I need, I should not tie myself to security only. From this point, I was open to anything in IT (situations shift so fast). Luckily, I got a place after looking almost everywhere. I have to mention that going to companies physically to inquire is important. Why do some companies give offers months and months after you have already suffered and already settled in another place though?

The year is ending!

We are now towards the last few months of the year. So, the Microsoft Student Summit Africa 2021 was coming up. Guess what, I was approached to speak! I accepted and took a session in the Identity and Cybersecurity sector. My session was on ‘Single sign on in Azure Active Directory’. I didn’t know much on Azure AD, so I had to educate myself first. I came up with a way of mastering new content, using analogies. The session was great, I was now getting used to this ‘speaking’ thing. It was also great to share a platform with great people from Microsoft. So, a week later, my Beta #MLSA swag kit was cleared and I could pick it. So, I now have swag from Microsoft, yaay!

It has ended

So it was now December, meaning Advent of Cyber 3 by Tryhackme was here. Of course I had to try it, for the first time ever. I started it a few days late and was always a day late. I don’t know what happened around day 9 and 10 since that’s where I still am 😂 I believe right now I am even becoming predictable. In between those months I also enrolled for the Cyber Talents program after getting a scholarship. I have very nice learning resources from that. I was in the Incident Response path and I learnt a thing or two on reverse engineering and digital forensics. Again, I didn’t give it much effort. Before the year ended, I also attended a physical ctf session hosted by #Shehacks. I got to finally put faces to some people we interact with on twitter and LinkedIn and we networked. (Spoiler: some people are shorter in person). During this year, I also for the first time, participated in some ctfs. I believe I have written everything that was to be said. It was a good year. Recently I saw an article on finding clarity and how we have clutter in our heads. It explains how trying to add bits and pieces of other people’s lives into our own makes us feel inadequate and most times unproductive. To be productive and to believe in ourselves, we have to do away with that clutter (Felt I should share this). So, yeah, that was my year. That was long!

This article was written by Margaret Kamau, an Information security researcher & writer and founder #shikothetechgirl blogs. This time, she shares her #2021YearInReview. Follow her for more insights: LinkedIn, Twitter