2021 Wrapped

It’s officially been a year since we launched our community, and what a year it’s been.

👋🏾 Salaam, we are Somalis in Tech and welcome to our monthly newsletter. Each month we’ll bring you the latest from the community, tech news and a community Q&A. 

🎯 Year in Review

It’s been a year now since we officially launched our community. In that time it’s grown more than we ever expected. Here are a few highlights:

• Registered in the UK as a Community Interest Corporation with an accompanying bank account. This will allow us to apply for funding to further scale the community and broaden our impact in 2022.  

• We held 15+ events on topics ranging from ‘Overcoming imposter syndrome’ to ‘Lessons from Somali Women in Tech’. 

• We’ve grown the community to more than 1,250 members 🎉

• We’ve also kicked off our mentoring programme which we hope to further grow in the coming year Insha Allah. 

We want to shout out our community volunteers and members of the community who’ve been generous with their time and talent over 2021. This includes the Somali Women in Tech team, website + design team, event panellists, volunteers and mentors. Thank you all. 🙌🏾

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Happy New Year from Somalis in Tech! 2021 has been a big year for us. This time last year, we launched our Slack community, and since then it's grown in ways we’ve never expected. 🌍 #SiT2021

🏆 Celebrating 2021

As the year draws to an end we wanted to ask our community what they were proud of accomplishing this year.

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Let's reflect! What have you achieved in 2021 that has made you proud? 💭🎉

We received a bunch of responses and mashallah, our community did not disappoint. They shared with us some major achievements and milestones, both professional and personal:

Ismahan @izzy_codes

1. Graduated with a 1st class in Computer Science and a 1st in my disso (that ish was not easy) 2. Secured a tech job after months of rejection Young izzy would be v proud can’t lie

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Let's reflect! What have you achieved in 2021 that has made you proud? 💭🎉

Kal et al @kal_et_al

Got a degree in Software Engineering and a 1st in my dissertation Alhamdulilah 🎉

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Let's reflect! What have you achieved in 2021 that has made you proud? 💭🎉

Batrudin Jamaludin Abass @BatrudinHaji

I have to admit I didn’t achieve most of my major goals for this year. But I did graduate with a CS degree and networked with great people courtesy of @somalisintech

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Let's reflect! What have you achieved in 2021 that has made you proud? 💭🎉

Nimo Sheikh 🍂 @Nimo_a_sheikh

Alhamdullilah!! I achieved alot this year, working in an NGO is the biggest highlight of this year. Also joining Kenya School of Law is another highlight & so much more!! Alhamdullilah. Looking forward to 2022 in shaa Allah 🥰

Somalis in Tech 🐪💻 @somalisintech

Let's reflect! What have you achieved in 2021 that has made you proud? 💭🎉

🧵 Top Slack Thread

The podcasts we’re listening to 

Question: Anyone have podcasts they enjoy listening to? Could be tech related or otherwise.

- Khalid Ahmed

Dadirow: Cynical Developer. Doesn't record any new podcasts but 5 years of content is still available.

Oubah Awaleh: 99% invisible | no stupid questions

Omar Ali: The Jordan Harbinger podcast, Tech-ish and The Digital Sisterhood

f(a)rah: Like @Oubah Awaleh mentioned 99% invisible, ForColoredNerds, EarHustle, 1619, History of the 90s, Revisionist History & Shipworm

Ali A: The diary of a CEO is a really good one. Really insightful interviews that help you tap into the minds of the guests. I recommend you first start with the episodes where the CEOs of Monzo or Deliveroo are interviewed. 

Zakaria Mounes: Darknet diaries is a good cybersecurity podcast. The guy narrates different cyber crimes/stories. A lot to binge listen to.

Mohamed: Land of the giants is another good shout! They do deep dives on big tech companies: I listened to ep with Klarna CEO earlier today and it was really good so would deffo recommend

Ali: Land of the giants is epic, also check out TWIT and the Founder's Journal.

Mukhtar Raage: I enjoy The All-in Podcast (talks tech trends from VC perspective from 4 VC friends), IndieHackers & Not Investment Advice

Ahmed Mire: Techish & My First Million (This one is amazing, it has a different format, 2 friends talking about business ideas) 

Mohamed Farah: ‘How I Built This’ With Guy Raz. He's interviewed the world's top entrepreneur and idealists like the founders of Clubhouse, Dropbox, Khan Academy, and content creators like Casey Neistat, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Dude Perfect

🤓 Top finds

1. Watch: SiT 2021 year in review shared by SiT

2. Read: I blew $720 on 100 notebooks from Alibaba and started a paper business website shared by Ali Ibrahim

3. Learn: Text fields & Forms design, UI components series shared by Aidarous Sheikh

💼 Featured job opportunities

1. Our Future Health: Product Manager (London, UK)

2. Financial Times: Product Designer (London, UK)

3. Soona: Software Engineer (Minneapolis, US)

You can connect with the community members who shared the above roles as well as browse other shared jobs on Slack in the  #05_jobs-and-opportunities channel.