An 18-month journey of working at a unicorn tech company. Learn about my strategies, my team, my contributions, and my experiences
This writing is based on my personal experience, so cherry-pick what resonates with you, but I truly hope someone finds it useful; this is not a manual
A couple of months ago, I ended my contract as an integration engineer in the Developer Relations & Integration department at Monnify, a unicorn subsidiary company. It was conclusive on the 30th of May, 2026. While I was in the company, some developers reached out to me, asking how I got the job, partly in the form of questions for advice. Now I am answering once and for all.
In case you don't know Monnify.
Monnify is an online payment gateway and financial infrastructure built for businesses in Nigeria and beyond to accept and disburse funds easily.
During my service tenure, we had a restructuring, where we migrated from Moniepoint to its parent company, called Teamapt. The company is currently in an active phase of promoting its product to the market. Trust me, the Monnify product has gained significant ground in the Nigerian market, across Africa and beyond. International payment is now supported via Mastercard, but in USD. However, if you have an inquiry about the company’s service, kindly reach out to the onboarding, support and sales team; they are open to helping you get started.
Getting here was not an accident. Let’s get to the backstory. In 2024, I woke up announcing to the world I wanted to become a developer relations engineer, a niche in Tech Education. After racking my head for months in 2023, wondering about what tech niche fits well into my past experiences and personality, leveraging my strengths. For better context, please check my LinkedIn profile for more details about my journey.
The graph below explains how interconnected the Developer Relations role is. Every DevRel engineer's experience is not the same; some lean toward one of these areas, while some do everything.
DEVELOPER RELATION - IMG SOURCE (shubhsharma)
Building career momentum
After pursuing several life-changing international remote jobs in 2023 with little to no results, my career and self-esteem went down the drain. I discussed this with my family and friends, then a dear friend took my life matter so seriously, she sponsored my trip to Reboot Camp 2024, my church end of the year program. I ran to God for 3 days, and I met with Him. Somehow, I am a God addict and a happy student of life. I strongly believe all things work together for my good, including painful situations.
Early in 2024, I got a job as an Online Program Manager for a startup through a colleague who referred me for the role. We worked endlessly on an online campaign for the brand’s online summit. I was the brain behind it, a 7-day fully online program with different sessions of speakers and audiences. It was a success. Version 1.0 of the program pioneered the brand’s visibility in the market. We built a community of over 1,000 people. That was my first time using Luma and Instagram Live for an online program summit. With that, I regained confidence in my product/service adoption skills (publicity and go-to-market strategy). Right now, the startup is fully operational and stable in the market.
Based on my public announcement to start my career fully in DevRel, I embarked on creating content online, particularly on LinkedIn, posting about Developer Relations for 176 days of the year. I was studying and sharing, following a roadmap guide from roadmap.sh, which I completed in 2025. It was mentally and physically stretching, but it yielded massive results.
While doing my daily online posting and studying, a startup founder reached out to me to become the brand’s first Developer Advocate. So yeah, I got another job, my very first offer. I agreed to the offer, and we established a contract. For three months, the startup was trying to find its footing. I did a good job, and I was told to focus more on result-driven actions instead of activities. I believe DevRel contains plenty of that. Here are samples of my work for the startup. - Nobox-lab. Kindly check this out. I also planned and hosted a physical developer program for a product showcase and workshop.
While on this offer, I was job hunting because I knew for a fact that this contract would end. So what next? As someone who has collected countless rejection letters and received many “no’s” online from strangers who didn’t care to see my work or interview me. I set out to apply countless times, and I didn’t let rejection letters distract me because I was on a mission.
I must say a big thank you to the friends who made me smile during this season, those who bought me food, jollof rice and chicken; those who opened their homes to me so I could come and do interviews. Oh my, I had a life. Friends came to pick me up from my parents’ house and took me to tech hubs to study and attend interviews. Friends who recommended me for co-founding job opportunities, you rock my world! To people who doubted my capacity, lost hope in my becoming, and compared me with excelling colleagues across the globe, you inspired me daily.
You all made my pursuit to fulfil my life ambition a beautiful one. Without you, I wouldn’t have pulled through. Friendships are lifelines; don’t pull the plug on that friend. Try to be relational. You’ve heard the saying that the world is cold. Choose to be the warmth. At least someone will experience kindness because you were here.
Strategy for getting opportunities in the 21st Century (2023- present)
I have strategically worked towards this result for an extended period, and I have a few things to share about what worked for me.
Since I’ve been active on the streets of LinkedIn*,* “the professional ghetto of fake life and polished candy showroom“, I found myself thinking, breathing, and studying LinkedIn content, job-search algorithms, and tricks about the platform.
I learnt how to spot new opportunities on the go. For my Integration Engineering role, I saw a job posting on LinkedIn that day from the big guy—Moniepoint. Before its public announcement of becoming a unicorn company, it was one of my dream companies, and after someone had pitched working here to me, during my service year (2022- 2023) in the city of Ibadan. My mind was made up. I think I had developed a thick skin from all forms rejections messages. I applied without thinking twice, and I was called for an interview.
I progressed through the interview process. Phase 1 was the technical interview, followed by Phase 2, where I met with the leadership team and had an oral interview to assess cultural fit. At the end of the process, I was told they would get back to me.
A month went by, and I hadn’t heard from the team. Rather than assume the opportunity was over, I followed up with an email. Shortly afterwards, I received a call from the team, followed by my employment offer via email. It was a dream come true. I still remember the excitement on my face, that moment, I couldn’t contain my joy.
Disclaimer - I don't know an insider , neither did i get referral from anyone internally
My mantra - It's either you chase, or you attract - choose your battle.
Attraction tips
Download LinkedIn and post. Yes, post that content—educational content, wins and progress, projects, and impact. Join the charade! By doing this, you're signalling attraction (the "pick me" contest, but in a cute way).
Benefit: It helps you attract recruiters, recommenders, and new career friends.
Create a target list of companies you want to work for. Read their latest blogs and find loopholes in their systems. For example, if it's an open-source project like Pydantic, become an open-source maintainer. Solve a problem for the company and showcase your work. Build relationships with internal staff and colleagues for visibility.
Benefit: Once a job role opens up, the team will be more likely to recommend you, and your work will speak for itself easily.
Chasing tips
Cold Mailing: Send messages to everyone and anyone at the executive level of businesses and organisations, including industry thought leaders, decision-makers, and influencers.
Benefit: They may respond and give you tips on how to position yourself for an opportunity within the company or refer you to someone who can help, such as the HR department. You can do this on LinkedIn.
Job Hunting: Search for opportunities on LinkedIn through job postings. This involves submitting your résumé, portfolio, and other required materials.
Benefit: Timely job postings with fewer candidate applications give you a higher chance of having your résumé reviewed.
On LinkedIn, here's my small secret:
Job Role + EMEA + 24 hours
"Job Role" AND "Hiring" in the last 24 hours
Hiring + Job Role
Example: "Developer Advocate" AND "Hiring"
The mind chess game (my experience)
I joined the team, completed my onboarding, and was assigned tasks. I met many great colleagues, each of whom I learnt from either in values or skills. One thing I came to understand is that about 40% of your job is technical (which you are skilled at), while 60% is about managing people and relationships.
My team was always rooting for me and encouraging me. At one point, I felt like I had won, and I was genuinely happy. Then the switch flipped, and there were moments when I felt small. Even so, I kept my head up. I enjoy working with this team. Every day, I have a reason to wake up happy: because I have a bit of direction in my life, my day is either about pitching our product to a customer, troubleshooting an issue, building something, or searching for data.
During my stay, a quote by an American Journalist kept me sane, it was boldly written on the wall of the company’s branch here in Lagos, Nigeria
Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy- Gretta Palmer
Any Regret - In hindsight
I would say two people might have the same goals but different moral compasses. Person A might judge with fairness, while Person B might judge using a standard as a baseline, one which made my greatest asset “people,” and my greatest disappointment also “people.”
I was told to ask questions, that I’m free to ask any question at any time. Don’t ask stupid questions, and don’t ask questions that make people perceive you as inferior. Person A might be patient and calm in answering your questions often, while Person B might perceive or believe you’re a dullard and that you need to fix yourself. Perception is everything.
Remember that people define respect differently, especially those you work with. Some may say they don’t care whether you respect them, but their actions may suggest otherwise. Understand the person in context, and dance to their tune. Leave your cultural notions of respect at the company’s gate.
Moniepoint office
The Daily Sacrifice (My Contribution)
End-of-year merchant log (2024–2025) — I was on my laptop from December 30 to January 1, 2025.
Demo page on the old website and content management for the website throughout 2025– (Q2)2026.
Documentation content management and blog writing.
E-commerce demo application for one-time payment feature testing.
Research on plugin integrations.
Other responsibilities included in my day-to-day tasks are technical sales and onboarding calls, technical debugging calls, responding to developers’ integration requests, feature and service testing, escalating and reporting bugs, feature enhancement requests, building production integrations based on market demands and priorities, internal feature activation, and DevRel team events, including product showcases (optional).
Conclusion
There you have it, my experiences, lessons and strategy, from switching careers to pursue what I’m passionate about and building from the ground up. In less than three years, I achieved my goal of working for a global tech company.
I hope this blog post has given you some insight into my journey. Beyond the polished pictures and portfolio, remember that it was all strategy. None of this was an act of pretence. It was the result of intentional effort and hard work that cannot be faked!
If you’re in a position to choose, I advise you to pursue something you genuinely enjoy doing, because I did, and I truly enjoyed the journey it took me on. Enjoy life while you’re building. Upgrade your professional network from time to time if needed, and stay connected to peers and friends who know you, can vouch for you, and can send opportunities your way.
I deeply miss my friends and mentors at Monnify; both those who have left the company and those who are still on the team. Thank you to everyone who held my hand through some of my darkest nights, when I went to bed in tears. Thank you to those who celebrated my birthdays, encouraged me, and pushed me beyond my comfort zone. The kindness, support, and belief you showed me will never be forgotten.
I know you’re curious about what I’ll be doing next. Yes, I have already embarked on my next adventure. The road may be rocky, but I’m ready for it. I want to do good work, impact lives, become a senior engineer, maybe one day have my name inscribed on Portland stone in a London museum.
Dear reader,
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
I sincerely appreciate your time and attention. If anything in this journey resonated with you, I’d be grateful to hear your thoughts, comments, or feedback.
To everyone I met on this journey, you are priceless!
Cheers to living whole, OmoBolarinwaye.
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