Lessons From My One-Year Experience as a Full-Time Employed Software Developer

The 2nd of this month, June 2026, marked exactly two years since I quit my job as a Property Manager at Masterpiece Capital Limited in Abuja, Nigeria, to transition to the tech space as a software developer. It also marked my one-year anniversary as a full-time employed software developer.

The journey from quitting my job to becoming a full-time paid developer hasn't been easy, but it's been an exciting experience.

Summary of My Journey Thus Far:

• June 2024: Quit property management, disappeared, and locked in.
• April 2025: Landed first major paid software project (almost a million Naira for 5 weeks' work).
• 1 June, 2025: Employed Full-time (Hybrid) as a Frontend Developer with Chenst Management Systems, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
• January 2026: My first major project with the company—IbomTax (the Tax Management Software for the Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service)—went live.
• January–May 2026: The platform processed roughly ₦17.76 billion in government revenue.
• 2 June, 2026: One year of full-time employed professional software development experience.

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Here are 6 major lessons I learned:

1. Your Network and Relationships Matter

To be honest, I am not a public person. I am an ambivert but more introverted than extroverted. I am mostly indoors by myself, and I rarely get in touch with people. When I relocated from Abuja to Uyo, I completely disconnected myself from everyone in Abuja except my former boss. I got a new SIM card, created a new WhatsApp account, shut down most social media, and only kept X for cooling off—though I recently had to delete X from my phone for my mental health and productivity. When Arsenal won the league last month, I got so carried away celebrating that I spent almost an entire week being unproductive! Now, I only access it via my laptop and limit it to 30 minutes a day.

Living in Uyo, I maintained a very quiet, secluded life. I only stepped out to buy food and go to the gym, where I mostly kept to myself. But during my early days here, I met Ekemini at "The Bunker," a co-working space I visit when the power is out and my inverter is off. We built a relationship, and he became my only friend. Thankfully, he is also a developer.

Ekemini acted as my accountability partner. We kept in touch almost every day, and it was entirely through his referrals and recommendations that I landed both my first major freelance gig and my full-time job.

The lesson here: Opportunities travel through people. Even if you are an introverted developer who loves isolation, you need high-value relationships. Recently, I’ve started opening up more to people at the gym, and I now explicitly budget time and money for monthly social outings to build impactful connections.

2. Balancing Full-Time Work with Personal Growth and Development

Once that network landed me my role at Chenst Management Systems, the first six months were incredibly hectic. We were working on a very tight schedule to develop IbomTax. We spent most nights, weekends, and holidays in the office working. There was no time off.

Don't get me wrong—this was one of the most exciting times of my life. This schedule wasn't forced on us by the company; my team and I chose to do this to hit our delivery timeline, and management supported us completely and provided everything we needed to make it a memorable one. I learned an immense amount during this period.

However, while I initially scheduled time to do my personal studies, I eventually abandoned everything else just to keep building for work. After the project went live, I tried many times but struggled to get back to my personal projects. This made me feel insecure and left behind. It took a massive conscious effort, and a recent, funny relationship breakup with my girlfriend, to get back on track with my learning.

The lesson here: High-intensity work projects will easily consume your life if you let them. You have to intentionally plan your days and weeks ahead, schedule dedicated blocks for your personal growth, and stick to them.

3. The Danger of Comfort and Complacency

Before getting employed full-time, I was on my best productive streak ever because I was in survival mode. I was living on my savings from my previous job, supported by infrequent small gigs. My cash was running out, and my rent was almost due, so I had no other option but to work hard.

When I got the job, the initial win boosted my passion and proved I was on the right track. But once the financial stability set in, I lost my spark. I got comfortable and complacent. I would just do my best at work, come home, work out at the gym, write in my diary, watch a movie, and go to sleep.

I knew I needed to get back to my game, but the hunger was gone. I couldn't feel that fire burning in me. I would just coast on my day job, and only code on personal projects when I experienced a random spike of motivation, before dropping right back into my comfort state.

The lesson here: Never allow yourself to get comfortable. Keep the fire burning. Let each win fire you up and empower you to seek the next battle to conquer, rather than becoming a cushion to rest on.

4. Work on Yourself More Than Your Job

When complacency set in, I had to sit myself down and tell myself the hard truth. Feeling left behind each day was a clear signal to act.

We work in a tech ecosystem that moves at breakneck speed. With the rapid rise of AI, frameworks and tools get obsolete faster than any developer can keep up. The only way to remain relevant and stay in the game is to keep working on yourself every day. Working harder on yourself and building up your skills doesn't take anything away from your day job; it actually makes you better at it because you bring more skills to the table.

The lesson here: Don't just give your employer 100% while leaving 0% for your own growth. Avoid blind hard work. Work smart by consciously investing a few hours in the mornings, evenings, and weekends to your personal technical roadmap.

5. The Power of Quiet Time and Daily Reflection

How did I catch myself when I fell into complacency and imbalance? Through a habit I’ve practiced for the last 6 years: keeping a diary, and specifically, keeping a daily journal for the past 3 years.

Every morning, I check my goals for the day and adjust them. Every night, I reflect on and record my activities—including my gym workouts and every single penny I spend. To be honest, there have been weeks or months when I struggled and failed. It all starts by having a bad, unproductive morning or a bad day, then I miss a day or two of journaling. Before I knew it, writing became a burden, and I lost track of myself. Looking back, those periods where I stopped journaling were the most wasted, unproductive times of my life, and my finances became a total mess.

When I keep track, I am highly productive because I am forced to look at my wins, failures, and areas of improvement. I also use my morning quiet time to read my Bible and pray. I used to struggle with this heavily—leaving my Bible at the head of my bed for weeks without opening it. Now, integrating prayer, Bible study, and journaling into a single morning block centers me. To stay in the zone during the day, I use my earpods to filter out external noise with music and soundtracks, and I take long walks whenever I feel overwhelmed to process my thoughts.

The lesson here: If I hadn't kept a diary, I wouldn't have felt the psychological urge to get back on track after falling off. Block out quiet times each day, filter out the noise around you, and maintain daily reflective habits to live in the truth of your progress.

6. Good Eating and Rest are Essential (My Current Battle)

While I have improved my study habits, this final lesson is one I am still terrible at and am working hard to fix. I tend to severely overwork myself. I go to the gym 6 times a week (Monday to Friday evenings for about 1.5 hours, and an intense 2.5-hour cardio session on Saturdays). Yet, I mostly eat only once or twice a day. I frequently forget to eat until very late, especially on weekends and remote workdays, sometimes waiting until the hunger hurts my stomach and my body starts shaking.

Compounding this, I stay up past midnight working and wake up tired between 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM. While I catch a 2-hour nap on weekends, this crazy and chaotic routine catches up with me at the office. By afternoon, I often become drowsy, battle intense headaches, and struggle to be productive, forcing me to take power naps at my desk to recover and continue until clockout time. Then, the moment I get home, I change into my workout clothes (I lay them out each night or each morning) and head straight to the gym for my evening workout session.

I do not recommend this lifestyle to anyone. I am grateful that I am blessed with a great immune system, meaning I rarely fall sick and recover quickly, but that is not an excuse to abuse my body.

The lesson here: Hard work is meaningless if you break your health in the process. You cannot sustain a high-level software engineering career on an empty tank and zero sleep. Build a sustainable structure around your nutrition and rest to avoid severe burnout.

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The Next Phase

I give all thanks to God Almighty for this opportunity and grace. Yes, I planned and worked hard for it, but it was all by His grace, mercy, and love.

This is just the beginning of my journey. I have just scratched the surface and haven't even gone past the first layer of my possibilities in the tech ecosystem. The end goal is to become a globally renowned and successful tech entrepreneur and investor.

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."
Proverbs 14:23 (New International Version)

To achieve this, I must really sit up and not just work hard, but work exceptionally smart. I must keep seeking out new challenges and opportunities to learn, improve my skills, and contribute.

Congratulations to me for achieving this milestone that two years ago was just a dream. But this is also a call to action to do more so that I can be more and achieve more.

Cheers to many more successful years ahead,

Greg Haris