Writing this in March of 2024 (and publishing it in April) is already too late, but what’s shocking is even months after this ordeal, it still feels evergreen. Thanks to everybody asking me, “How is work?”—work is good, thanks.
However, more than anything, I’m compelled to write this piece for posterity. My wonderful brain often reminisces the most random events, and it would be a shame if I didn’t have a story to look back on, smile about, and jestingly tell myself, “You fool.”
On the 31st of October, 2023, I sent out an email to HR and the CEO of Acumen Digital, a company I had worked with for over three years, albeit weeks prior, I had already spoken with the CEO (AY) about my plans to leave the company—the conversation was what sealed my decision to exit Acumen. But what good is an exit story without a captivating entrance?
How I got into Acumen
Fresh out of a 2-year diploma program I had just completed in 2020, I was looking for jobs, albeit passively. I don’t remember much about that season, but I know I was a severe prayer point for my mom. After being a relatively heavy financial project, it didn’t make sense that I would be jobless.
Nonetheless, I had a personal full-time job—I was having the time of my life exploring the breezed-through topics I did in school and building some incredible products with these technologies. In my defence, I went on job sites, but no opening felt like a good fit for me, so I continued my explorations and kept praying on the side.
Sometime in September (yes, the year is still 2020), a friend from school asked me and a few others whether we were looking for jobs, and I, thankfully, responded in the most unsarcastic way. He asked for my resumé, and after a series of assessments, phone calls and interviews, I got the job. Thank you, Kelechi.
Enough about getting my first job offer. What was the first year at Acumen like? This story is getting longer than I imagined.
My first year at Acumen
I resumed in mid-October 2020, and it took a while for me to process the employment offer. How the heck did I manage to convince these people that I wouldn’t be a waste of their money? It’s important to mention that I had limited knowledge about the role I was hired for, but I was kind of a jack of all and a master at none, so it wasn’t too glaring.
After the euphoria of a new job, work began. But it wasn’t at all bad; I loved it; of course, the meetings were excessive, and I complained, but it was just me putting up a show—the best professional year I’ve had to date, and I don’t think it will ever lose that rank, cos it was my first. I was also among the first two dedicated front-end engineers to join the team.
I got paid to do what I was already doing for free and fun at home, and later, in January 2021, I was assigned to do the same for interns at work. I didn’t know how much I loved teaching until this happened—my mum thought I was an impatient teacher all my life until she saw me having sessions with the interns.
Surely, there were boring projects that never made it to the finish line in 2020/21, but I’m exhausting my word limit. Let’s move to the second year, abeg.
My second year at Acumen
This year saw tremendous growth for the company in size and, consequently, in revenue. And when you have a leader like AY, it’s hard not to notice these things in salary increments.
2021/22 was also the year I had to return to finish my Bachelor’s; I ventured on the ridiculous route to attend school and work remotely in different timezones. Thankfully, this didn’t end shamefully. A memorable moment was the office farewell dinner just before I left for my Bachelor’s; thank God I kept calm through the evening. I’m grateful to whoever made that decision—I still don’t know you, but I have my guesses.
On a more professional level, this was the year I got to work with many clients from around the world. Needless to say, if you had ever been close by when I had meetings with these people, you would have had a hard time understanding my speech.
In this year, I was also officially assigned the lead front-end engineer position and was included in many vital meetings leading to company-wide shifts.
Too many good things are happening, so why leave? For that, we’d need to go through the third year.
My third year at Acumen
In the third year, I worked on a couple of personal projects and tens of projects with clients in Acumen, and an opportunity came to build something of my own, so I pursued it.
My team encountered a work crisis, as many teams do, and as engineers, we sought a solution that could help us solve our problem or, at the very least, help mitigate it. After a few days of searching without any viable results, I decided to build my own solution.
Building my own solution (Revaise) marked the beginning of a pivotal shift for me; I exposed myself to a lot of information about entrepreneurship and saw what was possible. I wasn’t alone for the most part of this journey. I started it with a coworker who turned out to be my friend, and the biggest hurdle was his agreeing to do this with me.
A year and eight months have gone by, and I still don’t know why he said yes—but he’s the biggest reason why I haven’t given up. Thank you, Lanre.
Doing my own thing at night and on weekends gave me some newfound purpose in my career, and I was more excited for evenings and weekends so I could continue pursuing this dream wherever it took me.
Just as it is with seeing pretty ladies, the last pretty lady looks less pretty than the most recent. That was my tale with Revaise and Acumen. However, make no mistake; till I handed in the company’s belongings, Acumen always took necessary precedence over Revaise.
Final days at Acumen and Exit
Life felt so routine. I asked myself almost every week: Will I continue to leave like this till I decide to retire? I had to find my salvation in any way possible.
And even if I ensured that I gave it my 101% till I left the company, on many days, I felt very unmotivated to work (I understand this is how work is for many people usually, but not for me)
So I asked myself, how fun it would be to go back to early 2020 before the job and just have fun with all the information you have gathered in all these years.
And so I started preparing myself for an exit. I left officially on the 30th of December, 2023. My unofficial exit is complicated because Acumen is a forever home, I hope.
I have been out of a 9-5 for 3 months, and since then, I have had so much time and much less financial security to do many things I would have loved to do. Yet, I have no regrets, and I’m happy that I was bold enough to take this step.
Milestones since I left? I successfully completed the delayed part of the product I have been building for nearly two years in just a month and completed two other products. It feels so impossible, but I am doing it, and the velocity keeps getting better.