Happy one year anniversary to me at Diary of Hackers Community. 🎉🍾
My Journey From Community Member to Community Manager.
This period last year, a close friend of mine got an on-site job as a software developer while maintaining his online job, and it really got me to be very serious about my tech career cause this is somebody we built a website and YouTube channel to make tech reviews and rank stuff online back then in secondary school.
And, after our discussion i explained my issue to him about not getting to meet folks in cybersecurity that I was interested in, and he said "Call Moses Joshua na, he is into Cybersecurity" and I did and he sent me the link to join Diary of Hackers Community so I could connect with experts that can put me through. This was August 16th 2022.
I was actively engaging in the community, started to make friends and September came, there was a call for volunteers for National Cyber Security Awareness Campaign Month (NCSAM) to mark the Cybersecurity month in October and I applied to be a Team Lead, not Minding the fact that I’m still a newbie but I was really learning fast cause I had people I could just rush into their DM to ask questions. And I got it.
I led the Abuja Team to run a campaign on cyber security awareness in various schools and radio stations and the result was mind blowing, for the whole of that period, it was looking like I had a full time job, because I was very serious about it. I managed a team of 42 volunteers, most of whom had years of experience in cyber security so I used that opportunity to learn more and even went ahead to schedule a physical one-on-one session with a few to teach me more. Shout out to Humaira Adamu Sidi (Cybernetics)
December 2022, I made the move to build a Diary of Hackers Ilorin Community in Kwara State, because I was resuming back to school and it was approved.
January 2023, I did the necessary research to build a community from scratch, made consultations with community managers that I could access and the Diary of Hackers Community Lead was very supportive.
April 2023, I organized Ilorin Cyber MeetUp, an in-person event with about 50 attendees. We had a hacking demo by Coy Emerald and a virtual speaking session by Hamzah Lateef (Password) which was very smooth and insightful. shoutout to Malhub and GDG Ilorin for being our sponsors for the event. This served as a launch for DoH Ilorin Community. Shoutout to my Team, Oluwatobi Adebara, Sharafa Usman, Mustapha Abdulsalam & Anuoluwapo Mokuolo.
May 2023, I was the protocol Team Lead for Cyber Starters Conference in Lagos organized by Diary of hackers and powered Cybersecurity Education Initiative CYSED, as a volunteer i had the chance to meet prominent cyber security experts at the event, such as Segun Olaniyan, Confidence Staveley of Cybersafe Foundation, Gbolabo Awelewa, Mrs Favour, Chikodili Udeh of Hacktales and so many more. The words Segun said has forever stick with me "Twenty4 you’re doing well, I see what you’re doing, keep it up" at that point I felt those butterflies in my stomach cause Omo I never expected it and Confidence Staveley’s firm handshake was top notch, more like affirmation of you’re doing well even though she never knew me before then.
Shout out to my team members for holding it down Jane Ezeanowai, Adedeji Lateefat and Faustina Ujay.
This conference added more energy to my drive cyberspace, I am still inspired by many of the speakers and attendees of #CyberStartersConfrence23
June 2023, I organized a Cybersecurity Study Jam session, an in-person event where we discussed intro topics in cybersecurity, asked and answered questions amongst ourselves, solved some Tryhackme rooms and also had fun while doing that. With 33 attendees, it was a super amazing event. It attracted newbies to join the community as well as shed more light on the different career paths they could explore in Cybersecurity no matter their background.
July 2023, I organized a virtual Mentorship session on "Visibility and Career Opportunities in cybersecurity" which was hosted by my humble boss Oluwatobi Ayodele (Tobi Mayana) and our special speaker was no other than a renowned author, cyber security expert and Founder of Digital Security Village, Mr Segun Olaniyan (remember we met physically for the first and only time yet during the CyberStartersConference23, power of attending tech events).
And finally the big news, August 2023, I applied, interviewed and got in for the role of Community Manager at Cybersecurity Education Initiative CYSED 🎉
This position was a call to serve. I am very glad to have the opportunity to make an impact in a youth-led NGO still within the scope of Diary of Hackers, because I created a baby and I am not ready to let go of her yet. 😅
Additionally I also became the Google Developer Student Clubs Lead at my School, University of Ilorin, where I actually joined the community as a core team member around this period also. That's a story for another day.
In between all of these enagagements i have also contributed or spoke at some notable events;
Helped Planned Career Fest (The biggest Google Developer Student Tech Event in Africa) by GDSC UNILORIN
Spoke on the topic “Cyber Security for All” at GoogleIO Extended Ilorin by GDG Ilorin.
Represented Abdulaziz Akanbi the GDSC Unilorin lead 2022/2023 and Spoke at Digital Literacy Event by Association of Agric Students Unilorin.
Spoke at ICT WEK by GDSC Kwara Poly.
Also facilitated a Cyber Security workshop for beginners focusing on the topic “Social Engineering Awareness” by The faculty of Engineering and Technology Unilorin for their Tech Summit.
I would like to interest you to read about my post on “Leading Cross-functional Teams”, click here
I hope you enjoyed this and kindly leave a comment, feedbacks are gold.
Cheers 🥂