HNG gave me a family and a six-figure GIG 🤗🤗

Motolani Isijola
4 min readNov 28, 2022

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No hard feelings, it has always been a game — You either win or lose 🤗

I got into the HNG program and I was so elated trust me…

I thought time to make another statement

Time to free my mind and limitations

12,000 designers from all parts of the world — 10 stages 🚀

And only 500+ designers got to stage 5 🐾 no one has to tell you it’s tight in there 🙇🏽‍♀️

My Lessons And Achievements From The Program

During my stay in there I was the “ASSISTANT TEAM LEAD FOR TEAM RULER under CARPENTER” (don’t worry you won’t understand the code if you ain’t in the program 🤣)

I led the team alongside two beautiful minds — Victor and Leeketa.

It was always about the connections and of-course churning out great work while at it.

This alone goes to show that I love the design community🤗

I was always accessible — was the type of leader that you can bet If you don’t get a response immediately you’d still get it ✅

INCLUSIVITY was my mantra in the house because I believe that there’s nothing as good or bad idea or opinion 🤷🏼‍♀️

I made meaningful connections with people carefully picking out my own design community.

Big shout out to Uduak ( whom I can say is my soul sister from Zuri days — she’s a real one ).

Another shout out to Damilola Emmanuel — I don’t think nobody has disturbed this man like I did 🤣 but like I’d say he doesn’t have a choice 🤣 — it’s safe to say he’s an OG.

Tech Lead 💀 — the reason why there’s this emoji 💀 is I’m on a lifetime mission to uncover him 🤣 (PS. If you’ve his picture send it to me) but he is a chilled person and easily relatable.

These guys and mentors made my journey seamless and then having access to them even after the program I must say is my BIG FLEX.

I don’t think I need to explain this 🤣 Leeketa is my design sister 🤗

It’s the way she would call me from 11 pm — 2 am to discuss design strategies for me 😏 — very zealous and hungry ✅✅✅ somebody you need in your space for sure 👍🏽

One project I’m proud of during my stay is developing a responsive web app — A virtual assistant app (WATCH OUT FOR THE CASE STUDY ON THIS PARTICULAR PROJECT 💃🏽)

A sneak peek into some of the UI pages. I designed 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 (minimalist and clean design is what we preach here )

It would be unfair to say HNG didn’t boost my confidence 🤗

My stay I would say birthed a major deal for me 💃🏽

Let me know if you’d like for me to write about how I landed the deal and how my interview process went 🙇🏽‍♀️ ( be rest assured I would include GOD in the equation 🤗 )

POINTS TO NOTE

✅ When you don’t get what you want how do you react and bounce back

✅ Build connections has you progress on all levels — Above, same and below 🙇🏽‍♀️ there are the ones who you motivate and keep you abreast

✅ Sit, count your blessings and celebrate your progress it could be as little as figuring how a component works on Figma or any tool 🙇🏽‍♀️

✅ Strategize, and submit yourself to learning

✅ Cry if it pains to fail but bounce back and tell your story — it could be someone’s motivation

✅ REMAIN HUMBLE — because it is not of him that willeth not of him that runneth but of the LORD that showeth MERCY 🤎

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Motolani Isijola

I’m a product designer at night and a student by day. Feel free to connect with and subscribe to my youtube channel @CHAT WITH MOTOLANI