Hi, it's been a while since I last updated y'all on my life and what happened to the job hunt. This post is going to be dedicated towards that. This post will highlight the later half of 2025 for me, what's new, and my goals for 2026.
The Job Hunt Journey
The second half of 2025 has been quite a ride when it comes to my job search. In May, I heard about Shopify Builder Sundays—an opportunity to work from the Shopify office—and it immediately caught my attention. I realized I needed to make some changes to my workflow, and this seemed like the perfect catalyst.
Starting in June, I attended a couple of Builder Sundays and was blown away by the vibes. The Toronto tech community was incredible! I met so many ambitious people who were genuinely passionate about what they did for a living. What really inspired me was meeting people from various backgrounds who were getting into tech. Some of these connections have become close friends.
I started going to Builder Sundays every week—at least as many weeks as I could make it. I also had the incredible opportunity to volunteer as an organizer for the "Notion Toronto Speed Build Challenge" as part of Toronto Tech Week—a city-wide celebration of innovation and technology that brings together builders, founders, and tech enthusiasts from across the city. I love being part of Notion and the Notion community, and I enjoyed every bit of it—connecting with people from Notion, sharing what we love about the platform, and helping people out with the Notion API and MCPs.
Another major development was starting my role as a Student Life Assistant at the Markham Campus of York University. Although this position wasn't directly related to tech, it turned out to be an incredibly valuable experience. Working full-time at Markham throughout the entire summer, I learned so many skills that fundamentally changed the way I approach tasks and challenges.
This role gave me a completely different perspective on things. My coworkers and managers taught me lessons that I needed to learn to prepare myself for what lies ahead—lessons about professionalism, communication, problem-solving, and working with diverse groups of people. The experience was absolutely amazing, and I'm grateful for everything I gained from it, even though it was outside my usual tech-focused path.
Throughout this period, I also took on several side projects to keep myself busy and productive while hunting for jobs. As is often the case, the job hunt wasn't going well, but something amazing happened at Builder Sundays. I met people who offered me the opportunity to work on their app, and I jumped at the chance. This became a valuable opportunity to develop their application and add a more robust project to my portfolio—something I could showcase on my resume to demonstrate my capabilities.
One of the most exciting projects I started working on is Broccoli, an agentic grocery shopping app that I'm building with my friend Suzy. We've made significant progress and have successfully deployed it as a progressive web app that users can already start using. The reception has been encouraging, and we're now focused on the next phase: moving to React Native to create a cross-platform mobile app. This transition will help us reach more users and provide a better native mobile experience.
I also created AI Chess Battles, a project where I programmed two AI models to play chess against each other. I had the opportunity to present this at New Stadium, and the response was overwhelmingly positive! People were genuinely excited about the concept, and several individuals expressed interest in supporting the project moving forward. This reception made me incredibly happy and validated the work I put into it.
These side projects have been invaluable—not just for building my portfolio, but also for keeping my skills sharp, learning new technologies, and staying motivated during the job search process.
Navigating Personal Challenges
The latter half of 2025 also brought some unexpected personal challenges. I went through a recent breakup that turned my whole world upside down. It was one of those experiences that shakes your foundation and makes you question everything.
To cope with this difficult time, I found myself naturally gravitating towards activities that brought me joy and helped me rediscover who I am outside of that relationship. I started working through my video game backlog—games I'd been meaning to play for years but never had the time for. There's something therapeutic about losing yourself in a good story or challenging gameplay.
I also made a conscious effort to reconnect with old friends I hadn't seen in a while. These reconnections reminded me of the strong support system I have and how important it is to maintain those relationships. Some of my closest friendships were reignited during this period, and I'm incredibly grateful for that.
Taking care of my physical health became another priority. I went back to the gym, and the routine of working out not only improved my physical well-being but also gave me a mental boost. There's something about pushing yourself physically that helps clear your mind and build confidence.
Perhaps one of the most unexpected developments was that I started streaming on Twitch. This new hobby helped me cope in ways I didn't anticipate. Streaming allowed me to connect with people, share my interests, and create something positive during a difficult time. It opened my eyes to new possibilities and helped me realize that there's so much more to life than I had been experiencing.
This period of personal growth, while born from pain, has been transformative. It taught me resilience, the importance of self-care, and that sometimes the hardest moments lead to the most meaningful discoveries about ourselves.
Right when I was starting to accept “maybe later”… it happened.
I applied for Hack the North in the middle of summer—Canada's largest and most renowned hackathon. Getting accepted is incredibly competitive, like winning the lottery or landing an offer from Google! I was initially rejected and placed on the waitlist, which was pretty disappointing since I had attended in 2024 and had an amazing time.
Then, in late August, everything changed. I received an email saying a spot had opened up, and it was mine if I accepted within 12 hours. I immediately said yes! At that point, I had nothing lined up for Fall 2025 or Winter 2026, so I was accepting defeat. I decided I'd go to Hack the North to win and gain some recognition—maybe that's how I'd finally land a job.
My team and I thought we were so close when we advanced to the next round with our creation, HONCK—a stuffed goose with a camera around its neck that would scream at you if it caught you not being productive and insult your behavior. It was hilarious and innovative!
On the second day, I was wandering around the second floor of E7, checking out all the company booths and learning about their opportunities. Most gave me the same response: apply through their career page for upcoming opportunities. This was discouraging—I didn't want to return to the repetitive job hunting hell of applying to 100 jobs a day, getting rejected by 99, hearing back from 1, doing an online assessment, getting rejected, and repeating the cycle.
Until I stumbled upon TD's booth.
The recruiters grabbed me and my team member, asking what opportunities we were looking for. As I was telling them about myself and showcasing one of my projects, the recruiter paused. They pulled me aside into a private room where a Senior Manager at TD wanted to have a coffee chat with me. I was shaking with fear—I had never been interviewed on the spot like this before. The interview went well, and I heard that other companies like Shopify and Amazon were also conducting spontaneous in-person interviews at the event.
After the hackathon, I ended up with lots of swag but no win this time. I saw others getting callbacks and offers from companies, but not me. I thought, "Maybe next year I'll do my best again."
Then, a week later, everything changed.
I was at the gym finishing my last set of lat pulldowns when I got a call from a no caller ID number. I thought it was a scam and ignored it. When the call came through a second time, I answered. It was a recruiter asking if I was the person who applied at Hack the North this year. They told me I had been accepted as a Software Engineer starting Winter 2026.
I had tears of joy at the gym. It was the one piece of good news I desperately needed to end 2025—a year that had been incredibly rough, where things weren't going the way I wanted and everything felt so tough. But in the end, it was finally over. I could finally rest and watch the sunrise on a grateful universe.
I cannot begin to express how grateful I am. My countless hours of hard work, prayers, and sacrifices all led to this moment. This opportunity with TD represents not just a job, but validation that persistence pays off, that showing up matters, and that sometimes the breakthrough comes when you least expect it.
Honourable Mentions of 2025
- Montreal Adventure with York's Concrete Toboggan Team: I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Montreal as part of York University's Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race team. We won both the "Best New Team" and "Best Team Spirit" awards! It was truly an unforgettable experience.
- Notion ❤️s Toronto: I organized a cross-campus collaboration event with TMU where around 200+ college students attended. The turnout and energy were amazing!
- Transitioning Leadership at CSHub: I signed off as President of CSHub and passed down the torch to new executives. I'm still part of the team as Chief Returning Officer and Mentor, which allows me to continue supporting the community I helped build.
- Organizing Hack the 6ix: I had the privilege of organizing Toronto's largest summer hackathon at York this year. Seeing the community come together was incredibly rewarding.
- Multiple Notion Events: I hosted several Notion events throughout the year—Notion Expo at Intuit in December, Notion Speed Build Challenge in summer, and Make with Notion 3.0 Showcase in Toronto in December. Each event brought together passionate Notion users and creators.
- Makerslounge: I joined Makerslounge, organized by my friend Robert Mill. It's a fantastic event for networking with people in Toronto's tech scene, and I've met so many amazing individuals there.
- Discovering New Stadium: I discovered New Stadium and connected with lots of incredible people through this community.
- Tech Roast Show: I got roasted on stage at the Tech Roast Show in Toronto during the summer. Not my proudest moment, but still a cool story to tell!
I did so much in 2025 that I had never done before, and I'm incredibly proud of myself. I'm grateful for all these opportunities and the people who made them possible. This year pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best ways possible.
Reflections on 2025
Looking back at the latter half of this year, I've had time to reflect on the challenges I faced, the victories I celebrated, and the lessons I learned. It hasn't always been easy, but each experience has shaped who I am today.
One of the biggest lessons I learned is that our actions can create an impact on those around us. The connections we make, the help we offer, and even the small gestures we share ripple outward in ways we often don't realize. Being intentional about how we show up for others has become incredibly important to me.
I also learned to get more curious with age. Curiosity is like your joints—it weakens with age if you don't exercise it. Instead, I want to age like Larry Ellison. If you're over the age of 25, a good rule of thumb is to assume your first thoughts about new trends are wrong. It's fine to have no opinion on new trends. But if you want to have an opinion, put 20 hours into it first. Talk to people doing it. Try it yourself. Get your hands dirty. You'll be years ahead of everyone your age.
I also discovered the importance of working on your introduction. This might be unconventional advice, but it's incredibly powerful. Instead of downplaying what you do with vague descriptions like "I just do tech stuff," being specific opens doors: "I build agentic applications and organize community tech events across Toronto." When people understand exactly what you do, they can connect you with opportunities and people who can help. A clear introduction turns you into what I like to call a "simple API that people can connect into"—making it easy for others to see how they might collaborate with or support you.
But perhaps the most transformative lesson was learning that letting things go is sometimes the best decision. Closing one chapter means I can start a brand new one, and it's not the end of the world. We don't need to have everything figured out—we can write the new pages as we go. This was really difficult for me to do since I was a person who was afraid to let go of familiar feelings, even when they no longer served me.
Thanks to the people around me who were on this journey with me (that could be you, the reader), I learned so many things that I will take to the grave. This is the character development arc I needed to advance my story forward.
Goals for 2026
As we step into 2026, I'm setting my sights on some meaningful goals that will help me grow both professionally and personally. Here's what I'm committed to achieving:
- Master the fundamentals: Write better code by truly understanding what I'm building. While AI tools like Cursor are powerful, I need to resist the temptation to rely on them blindly and instead learn what the AI is generating so I can become a stronger developer.
- Build financial wisdom: Develop smart money habits including learning how to invest, creating an emergency fund, and managing my finances responsibly. I need to understand where my money goes and make it work for me.
- Stay prepared: Keep grinding even though I landed a job. The tech industry is volatile and unpredictable—layoffs happen, companies pivot, and nothing is guaranteed. I need to stay sharp and always be ready for what comes next.
- Develop consistency: Establish a solid routine that balances work, friendships, and school. Actually pay attention in class so I can graduate faster and make the most of my university experience.
- Build meaningful habits: Reduce my screen time and doomscrolling. Instead, invest that time in reading more books, learning new hobbies, and developing habits that actually enrich my life.
But most importantly, I want to stay true to who I am. In the midst of chasing goals, building my career, and navigating all of life's demands, it's easy to lose sight of yourself. I don't want to become someone I don't recognize just to fit a mold or meet someone else's expectations. My values, my authenticity, and my sense of self are what got me here—and I need to protect that as I move forward.
Looking Forward
If you made it this far, I truly appreciate it and thank you for reading my journey. I hope you'll stay with me in 2026, which will be a year filled with amazing things, new adventures, growth, and so much more to come. Here's to new beginnings!