My Tech Journey So Far

My Tech Journey So Far

Something to motivate you💪

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8 min read

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Ahhhhh!!! The sun here in Abuja can boil a pot of rice! The heat is something for another day. I am in a Bus and this pumps up my head, like my journey so far in the tech industry. If someone had told me in September 2020 that I would be going into tech I would laugh out loud in mockery, not because I don’t like it, but simply because I have ZERO hints of what tech is about, what they do, and all, I was in 300 level studying history, so why should I even know it? That’s how shallow-minded I was in tech. But see me today, struggling all night and early morning to either learn Python or Django. I can’t say exactly when I became interested in tech, but I remember it was October or November 2020. 2020 was a year I saw myself trying to do a lot of things I never thought of. I was the HR person for AIESEC in Abuja recovering and trying to get used to the shift from a physical to a virtual space because of the pandemic, I took a google digital marketing course, that triggered me to take my catering business online, set up an online errand company to cater for people for a fee along with my friend Precious, my plan of going into the aviation company if ASUU didn’t call off the strike was still very valid then as well. So I was caught up with all this.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

It was after EndSars, there was a day tech trended on Twitter Naija, I don't even know what it was, immediately I messaged Precious and was like this tech thing I'm interested o, seeing that women are not much in it, the kind of huge money that was made (lol.. Money was one of my first motivations), etc. Then my business wasn't going as planned. We both had a long conversation that day about this even though it was alien to us. Then I decided to talk to David, one of my go-to guys, to explain what the whole tech thing was, David is a Graphic designer and UI/UX. That was when David broke it down to me, told me about it, he mentioned "Frontend and Backend" and immediately I chose backend since my current role in AIESEC then was backend, David sent me videos to watch and told me about Javascript and Python, so I feel for Python, it was all love at first sight and I have been faithful ever since. After the whole explanation, I said after all I have a laptop, I got them because a girl in ICT training then taught us basic computer skills. So the laptop was doing nothing after the prog program last month of 2020 was spent on installing IDEs I watched a whole lot of YouTube videos, deprived myself of sleep, and end up achieving nothing, there are some videos that, I won't see or understand what the tutor did and I just had to stop to a new video that would ask me to download another IDE. It was a very lonely and very confusing journey for me, I was watching videos without knowing what I was watching I was just following, not with programming friends, no hints on how to meet them too. During this period, I started following tech people, engaging in their tweets, then I read someone pinned Tweet on how he lends laptop from a friend for 2 hours to learn how to code, I said to myself, "if someone without a laptop can do this, why can't I?", I was challenged, that was how I messaged Moses and we exchanged contacts and got talking.

HELLO WORLD. the day I wrote " Hello World" was one of the exciting moments since I started this confusing journey, I loved it and wanted to do even more.

SCHOLARSHIPS

I started applying for anything scholarship I saw about software development, I got the Ustacky and started learning HTML/CSS. It wasn't an easy ride, I was going deep into this programming, I was consistent, understanding the concept at that point, I could do some stuff myself. CSS discouraged me I do things exactly as I saw them done and I wasn't getting some of them right. I got discouraged, wished I could ask someone but nobody to ask. Then I stopped learning. Cisco was another scholarship that helped at that period, I met someone I could ask questions with, I stay up all night trying to sort things out, I made 2 friends from the telegram group. My dad's death on January 2nd, 2021 made me inconsistent again and somehow I dropped.

I resumed back to school and continued my Ustacky tutorial, I started with Python, and this time I started understanding python well, list, set, loop, etc. I still encountered the same issue of not knowing who to call or talk to about my worries, fears, asking questions, etc. I had a lot of questions to ask and Google alone wasn't enough, I wanted to talk to someone in the system so badly. Most times I am sad and confused, I want to rant, I was stuck in the middle of nowhere not knowing my direction, I was just moving. This continued for a long time. School exams made me not so consistent, I was on and off. Fast forward to June I got a Simplilearn scholarship, still the same video scholarship with no one I could ask questions or talk to.

MENTORSHIP

I remembered speaking to Moses at this point about my whole fears and challenges, he lifted my spirit as he always did, but deep down I wanted more, I needed a guardian, a mentor. June was a blessed month indeed, I was at a shop getting my PC fixed and I saw someone coding, you can imagine the excitement in me, seeing a real person coding for the first time, not YouTube but life 🙀. I went to him with excitement, “Wow!! you’re coding" 😀😀. We discussed, my curious self asked how he started the journey, shared my fears, he told me it was normal, that was how I collected his contact message for him. He was checking up and asking about my programming journey, then later I opened up, told him I needed a mentor, he explained that I needed someone in the same stack as me and that he isn’t. He promised to get me, someone, that was how I got to meet my Mentor Victor in July. After I got a mentor, the journey became smooth, I realized most of my fears are general, I now have someone to ask questions. I realized most of the problems I encountered were the funniest, it might be that I was supposed to left-click and I was right-clicking and some other very minor issues. He fixed video meetings with me twice weekly, despite his tight schedule, all the times we had our call, he was always at the office, sometimes he was sleepy, or tired that you can see through his face. He was my god in this career path without knowing it sacrificing his time, data, etc. Without a dime was rare. I was so anxious to start building apps, was confused about how python codes would eventually become a website, then I was told I would learn a framework later, it was another shock for me then I realized I had to put on my seat belt and take things calmly. That was when I started writing long lines of code, I started writing 100+ lines of codes, I became more committed that I would wake at 3am or 4am to code before preparing for class or my daily activities, no day went by without coding, sometimes if power fails, I go to the hostel common room to charge and code at night. I also got familiar with some programming terms.

100 DAYS OF CODE CHALLENGE

Moses told me about the 100 days of code challenge I read about it and got interested, but I never wanted my progress to be out there, which was one of the criteria, but as always Precious said I should try, then I told her she has to also be involved so we would be posting together since she was learning frontend. We went to a hotel in town(name undisclosed) from Gwagwalada Abuja to use their free wifi to download the udemy course because it was 28GB. I started my 100 days of code and was posting on Twitter daily. It was my final year, school work was choked, my projects, exam, so many assignments, etc. So I wasn't as consistent as I should be, but I was moving a bit. I got stuck at so many points because it was a general python course, which made it intense and all. I went through a lot of projects each day. I also realized I was not so happy whenever it's a data science, ML, or Gaming course I would take. I had to skip some parts and focus more on others, so I don't remain somewhere forever. This was a whole new journey, though I already. I learned more and my growth became so obvious that I could see it.

COMMUNITY

Raymond played and still plays one of the crucial roles in my growth, my success would never be completed without him. He sent me the link to the first community I am part of. I was approached to be the conference manager for a Tech event (TECHFEST). I told Raymond about it and how I wanted volunteer speakers, within hours he sent me so many numbers of tech guys I should contact. These contacts later linked me to other contacts that were either community leaders not active players in the community they belonged. That was how I was added to so many communities, I met the GDG lead in my school and I later became one of the core team members. These communities linked me up to a lot of people I need to grow. I am currently engaged in a lot of communities as an active player, attending events, and so on.

I wouldn’t say I am where I want to be today, but my growth has been amazing, for a historian with no tech background or prior interest in tech, from being that girl that wouldn’t run "Hello World" with looking at her screen to someone that can write lines of codes. I’m grateful and glad, as this article would serve as a motivation and inspiration to people wanting to go into tech…

ANYBODY CAN DO IT!!

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