I am currently a backend engineer with less than a year experience in my field. In this article I would share a couple of reasons why I delved into the tech industry and how my journey has been.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Nigeria, I started volunteering at a feminist organization as a content creator and having to generate feminist content which involved a lot on feminists in tech piqued my interest. I read about so many women who had amazing careers in tech which involved a lot of money and this motivated me to want a budding career for myself.
I was already a feminist, the only thing that was left was to be a tech sis.
One more thing that made me interested in getting into tech was the fact that I did not need to have any foundation in programming to start and have a successful tech career as I studied Applied and Computational Mathematics in the university.
Since I had a background in design and content creation, I felt the best path in tech would be User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX). I did a lot of research and asked a lot of people regarding the UI/UX field and I was convinced that this was where I would ‘blow’. I went ahead to start taking lessons on YouTube.
Shortly after starting the UI/UX journey, I met an acquaintance who advised me to go into web development as this was the most sought after skill in the tech market. After doing my research, I started learning HyperText Markup Language (HTML). I took the HTML course on SoloLearn as I didn’t have a laptop then and the SoloLearn App had a terminal for coding.
I finished the HTML course in May, 2020 and I started selling sunglasses because the wealth and fame I read about when being a tech sis was nowhere to be found and I needed easy money please.
I was motivated by my friends for a while to not give up on tech and by October, 2020, I started applying for tech boot camps and internships where I could get deep foundational knowledge. Here, I didn’t have any path in mind so I applied for a various opportunities.
November, 2020, a friend sent me an application for a tech internship by Erbaver Technologies and WellaHealth on C# (C-Sharp) and .NET (dot NET) which required no prior knowledge and I applied. I got in for the internship and it scared me a lot at first and I did not want to follow through but it has been a very interesting experience that I never imagined I would have when I applied for the internship.
I learnt a lot, I committed and I saw it through. Concluding the internship proved to me that I could do anything I set my mind to and I was excited for what the future held and to try out things that scared me.
Thinking back now, it is amazing how creating content on feminists in tech pushed me to where I am now and I am super excited for the future.
Reference:
- Cover Image from Raw Pixel
- Inline Images from YungNollywood