My Transition Into Tech: Software Developer

Not until I finished my final papers at the university did I realize

Everyone already figured out what their life after school would be about.. Except me!

I know this might sound outrageous but I attended a student get-together after my final exams in the university and everyone was supposed to introduce themselves, and I was expecting the normal cliche of "I am a Student" because actually everyone was (or so I thought..) But to my utmost surprise, everyone already has a marketable skill or business they are passionate about or they could identify with and I was super amazed hearing all sought of beautiful things they were already doing with their lives.

Then I wondered.. How did this happen?? I thought we were all here to be students and just make good grades?? So, At what point did this change and I did not get the memo??!!!

It then dawned on me that, Most people had already explored their possibilities while in school and has found their passion Except me! and at that point, I knew what I needed to do... FIND MY PASSION.

The Journey to Finding Myself

I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way...

I decided to dedicate the next one year of my life to finding myself by mapping out a plan of how I'd learn a skill, do more volunteering, and be more involved in things around me. But then, Covid-19 hit, and we all had to remain indoors! I was quite devastated by the news, but I decided that no matter what happens, I wouldn't waste another year of my life doing nothing. I then switched to the "online world" Where I became a Researcher, A Digital Volunteer, A Canva Graphics Designer, a Plotagon Animator, a Climate Change Advocate and a Sustainable Energy Enthusiast.

I was quite enjoying this newly found Me, then one day I saw a job opportunity that requires fresh Engineering graduates to help research for a start-up company. Though I wasn't sure I was ready to work yet, but I decided to apply anyway as I was a perfect fit (A Mechanical Engineering Graduate and a Pro at Research). I got invited for an online interview and lo and behold I got the job alongside one other person. The job fitted perfectly into my plans and i found myself thinking, maybe research was actually my passion. Few months passed and the research phase ended, then the CEO asked if we would be interested in programming as that was the next phase of the project. I was like, why not.. since that was an opportunity to learn new skills, I jumped at the offer, he then gave us the challenge to Learn Web Development in 1 month!

The Twist

"Sis, You stole my line!"

I immediately told my friends who then, linked me to a truckload of resources that includes video tutorials, online code-along courses like w3schools and freeCodeCamp, amongst others. But as much as I love challenges, I knew this was a suicide mission when I saw the number of things I was to learn and master in one month! The problem was that I understood what was going on in the tutorial, but as soon as I'm off it, I couldn't replicate it on my own!

I still kept pushing as the one-month timeline kept getting closer. Then one day during one of our meetings, my co-worker dropped the bombshell, that she would like to be excused from the challenge as it was quite a lot and she doesn't think she can meet up with the one month timeline. I felt like screaming... "Sis, You stole my line!" "This was supposed to be me!" "How in the world did you beat me to this!". After which I was asked, if I shared the same view with her, in my mind I was like "Heck Yeah!" "How am I supposed to do this in a month!" "This is mission-impossible!"... But what came out of my mouth was... "Although it's quite a lot at the moment, But I'd like to still continue!" After the meeting, I was like "what in the world did I just do!"

Playing it cool, I continued with my learning, hoping that i didn't just make the worst decision of my life.

The Intervention

The CEO then came up with a bottom-up approach to help my learning, that is, coming up with a design and asking me to replicate it. Then, I'd just go to the internet and type "how to create a navigation bar" "how to centre a div" "how to create a footer" and so on, Till I kind of mastered the basic blocks of building a website "HTML, CSS and Javascript to some extent.."

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. – Benjamin Franklin

I still wasn't interested in tech at that point, as i made a plan to keep pushing through the next couple of months, until i saved enough money for data, so i can continue my learning of new skills online.

Along the line, I found a BootCamp advert (LadiesAtWork), that wanted to train recent female graduates interested in web development or mobile development for 3 months, though i wasn't planning on starting a career in tech as at then, I decided to apply for it anyways as it should help with my current work struggles.

The Power of Perspective

Very often, when you change your perspective, you see things differently, make different decisions, and get different results. - Brian Tracy

The LadiesAtWork Bootcamp organized by Pearls Africa was a blessing in disguise for me; as a lot of resources were put in place in terms of tutorials from programming experts, to one-on-one mentorship sessions,with an extra cherry of motivational webinars on Saturdays, where thriving professionals in the tech world were called to share their journey with us.

My experience during these 3months helped solidify my programming skills while opening my eyes to a new perception of programming (a problem-solving tool) with the beautiful possibilities of the tech world.

For the first time in a long while, I felt in place, like I'm right where I needed to be, So there and then, I made the decision to continue with the tech journey even after the BootCamp has ended.

So far.. So Good

Choosing the Software developer's path has a lot of perks that come with it, that I actually enjoy:

• The ability to work from home or anywhere in the world as it accommodates a flexible work schedule

• I get the chance to think big and infiniteously with the power to affect lives from where ever I am.

• I get to learn new things, new stacks, new logic, so I won’t be stuck on doing one thing the same way for the rest of my life. I actually dread that.

• There is room for improvements and it is totally scalable.

• I get to be Me... unapologetically! as the industry would always love to have a fresh mind/perspectives, So ‘be yourself’ is gonna be the watchword.

Conclusion

You will recognize your own path when you come upon it because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you need.

Being a software developer has unlocked so many parts of me that I never knew existed and I'm still gonna keep exploring them for a long while, promoting technology-based solutions that are geared towards the great impact of my society.

Thanks for following my story to this extent.. You're the real MVP! ❤❤

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And If you want to join me on my transition journey follow me on Instagram @oyin_dawodu , where i would be sharing an insight to what software development looks like for me.