How I started My Tech Journey
Introduction
Echoing the words of Chris Grosser “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them”. I am Tolulope Oladeji, a young woman in STEM, passionate about solving environmental problems with technology. In the year 2019, during my postgraduate studies, I was introduced to Tech by a friend. Prior, to the time, I was yearning to learn a new skill and didn’t want to depend on my certificate as the only means of survival. Upon the introduction, I delved into Tech but didn’t realize it was going to be a long ride, with pitfalls and potholes.
The difficulties encountered
Was I really scared transitioning into Tech? Of course, I was. Anytime I remember the words of Chris Grosser, I get motivated. My tech journey kicked off haphazardly because of my non-technical background even with numerous Tech fields’ information on the internet. Alas, I neither knew where to start from nor what to major in. I was contemplating on majoring in Software Development or Data Science but confused. One Saturday morning, I summoned the courage and started with YouTube videos but there was no definite learning path. Frustration crept in but I did not just give up on my dreams of getting a technical skill.
What did I do next?
I googled the roadmap to a Data Science Career. Wrote down the cogent information and zoomed off to register for courses on Coursera. The courses were explanatory enough but I couldn’t afford to pay for most of them. I kept on revolving like a vicious circle with a slow learning pace. But one thing was certain, I wasn’t ready to give up. One evening, during the pandemic I saw my brother giggling over the phone for hours. I asked him in annoyance why he seems to be so engrossed with his phone and laughing profusely. His response was, “Sis you are missing a lot, by not being on Twitter”. I laughed it off, but he encouraged me to open an account. He spoke about the numerous benefits there, as long as I am following the right handle. I reluctantly obliged and he opened an account for me.
The turning point
Few weeks later, I started following a couple of Tech handles. I came across Elisha Odemakinde’s tweet one day on Twitter, contacted him and he linked me with one of the AI+OAU community lead. My journey to tech started having shape though still blurry, but my fears began to wane. As fate would have it. I met Precious Kolawole also on Twitter and she introduced me to She Code Africa. Luckily for me, it was just 2days to the end of the application of She Code Africa Data Science Mentorship program. Within the next 48hours, I had to submit a Technical project in support of my application. I prayed silently within me and forged ahead with the project.
The following day, I carried my laptop(desktop), hurried to my neighbors apartment due to lack of electricity within the area. It was as if forces were just against me because the transformer of my area got spoilt a day before. Well, I was determined not to give up. I finished up the project late in the evening, set up my GitHub account and submitted later that day before the deadline. I remembered hearing some of my neighbors gossiping that “Is this girl into Yahoo”. Such statement won’t be new to techies that work remotely. I laughed it off and was less bordered about their remarks. Few weeks later, I received a mail from she Code Africa that I have been selected. My happiness knew no bounds and I quickly rang Precious concerning the good news. Interestingly, I was assigned to be mentored under her tutelage and this made my tech journey easier.
The journey at She Code Africa
She Code Africa was very strict with their rules, assignments and deadlines. I knew I had to leave my comfort zone to achieve this. Upon proceeding with my program, I began visiting campus environment in other to get access to electricity, as this aided my workload and I could also meet up with deadlines. It wasn’t an easy one but I am forever grateful I made the move till date. I got introduced to a series of outlined topics for the period of learning. Started writing technical articles during my She Code Africa program. I recalled how nervous I was at first when I published my first technical article on medium. Imposter Syndrome crept in and I felt I couldn’t write something beautiful. A week after publishing it. A company reached out to me, made positive remarks and requested for my permission to publish it on their blog. I was shocked. I obliged them and my confidence improved in writing. I worked on a couple of Machine Learning projects during this program. Here is a link to my GitHub.
After She Code After training, I embarked on a series of training ranging from: IBM-Digital Nation Certified Training Program, Data Science Network (DSN) Bootcamp, Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Training Program sponsored by Women in Cloud. I started participating in Kaggle and Zindi Hackathon challenges. Leveraging on the foundation that She Code Africa gave me became so beautiful and an easy path to toll. DSN program further strengthen my Data Modelling skills. Their training alongside others improved my Data wrangling, Data Visualization, Feature Engineering skills etc. I owe that community a lot.
Conclusion
Presently, I have ceased to see myself as a newbie in Tech. Now at a phase where I keep learning, unlearning and relearning. Knowledge is progressive and technology keeps evolving on daily basis hence, the need to keep improving on oneself. Now I am focused on applying the data science skills to my domain knowledge in Environmental Studies via building of projects. Focused on a career path intersecting AI applications to Environmental Science. This is because knowledge gained is meant to be applied.
I hope you enjoyed the read.
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