Wow... Cannot believe time has really flown by.
It seemed like yesterday when I made up my mind that I was going to focus on programming and channel myself on that path. Even though I studied Computer Science at the University, I was not sure I wanted to go down that path because I thought programming was not for me. I remember how conflicted I was on what path I wanted my life to go. I had no plans, no end-goal, nothing and this got me really scared.
At the beginning of this year (2020), I made a conscious decision to know programming all over again and see why a lot of my friends rave about it. On the 18th of January, I attended my first ever tech event. Women Who Code Lagos (WWC) hosted an event, where some of developers making waves in the tech space will talk about their journey, so I felt this is what I needed to know what to do. For the very first time, I saw I was not the only one who felt like I did not understand anything, who felt like what is working for others might not work for me. For the very first time, I became confident to put myself out there and make use of any opportunity I see. This confidence boost came from listening to Adora Nwodo, Edidiong Asikpo, Jemima Abu, Adegoke Femi, and Ekene Ashinze speak, but most especially the females because I could resonate more with what they were saying.
Now, I was fired up. I wanted to learn but here comes the downer. I had NO laptop. I started thinking up ways to get a laptop, ask a friend, borrow from someone or just look for a giveaway online. This was when I was introduced to Laptop4Developers (a non-profit organization that supports budding developers in Africa by providing them with resources, like, laptops, courses, mentorship and so on). I became really excited and I applied for it. I passed all the necessary tests and now it was time for the interview. I was really anxious about this but I went and did it all the same. It was a really nice experience. The interviewers were really approachable, the atmosphere was not tense but I was still really anxious.
At the end of everything, I got the rejection mail. I was really heartbroken but I did not allow that stop my learning. I started programming on my phone and solving Hackerrank questions (this I did by solving on my phone, sending to a friend to help me submit it and tell me the errors I was getting).
Now, I am sure you are wondering where the 3 months experience comes in. This is what birth the DevCareer x Progate program for me. When I got the rejection mail, about a month later, Akintunde Sultan decided to start this initiative program. This initiative was sponsored by Samson Goddy, @hoopsomuah, Obinna Odirionye and anons.
Immediately, I saw this, I declared my interest. The question now was, where will I get a laptop from? Well, I finally was able to get one from a family member so my registration was complete. 💃💃
On May 13, I received the slack invite. I was so excited. To me, this was a case of "Now the journey begins".
First month
I started learning Ruby on Rails, a whole new and different path for me. This was a challenge in itself, as I was just hearing about it and I decided to try it out. Progate is a wonderful platform, in that, it is very explanatory and detailed when it comes to breaking things down to the barest minimum. This was one of the fun parts of learning, I finally found a learning platform that made coding easy. Another was the data disbursement every month by DevCareer to help us study more. During this period, I got to further understand HTML 5, CSS and I got to learn Sass and how it allows grouping of code, thereby making you write less CSS, which is amazing.
Part of First Month and Second Month
I was fully settled into the whole learning process and I was making progress. The organizers decided to spice things up by giving us tasks. They created group team leads and told the rest of us to pitch for the team of our choice and the team lead will add us to the team channel. Now, I have never pitched myself before so I didn't know what to do but I learnt that to sell yourself, you need to understand what the employer is looking for and pitch yourself with that. It separates you from other candidates. I did this and in no time, I got added to a team. Yaayyyyy!!! I was so happy. Here came the task, for the FE part of the team, we were tasked with converting a full-fledged LinkedIn design to static front-end implementation. When I saw the design, I was shocked. The design was amazing but what I started thinking was, 'how will I implement this? I have never done this before'. I believed I could do it and I did. In the process, I got to understand CSS flexbox, CSS Grid. I learnt how to create a side modal while blurring the rest of the background. I even got to learn how to lead a sub-team. See below the pages I worked on:
- linkedin-redesign.netlify.app/feed%20page
- linkedin-redesign.netlify.app/notices%20page
- linkedin-redesign.netlify.app/jobs/index.html
The "Other" modal can be accessed by clicking on Other on the right of the navbar.
Third and Final Month
We were grouped into a team different from the first and were given our first challenge as a team - implementing an Andela Store Manager which was divided into front-end and back-end. The Front-end team was to implement the static pages without any design as reference, basically becoming both a designer and a developer.
What came to my head during this period was that if I could do the previous task, I can do this one. I pushed myself again to work on this task. You know when you are stuck and there is a limit to the amount of explanation you can give someone else virtually to help you, this is where peer programming came to play. We were introduced to peer programming which I must say, is not something I expected. You can basically share code with someone without having to git push or pull from the repository but just using a VS Code extension to enable this. You get to see how others implement their ideas and learn from them in the process. You can offer feedback in terms of writing code in the shared code space. It was really amazing thing to know and use. This is the link to what I created: sleekfeet.netlify.app/index.html
What Next?
Now that the program is coming to an end (sadly), I can say that I am now more confident that programming is for me and there is nothing I cannot tackle. I plan on using my new-found skills to grow myself. As we all know, learning never stops. I will keep learning and growing myself and applying for tech jobs.
Thank you so much DevCareer x Progate for this opportunity. Thank you once again to the sponsors. Without you, this program would have not been successful and thank you to Akintunde Sultan for bring up this initiative.
Always remember, the mind is the most powerful tool of any human. Set your mind on what you want to achieve, work towards it and you will see the result.