Nabeelah Persevered, Coded and Prevailed 💪🏽

The year was 2017. I had just graduated with a BSc in Microbiology and had no idea what to do with my life. I had a really good grade but was not passionate about the degree and could not even envision myself working as a microbiologist. I also definitely knew that I didn't want to follow the path my elders in my community wanted me to go; become a lecturer, get married and have kids. No way!

However, a great opportunity was coming to me within a month or 2 and I could not afford to waste it... The National Youth Service Corps. For those that do not know, it is basically a year where a newly graduated student under 30 years of age in Nigeria will have to serve their country back. The reason why I was so excited about it was that I get to be posted to a completely different state within Nigeria. Away from parents and responsibilities. Time to live my own life according to my terms. My dad wasn't happy... 😅.

I got posted to Abuja, about 600 km from Lagos where I stayed and I couldn't have been more happier. A place where no one knew me or my family. Puuurrrfect!!!
I won't say my year in Abuja was all smooth sailing and happy, there were definitely days I cried my eyes out and wanted to give up on the whole expedition. But these were some of the series of events that got me into tech

Broke as hell 😭:

Because I did not plan ahead about how I could feed myself and get a job while living in a strange land, I got absolutely broke. Luckily my parents gave me enough to rent a place for the year and the government stipends helped a bit but it wasn't enough. Luckily for me, I knew I was skilled in desktop development and knew my way around a computer; a skill a lot of small business were looking for. So I started cold calling various companies I got via Google under the keyword technology companies . Quite smart, ayy 😄

Internship:

Cold calling worked!!! Turned out that a particular company I called was looking for someone like me. It was owned by a lady whom till this day owe her for how she nudged me into software engineering, a discipline I never knew ladies were allowed to be part of 😂. She created websites for businesses that needed them either with WordPress or static websites with plain ol' HTML and CSS. After observing her for a while, she allowed me design and create websites for her clients.

Online Courses:

After telling a friend back in Lagos about the kind of job I was doing in Abuja, she shared with me a link that introduced me to the Andela Learning Community. Andela is one of best software engineering firms in Nigeria so I decided to sign up for it. Took a short test and was accepted to join the community. They gave us access to almost everything you needed to know about software engineering on the EDX platform for 2 - 3 months. When my boss heard about it, she was so excited on my behalf, trusted me with the keys to her office so I can use her WiFi late into the nights and on the weekends. Damn!

NYSC slowly ending:

At this point, I was getting really comfortable with the whole websites creation, manipulating WordPress site templates that my boss left me with everything. And I loved it! However my NYSC year was coming to an end and that means I should be getting back to Lagos. Then my boss suggests I stay back with her with a 5x salary raise. Hell yes! Unfortunately 3 months in, due to family pressure and how African dads believe that girls are not supposed to stay on their own , I tearfully said my goodbyes to my boss and headed back to Lagos.

Anger:

Because I was so livid about the narrative of what a female should do where I lived, I decided to prove them wrong. But it was not only about that. I was also angry at myself that for a while, I had believed them somewhat indirectly. I remember when my boss mentioned that I should try to apply for the Andela bootcamp because she noticed I was pretty good at what I did and enjoyed it. And I also remember replying that they were not looking for newbies like me. I recalled her being angry at me for putting myself down without even trying 😅.
The intense anger was all it took for me to take her up on her suggestion to join Andela and believe that I could do it. So upon arriving in Lagos, I signed up for the bootcamp. A place I thought I could never belong in. I threw myself into preparing for their bootcamp which was hell 😓. Failed the 1st round and applied for the next immediately.

On the 1st of April, 2019 I freaking got in!!! It was the day I wore a tag with my freaking name on it that said 'Software Engineer'. I made it y'all ✌🏾.

P.S. 6 months later, I was laid off due to a whole restructuring thing but that's a story for another day. Trust me I am in a happy place 🤗. I have met so many many amazing people who helped me grow and made me into a better coder. And I would have not gotten my current job at Lambda as a team lead to teach others to be as badass as me 💪🏽without getting into Andela.