My academic life was a smooth one in the early stages. I had good grades and did not think about possible areas of interest. You know how it goes in Nigeria; 6–3–3–4. For me, transitioning into senior secondary was obvious. I was not interested in the sciences. I could not quite wrap my head around all those formulas. However, I rapidly picked interest in literature and other art-related subjects.
Once I was done with my WAEC examination, I registered for the JAMB examination. Looking back at my available course choices, Law seemed like the best choice at the time for whatever reason. I got into the university, had some issues in my third year, and decided to quit.
At the time, Mark Essien, the CEO of hotels, organized free coding classes. I had ample opportunity to learn, but I had convinced myself that coding was not my thing. I let the opportunity slip through my fingers.
Years later, people I know who had been learning to code had changed their lives.
I visited Miracle — a friend from the university — to discuss issues regarding the creative industry. She introduced me to Babs.
You know it never takes too long before the knotty question pops up in any social setting:
“So, what do you do?” I asked.
“Oh! I’m into cybersecurity.” Babs replied.
I am sure that was the first time I had met a cybersecurity professional in my life. I was into show business at the time. I carried on with it.
Over the years, the demand for developers and other computer professionals has grown exponentially. I started to give serious thought to switching careers. I recalled Babs and decided to have a career in cybersecurity. Many young people fantasize about hacking. I researched and realized I had to learn the basics of networking and at least one programming language, preferably python. Babs gave me pointers too.
It was New Year’s Eve. I went to hang out with my friend Andrè. I disclosed my intentions to switch to tech. He encouraged me to do it.
He said:
“We missed out on the oil boom. Let us not miss out on the tech boom”.
That was all the push I needed to get in.
I was deliberate about getting into the space. Thank goodness for smartphones. I got tech-related ads on my social media platforms and stumbled on a post from ALT School Africa. I registered and prepared for the exams.
I sent the post to my friend Felix. He told me ALX was free, and he had signed up. Initially, I wanted to focus on ALT School Africa, but then I saw an ALX ad while scrolling through Instagram stories and “we miss all the shots we do not take.” Right? Yes! I signed up for ALX too.
Welp! Good news and not-so-good news. I got in to learn backend development at ALX. However, I failed to reach the cut-off mark for the ALT School Africa admission. Damn! All that algebra and word problems I tried to run away from came back to haunt me. 😅
Nevertheless, I continued with ALX. I also had to re-learn algebra and revisit mathematics a little. Damn right!
Initially, I experienced many difficulties learning new concepts. I spent days trying to set up my GitHub. Pushing commands from my ubuntu command line to my GitHub repositories was a herculean task. The ALX curriculum had us learning Bash Scripting as beginners! Who does that? As if that wasn’t enough, we are currently studying the C programming language. New concepts build on the previous ones. You have to understand each concept before you can proceed to the next.
Our technical mentor at ALX - Mr. Maarten Van Middelaar - said that the C programming language is procedural. It enhances logical thinking. Also, when we understand the fundamental concepts, we can learn any other programming language with less hassle. I hope it does get easier.
Well, I am grateful for the experiences so far. I got to learn about First Principle Thinking, Feynman Learning techniques, and weirdly cool stuff like; rubber ducking. It has been over a month. I have made hundreds of commits to my GitHub. I have also made friends from peer learning. I have also worked on a task with an experienced full-stack programmer.
More so, ALT School Africa granted me access to their resources for a month and will admit me into the program if I make it through the first semester exams after three months.
Am I excited? Yes! Am I scared? Damn right! Do I feel I am not qualified to have “Backend Developer” on my bio? You best believe it. Learning to code is the most tasking thing I have done in my life. Nevertheless, I have no regrets whatsoever.
Well, you probably noticed I started trying to get into information security and somehow got to the backend programming path. I don’t have it all figured out. I will enjoy the ride and cross bridges when I get there.
"Step by step. 🤝🏽" Mfonobong Isine would usually write. Two words have never been more reassuring.
My subsequent articles will address the challenges faced while doing tasks and projects.
If you are reading this article and trying to figure things out, we can connect and find a way to support each other.
If not, pointers would be appreciated. ❤️💡
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