Thread by @ejmudi

A short story of how Software Development changed my life!

From being a Nigerian, having no CS degree & working a Sales job I did not enjoy,

To writing code for a living as a Senior Software Developer at global top companies.

I hope this inspires someone.

https://twitter.com/DThompsonDev/status/1379453619880218627

A background:

I had just graduated with a degree in Biochemistry when I first learnt about Software development.

I was in the middle of a conversation with 2 friends, @dennisajalie being one of them

when they start talking about HTML & for the next 30mins I just stood there..

..I couldn’t contribute to the conversation.

So I got home curious and googled: “What is HTML” and that is how my self learning process began.

Few months later, I got my first job as a Sales guy at a Bank.

The pay was okay but the sales targets were insanely unobtainable for me

I had just moved to Lagos Nigeria, staying with my aunt

I didn’t have any connections in town and selling bank products just wasn’t my thing.

I remember I would walk under the scorching sun for hours,..

..sweaty in my suit, worn out shoes bottom, selling to businesses in the local markets.

I had 2 handkerchiefs, one for my face and the other to dust off my shoes when I got close to prospects’ offices lol..

..I ended up not meeting targets and had my job threatened daily.

I literally hated my job!

After working for a year, I decided to resign without a new job in hand.

That was a risky move, considering the no-jobs situation in Nigeria but I was willing to take the risk..

..I only knew I wasn’t happy where I was and then I remembered practising code makes me happy.

It was at this point, I decided I wanted to become a professional developer.

TBH I didn’t even know it was a lucrative career then.

I spent the next 5 months jobless and learning more JavaScript and PHP on my own at home.

I had saved a little from my salary, so I paid a guy to teach me more PHP.

At the same time,

I also got accepted into the 4Afrika initiative by @Microsoft & @Cc_HUB to get trained on C#.

All this while learning, the information overload was insane for me.

It seemed there was always something I was expected to know but didn’t.

I would sometimes have the fear that maybe I wasn’t developer material enough and nobody would want to employ me..

..I would then go watch a lot of motivational youtube videos from experienced developers.

I later discovered that this fear was normal and it was a part of the stages to becoming a developer for many people.

8 months jobless,

I got a job as an intern at a local company.

The pay was NGN25k (~$100 then) monthly, only about 15% of my prev bank job.

But I didn’t care about the pay, I just wanted production experience plus it was all just exciting.

That internship changed everything!

Fast forward to now:

- I’ve got 100% job security.

- I get job offers thrown at me.

- I build useful products at amazing companies.

- I earn in foreign currency.

- I've had to travel to another continent, see places for the first time because I write code...

- My last 3 jobs have been with global top companies working remotely as a Senior Developer.

- And I have the opportunity to work with amazing colleagues like @DThompsonDev in the US from my room right here in Lagos, Nigeria.

Again, my goal for sharing this is that I hope it inspires at least one person out here.

Perhaps one day, I could share the more detailed story as a podcast, a video or something.