In November 2018, I started my journey as a web developer. A recommendation from a friend who was already 3 months into the world of programming convinced me to join write code.
He described it as one of the fastest-growing industries and had the most community support in the world. I did my research and saw that it matched my original dream of becoming a software engineer. I had no laptop or desktop to start this journey but I decided to use the phone I was using at that time, being a Samsung Galaxy Pocket S5300 (one of the smallest smartphones in the world).
I searched for a text editor for android and found a really good editor called DRIODEDIT. Now what was left for me was to get a place to learn. My friend recommended EDX but I found their content to be a little advanced for me as an absolute beginner though they have great content. I nearly gave up because all the contents I found to me were a little above my standard. A week later, I decided to search on the play store for an app that can help me as an absolute beginner. To my surprise, I found a very good app called SOLOLEARN.
Sololearn has the most beginner-friendly courses for all people who want to join the programming world. I signed up and started my journey with HTML and CSS and later did JAVASCRIPT. On sololearn, I found a lot of wonderful people who were ready to help me achieve my programming dreams.
My phone later had a crack on the screen and it became very difficult for me to program. At times I had to go to friends and beg them to use their computers and I also visited the cafe most of the time just so I can get my hands on a computer and practice what I had learned.
Sololearn also helped me get a super awesome friend called Ali Usman Zaidan whom I'm most grateful to till date. He helped and encouraged me to join programming groups and also be active on Twitter. I did what he asked and even formed a group with him called developers avenue official where I taught HTML AND CSS to new developers like myself. I later found Freecodecamp, which to me is one of the best websites to learn programming as a beginner. Through this friend, I met an organization that changed my life as a programmer.
Devcareer has changed my life so much that words can't explain them. Earlier in 2020, I registered as a frontend software engineer for a cohort program organized by Devcareer called #Laptops4Developers. It is basically a program aimed to help upcoming and junior developers in Africa learn backend development with Nodejs or python, frontend development with Reactjs, and mobile development with flutter and gain access to hubs, laptops, internet, swags, and electricity for free. They also buy courses for their interns to learn and work with them for a period of 3 months and after that, they got to keep the laptop and use it.
I applied and traveled 7hours to be interviewed because of the passion I had for the tech-world. A day later I received an email that said I had been accepted into the program. Now what was left for me was a place to stay. Ali gave me a place to sleep and his family fed me for the whole three months I stayed with them for the internship. (He was also chosen for the program). The program was supposed to commence in early March but was postponed to August due to the coronavirus pandemic the world is currently fighting. We commenced on the 10th of August 2020 and completed on the 24th of November 2020.
During the program, we were provided with great and skilled senior developers who became our mentors. Their job was to guide us and help us during our stay with them. The mentors were so good and helpful to us.
With all that I got to learn with the organization, I also got to meet a lot of junior developers from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda. These teammates were so helpful than I ever thought they will be. We helped each other wherever needed. We held regular meetings with our mentors and one another to discuss various problems and challenges we were facing during the program. We were given projects to work on in groups and when a group isn't able to finish their project in time, the whole team comes together to help the team out. Though I'm still searching for a frontend developer role, I'm mostly grateful to Devcareer for the opportunity they've given me. The program was a super success and I'm encouraging all junior developers in Africa to apply when their next cohort is up.