Hello! My name is Lydia Ingabire.
Today, I am honored to have a chance of sharing my story about how I conquered my fear of becoming a software developer as a woman.
In high school, I studied management and ICT, programming(C, C++,..) was a principal course. But to be honest, I never dreamt of being a programmer growing up. I was young and immature, I wanted to do easy things. I always thought that programming was for geniuses but at the same time, I admired it as a brilliant career.
After high school, I started university in accounting but honestly, counting money was not fun either. I was in that stage of my life where I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do in the future. I dropped out without finishing because the issue was that my parents couldn't afford to pay for my school fees. I knew I wanted something different even if I was not sure of what.
I started working in hotels to make a living in 2016, and by the end of 2018, programming crossed my life again when Andela came to Rwanda. I received an email about how Andela wanted to train those who wanted to learn coding. For the first time in my life, I finally knew what I wanted to do. It got my attention again after spending many years without hearing about programming. I filled out the form requesting them to accept that I join the Andela learning community(ALC), that is how the journey started. I remember writing HELLO WORLD as my first line of code like it was yesterday. I felt like the most genius programmer alive.
In 2019 I decided to quit my job to dive deep into the world of programming. When I think about my journey, Andela definitely will not miss it. Andela taught me all the basic skills I use today, from designing a simple webpage using plain HTML&CSS, creating APIs, using Github&Git, Collaboration, problem-solving, Teamwork, etc. I always cherish all friends I met, mentors who were always ready to assist me, and memories created through that life changing journey.
The journey was not an easy one to be honest, it was full of highs and lows. I failed many times, I had many things to learn to be a developer, and sometimes I would feel like giving up and try something else, however, I was confident that programming was what I wanted to do in my life and that pushed me forward even if sometimes I would do it with tears on my eyes.
In 2020 when Covid-19 strikes, it was another challenge as it found me still learning. I had to figure out a way forward to reach my dreams of being a software developer. I joined MICROVERSE an online school that train developer. I can say that while others were in the lockdown, I was busy coding, making new friends from more than 50 countries in the world this journey was colorful. Microverse boosted my confidence again. I had fun learning a new programming language(Ruby&Rails) and many other technical and soft skills.
After spending 6months learning, I got my first job as a Technical support Engineer and after I got some other opportunities as a software developer. Imagine how I felt! my heart was full of mixed feelings crying and laughing and full of gratitude, it was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I can say that many opportunities are coming my way. I look back through my journey with a smile on my face.
If you are reading my story, however, you are in the middle of trying something new, yet nothing is working out, please don't give up! Remember why you started.
PS: I still have many things to learn. I always fight with imposter syndrome, but, yes!! we push on regardless.
Top comments (3)
Hey Lydia, thanks so much for sharing your story!
I think it would bring a lot of value to the CodeNewbie Community too:
CodeNewbie Community 🌱
The most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code.
The CodeNewbie Community is a super supportive & inclusive community of folks from all backgrounds who have gathered together to learn (and help others learn) to code. It's not unlike DEV, but the focus is really on dev newbies! 💻
Would you consider crossposting this article there? Because CodeNewbie is built on the same platform as DEV (Forem) you can fairly easily copy the Markdown and post it there as well. 😁
Hello Erin, Thank you for reading it is an honour! will post it there.
You have very good motivational story!