I quit my dream job to learn to code

rotimidokun — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 15:43:38 +0000

It’s my first blog since I decided to switch careers and become a Software Engineer.

By way of introduction, I am Tosin Rotimidokun. I am interested in many things and you can tell from my journey in career so far.

As an undergraduate, I worked as a creative designer in a management consulting firm. After a year, I decided to become a management consultant at Co-Creation Hub, Africa's largest technology innovation centre where I had the opportunity to manage several Startup Accelerator programs. I liken the experience to throwing me into a deep pool of resources, brilliant minds, strong networks and stakeholders, and I am forever grateful for the experience.

I interacted with many technical and non-technical founders, and together we redefined products, Business Value, Teams, Corporate governance structures, Partnerships and raised Investments. This helped me build other skills in project, program and product management.

My time as a Management consultant in the technology space helped me realise how valuable the skill of coding is today. This was when I made the decision to transition again. This felt like I was "crazy", terrible and inconsistent, because I was giving up a good career to try something new and perceived as difficult. I started my learning journey in February 2021 and can now confidently call myself a software engineer. Hurray!!

I decided to apply for the HNG internship 8 by Zuri, because I came across a lot of great software engineers today who also went through this program. I applied to the frontend track and in the 8 weeks of this internship, I hope to;

Be able to complete full scale frontend applications using the React framework and Redux for state management.
Build a network of great software engineers.

If you are at the point of starting out like I was in February 2021, finding resources that help you understand basic concepts and also solve specific challenges at a point are important. Here are some resources that could help you get started;

Figma: Getting started with Figma
Git: Learn Git in 1 Hour
HTML: HTML Tutorial for Beginners
JavaScript: Learn JavaScript - Full Course for Beginners

Are you interested in fast tracking your development journey as a beginner, join the Zuri training program.

If you have some development knowledge and want to gain hands-on experience building projects quickly, join the HNG Internship 8

Thank you for reading my story. Follow me. Till I come your way again..

DEV Community: rotimidokun

I quit my dream job to learn to code