Hi, I am Tambe Salome, and I am an Outreachy Intern! In this blog, I will be talking about my journey as a software developer and how I found myself as an Outreachy intern in the OCaml organization.
Brief Introduction
Again, I am Tambe (tam-bear) Salome. I am a 22-year-old girl from Buea, Cameroon, a country in Central Africa. I graduated from the University of Buea in 2024 with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering. I like building secure software and contributing to tech communities. I have been a volunteer for the Google Developer Groups Buea since 2020.
Tambe the Explorer🔭
Outreachy Attempts
I first applied to be an Outreachy intern in 2021 when I just started learning how to code with C. I used the book C Programming: A Modern Approach and really loved it. It gave me solid programming foundations. I was accepted for the contribution phase, but quickly became overwhelmed by the available projects. This led me to be unable to make any contributions during this period.
I also didn't seek guidance early enough and was trying to figure everything out on my own.
I've applied to Outreachy almost every other year since then, but was never accepted for the contribution phase, until this year, when I was, and then I got in :)!
To Code or Not to Code
I started with the C programming language, but had difficulties finding where I could use it extensively to build really useful things. Almost all the projects I came across on GitHub that used C wrote a version that seemed very foreign to me😄. As a beginner, I could barely understand what was going on in the projects, not to mention where to start contributing. I later on explored web development with Laravel and then React. However, all I was exposed to was not really "exciting" for me. I felt like I wanted to do something different.
When they cut out our internet in about 2017, I have always fantasized about being a hacker and finding a way to restore it completely 😂. I think this was one of the things that led me to explore Cybersecurity.
I began my cybersecurity journey with tryhackme.com, and was later accepted into the CyberGirls Fellowship program, a rigorous one-year program designed to encourage women to enter the field of cybersecurity. I participated in the Vulnerability and Penetration Testing track, and although it was exciting, I didn't get to write a lot of code during this time. Also, because I was doing this while being in engineering school, I had little time to work on personal projects that would have me writing code.
This made me realise that I would not just like to test the security of systems but also be actively involved in building those secure systems. Day-by-day, I am discovering more of what this means to me.
Community
I have always loved the idea of contributing to tech communities. It's been fulfilling to see people discover other possibilities or start a career in tech because of an event that I contributed in organizing. Most times, it feels like being part of a cause that is bigger than myself. I haven't figured out a lot, and seeing people figure out even what remains a mystery to me, because I was able to bring together a group of people to have a workshop or give a couple of talks, is extremely satisfying.
At GDG Buea, our motto is: A Community that Codes, and I'm very much interested in contributing to building a community of practitioners who build software at a global standard.
Discovering OCaml
Before this internship, all I knew about functional programming was probably only what was briefly mentioned in a course at school where we talked about programming paradigms.
Despite not knowing any OCaml before, I randomly picked a project in the OCaml organization because the project's chats were not already saturated with people wanting to contribute, so I thought this would increase my chances of getting in.
Unlike the last time that I got accepted into the contribution phase, I actually sought guidance and support from Day 1 after being selected this time. I was constantly reminded to ask questions in the channels whenever I got stuck and to share my progress on the tasks I was assigned.
I am contributing to an OCaml Library for reading and writing tiff files, and it sounded all so exciting and somewhat scary from the start. The project description mentioned extending the library's support for GeoTiff files, which store geospatial data, just what an explorer will like😄.
I read and re-read the existing code, and started learning OCaml with the Real World OCaml book. Picked an issue, worked on it, got blocked, got unblocked by mentors, made pull requests, and now I'm here interning in the OCaml organization, contributing directly to a library, and working with some of the best engineers.
What Now
I am continuously learning OCaml while making contributions to the tiff library with the help of my amazing mentor, Patrick Ferris. I put in maximum effort each day to work towards the project's goal of the library being able to write TIFF files.
One of my favorite talks is by Olumide Balogun, who constantly reminds me about Doing Hard Things, which I remind myself about each time I get stuck.
I look forward to working extensively with OCaml, working closely with other OCaml developers, and contributing to the mission of making OCaml mainstream.
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