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Uchechukwu Obasi
Uchechukwu Obasi

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#1: My Journey into Software Engineering

I'm about to kickoff a series documenting my journey as I progress into the world of software engineering.

How It All Starts

As the breeze of creativity blows by, and the chants of the victorious beats deeply into my eardrum, I sat quietly under a fruitful mango tree with my headsets in full stereo thinking about what life has in store for me.

I was 16, clueless, broke, but at the same time, hungry for success. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with my life but one thing I knew for sure was that I could think out great ideas, which I so much believe- I still do- was worth billions of dollars.

I had just returned from a tech conference, and I was privileged to hear from a lot of experienced, distinguished speakers share their thoughts and ideas on the importance and value of technology, and how young folks like me can tap into this multi billion dollar industry. I was really fascinated by the things I saw and heard, but at the same time, I was a little bit ashamed of myself. I was in my second year in the university and to make matters worse, I was a computer science major. I was so ashamed of myself because I felt I was supposed to have a glimpse of some of the topics discussed by the speakers. I was particularly frustrated with myself when one of the speakers told us that college students in the US were already working for big firms while some of them were starting off million dollar tech companies.

Prior to that event, I’d never heard or seen anything like software programming-I didn’t even know what it meant to program a computer. I thought computers were all about the hardware,and the Microsoft Office packages, maybe because I was made to believe so while I was undergoing a 2 months computer training at an ICT training center during summer breaks. I was in Junior Secondary School at the time. It dawned on me that I could end up unemployed upon graduation just like every other graduate in Nigeria if I didn’t take deliberate actions about my condition as soon as I can. I made a firm decision right there that I will build my capabilities and grow my skills in order to be employable upon graduation. That event was a life changer for me- it kicked off my journey into software engineering.

This episode of my journey into software engineering will continue next week. Until then, go forth and be awesome!

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