What I couldn’t do in 3 years but did in 5 Months — 2
I remember completing my Computer Science degree program and earning an Honours Certificate but not having a clue of what I wanted to do with my life.
I had obtained a lot of knowledge throughout my studies at university but lacked enough programming skills to land me a job. This was due to various reasons such as programming not being prioritized in our University, having no access to the right mentors, and not having the proper guidelines I required to make me successful. This led me to try every programming language I got my hands on, turning me into what is called “a jack of all trades and a master of none”.
So like any young gentleman in his early twenties, my priority became getting a job that paid handsomely enough for me to flex in the streets. And during my job hunt, I went for those that did not require any programming-related skills as I had none. And within a few months of hunting, I managed to land a job in a real estate company that paid a good sum of money.
For that reason, I really enjoyed the job. Life was great and I was really happy. When I got the chance, I made the time to hit the beaches with my buddies, and have a lot of fun. I had no worries at all since money was not a problem.
But after a couple of months, that didn’t make sense to me anymore. I realized I was getting less and less motivated every day to go to work. Until it came to a point where I was wondering, what would really make me happy. Despite the things I owned, I could still wake up in the morning and have no feeling of hitting the road for the office at all.
I remember the times I used to ditch the office, claiming I was working on-site while I was actually at home playing FIFA with my boys.
But when I reminded myself of why I did computer science, I had to make a very tough decision. I had to either go for the field I love or keep getting money from the field I didn’t love. It was really tough, This is was tough because I knew I lacked programming skills, and I had to invest in them first before I was able to land a job that would pay.
As I was planning on what to do, a learning community program was introduced in Tanzania for the very first time by Andela. I knew this was my best chance to invest in those programming skills. I quickly signed up, got accepted and quit my job. I didn’t know how I was going to survive, but I believed I was going to figure it out.
Doing our learning online using the Openclassrooms platform, the program spanned across a period of 3 months; from November 2018 to March 2019. Guiding learners with technical and non-technical backgrounds progressively into the world of programming.
To anyone out there who is interested in getting into the field but is procrastinating, I can surely tell you that, quitting my job to join ALC in Tanzania and concentrating on that, was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
#ALCinTanzania
My openclassroom’s Dashboard
Thanks to Andela and mentors from the learning community in Tanzania for their help, support, and motivation. The helped me change from a no skills dude, to a full-stack developer who is super crazy about JavaScript in just 5 months.
Being part of the A.L.C had given me the chance to connect with like-minded people.
Our final #ALCinTanzania meetup on March 16, 2019
I met brilliant learners and mentors such as Landry Kapela, Joshua Mabina, Leticia Nkulu, harith minhajj, Chrisostom Kaweza, Noel Jackson, and Rafia Ramadhani to mention a few. All of them have played a vital role in what I am becoming. My future looks bright with them in it.
