TIIDELab Cohort 5 Experience | Month 1
“Having a roadmap to working your way to success is an essential part of being a successful person.” Mustapha Anthonio
After the successful completion of the TIIDELab prefellowship program, which gave me an insight and overview of what the fellowship will be, I applied for the fellowship, passed through the admission process, and finally got accepted into the fellowship. I was among the 75 accepted fellows out of 7890 applicants for the TIIDELab fellowship Cohort 5.
We started with an onboarding session with the TIIDELab family.
We were introduced to the roadmap of TIIDELab Fellowship Cohort 5, which includes each month's activities that lead us to become sought-after software engineers.
Soft Skills
Our soft skill classes for the month include Attitude by our program coordinator, Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju (Big Brother), Starting Out as Software Engineers, The Key Success Factors by Mr. Theophilus Idakwoji (A senior Software Engineer), and Empowering Youth for a Sustainable Future: Building Skills for Tomorrow, a program we had on World Youth Skill Day.
TIIDELab does not only teach you how to code but also trains you on essential soft skills that will help you thrive now and in your future endeavors. The soft skills range from problem-solving, communication, analytical skills, teamwork, behavioral skills, time management, and critical thinking.
Hard Skills
Our hard skills started with collaboration tools, in which we were introduced to Git and Github by Mr. Ayodele Samuel Adebayo (Uncle Big Bay); we were also introduced to Data Structure and Algorithm (DSA) by Mr. Adekunle Adeyemi (Co-founder and CEO of Palmview Technology, Abuja).
We continued learning DSA using our study material, and we were able to cover and learn about Big O notation, Hash tables, Linked lists, Stacks, Queues, Arrays, and their implementations.
We also went further on the fundamentals and advanced concepts of HTML and CSS and responsive design, including using Float, Flexbox, grid, and Media queries. To wrap up our knowledge of HTML and CSS, we were tasked with building our portfolio using all the knowledge gained and, most especially, using Tailwind CSS (a flexible CSS framework) to build our portfolio, introduced to us by Mr. Ayodele Samuel Adebayo (Uncle BigBay). Thanks to Idris Haruna for also having a class with us on Tailwind CSS Sponsored by our Heads of House, Atoyembi Oluwakemi and Zaynab Audu.
Projects
Having learned the basics and advanced concepts of HTML and CSS, I was able to build some projects, including a hotel website and my portfolio, where I used the Tailwind CSS framework.
These projects have helped to buttress my coding skills and also given me a better understanding of what HTML and CSS can do.
TIIDELab Daily Routine
It was one month filled with learning and application, so let me take you through how TIIDELab achieved all this within a month.
TIIDELab has a daily routine that involves having our CCAT (Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test) to improve our problem-solving skills, a stand-up session (getting set for the day), studying our materials for the day, a coding partner session where I was paired with Omitogun Sherifat (a very vibrant and ready to learn individual), a peer review session where we brainstorm and discuss the study materials for the day and also create a slide for our presentation with my awesome team, The Innovation Squad, and finally the presentation session where we present what we've learned for the day to the TIIDELab family.
This process not only buttresses your learning but also builds your confidence when you are the one to present.
Meet my Team
Let me use this opportunity to thank my team “the Innovation Squad” (The team lead Grace Adie, Assistant Ije Henry, and other team members including: Aisosa Oyakhire, Blessing Okonkwo, Uthman Bashir Dantata, Olorunfemi Joshua, Onyeyili Febechukwu Owen, Omitogun Sherifat, Nkem Vincent Nweke, Kawthar Sulaiman and Soliu Adeosun) for the good energy and knowledge-sharing sessions we’ve had together for the past month.
Friday Meetups
Friday meetups are opportunities for the fellows to meet online and physically fortnightly to improve their soft skills.
We usually learn and are challenged to carry out one task or another, and our learning for this month includes Attitude, team-building strategies, problem tree analysis, becoming a highly sought-after engineer, the egg castle game; by Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju, securing your income for the future by Mr. Kadir Salami, Crafting compelling profiles, and articles for software engineers: A guide by Celeste O, Fikayo Adepoju, and Sumaiya Nalukwago
while other activities include Meeting our founder, Mr. Kadir Salami, and our sponsors, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).
Conclusion
I sincerely appreciate the entire TIIDELab family, including the founder; Mr. Kadir Salami, our program coordinator; Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju, and our sponsors, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).
My one month at TIIDELab has been a wonderful experience, and I look forward to learning and building myself as a software engineer.
Kindly look forward to my next month’s experience!
