The New Andela Fellow

Nice title right? Yeah. After a rigorous bootcamp, I made it into the fellowship. On 02/05/2017, I resumed at the Andela Epic Tower, Lagos as a Software Developer. Honestly, I thought that day would never come…

As I walked into the Andela office, I couldn’t help but feel so much happiness and excitement. And I wasn’t the only one who felt this way though... My cohort members were equally bubbling with excitement — another chapter of our lives was about to be written. We were warmly welcomed by older fellows who also eagerly shared their experiences in Andela and as new fellows who were very hungry for any information, we happily consumed the tales.

To aid our transition into the organisation, we were briefed about Andela. While Kate Igori explained the structure, global and local teams, and policies of the organisation, I was once again reminded of Andela’s core values — Excellence, Passion, Integrity, and Collaboration. In that moment, I said to myself: “Andela is a movement: a movement to evenly distribute brilliance and opportunity”.

As the day progressed each member of the Lagos Leadership Team (LLT) had a session with the new cohort. From the sessions I understood that Andela is a non-discriminatory employer of labour. Who cares about your race, sex, title etc when we’re on a mission to change the world? I mean, who cares. I also gathered that Andela is also a reserve of talents who are willingly to provide support when needed.

I knew Andela wasn’t kidding when the Technology and Leadership team commenced their session. Work was to start immediately. The party was over. LOL. The Learning Loop was about to be intialised. Learning would go at a fast pace and I would have to be on top of it. No time to slack or complain. We’re on a mission to change the world.

There. That’s it. It’s day 4 today and I’m learning React. I’m confident it will be an amazing journey here…