When I was studying Computer Science I used to attend a lot of women in tech events. At these events I started noticing a pattern of women in tech who studied computer science or started out as programmers but went on to pursue non-technical roles after a short while in their technical roles. It made me wonder how realistic my degree and technical ambitions were. Of course, developing non-technical skills is an important part of a developerâs journey, but a lot of the women I spoke to were leaving their technical roles before even getting to senior developer.
When IâŚ
Today we celebrate Onalerona Mosimege, software developer at Praekelt.org and recent computer science graduate at UCTđ¸đżđť #queen
1. When and how did you start coding?
When I was in grade 9 they needed to fill up the IT class in my school, so they asked all the learners that chose physics as a subject to take part in like a âsampleâ IT class.
That was the day I wrote my 1st piece of code. We were using Pascal-Delphi, and we had to create a button that turned the screen blue or green (donât quite remember at this point), and it was probably only 4 lines of code. But I remember the feeling I got the moment that programâŚ
Every now and then you meet those people who are not only technically gifted but they also have artistic talents. Carol Kariuki is a Software Developer: VituMob, Web / Mobile Developer, Facebook Community Co-Lead: Nairobi and professional Singer. I had the honor of meeting her at the Developer Circle Summit in Lagos this past December.
When and how did you start coding?
I first came across a computer in 2002 when I was 10 years old. The PC piqued my interest and I would always look forward to Computer Class. âŚ
Born and raised in Mahikeng, Software developer at Absa, Photographer, Insta Model and content creater. I am incredibly honoured to call him a friend. Meet Thuto Aphiri
When did you start Coding
Started coding in university. Before that I had no understanding of coding and my idea of it was totally wrong. The only coding I was exposed to before university was those kids from American movies hacking into government institutions. When I was in high school, I was actually advices to do it but I let that ship sink very quickly. I was set on doing astrophysics⌠which I applied and got accepted forâŚ
Over the past year I have come to love one of Pythonâs most popular web frameworks, Django; The web framework for professionals with deadlines. Djangoâs primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites. This has saved me a lot of headaches while developing Buza Answers. Here are some tips that I didnât find in online tutorials but have helped me along the way:
Old but Gold
One of the reasons I was hesitant to use Django is because I wanted to use a new and âcoolerâ framework but thatâs just unnecessary tech clout. Django is a powerful, well documented andâŚ
This is a short blog post, itâs the first day of work. I donât have time to write something long, you donât have time to read it. So letâs go:
- Not talking about mental health enough. A lot of developers have some kind of mental health illness. Mental health awareness should be talked about in any space occupied by human beings. So while we are still human, letâs talk about it.
- Looking down on other developers because they are not using the latest, coolest, most blogged about framework. âŚ
I have always thought, âWhere would I be if I didnât have the extra financial responsibility of taking care of my loved ones back home?â I frequently think of all the times my savings amounted to something and then something happens that requires me to send money home. I think of all the ewallets I really didnât want to send, but how could I sleep at night knowing that my loved ones were not okay. âŚ
Looking back on my first year as a developer, I realised that by this time last year I was job hunting for the first time. I had a lot of interviews lined up but after a few of them I began noticing a trend in the way companies, more specifically start-ups, were approaching the recruitment process. Technical interviews are draining, you can talk about all the side projects you work on but all they care about is your ability to regurgitate algorithms from second year. âŚ
When I heard that PyCon South Africa (PyConZA) was accepting talks for the 2018 conference I was excited to hear about other peopleâs work. Little did I know that I would also be submitting a talk. At first I was thinking âwhy would anyone want to listen to a junior developerâs experience?â, but my colleagues at Praekelt convinced me it would be valuable for others to hear, so I submitted my first conference abstract.
Getting over the imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome follows me everywhere, at work, at meetups and even at my own talk. Even though everyone kept telling me that the work I doâŚ
I got an amazing opportunity to speak to the students at Kitsong High School in Phokeng. What I love about this school is that IT is compulsory, yes thatâs right, all the kids in this picture code. Itâs beautiful. When I started coding in High School, a lot of students thought it was too difficult. With only seven of us in the class it was expected that we would all drop out, but at Kitsong coding is like Maths or Setswana.
The students were really excited when they found out that I am a software developer, not because I amâŚ
Sewagodimođ
Software developer. Human being. Now vlogging at: http://youtube.com/sunshineinmycode
