On Becoming A World-Class Developer.
So I got into this program called Dev-career. This program was initiated by Akintunde sultan (@hacksultan) on twitter. Being a self-taught developer in Nigeria is not an easy one because of the lack of resources i.e light and internet. Dev-Career is a program structured for beginners in tech, the program is scheduled to hold for three months, there will be provisions for all required resources which is a laptop, amazing course, a wonderful mentor and a conducive workspace for leaning to support us for the three months. Do you see why I am so hyped for getting in?!.
The screening process was a vigorous one, had to take two tests online and a physical interview. The interview consisted of 8 interviewers when I entered I was like wow this must be serious because I have never had an interview that 8 people had to interview me that shows how rigorous the screening was. After the interview, all I could hope for was to be picked, because I meet fellow budding developers that are equally good.
On the 12th of august, I got a text message saying I got into the program, that was one of the happiest days of my life because I already lost hope thought I wasn't going to get in. It was stated in the email that we are to start on the 14th and I was posted to Impact hub, ikoyi, Lagos.
I was so excited, I went on to my social media account to share my excitement.
On the 14th of august , I got to impact hub ikoyi. The reception was very welcoming and I meet a fellow intern who also got into the program, he introduced himself as ropo he is an aspiring backend developer. We were talking about the whole program when a message came in from slack from one of our facilitators Chidi Okoye to set up our workspace by registering on git hub and download some important applications e.g visual studio code, slack, git, etc.
When I finished doing all that I thought that was all for the day Until Chidi Okoye gave us a git and git hub task. Before that day I never knew about git but I've heard of Github so when the task came in I was lost had no idea on what to do, I went ahead to google for help I was still confused everything seemed like magic. So I turned to my colleague and asked for his help lucky for me he had an idea, so he told me to watch him and learn I was watching and he was explaining alongside but i wasn't still getting it,so he referred me to a video, I watched the video and practice I was still making some mistake. So I decided to start all over the next day.
On the 15th I came to impact hub with the mindset of getting my task done. So I started all over again with the help of my colleague. It was going fine until I pushed to masters unknowingly oops!.
Chidi Okoye brought this to my knowledge told me I have to start all over and I did. This time around I got it perfectly!
On the 16th we front-end developers were given a task to do a tribute page that sounded fun because I am going to be using Html/CSS which I have grown fond of but problem started when we were given specific div to use and asked to place them in certain places I had to rack my brain and make sure it was placed in the right places.
While coding I lost all my code at one point because I was using code pen to code and that was my first time using it, so I had to re-write my code again because I couldn't retrieve it. I finished my task and forwarded it.
Later that day my mentor got back to me with the correction and I was told to implement them by Monday!
The first week for me was very educating and stressful. Sincerely when the first task came that is the git and git hub task I felt like I was in the wrong field because all those months of being a self-taught developer I couldn't do the first task I was given like how am I suppose to be able to do the upcoming ones but I did, this made me realize there is nothing you cant do when it comes to tech as long as you have your mindset to it.
hopefully, I will start learning javascript soon after perfecting my Html/CSS, I started this program with the goal of being a renowned and world-class front-end developer.
I would love to thank Sultan, Chidi Bartholomew Okoye, Tobi olagoke , @thebeye and whole DevCareer team I’m super grateful for your time, mentorship and support you.
I would also love to thank Impact Hub, Lagos for the free space. This is definitely one of the best office space in Lagos and I'm being given free access to it like really?!!!. I really appreciate.
And then my fellow interns Bami Ogunfemi and Ropo, You guys have been amazing, Thank you!