GOLD OUT OF RUST

“My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities”

- Mario Testino

GOLD OUT OF RUST 1

He kept calling me, he had lost his way and could not find the office. I saw him dressed in a jean and a top wearing a slipper, dripping from head to toe because of the rain and I said in my heart surely this cannot be the one. I kept speaking into the phone asking where he was, the movement of his lips and the look on his face told me what his words were about to say…

You’ve got to be kidding me. I know mama had always told me never to judge a book by its cover, but this…It was so difficult not to jump into conclusion.

He sat with the team and here was what happened instead;

CEO: Tell us about yourself

My name is Hammed Oyedele, I am seventeen years old (I’m sure you can imagine the look on my face at this point) and I’m a web developer.

COO: How did you become a Web developer

Curiosity

I came across Mobile BASIC programming language on Google while using my mum’s J2ME feature phone to browse. I became curious and decided to click the link. After the first click, I could not stop, I downloaded .jar file from BASIC source code which could be installed on the phone I was using. I used this to create some apps and games that I shared with my friends.

“Each curiosity I feed gave birth to a new one, it was like the Hydra in Greek mythology, I just couldn’t stop”

After my exciting journey with Mobile BASIC, I came across HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I started learning, after that, an uncle recommended an advanced online course and I continued. It was like the universe recognized my strong desire for this and was providing me with the information I needed to grow and improve my knowledge. I joined some online coding forums which included but was not limited to Stackoverflow.com, nct.com.ng to improve my coding skills.

But my journey as a web developer began in 2017. That year I understood how the web and internet worked. Immediately I knew I had to open a Github account. I started undertaking a lot of projects, I made a lot of crazy mistakes until I could get a hang of it. I knew isolation was a plague to growth. So I started following experienced web developers and designers on facebook, twitter. Medium and other social media platforms. I took the coding challenge on Hacker Rank, just to stretch me and pull me out of my comfort zone.

After a while, I was able to handle some Freelance projects on Upwork.com and OLX. I continued to develop my skills until the opportunity came knocking on my door. On February 12 I saw the job advert for an intern at Epower and I applied.

The final question got me

CMO: What type of laptop do you use

I don’t have a laptop, I used a J2ME feature phone from 2015–2017 and my Friend’s Fathers Laptop in 2017.

You can imagine the look on our faces.

To be continued next week.