Cohort Stories: Meet Nahom
vol. 5, no. 64 — guest post by Nahom Woldesenbet
I am most proud of my Ethiopian Heritage. When I was around five years old, my family and I migrated out of Ethiopia, to a far-away country where there were not many Ethiopians. It was a predominantly western culture, and that was the place that molded me. Ethiopian culture is so different from what I was accustomed to, that whenever my family would try to introduce me to a new food or try to teach me the language (Amharic), I was not only uninterested but also shut down any attempts at it. I had the mentality that all of it was my parents’ heritage and not mine. But all that changed in 2012. That year during summer vacation, my family planned a trip to Ethiopia. I was not looking forward to it at all. I had preconceived notions of how it was going to look, how bored I would be, and how I basically was just going to count the days til we leave. When we got there, however, it was an experience that I will never forget. Once we arrived it was like nothing I’ve ever experienced; the roads, cities, homes, families, and the community, were a complete 180. It was some of the greatest times of my life, and I wouldn’t change my heritage for any other.
Seeing the faces of people enjoy a product that I made was a priceless moment. Doing that everyday is what success in the tech industry would mean to me.
To me, being successful in the tech industry means having a job where completing the work in itself is a joy. I started playing with technology from when I was a child, and I was always drawn to it. Learning and understanding how it all truly works is the biggest blessing. And what success looks like for me in the tech industry, is to pick a sector that I really enjoy and get a mentally stimulating job where I can use all my skills learned and apply it daily. To not just go to a job site and clock in and out everyday, but to actually be invested in the work that I put in. For example, in high school I took an introductory coding course in which we had to individually make games on the Scratch platform. At first it was difficult, but once I got the hang of it I spent hours trying to perfect my game the best I could. When we all had to present our games to the class for others to play, I saw classmates huddle around my game and compete for high scores while having fun. Seeing the faces of people enjoy a product that I made was a priceless moment. Doing that everyday is what success in the tech industry would mean to me.
Before I even knew or understood what it was, my community college advisor told me about Hack.Diversity. She gave me the number of a Hack alum who was in the same major field in college as me. When I spoke to him, we talked about what kind of program Hack is and what they provide. What he said really made me look forward to the program. He told me that Hack.Diversity not only increases your knowledge of different technology subjects, but it gives hands-on, real world information that I could apply into a professional tech job environment. Including: navigating in the tech industry as a whole, interviews, networking, expert mentorship, etc. The internship and job opportunity is exciting, but learning to navigate in the tech world is what I think could be a lot more valuable in supporting me towards my career goals.