Advocating for Inclusion of Women in Technology: My mPharma WiSE Program Experience
Completing a Software Engineering Boot Camp was one of my most outstanding achievements of the year. My next big question was, where do I gain actual industry experience? I did not imagine that my first engineering role would be at a multinational organization. I’m still in awe! The mPharma Women in Software Engineering (WiSE) program is a special internship program for female engineers in Africa that offers real-world engineering and technology experience. For this season, five interns were selected from Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, with two occupying front-end roles, one in backend engineering, one in quality analysis, and one in site reliability engineering. Up until now, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of this program as a front-end engineer, and I wanted to share my firsthand experience with you. Here is what to expect:
Diverse teams
I had never thought I’d be part of a team of engineers in different time zones during my first internship but as a multinational company, mPharma’s engineering teams consist of people from all over the world. For starters, you’ll be placed in an engineering squad comprising back-end engineers, quality analysts, front-end engineers, UI/UX designers, and a product manager. This setup has allowed me to learn how front-end engineers working on micro front-end applications collaborate with back-end engineers. I’ve experienced team leads putting emphasis on engineering goals, and the QA engineers ensuring that all software built is of a high quality acceptable to our customers. The various engineering tracks make up a chapter, in the case of frontend engineering, all frontend engineers come together to discuss new technologies, their various tasks from their different squads, and how best to go about them, among other interesting items. You get to be a part of your chapter meetings where you can learn and contribute to your chapter goals. This kind of exposure broadens your way of thinking and helps you develop a more collaborative approach to problem-solving, making you a better software engineer.
Real-world projects
One of the most exciting moments of my internship at mPharma was when I got to work on developing a new promotions and discount feature that would be integrated into the production software. Here are small snippets of the feature!
Unlike some companies where interns are limited to writing test cases and observing experienced engineers, mPharma provides interns with the opportunity to actively contribute to real-world projects. Bloom is mPharma’s flagship software product that is built to be the best tool to manage healthcare provision on the continent, ensuring patients get value from their visits, and that providers serve them in the fastest time possible. As a member of the software development team, I was able to work on the point of sale and inventory management modules in Bloom, creating a meaningful impact. This hands-on experience allowed me to learn valuable skills applicable to the real world and helped boost my confidence as a software engineer.
Mentors with experience
Upon joining the WiSE Program, each intern will be matched with a mentor who is the technical lead of the various engineering fields, has worked on a variety of projects, and has a wealth of knowledge to share. When I first joined the program I had no experience working with the technologies that the company relied on. I had to learn React for building composable UI components and Redux for state management. Given that Bloom was created with an offline capability to serve customers with intermittent or no access to the internet, I also had to learn how to achieve this using Workbox and IndexedDB for persistent storage on the browser. My mentor worked closely with me to ensure I learned the company’s technical infrastructure by overseeing my implementation of personal projects with similar aspects, ensuring I understood my assigned tasks and how best to implement them, and providing me with valuable insights into the industry. I remember doing my first Pluralsight assessment and my skill IQ was ranked as a novice in building web applications with React. In the first month of working on projects, this score changed to a proficient average. My mentor also challenged me to think critically and encouraged me to explore new areas of technology. As a result, I contributed to various projects and developed a more holistic understanding of the software development life cycle.
Open-door policy
The mPharma culture allows everyone, from interns to executives, to be accessible and approachable. This encourages communication and helps to break down barriers between different levels of the organisation. I have gotten to interact with the entire hierarchy of the organisation, from the CEO, CTO, heads of engineering tracks, product owners, product managers, and human capital leads, I mean the list is endless! This ensures that your ideas will always be heard and you learn from everyone in the company.
Learning & Growth
My expectation of joining this program was to enhance my software engineering skills. Throughout the program, I’ve had the opportunity to learn and grow in ways I could never have imagined. I’ve learned how to create progressive web applications that are offline-friendly, in-depth user interface design and styling concepts, work with microservices, manage and manipulate complex UI state, make applications secure, and work with different software environments, among others. Being in a team environment has helped me to pick up on how the backend architecture would look like, what the project owners required for the different projects, and the needs of actual users. Aside from the technical skills the program allows us to learn, it also contributes a lot to personal growth. I have been able to grow more compassionate and empathetic from pair programming sessions. This allowed me to adopt a patient and understanding attitude toward team members and ultimately become a better team player. The WiSE program provides a supportive environment for continuous learning and growth, setting up its participants for success in their tech careers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the mPharma WiSE program offers a unique opportunity for aspiring female software engineers to gain valuable industry experience. From experienced mentors, hands-on involvement in real-world projects, an open-door policy, and diverse teams, this program provides a supportive and inclusive environment for professional and personal growth. Overall, this internship has helped me grow holistically and it’s definitely an experience you should try.
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