Diverting Into Tech: Discussing with Adedoyin Adeyemi

Our Diverting into Tech series focuses on people who made a switch to tech careers from other backgrounds. We try to understand how and why they made the switch, as well as how the journey has been.

Today’s focus is on Adedoyin Adeyemi, a Front-end developer and Cloud engineer. She was one of the top six graduates of the She Code Africa Cloud School program, and the winner of a Udacity nanodegree to continue learning cloud engineering.

Adedoyin’s story

“ In a place like Nigeria, it is very common to continuously adapt to situations. ”

She studied Pharmacology at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria and transitioned into tech because she felt that it would be an easier way for her to realise her dreams.

Adedoyin has always wanted to be a doctor as a child. However, she realized at an early age that being a doctor in Nigeria is not as easy or fulfilling as she would have liked it to be. She then decided to go through another route by becoming a medical lab scientist. Unfortunately, the school she applied to didn’t offer the course, so she had to choose a related course which was Pharmacology. Adedoyin believes that in a place like Nigeria, it is very common to continuously adapt to situations.

Her plan with Pharmacology was to become a lecturer after studying it, but she had a rethink during the lockdown. It was hard for her to admit it at first but she came to a realization that it would be difficult to achieve her goals in the timeframe she had in mind, especially as a lady.

Starting her tech career

It was during this rethink that her tech career would begin. Adedoyin was advised to go into tech, and she took the advice. She saw it as a good idea because it was an opportunity to acquire new skills. Like many people, Adedoyin started coding using freeCodeCamp. She started to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the platform, and also made use of freeCodeCamp’s forum when she was stuck on any challenge.

She liked the forum because of how easy it was to offer help to people who were stuck on challenges, as well as receive help from others. She wanted to be part of more forums and organizations like it, which led her to discover She Code Africa.

After joining SCA’s slack community, she was an active member for a while, but that changed when the levelled membership program was introduced. She joined the frontend channel and worked on the weekly tasks. It was these tasks that helped her learn how to work with deadlines and improve her time management skills.

The Journey

Adedoyin tells us that her journey has been exciting and challenging. “Thinking back I know it hasn’t just been my hard work but God’s grace.” As a final year student working on her project and preparing for final exams as well as juggling her small confectionery business and being a presenter, the journey was definitely not easy.

She had to put a hold on her confectionery business as well as her presenting job in order to focus on school and tech.

Growth and Improvement

Adedoyin knew how broad the tech space was and did not want to be mediocre. She wanted to excel at what she did rather than being average, so she took some steps in order to improve her skills. These steps included signing up on LinkedIn learning and other platforms like it. She used them to learn and work on skills that she felt needed improvement.

She then participated in the SCA Cloud boot camp and excelled greatly to an extent that she got top performance rewards.

“ It was really hard, especially trying to balance the cloud school with my final year exams, project and other extracurricular activities as an exco on various councils in school and church, but look at me now… A budding tech sis that is on the verge of achieving her dreams!!!”

Why Cloud?

She was originally not into Cloud. She initially thought of herself as a beginner level front end developer since all she knew was HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, when SheCodeAfrica tweeted about a boot camp to learn cloud engineering, she knew that it was an opportunity to learn something new.

She sees the tech industry as being male-dominated, especially in the cloud field, and would love to represent ladies by going into the industry.

Some resources that helped her

She used Free Code Camp and LinkedIn Learning (they offer a free month). She also has some articles on her blog.

Next steps

Adedoyin is trying to acquire more cloud knowledge and thanks to the Udacity nanodegree scholarship from SheCodeAfrica to study Cloud DevOps engineering, she is doing just that.

She hopes to get a proper entry-level job or an internship soon, in order to apply what she has learnt and grow better.

Adedoyin’s advice to you

“I would like to advise any lady looking to join a tech space to join She Code Africa. The culture there is top-notch, experienced women lifting other women and flourishing in their respective fields. It is a really exciting experience. Be tough, keep pushing and don’t ever give up. Ever!!! ”

You can read other interviews in the “diverting into tech” series: Lola Salehu, Rianat Abass, & Wuraola Oyewusi.