My Journey into She Code Africa Mentee Programme

It’s the year 2016 and almost every guy around you is talking about Bitcoin. “Pay 15k and I’ll teach you. It’s the best investment you can make oh”. You can’t say this is a farce because you can see for yourself that they’re the big boys in their department. But you don’t pay. Somewhere, somehow, the stars will align in your favour and you won’t need to make this sacrifice.

Now it’s 2017 and all everyone talks about is MMM, the almighty scheme that’s supposed to double your life savings with minimal effort. The crash is welcomed with much hatred and grief. Why in God’s name would a legit business which should easily skyrocket your finances ever crash? What version of Earth did we land on?

Fast forward to 2020 and Coronavirus, the Royale show stopper, hits the US, China and other ‘white’ nations. At the heart of every COVID conversation is the phrase “Na white man disease, e no dey affect black people”. Only that it does affect black people and brown people and yellow people. It affects everyone. Okay, noted.

Zoning in, you realize COVID isn’t the only virus to hit you. Your degree suddenly has an infection and is rendered useless. But that’s nothing to worry about since you’re not the only person who graduated from your class swinging about a degree which only shines a light when it trends on Twitter. It would be an abomination for you to worry. Except you do have to commit this abominable act. You do have to worry because how else would you add value to a company and in return bam with the big boys? That degree you’re moving around with doesn’t hold water in Nigeria.

People around you start talking about tech success stories. Anyone can do tech? Even people who didn’t study computers? Just wow. There are designers, data analysts, front-end developers, back-end developers, and digital marketers, name it. They work from home and earn well. “You can also do this tech thing. Just find a field you like and immerse yourself in it. You’ll love it” they say.

Suddenly your eyes are open, and the way looks crystal clear. The only problem staring back at you is where to start from. Where do you start from? How do you start? YouTube? Courses? Mentors? Okay, what courses should you start with and how long should it take before you earn blood ritual money?

Calm down, my lava-blooded tech bro. In due time, you’ll join the ‘She Code Africa’ programme as an intermediate designer. Mind you, the due time is the year 2022. You’ve learnt so much along the way, withstood some harsh storms and clapped for yourself after finishing a design or figuring out how to solve a user’s problem. You see! The stars aligned in your favour, though not before your friend convinced you the SCA programme wasn’t just for developers.

So far you’ve enjoyed it. Though google calendar reminders sometimes turn on their own, you’ve followed through on your classes. Connecting the dots, you can see that moving haywire didn’t equal losses. You even finish user experience statements before they’re made. Your problem is you too sabi!

Talking about user experience design, it dawns that this story is a user’s journey into tech as a product. Hopefully, the stars align multiple times in your favour and it becomes an incredible user journey.