From Nobody to becoming a Software Engineer.
Content#
My love for computers started when I got exposed to computers in my primary school and I became more curious about it.
When I was 9years old, My parent's enrolled me in a 6-month Bootcamp where I learned basic things about computers and how to use base office software like Microsoft office suite and CorelDraw. After 6 months, I came out with a Diploma certificate in basic computer operations. I was the youngest and the age difference between me and other students was about 8 to 10 years. I was supposed to be introduced to basic internet surfing but they skipped that session.
After a while, My parents got me a Mini Samsung Solar-powered Netbook NC215S Laptop to keep practicing and that's where figured out how to use the internet on my own and I wanted to know more about how the internet works.
During my holidays in secondary school, I spent most of my time teaching people how to use computers at the Bootcamp I graduated from, and as soon I finished secondary school at 15, I was offered a full-time position to teach people how to operate computers. I got to know about Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
The pay was not good; However, I saved some money, and my parents gave me more money to be able to buy my second laptop (HP Pavilion DV6700) that I used to advance my graphic design skill.
At age 16, I was offered a job as a Graphic designer in a large format printing press (Marfex) where I got to know about different forms of printing. I was also able to operate heavy machines like Galaxy large format machine, Bizhub C554, etc, within a short time.
I met a lot of successful self-taught programmers and a few CS graduates during my stay at Marfex that gave me the same advice. They said that although most people feel that a CS student should be able to write code, it is far from reality because they do not teach you how to program in the university.
Fortunately, I landed a contract to print some flex(banners) during a presidential election through which I made enough money to buy a better laptop (HP Probook 440 G1) before I resigned from my job to pursue my career as a software developer.
After what looks like forever, I landed my first Full-stack job at Dreamworks systems solution. Dreamworks is involved in things like computer networking, government contracts, to name but a few. I completed two projects before being promoted to be the lead software engineer in 2019 at Dreamworks.
The first open-source project I contributed to was (Combat Covid) early 2020 before I resigned from my job at Dreamworks. After that, I was hired to work on an open-source project (Hardocs) funded by TU Delft and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in June 2020.
Also, I want to mention that I started to build Nature UI before my contract with TU Delft and EOSC and the first version of Nature UI was released in the first week of February 2021.
I resumed playing football in 2020 and why I stopped playing football in 2016 was because I had an accident that affected my right foot which has completely healed.
My technology stack.#
Programming Languages:
- Javascript
- Typescript
- Python (Entry Level)
Here are a few technologies I use to build front-end applications:
- React.
- Next.js
- Redux.
- Apollo + Graphql.
- HTML + CSS
- Vuejs
- Nuxt.js.
Below are a few technologies I use to develop server-side applications:
- Node.js.
- Graphql + Apollo
- Express.
- Postgresql
- MongoDB
- Couch + Pouch DB
- Django
- Firebase
I use mostly use Jest for testing on both front-end and back-end; However, I
use react-testing-library, enzyme for other forms of testing.
I use Docker and other docker-related tools and Nginx for DevOps. Although, I have used Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and CorelDraw in the past, I prefer to create UI designs with Figma.
I use git + GitHub for version control and Github actions or Travis CI for CI/CD.
My current website is built with Nature UI, Next.js, and React and it's powered by markdown.
I plan to update this page as time goes on so stay tuned 🙂.