My TIIDELab Experience 1.0 (FIRST MONTH)
"Positioning beats talent"~ Mr. Pishikeni Tukura
This keeps resounding in my head while I type this. Well, let’s start. So I started my journey into the tech world in December 2019. I once attended an education fair where I first heard "Coding and Robotics" and it struck me that I needed to know what “coding” was about. I became so inquisitive and enthusiastic about tech (Oh well, I come from a non-tech background). Fast forward to July 2020, I registered for TIIDELab, a tech fellowship that teaches self-reliance and how to be an employable software developer. It had a rigorous screening process before the final selection and I made the cut (I feel excited just typing this).
What I have learnt so far
The month of August was an Eye-opener for me at TIIDELab. I got to know that being a developer is not just about writing codes. I have learnt about the Big O Notation, Data structures and Algorithms, Version Control(Git), Advanced HTML and CSS and we are currently learning JavaScript. Thanks to people like Mr. Farouk Alogba, Mr. Saheed Adepoju, Ms. Grace Ejegwa, Mr. Solomon Chokor but to mention a few, who took their time to teach us what we have learnt so far. We have also had physical meetups on Fridays where we were taught about non-technical skills like team collaboration, problem framing and identification, structured problem solving techniques, etc.
Service and achievement
During my first month, I had the privilege of being the brain challenge winner alongside another fellow(we’re addressed as fellows) in the first week. Well, it came as a surprise because no one actually thought the results were being recorded. The brain challenge test comprises CCAT prep questions, usually 20 questions to answer in 8 minutes. We were made to know that real CCATs comprise 50 questions to be answered in 15 minutes(Like how???? I know right).
There are also games during our meetups to test our knowledge on what was being taught as regards the non-technical aspect as well as Head-Of-House games(Yeah, that’s right).
Growth level and achievement
With the knowledge gained so far, I have been able to build and deploy my portfolio website https://maura-portfolio.netlify.app. I have also learnt how to work with deadlines. The most important thing I have learnt is how to work effectively in a team as I used to be a "lone ranger". I got to meet a lot of amazing people too( Shoutout to all fellows). You guys are the best.
Thank you to the founder of TIIDELab initiative, Mr Kadir Salami as well as Mr Pishikeni Tukura, Mr Shamsudeen Aderoju, all the wonderful instructors we have had so far and sponsors of TIIDELab initiative. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.
