A Journey to Remember: Reflections on my Life-Changing Experience with TIIDELab.
"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do." - Pelé
I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be accepted into TIIDELab Prefellowship Cohort 3.0, as it has played a crucial role in my journey to becoming a skilled developer and problem solver.
Hello everyone, my name is Abioye Olajide Abdullateef, an aspiring Software Developer currently undergoing an internship of 6 - 7 weeks at TIIDELab, an acronym for (Think, Innovate, Ideate, Develop and Execute Lab). For the past six weeks, I’ve been introduced to real-world problems relating to tech which made my experiences at TIIDELab an amazing one.
People do talk of transition into tech but that is different in my case. I have always wanted to be an Electrical engineer but after several trials to secure admission into a tertiary institute to study Engineering, I ended up being offered Computer science. Being a lover of computing devices generally, I decided to go for self-learning. Although, I know nothing about software/web development.
My interest in being a software developer sprung up in my second year at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), when a friend was writing HTML syntaxes, he had learned while at home during the break, since then it transformed into an intense and fiery aspiration.
What was the process of my admission into the TIIDELab Prefellowship?
A friend of mine shared an update about the TIIDELab and encouraged me to apply — the best decision I've ever made.
I applied, wrote the test, and passed — I was extremely happy because I had hopes and couldn’t afford to miss the golden opportunity to learn software development.
On April 4, 2023, the journey to being a self-reliant software developer started as we got onboarded and welcomed to the family of TIIDELab. Among the guest of honor were Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju, our program coordinator, Solomon Chokor and Arome Ibrahim, our Discussants and our coach Ayodele Samuel Adebayo and many other guests.
After our Induction on Tuesday, 4th April 2023 till now, without a doubt has been challenging. It has been challenging combining my studies with the program. My schedule leaves me with minimal time, particularly during the day, for any activities unrelated to my group presentations. Overall, my experience has mainly revolved around learning and hands-on practice, with a touch of enjoyment mixed in.
A schematic Daily Routine was mapped out to guide us through the task every week. From Morning quotes to taking CCAT (Cognitive Critical Aptitude Test) to self/group learning. TIIDELab is more than a place where you learn how to code alone but a place where you're being mentored on how to relate with people in the professional world where team building and leadership are not left behind.
Mr. Shams, our Program Coordinator, is highly relatable and understanding. He has been forgiving of our mistakes, offering us second chances and even bonuses. He strongly discourages laziness and complaining.
Personal Branding and LinkedIn Optimizing, a class anchored by Mr. Shams that I'd never forget. During the class held by TIIDELab on google meet, I learned that optimizing one's LinkedIn profile encompasses several strategies, such as utilizing relevant keywords in one's profile and headline, frequently updating one's profile with fresh experiences and accomplishments, and interacting with other professionals in one's field. By optimizing one's LinkedIn profile, one can increase one's visibility to potential employers, collaborators, and clients, positioning oneself as a thought leader in one's industry.
Work started in earnest as our coach, Ayodele Samuel Adebayo, together with other coaches took us through the basics of HTML, and CSS in weeks thereby testing our ability by giving assignments on the lessons being taught. Ayodele Samuel Adebayo(Uncle Bigbay), our coach took time to walk us through those basics and introduced us to the implementation of GitHub explaining concepts such as Mobile responsiveness, Git push, Git commit, Git pull, repository and so on.
We started with a bit of history in JavaScript and the basics of the programming language and moved on to other concepts. Concepts like variables and data types, operators, control flow, conditional statements, loops, functions, closures, recursion, arrays and objects. Uncle Bigbay uniquely teaches JavaScript; he takes time to explain the concepts with code examples. He then makes a recording of the class to fall back upon if encountered a problem after the learning session.
Data analytics is not also left behind. We were taught data cleaning, data massaging, and so on. How to use MySQL workbench to export data in form table was also taught.
We were given a series of exercises, from creating of ID-cards, Portfolio, and implementing the functionality of CSS and JavaScript on the Portfolio. Working on that exercises further solidified my understanding of the concepts taught in class. Below are some of the exercises;
Project Phase — ReadLab Bookclub Website
My team — DevTITAN got assigned a read lab book club project to build and we’ll be launching the project a few days from now.
We began with problem framing, which is a structured approach to problem-solving that allows us to arrive at a concise problem statement.
The User Research we conducted assisted us in identifying our target audience, deducing their pain points, crafting a problem statement after validating that the problem truly exists, conducting a comparative analysis with platforms similar to ours that already exist, and proposing a value proposition.
It’s incredible because all of these were accomplished with the help of our mentor Mr. Godswill Udoh but by people with no prior knowledge of product development or user research surveys. By TIIDELab, my team gave a presentation on our user research, user interface design and project timeline. The Council of Elders was pleased with our work, and we were told to proceed to the next sprint of our project.
So far, I have achieved a lot, below are some that could be noted;
I got the best and very understanding fellows as Teammates, being the Teamlead, I can say they’ve been helpful (DevTITAN)
Learn Advanced HTML and CSS with the functionality of JavaScript.
Improved communication skills.
I understand data analytics which serves as an additional skill for a software developer.
Working on my resume and updating my LinkedIn profile.
Asides from the above listed, I have witnessed significant progress in my approach to everything. Additionally, I have had the privilege of learning from influential individuals within the tech industry.
It has not been an easy journey but “whatever is worth doing is worth doing well”. It is going to be a tough one, I know.
I’d like to thank Mr. Kadir Salami, the initiative’s founder, Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju, Unclebigbay and the entire TIIDELab team… Thank you very much, and may God continue to bless you all.