My First Computer Program

May 2000, my parents helped me pack a few clothings and footwear, put some money in my pocket, and my dad and I traveled to the polytechnic for me to resume. And so at barely 15years old, I left Lagos for the first time to start a new phase in life.

For the 1st semester in 1st year, we had 11 courses.. 3 computer courses, 3 statistics, 2 mathematics, 2 general studies courses. 
COM 113 was titled "Introduction to BASIC programming", and it was a 4 credit course. This was the only programming course for that semester.

The weight of that course naturally caused apprehension, and newbies like us always panicked at the thought of not doing well in that course. With this in mind, tutorial centres teaching com 113 were always packed full. Some naughty seniors used this opportunity to bed naive female newbies too😂😂.
I was apprehensive too, although I knew I wouldn't fail the exam. My fear however was not getting an A in the course.

Like other newbies, I attended tutorial after tutorial, studied the lecture note countless times, but still couldn't make head or tail of the course. Lots of my sharp friends resorted to cramming all the computer codes that could fit into their head (wrongest move which killed their programming career till date). On my part, I gobbled all what I could and resigned to fate for the exam.

For the exam, one of the questions which carried the highest marks was to write a program to calculate the simple interest for a fictional account, given the values for principal, rate, and time. I did all the other questions and tackled this one last. I approached the question calmly, and at this point, all that I had learnt and studied started to come together. I was completely logical. I remembered.. you have to declare your variables first.. so i wrote..

Let principal = 15000
Let rate = 2.5
Let time = 1

Next step, introduce the formula for simple interest. So i wrote..

Let interest = (principal * rate * time)/100

Then I remembered, the computer is an input/output system. You must instruct the computer to display output before it displays it. So my next line was..

Print interest

By the time I finished writing that last line, I knew that I had got the question correct.
And that marked the start of a beautiful career in programming/software development/I.T
In short, I wrote my 1st computer program in the exam hall. I passed the course with 68 marks. The highest scorer in the course got 86 marks. That guy (we later found out) crammed computer codes and answers to the exam to lead the course. The guy never became a programmer, although he specialised in another aspect of I.T.

I learnt some lessons from this:
1. Ability to deliver under pressure is golden
2. Be calm under pressure, and your brain will figure out the solution 
3. Go the hard route, don't take shortcuts. In this case, the shortcut was to cram. The other guys did, but shortchanged themselves and denied themselves of a beautiful and rewarding career in programming.

What do u think? Comments?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HND/NYSC year

Higher National diploma was bland and uneventful for the most part. The only event that stood out for me in those 2years was when I had the best result in 2nd semester 1st year. That event was a stand-out for me. Save for primary 4, which was over 15 years prior, i had never led a class. I was too playful to care. However, that semester, I had lots of mentees and spent valuable time helping juniors with their programming tasks, that i barely had time for my own coursework. The fear of failure became real.  So i hit my coursework like a maniac, burnt the midnight oil and covered every course material thoroughly. I painstakingly slayed most of the exams and filled up my answer sheets with lots of examples and the right answers. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the result that I wept tears of joy. In that moment, I learnt the importance of crossing all my Is and dotting my Ts, of hitting every exam with the precision of a marksman. I was talented and smart, but I was too indiscpl...
Read more

2nd job switch.. the absolute worst days of my career

The second job switch (and my 3rd job) was a big deal to me. I mean, I was barely 25 years old, earning a 6-figure monthly income, a graduate of a polytechnic - same polytechnics whose graduates are loathed in the job market. I felt that I had finally arrived. My dad even noticed the sprint in my steps and my attitude had almost become that of a cowboy. Little did I know what was in store for me, and in hindsight, i think that God used my experience at the 3rd job to teach me a lesson. My arrogance was off the roof, that it showed up on another interview. I felt my skills could get me about any tech job. Before I got the 3rd job, i went for another interview with a software consulting company developing enterprise software for the pension industry. At the interview in Victoria Island, the interview had gone on fairly well till I was asked this question.. "what would you do if the company started a policy or practice which you are not comfortable with?". My response.. "I ...
Read more

1st Job Switch.. We're going on a Lion Hunt

Before I got my first job, I had sent out multiple applications. One of such applications was to a yahoo email address. It turns out that that email address was that of a senior staff of a university's ICT center. Apparently, the university had just set up its ICT centre, which would manage the university's online registration portal, and implement/manage all ICT projects in the university. So I received an email inviting me for an interview on a Saturday at a state university in Lagos, that was my first time of stepping into that University. The recruitment process was a 1-stage, straight-forward process because the project was directly backed by the vice chancellor and had his express approval. We were given 2 tasks - to write a simple PHP program, and an essay to proffer solutions to Nigeria's problem. Both tasks were a piece of cake and i finished them in good time. Recall that I had self-taught PHP and was comfortable with it. This brings out my lesson. What do you do ...
Read more