Being a Diasporan Techie

I was now fully settled into the job at the pension funds administrator, I had a good grasp of the database structure and life had started to take shape. One thing I give kudos to, on my experience with the pension funds administrator is the database schema. The database schema was well designed and normalised and it was such joy writing queries against it. My SQL skills found good use and better exposure, and that experience came in handy on my biggest personal project till date... come with me. To minimise distractions at work, my manager advised us not to do social media during work hours. It was hard for me to keep up with that rule. I agree it could be distracting, but several times my brain would get into overdrive and i would need to distract myself for few minutes. One of such days, i was on Facebook when a former poly classmate chatted me up. He came up with a vague request, that i should help him develop a web application for a school's students online registration. I did...

I met my best boss yet at my 4th job at the Pension Funds Administrator. He ticked all the boxes for me. Technically, he had a good grasp of the subject matter, he was charismatic, he is emphatic, he was fair and forward-thinking. It is often said that an army of sheep led by a lion wins more battles that an army of lions led by a sheep. Bolobski (his nickname) led us like a lion. He made us believe in ourselves. Coming from a recent job loss and a thoroughly deflated ego, i needed someone who would believe in me and make me believe in myself. God being gracious, our paths crossed, and Bolobski did just that for me. Over the course of my time at the job, sometimes I would make blunders that would make other departments call for my head, but my boss would stand in the line of fire for me. He was really generous too. I wont forget in a hurry the friday nights when he would take us for hangouts. Over bottles of drink and hot, spicy plates of isi-ewu, we learnt to unwind and see the social...

All my career, i had been open to side gigs while holding down a regular 9-5. I guess I adopted that culture from when I was in school. I would assist my coursemates with assignments/project. There are arguments for/against the gig culture, but that is another conversation. In fact, one of the big techs encourages its employees to have a side gig. I side-giged because apart from the financial rewards, it helped to broaden my horizon over the tech landscape and helped me to pick up opportunities. While on my 3rd job (the telecoms job), I met a senior colleague (Mr. P) who was also open to gigs. He hooked me up to one of such, but because my hands were full, I lagged on the opportunity till he called it off. ** I need to do better to know when to turn down engagements when my hands are full** After I resigned from the job, Mr P did not give up on me. He called me for another gig. Interestingly, this gig was an official task owned by the HR department of the same telecoms company where I ...

About the first week in November, my boss finally decided to appraise my performance. He called me into his office, he had a sheet of paper on the table which had the appraisal areas. Expectedly, he gave me dismal scores in every section of the appraisal. Most shocking was the section on punctuality. He scored me 3 out of 5 (something of that range) on punctuality. That shocked me. I couldn't reconcile how I couldn't score all points in that section. For all it was worth, i never skipped a single day at work, even when I was weak with malaria. At that point, I gave up on the process. In fact, on one of the sections, he asked for my response, and i told him "I don't know". That was the closest I came to standing up to that bully. He replied, "If you tell me - I don't know once more, I will mark you zero". I just let him have his way. In total, he scored me 13 (out of 100 points I guess). For me, the die was cast, I was just waiting for when my funeral...

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 ...

I had heard a lot about this university being a hotbed of cultism, so I was extra careful.  I was in the campus shuttle one morning, a rough guy sat beside me and sorta ordered me to pay his transport fare. This is part of the modus operandi of cultists. Oppressing other students, " opening shop on them ", intimidating other students etc. At this point, I could ask the bagger what he meant, if he knew that he was talking to a "university senior staff", stamping my authority etc. If I had gone that route, I would eventually have proved my superiority, but that would have exposed my identity on campus, and got me "unwanted" friends. So I took the high road and paid the guy's N10 transport fare without saying a word to him. Matter settled. I alighted at my bus stop on campus, walked to the ICT center, and never heard from the guy, nor was i disturbed by any other ruffian till I resigned from the school. Work in the university's ICT centre was fun. I w...

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 ...

Youth service year ended in September 2006. Of the monthly N8500 monthly allowance from the government, I saved enough to buy a generator and a computer CPU, which I returned to Lagos with. Life after NYSC was rough! I was so broke that N100 was a big deal. I spent the days in my mum's grocery store attending to customers, while also studying on my computer. Any money which I could nick from my mum's shop, I spent at cybercafes sending job applications and downloading ebooks for further study. Those days, yahoo boys couldn't get it - why I would come to the cybercafe to download ebooks while they were literally making money off the internet (in an illegitimate way tho).  I kept at it. I knew that my skills would eventually become a cash crop. A family friend who worked at the Cafe also gave me free browsing time frequently. My dad was getting impatient. He asked me towards the end of 2006 if I hadn't done anything spiritually wrong while in school which was hindering me...

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...