You are techY podcast

Ellen Twomey: You are listening to the You Are Techy podcast, episode number 62.

Voiceover: Welcome to the You Are Techy podcast, where it’s all about growing in your techy-ness so you can find the tech job of your dreams. And now your host, technology learning coach Ellen Twomey.

Ellen Twomey: I know you’ve been thinking about it. I know that very techy you is ready to come out and find the tech job of her dreams this year. Who do you turn to for the support you need to move from learning to getting hired in tech? Well, I’ve got some great news for you. I’ve got you covered with the You are techy coaching membership. We listened to our audience and we heard you ask for UX design and full stack developer options in your course content, not to mention the getting hired strategies that have worked for so many women before you, the trifecta of courses, coaching and community with the mentors support, you need to keep moving forward into your tech career is like no other membership program out there. We have the exact skills employers are looking for. You’ll learn how to maximize your income with portfolio ready skills that hiring managers are seeking not to mention the steps you can skip. So you don’t find yourself down that endless tech learning rabbit hole. Join me as we walk you step-by-step through the getting hired process and tech sign up at youaretechy.com that’s Y O U are T E C H y.com. I can’t wait to see you in our membership.

Ellen Twomey: Naijeria Toweett is a big believer in committing all the way. She quit her job to attend a boot camp in Barcelona while her family was living in Kenya, all in an effort to make the successful transition to tech, which she did. She had no prior coding skills, hated math in high school, took time out to learn coding, and now loves it. She walked away from a high paying job in digital media marketing and communications to get hired as a full stack engineer. Three months later, Naijeria is also a big believer in moms. She believes that you are capable of learning to code and will fall in love with the creativity and freedom. It provides just like she did. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya with her husband, Matthew and their three children. Naijeria, welcome to the podcast.

Naijeria Toweett: Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

Ellen Twomey: I’m so excited to dive into your story. It’s one that is fun and interesting. So let’s jump in. Tell us a little bit about your career journey and specifically enter it.

Naijeria Toweett: So I’m actually a performing artist by profession. Like I studied drama in the UK, came back after two years, did a bit of acting on some projects, started the first and think that it’s still the only all women’s theater company. And then when I met my husband who was also performing artist, and dancer choreographer. We hooked up and started a family. And I quickly realized, at that particular time wasn’t being so, had to look for like work. I mean, I was always into learning things by myself. So I taught myself Word, Windows that was still that time for why didn’t windows or nothing was that technical. And then I got a job as, an administrative assistant, for an arts festival, and then quickly moved on to, another performing artist institution worked for, I think, a year. Then got pregnant with my first child. So I went out, had my baby. I think in between there, I took time out. So I’m kinda like I became a stay at home mom and I would do side gigs. And I think I got back into work actively, after my last a child that’s in 2010, no, 2011 actually. Yeah. So 2011, I did some work, for the gay and lesbian coalition of Kenya. They were looking for a program officer. And I think it was just a natural picking up skills, and learning how to write proposals. I literally just Googled my way and, and read it and then, uh, moved on to another nonprofit in sexual reproductive health; again as a program officer. Then, yeah, I was bitten by the social media bug, at that particular time. So I taught myself how to tweet. I volunteered online, for a women’s organization. I was just managing their Twitter account. And after about six months, I got another job for a Dutch media NGO, and, that’s where I’d been working. I worked there for six years until I quit to study tech.

Ellen Twomey: Oh my goodness. What a career! Wow. I love it. I love that. You’re a stay at home on doing sidekicks, so many, so many of us. Right. And so I would love to hear, uh, first let’s talk about what it was like when you got hired in your first tech job. What, what was that experience like? And, um, you know, even the interview process, tell us a little bit about that because I know our audience often likes to hear about, that’s kind of their fatal, uh, you know, fear is the interview and just kind of just that transition of getting hired.

Naijeria Toweett: Okay. So, I think it’ll. I’ll, go back to, so when I was in, while I was in bootcamp, um, I had, I had previously before joining bootcamp, I mean, I quit my job. Um, and I was paid like, um, it was not like a full-time employment, so we’re paid as consultants. So by the time I was quitting my job, I had no savings. I didn’t even know how I was going to make it to Barcelona so I crowd funded my tickets to Barcelona, but made like $600 borrowed from my husband, for my upkeep and to pay at least the plus two ones of rent. So while in Barcelona I had applied for a job and forgotten about it before I quit the other job. They came back to me, the last week of January, this is in the middle of bootcamp.

Oh my gosh, there’s this job, demand generation lead, which is again digital media marketing. And I told them, I applied for this job so far back, I’d even forgotten at applied to, um, you can work remotely. So while at boot camp, I was doing, um, a couple of hours a day. So it was, it was crazy. Um, so I kept this job until, um, August, by the time it got to August, I was like, no, I’m not going to, when I finished bootcamp, I didn’t go straight into applying for, um, coding jobs because I was quote unquote comfortable. And I think I was almost, um, buying time. And I kept saying, I’ll do coding on the side, but of course that was not possible by the time the day ends, you’ve done your nine to five. So mentally exhausted. You’re like, I can’t even code.

Um, so I just told my boss and I think I’m gonna quit and just focus on building my portfolio. Um, cause I hadn’t done that and I’d started forgetting a few things. So it’s really, I was like, no, I’m going to take time out and just spill it. And one of the things that I did was I, I kind of tweaked my MVP, five of bootcamp, you build an MVP. And for me, when I built that MVP was, it was based on my experience working in the nonprofit and, or struggling as, um, grant officer trying to, you know, report on grantees and there’s so much paperwork. So I was like, I’ll just build a simple grant making tool. So I took that grant making tool and I posted it on, um, on a Friday night, like the wee hours of, of the metal. So have I really felt accomplished when I —

Ellen Twomey: Yeah, you did. That sounds hard.

Naijeria Toweett: And then I, I posted it on Friday and on Saturday afternoon I had an inbox on my LinkedIn. Um, when I was doing my coding projects, I was doing updates on my LinkedIn profile and just putting hashtag react developer, um, a woman who called, so someone actually saw my profile and she sent him in, in boxing that just launched a map and they needed a full stack developer to fix bugs. And this was literally I posted at midnight and this was by midday on Saturday. Unbelievable. And I was like, okay, sure. So I sent her a message on my couch show. I’m open to having a conversation. And on Sunday she sends me an invite and on Monday I’m at about midday, we had our chat and she was like, yeah, I’m really into, I said, you have an interesting background. Um, the app is, um, uh, looking at gender equality and generating reports for non-profits to be able to access. Um, then they quality, uh, scores across one 32 countries. Wow. So they’re selling it as subscription. And so organizations that are interested in, in getting this reports for their own work can get subscription. So I was like, yeah, sure. And then, so I met the two co-founders was a very easy conversation. And then she says on Wednesday on to develop and I was freaking out.

Ellen Twomey: Right. Right. Of course

Naijeria Toweett: I have forgotten how I don’t. I was not, I was not ready for a tech interview. The weirdest thing happened. So I met the developer. I said an easy guy and he just starts showing me the code base in GitHub. And he’s like, this is what you do. So we’ll set you up and you know what? You can learn, look at what the code code is doing. He took me to the front end. I saw that, you know, I, he told me, yeah, they using Vue JS, um, chat to Devs. So I had to pick up that.

Ellen Twomey: Right. Cause you were a React developer and you had learned yeah. Yeah. Okay, great.

Naijeria Toweett: Um, and I was like, Oh my God. So he’s not going to ask me anything like tech. He’s not going to like, give me,  like a task to do anything by the afternoon I was getting logins for get up and go. And I was like, Oh my God, this is like, and I think I’m an outlier. But I think my, what, what happened was I was so confident in building and sharing my skills and because they’re an agency that built it and I have the opportunity to grow into the role and to, you know, start coding features right away because they’re still under contract with the agency. So it gives me leeway to, to learn as, as I work. So that was my first.

Ellen Twomey: Okay. That’s a great story, but I need to dive into a couple pieces because there, I can hear my audience. They’re like, wait, wait, where did you post it? And what were your hashtag so I can get hired on the next day. I know, I know they’re saying it. So you were okay. So in bootcamp, but we’re going to go back to that story a little bit too. But in boot camp you were, um, you were updating your LinkedIn with your new skills. Is that what you’re saying?

Naijeria Toweett: So in boot camp, when I was at bootcamp, I wasn’t doing that after. I started changing my profile cause the last week of bootcamp we have career week and you’re told how you should put some of the new skills on your, on your LinkedIn. I mean, I’d been working for all of our safe 12 years cumulatively and other things I’ve done on the side, my side jobs. So what I did was I went looking through, my LinkedIn and cutting out things that I didn’t feel were necessary or industries that I didn’t feel would serve me moving forward. So I tweaked my profile after a bootcamp, but then it didn’t, it was not until August that I literally stopped using all other social media analysis, focusing on LinkedIn every day I would go and look at another developer’s profile. See, um, what’s their core skill, what are they doing? Um, and then tweaking mine as I do. So I took deputy, like, I’ll just pick one thing if it’s the about me section change that and then come and see, um, tomorrow. Um, also looking at the jobs that I’d wanted to apply for and see what kind of skills, um, are there in those jobs and then tweaking that.

Ellen Twomey: I love it, that my students, I guess they’re gonna think that I’m paying you. I love that. That’s what I say. I’m like, go look at the job posting and then those are the skills and that’s the gap and then fill the gap and then update it. It does it. Okay. But when you’re, but when you posted your app, do you mean and get hard, but did you, did you put a gift?

Naijeria Toweett: So first of all, I deployed it on github. Oh. And then, uh, took the link and, uh, created a post on LinkedIn and then, uh, put the link there and said, I explained what the app was. Um, and then of course I did hashtag MVP hashtag grant tracker. Cause that was the tool and then react hashtag reacts. And then I just put dot a mobile version coming up. And, um, brief before that, I think I had done a walkthrough video, um, of the app when I was in bootcamp. I had posted that immediately after we graduated, posted the walkthrough. So I linked the walkthrough video to the app. So now you could actually see, um, the two, um, yeah, so that’s what I did.

Ellen Twomey: I love that. And you know, you’re making me think back to, I got one of my freelance jobs. I got, even though I was a UX designer because I had Ruby on rails, which was one of the projects that I, one of the coding languages that I learned during the project when I was staying at home is, um, and so, because I had Ruby on rails and you’re saying you had hashtag react. Like those are definitely this company hired me because that was their platform. And they’re like, Hey, we need a designer. But we liked that she knows the platform that we want. Yours was a little different. I mean, for those of you who don’t know, react and view are different frameworks for Java script, but very transferable skills if they worked in a similar way. So I think that’s a good point. Like you, you were being really specific about what you were doing and then also you put it out there and shared it on your social media. That’s another thing, like, I think you, I think that’s a, that’s a key component because you don’t know where someone’s going to be looking.

Naijeria Toweett: Yeah, that’s true. Um, the other thing is, um, I, so apart from LinkedIn, the only other platform I post is Instagram because Instagram, you can actually take pictures of the screenshots of the app as you’re developing or the UX as you’re developing, I take screenshots. And then I link to, if, once I deploy the app, then I link it to the deployed app. Um, and I just do like progress updates, using pictures of how the up the, like, I I’ll give you the UI UX first. And then as I build it, each, which screenshot, I just add and say, uh, coding, uh, I actually use a hashtag geek girl. I’m always learning. And then whatever platform, um, I mean, sorry, whatever language or, um, pre-market, I’m using. I love that

Ellen Twomey: Too, because so often my students will say, but I’m not done. I’m not done. I’m not done. And what you’re saying is no, no, no. Along the way, I’m like here I did this here. I did that. I, I have not heard of that strategy with Instagram, but super smart, really intelligent that you were just, you know, doing sharing, doing sharing. It’s um, it’s a great story. Okay. Can we talk a little bit about this decision? You kind of highlighted, but this decision to go to the bootcamp and then can you tell us a little bit about the story? It was a real smooth transition for you? Was it,

Naijeria Toweett: Uh, yeah, really? So, um, so yeah, so, um, um, I fundraise, I get my ticket, uh, but by the time I finished with the whole fundraising bootcamp had started, in fact, um, I think day two of boot camp, I got a call and they’re asking me to push my, to join the next cohort. Cause I had missed already. Two days I need was pretty intense and I was like, no, no, no, no, I’m not joining the next cohort. I’m gonna catch up. Somehow I flew out on, um, on a Thursday night and the flight was through Dubai. Um, and just to, to buy a loan is close to eight hours. And then you had another, another three or four hours, uh, Monday night, like a layover in Dubai for like another two hours. So it was a crazy cause I left here on, I left here on Thursday at around lunchtime and I was getting to Barcelona on Friday morning. My gosh. Well, it was absolutely crazy, but uh, yeah, so I land in Barcelona and the whole week it was sunny, but the minute I landed,

Ellen Twomey: Oh my gosh. So it’s pouring rain on your head.

Naijeria Toweett: And um, so what I’d done is I had gotten contacts or students. There was a Kenyon student in the same quarter myself. So we w we didn’t, we’d been speaking, um, about travel, what I need to carry. She was telling me about the weather and it was sunny. And so it starts raining. And because I’m in a new country, uh, have the Kenyan Mike Kennan line. So I didn’t have a Barcelona line. I didn’t have like, had no clue about, well, get internet, those only internet at the airport. So what I’ve done is taken screenshots of the train. I was supposed to take where I was supposed to change. Like I had screenshots of everything like the mop and you know, the location. And then I, in all that excitement, I kind of missed, I was supposed to change trains and not get out of the train station. So when I got out of the train station, I got rained on. I was like, wait, I had to go back and look at my phone to see was actually just supposed to change strings and not leave the train station. So I went back, um, so I’d been rained on a bit. I had my luggage with me and got, got onto the train, the right train. And by the time, um, I got to the right stop now I got out. And then when I go down and it had stopped raining,

Ellen Twomey: Nope.

Naijeria Toweett: Like I was literally 200 meters from, from class. It just starts pouring again.

I was crying. I was like all the days, why’s it rainy, but I was happy that that actually made it. So I had all these mixed emotions. Um, when I walked through the doors and people are in class it’s Friday, like they’ve been in class since Monday and Friday was we had, we had exercise, no exams every Friday, like a test I walk in and yeah, the one preparing for a test and I’m sitting down, I’m so excited, but I’m like, Oh my God, is this really going to happen? Um, so for the first, I think two or three weeks, I kind of, I was, I was asking myself what, like, how crazy are you to come?

And then secondly, the other thing was, I mean, being a mom, um, and this was the first time I was going to be away for, for a very long time. And my kids were home and I was going to miss them. And sure, me being the control freak, who needs to know what’s happening, I’ve been calling my husband all the time, like sending him messages as the kids find holiday. Have you heard from school? Cause the two older ones are in boarding school. Yeah. He told me no, no, no, no. You went to study, focus on your studies and I kept panicking. Is he, is he telling me like, am I sure he’s got discovered? Can’t do anything about it, but, but he had it covered. So yeah, it was, it was, um, pretty intense.

Ellen Twomey: That’s amazing. I cannot believe you started a bootcamp four and a half days late. And I mean, that just goes to show you, I love all of that because you know, it’s like everything that could go wrong to stop you. It just, it took so much and I love that you were crying. Cause we, we talk about that in a lot of our group, like cry, do it and then go and do it anyway. You know, like it doesn’t mean that there’s anything different. We cry. Cause it’s amazing. And you were crying because you were excited too, but also challenged. And you, you, you caught up in bootcamp. So I think that’s really, uh, I love that’s an amazing story, but definitely

Naijeria Toweett: The other thing that kind of really, really helped me. So I was, it was, and the reason I chose, um, physical bootcamp as opposed to a virtual one was previously had tried doing online courses and it’s very easy to drop off to stop and not totally committed because there’ll be other things that come and stop you and I wanted to be away. Um, and also it gave me, I mean I left a career that I was in for six years. So there was that whole transition also mentally, um, pushing myself to do something that I haven’t done. But for me, being away from my family enabled me to focus on, on, on just studying and nothing else I would do. I wouldn’t think of anything else except like school, of course my work, but it was all about me and, and the coding. Um, and I found just before I left, I found this book called, um, what is this called artists, the artists way.

And, uh, I was talking about this morning pages. So you journal and for me that time away, um, and like writing journaling every morning before class. Okay. Some days it was not in the morning, but just processing all the things that were going on through John Lynn really, really helped me. Um, so things that I was very clear about to what, I mean, I need took the pulpit because it was literally, I think I finished John Lynn a week after I graduated cause it’s 12 weeks. Um, I was very clear about what I wanted to do, what kind of wanted to do, what kind of coding I wanted to do. Um, I knew I, I D I wanted to work in something that was either related to women or technology or education or young people. So I was very clear. I was not going to pick like coding job in finance or right. Cause I didn’t, I didn’t feel, I don’t feel that that speaks to who I am as a person. Right. And not take up any coding job for the sake of according job that for me, it has to be for a purpose.

Ellen Twomey: Right. Right. I love that. I mean, I, I, I’m a huge advocate of journaling. I know often we think, especially as, as women, we think we have to talk it through and I love talking as much as the next person, but if we journal, we’re really just talking it through with ourselves and building our self-confidence. So, uh, yeah. And I’m very familiar with the morning pages. I love that idea. So, um, I’d really like to know, because th this is an important question or it, because people will look at you and they’ll say, well, you’re different because it doesn’t matter. They’ll come up with a reason about why your special, which of course you’re a very special, but why you’re different than, than why your situation is different than theirs. And so what I would love to know is what advice would you give to a mom who’s considering a career in tech and specifically in full stack development, who is maybe wondering, like, I just don’t know if I can do it. Okay. I’ll you like, I’m not going to go to Barcelona for a bootcamp. So, you know, I guess obviously I can’t do it. I mean, you know, but what, what advice would you give to her? Um, about going into tech?

Naijeria Toweett: Um, for me, for me, tech tech is inherently female.

Ellen Twomey: I love that answer. Cool. Okay, cool.

Naijeria Toweett: Um, in the sense that, um, we are creators, we, we not, uh, um, reproduce, we, I mean, for me, tech, just tech is just natural. For me. Tech is natural for a woman because one, you can sit and envision something from nothing. Right. Um, I mean, we have babies from nothing. Right, right. We know how to look at the detail and also step back and look at the bigger picture. That’s all for me. That’s, that’s what tech is about. Um, and people might be daunted, um, by, or is it going to be a lot of math? Is it going to be too, you know, like geeky and you know, out of this world a lot, understand the concepts? Um, I can say for me the, I mean, I, I came in late. I struggled for the first four weeks and I’d sit in class and everything, just like, you know, it’s like going above my head and I’m like all of this until like week five, something just clicked able to make connections.

And it was not because I was really focusing on something. For example, I could not understand the concept. Like I wouldn’t just like hit my head to make it to and try and understand it. Sometimes I would step back and say, okay, I’m not even dealing with this. I’d go and listen to music, take a walk outside, come back, um, talk to someone else. Um, and what also worked for me was, um, thinking I bought two from, uh, from a perspective of something I understand. So for example, um, CSS is like painting a house, right. Um, HTML is like putting the bricks and then, um, JavaScript is like the lights and the gadgets in the room. So I’ll try and break the concepts down into something practical, something that I understand and then work towards now moving towards the technical bit. So I’ll literally ask myself, so what does, what is this trying to do?

Like if I was to break it down into something I can understand very well. Um, if I’m cooking something, so then we’re looking at cooking is like putting a project together. You know, you have type ingredients, so you’re asking yourself, okay, these are the ingredients. Um, the ingredients would be for example, the colors or the features. And you’re trying to put this together. What do you want to do? So I’d use that. I mean, that’s the way I would think first. And then secondly, be very visual. If you put it down or write it down or drew it, it can help you understand something better. So DEC is not technical. It’s not geeky. It’s, it’s when it clicks. You get it. Um, so yeah, for women who want to join tech, it’s inherently female. So you can, you can, you can hack it.

Ellen Twomey: I love that. I love it. Naijeria. Thank you so much for being here today on the podcast, I had a ton of fun and I know my listeners will learn a lot from this episode. Thank you for being here.

Naijeria Toweett: Thank you very much.

Ellen Twomey: Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you have to sign up for the you are techy email list. Imagine being in the tech job of your dreams, join me to get the strategies, training, and never ending support to get hired. Sign up at youaretechy.com. That’s Y O U a R E T E C H y.com. I’ll see you next time.