Growth is a crazy thing. For the most part, you don’t realise it’s happened until you stop, reflect, and see how far you have come.
Like most of you, Umuzi gave me a life-changing opportunity that I didn’t want to fumble. So when my learnership ended, and I was about to start my internship at BBD Software, I promised myself that I would do my best with this opportunity. To fully commit myself to doing my best at all times while also enjoying the journey.
I still remember being in the BBD offices that first week and praying that I could apply all the knowledge I had gained during my learnership and try my best not to look stupid. Thanks to the people and team I was assigned, they made me feel welcome and were always there to help when needed. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the imposter syndrome that whispered in my ear that I was a fraud.
Some of my first months working there were roughest: getting nine comments on a PR and being confused in standup because I didn’t understand the project jargon. I would go home and Google everything I didn’t understand to ensure I caught up. When I finally identified what I was going through, imposter syndrome coupled with a tinge of anxiety, I was able to see those things for the frauds they were. I told myself, "Girl, you’ve only been working for three months. No one is expecting you to know everything.” Mantras like this and seniors who validated my abilities helped me find myself in my new career.
Umuzi gave me a good heads-up on some of my daily tasks. For example, Umuzi explained and implemented what a standup was, so when I was at BBD, I already knew what that was. I was also familiar with a Kanban board because Tilda used this structure to pace our learning and a whole host of other things, which also helped put me at ease in the new space I was in.
With all these things in mind, I could push myself more and more because I realised that, at first, I might not know what was happening. Still, with diligence and determination, I can grow and achieve what I set out to do, like speaking at a dev conference and playing around with circuit boards, even though I had only started as a web developer.
One of the big things I’ve learned is to put in the work and trust the process. I read somewhere that “Starting a new job is embarrassing for no reason” however, my journey into Web Dev was the start of a whole new career! When you do your part, apply yourself in whatever you are tasked to do and trust the process, you will reap the rewards of your hard work. In the years to come, I want to continue to speak at Dev conferences. After all, I enjoy sharing and taking more of a leadership role in my team because someone has to be a leader, so why not me? I am far from being a pro at software engineering, but the more I apply myself, the more my skills become refined. It has become easier to see the joy in the journey.