I had many different career dreams while growing up – I wanted to own a convenience store, then I thought I wanted to be a doctor, and then I thought I could work in the United Nations to put my language skills to good use.
I never dreamt about doing anything in the technology field. At least, not until I started my undergraduate degree at Ashesi University in Ghana where I grew up. Prior to Ashesi University, the closest to technology I had gotten was practising how to type using Mavis Beacon and taking Saturday classes in MS DOS. I did a major in BSc. Management Information Systems at Ashesi and I thoroughly loved the Programming I module which was in Visual Basic. It was very hard for me to grasp the concept, but I worked very hard at it, and I have never looked back since.
After my undergrad degree, I worked for one year in Ghana with a small, amazing group of Software Engineers in a start-up. I learnt how to write code in .NET on that job. I left to the UK to do an MSc. in Information Systems. After my post graduate degree, I moved back to Ghana for a year and did a lot of freelance work while helping my mum out with her businesses. I got on the Technology Graduate Program at American Express and that was my first experience working in a big company. On the graduate program, I got to try my hands on many different roles in technology. I did Java Engineering, .NET, Business Analysis, Product Management and Data Engineering. I got a full-time role to do Java Engineering, and that’s what I still do. In my current role, I love to automate processes that make engineers more efficient and productive at their roles.
