Discovering the Magic of Software Development, and Helping Others Discover it

by Ekechi "Iyke" Ikenna

In the presentation titled "Discovering the Magic of Software Development, and Helping Others Discover it," Ekechi "Iyke" Ikenna, a Ruby on Rails developer from Nigeria, shares his journey into software development and discusses the impact of remote collaboration in the field. Ikenna leads the development team at 42 casas, an innovative e-learning platform that aims to make online learning engaging through gamification. Key points include:

Introduction of 42 casas: Ikenna emphasizes the platform's approach to learning by incorporating gamification, where learners earn points for achieving milestones, thus encouraging collaborative learning and competition.
Automation in development: When Ikenna joined, he identified inefficiencies in the manual gifting process of course purchases and successfully automated it using Ruby on Rails and Sidekiq, saving team resources and enhancing user experience.
Personal journey into software development: Ikenna recounts his initial struggles in a less favorable university environment, where outdated syllabi and physical discomfort affected his education. His turning point came through web development, initially experimenting with HTML and CSS, leading him to a bootcamp that offered structured learning in various programming languages.
Overcoming challenges: He candidly reflects on his early career experiences, including tackling imposter syndrome as a junior developer and navigating the competitive job market in Nigeria to achieve financial stability.
Building communities: Ikenna discusses the importance of mentorship, collaboration, and resource-sharing, which can facilitate personal and professional growth. He illustrates this by noting how he helped friends find jobs in coding, thus improving their living conditions and contributing to societal change in Nigeria.
The impact of software engineering: He concludes that software engineering can create pathways to upward mobility, enabling skilled individuals to contribute meaningfully to their communities and the economy.

The presentation encourages viewers to appreciate the transformative power of software development and the importance of collaboration within the tech industry.

00:00:10.890 Thank you. I haven't done that many talks; this is actually my first of this scope, besides the meetups. So, I'm grateful to Watts and Mitchell for helping me put this one together.

00:00:22.060 My name is Ekechi 'Iyke' Ikenna, and I'm a Ruby on Rails developer from Lagos, Nigeria. Most of my experience has been collaborating with teams remotely, whether in New York, Australia, South Africa, or London. I currently lead the development team at 42 casas.

00:00:40.930 42 casas is an e-learning platform in London and South Africa. Learning online can be boring and slightly difficult. I remember enrolling in courses that I could not complete because the content wasn't interesting enough. Sometimes it's just plain boring. What 42 casas has tried to do is gamify the learning process, so when learners achieve milestones, they earn points. We encourage people to learn in teams and also at the country level, making it possible to see leaderboards that track performance by teams or as an organization.

00:01:23.380 At the time when I joined, the platform featured a gifting model. Aside from purchasing courses for yourself, you could gift them to friends to help them learn as well. However, the gifting mechanism was largely manual. This meant that when someone purchased a gift, a team member would receive an email. We had to manually generate a coupon, emboss it on a chosen template, and create an email to send it to the recipient.

00:01:49.960 So, when I joined the team, I realized we needed to automate this process. By automating, we could save a lot of time and manpower for the other members of the team. Now, when you purchase a gift on the platform, it triggers an automatic worker schedule using Sidekiq. When the scheduled time arrives, the system generates the coupon code, embarks it on your chosen template, and then uses Postmark to send the email with that template to the recipient.

00:02:43.970 Now, this is my experience with development using Ruby on Rails. I did not have a very fun time in university. While the university environment was nice, the average temperature in Nigeria is about 32 degrees Celsius, making lecture halls quite crowded and uncomfortable. I felt that the syllabus often seemed outdated, especially since I was aware of advancements happening elsewhere in the world. This made my university experience challenging, and I was also reluctant to enter a corporate lifestyle where I had to wear a suit and tie every day. It was tough trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

00:04:20.049 At some point, I discovered web development. My initial experience was using CSS and HTML to create simple web pages, which felt strange yet exciting. This sparked my journey into software engineering. A couple of months later, I learned about a company that had recently moved from New York to Lagos, claiming to hire and train software developers. Since there are many scam job openings in Nigeria, I initially thought this might be one of those cases.

00:04:59.810 However, as I looked through their recruitment process, which included personality and IQ tests, it started to feel legitimate. I was still hesitant until a friend joked that I was scared. Eventually, I decided to take the tests, which were fiercely competitive—about 4,000 people applied, but they only wanted to take 20. This led me to the bootcamp organized by the company, which was quite insightful.

00:06:34.639 At the bootcamp, we had people from all over the world, including India and the United States, who were physically present to teach us. We were exposed to various programming languages, including Java, Ruby, and Python. Being somewhat lazy, I was naturally attracted to how intuitive Ruby was, which is how I began coding in Ruby. Over the years, this experience allowed me to work remotely for different companies in the U.S.

00:07:51.310 I do remember my early career struggles, especially while working for a company based in New York. We had a video player that included subtitles, and for some reason, the captions weren't displaying properly. As a junior developer, I was tasked to figure out the issue. I spent several days trying to solve it but was too ashamed to ask for help, fearing I'd be judged for not being able to solve a problem they had assigned me. At that point, I didn't realize I was experiencing imposter syndrome.

00:10:26.850 Eventually, I left the company that ran the bootcamp. I wanted to grow faster and have more direct contact with clients. The company provided stipends that covered internet and electricity, which are significant necessities in Nigeria, where power can be erratic. After leaving, I needed to secure a job for financial stability, as this would enable me to afford my own electricity and internet.

00:11:57.329 During my time in the bootcamp, I learned that if you can bring together like-minded individuals and provide resources such as internet, mentorship, and training, they can achieve great things. Over time, I discovered many friends who graduated but struggled due to high unemployment rates in Nigeria. These intelligent individuals were often unsure of their next steps.

00:12:18.210 I believed the solution was to bring them together and suggest that they could learn to code. This helped many of them find jobs, providing them with upward mobility and opportunities for social change. With more collaboration, we can make even greater progress.

00:13:01.260 Additionally, the advantages of being a software engineer became clear to me. With good jobs, individuals are creating change and earning well while doing what they love. This has had a serious impact on the ecosystem in Nigeria, as companies gain access to skilled individuals who can solve real problems.

00:14:59.610 Thank you very much.