Several times I have been encouraged to do something because I saw someone I identified with doing what I aimed to achieve, which motivated me to attain the same goal. I recently saw Gabriel Iglesias’ Netflix comedy stand-up special “Stadium Fluffy,” in which Gabriel claimed that he persuaded himself that if Kevin Hart could perform in a stadium, he could do the same. I am writing this blog to share my story in the hopes that someone seeking to do things I did, be it working at an investment bank, manufacturing engineering company as well as a technology company, can learn how I did it and hopefully see that it’s possible to achieve the same goals.
As a visual learner, seeing people like me achieve what I dream of gives me a blueprint because witnessing people I know or identify with achieve great things motivates and empowers me to pursue my dreams. Learning about people’s journeys gives me a clear picture of how to attain similar goals. For example, to pursue college in America, I needed to figure out a way to get funding since my parents couldn’t afford to pay expensive American tuition. My only option was getting a scholarship, and initially, I didn’t know how to make this work but by looking at my schoolmates who ended up coming to America, I was able to learn how they got scholarships and I followed the same path. I learned about the United States Achievers Program (USAP), which helped me with college applications, paid for my SAT fees, covered my flight ticket to America, and helped me get a scholarship to cover room and board expenses.
While in college, I majored in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. My interest in Computer Science started when I was around ten years old, thanks to having an uncle who is a software engineer. My uncle let me use his laptop to play video games, watch youtube videos and play music. Once I got bored playing video games and watching videos, I asked my uncle what I needed to do to be a software engineer like him. Back then, I only knew I wanted a laptop, and being a software engineer was the only way to get a “free laptop.” My uncle taught me how to program using Visual Basic, and I was fortunate to attend a high school where computer science was a class. By the time I got to college, I was set on being a Computer Science major. I secured two internships on Wall Street and another at a manufacturing engineering company. Had I not seen someone I identified with being involved in technology, I wouldn’t have been exposed to the field and wouldn’t be doing what I do now. This is one of the reasons I am sharing my story so that I can be an example for someone needing a person in technology to identify with.
Getting internships was difficult and discouraging; I applied to many places and got several rejections and no replies. This forced me to change my strategy of applying to companies directly and instead reach out to a fellow friend working on Wall Street, where I wanted to intern. My friend shared how he joined the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and through this organization, they attended the annual conference where he participated in a career fair. I did the same thing and landed an internship on Wall Street at the same bank my friend interned at and was now working full-time. I repeated the same process to land my next internship at a manufacturing engineering company and my full-time job at a technology company. I am currently working as an Analytics Manager leading an organization. I have learned that exposure to people who have done what I intend to do has been an invaluable experience that helped me pursue my dreams. Seeing people like me doing things I dreamt of and having jobs I aspired to gave me hope that if they could do it, so could I. My goal for this blog is to share my experiences to benefit others as a way of giving back since many people have sacrificed their time to help me be where I am today. Additionally, sometimes people ask about my career path, and writing everything down makes it easier to share my story.
Please check out this blog post to learn more about how I got my first technology internship.
