Maximizing Downtime for a greater future : How I utilized my internship period and ASUU strike to become a Power Platform Developer and Product Designer

An Interview with Boluwatife Feyikemi Akinwande

Tech was this cool thing I looked at from afar, I would say to myself “omo these guys are trying”, but as God will have it, it was time for my 6months industrial attachment (SIWES) and I needed to do something in tech, if I wanted to get a good grade.

My tech journey started in Ha-Shem Limited and as if they read my mind that I was clueless about what exactly I wanted to do, they did my training in such a way that it cut across all the departments and that was how I found my two true loves, Product Design (UI/UX) and Microsoft Power Platform.

Product design came to me very easily but developing has not always being my forte but with Microsoft Power Platform being a low code and almost no code, it shed a new light on coding and with constant practice and an amazing team, I began to get a hang of it.

SIWES came to an end and it was like I had my quiver filled with arrows of skills ready to take on the world, luckily for me, the organization I worked with told me that I could still be coming around if I chose too and I just considered the pros and cons and took them up on their offer.

I finished 400level while still working alongside, I wouldn’t even lie it wasn’t a walk in the park but it was worth it, I just had the fulfillment that with BSc aside I still had the skills and the experience and if I wanted to apply elsewhere and they asked for 2/3 years of experience I was already gathering it, while I was still in school, I was literally going to be a “hot cake” when I finished from university.

When I resumed for 500level, I wasn’t going to the office as much because I wanted to face this final year once and for all, but once once, I’ll show face. Then boom ASUU strike.

The strike started on the 14th of February 2022, and I remember going to the office that week and seeing my work big brothers, sister and my CTO (Thank God for bringing them into my life ), they asked me if I’ll be coming full time now since there was strike and I was skeptical at first but answered in the affirmative because what will I be doing at home and God knows how long the strike would take.

And that was how I found myself working full time again, tasks were immediately put on my plate, design tasks, business applications development, hence helping me to further get better my skills, I would watch videos, ask questions so that I’m getter better each day, not only because I was working but for myself. I won’t even lie and say that the journey was all rosy and just beautiful but as beautiful a rose is, there are still thorns that make up the rose, there are days I would cry just thinking about how I’m supposed to be done with school or be moody because my code wasn’t working or I was having a creative block and I had a deadline. But what kept me pushing for the best was because I had the Holy Spirit to encourage me when I just wanted to give up, and of course a goal, I didn’t want to just be another graduate looking for a job in the market, I wanted to be sort after, I wanted to be the one high end companies are looking for, that was my light at the end of the tunnel.

I got promoted in my office from an “intern” to a “power platform developer L1”, i have not still gotten to my goal yet but my efforts are paying off, I’m taking baby steps towards the grand picturel.

Asuu has called off the strike now, I don’t know what the coming months hold but I know that I am not the same person I was before the strike, I’ve grown, I’ve learnt and it can only get better from here.

My name is Boluwatife Feyikemi Akinwande, a 500l student of the University of Lagos and this is my story.