“Sorry. You’re the best candidate for this role, but we wouldn’t be able to go ahead because of your hijab. People would think we’re an Islamic organisation, and we don’t want that. Maybe you could take it off?”
Searching for a new job can be a hard and demoralising process, even at the best of times. Most of us would be shocked to see such blatant discrimination in a job interview, but this is what today’s guest, Fatimah Akanbi heard over and over when starting her career in Nigeria. And she’s not alone. Sadly we’ve heard many similar stories from Tech Sisters around the world.
So what gave Fatimah the motivation to keep going? Did she find a job that accepted her? Did she need to compromise her deen to achieve her career goals?
Listen to today’s episode to find out!
Listen to Fatimah’s Story
Key lessons from this episode
- I didn’t want to continue being at the mercy of employers who would discriminate based on my religion (3:12)
- I believe once you are committed, I believe hard work, perseverance, and consistency are the keys to success (6:22)
- Fatimah’s volunteer work teaching coding to children from secondary schools and slums in Nigeria: “These are children people have given up on and I see a brighter future for them” (22:25)
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated by Descript and is not 100% accurate
Fatimah Akanbi
[00:00:00] Grace Witter: As Salaam-Alaikum, you’re listening to tech sisters stories. tech sisters is a community that connects you with other sisters who share your story experiences and goals. So you no longer have to feel like the only one like you on your team. My name is grace and I get to interview the amazing women in our community, share their stories and the lessons they learned.
[00:00:22] Grace: Today on Tech Sisters Stories, we are excited to have Fatimah Akanbi. Fatimah is a front end software engineer who is passionate about crafting smooth user experiences, learning and teaching. She has a YouTube channel where she posts HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tutorials, and I am so happy to have her on today.
Welcome
[00:00:45] Fatimah: Thank you so much for having me, grace. I’m so happy to be here. Thank you.
[00:00:51] Grace: How did you first get into Tech
[00:00:54] Fatimah: Mine was kind of an accident. It was kind of accidental because, truth be told I didn’t really know much. I didn’t even know what software development was. I just knew computer science as a course in university. So after my first degree, I studied chemistry and I studying chemistry in. Where I stay in Nigeria kind of limits you to the kind of jobs you would have.
So majorly the jobs I was seeing were teaching roles. So I actually got one, I got a position as a school teacher. So before then, I think I loved teaching, but when I was actually in the act of teaching, I knew what I knew teachers were doing. Very, very amazing. And oh my
[00:01:41] Grace: really hard. Yeah.
[00:01:43] Fatimah: Very, very hard actually with younger kids.
Younger children and God. Oh my goodness. So that was when I knew that I, I don’t think I want to be a teacher. So also I, I sort of started looking for other opportunities, elsewhere, and the issue of using the job came in.
So I had interviews where I would get to the final stage and I would have interview with the boss and they would be like, oh, sorry, you.
Yeah, yeah. You’re actually the best candidate for this role. But we wouldn’t be able to Go ahead. Cause if you sort of presents your religion and public clients and customers would think, we are like an Islamic organization. I had like two or three different companies where I was told that.
That they would prefer I use a turban or I use the
[00:02:32] Grace: Yeah.
[00:02:33] Fatimah: but I couldn’t do that.
I couldn’t compromise. So eventually later got an administrative role in sort of a company. It was owned by a woman and I think maybe cause I was a woman and she needed a woman in her company and that was why. I started position around 2019. I did the role for one year. And God it was, I wasn’t getting the fulfillment and joy I thought I had for that particular role. So I resigned and I started looking for other opportunities. I enrolled in a fashion school,
So like I had the dream of actually starting my own business. I didn’t want to continue being in the mercy of employers who would discriminate based on my religion and all of that. So I started learning fashion design. But I gotta know that I was, I love, I love making.
Clothes I love sewing, but I didn’t see a, a, a future in me like owning a fashion house and all that. I just, I, I got to know that I loved it for, for For my own sake, I just wanted to define my fashion, wanted to sew my clothes myself, wanted to just generally define my fashion sense and to be able to replicate Islam minutes.
So 2020 came by and I, I was looking for roles that I treated. I was looking for, I could feel, and I came wide off in the internet. I came across software development and I like, ah, what? Wow. , I’ve always at my change level in school, my second year in university I had to do a computer science course and that was my first introduction to it.
And it was very hard. And I was like, oh, what are those doing this course? there must be aliens. We must be very, very brilliant. And none of that. Something major told me to apply for, it was actually a bootcamp and it was totally for beginners. I applied for it and eventually I got into the program, instead learning it incident.
That was actually my first introduction to software development. It wasn’t very easy. I was very on. That was my first time of having an experience where you actually read study and you don’t get the right results you want. All my life in school, anytime I read and prepare well for exams, I usually come out like very good grades, but with coding .
Study different was, was . I kept asking people, how do you become a software developer? How do you code, how, how do you understand all of this? And I said, how, how, how, how. And along the way, I, I, I met with some people who introduced me to different tech community. I said, attending different take me talks.
And So some of those things I did at my early stage, all those questions I asked, all the tech committees I joined, sort of made, it made my journey easier. Cause at some point I wanted to just give up cause it was, it wasn’t just staying in my brain for some reasons. I don’t know why, but I, I, I met the people that we already pick and they sort of gave me the encouragement, gave me the resources I needed to be a better developer and, Kind of helped me generally soon.
So that was basically how I got into take life really.
[00:05:57] Grace: What a journey. So what’s really clear to me from that is, so you love sewing. You’re clearly a very creative person, Fatimah, you have a brain where you can really focus on the problem and learn about it and learn all about it. And you like doing creative. Yeah. Creative problem solving.
But at the same time, you’re not afraid to pivot and find something that you can go on to the
[00:06:18] Fatimah: I, I am not, I am not afraid to pick on any new group. I believe, I believe once you are committed, I, I believe hard work and perseverance, consistency are the key to success. So even if I were to transition into an accounting career, you know, would do, because I would give it to my own. I, I.
I hope that as as my driving force be hardworking, committed, and happy. Good. We are looking forward to land. mashAllah achieve it with, no matter how hard it seems might be, because I tell people even to today that coding is like the hardest thing I have ever done. hardest took time. If I could get the basic foundation, it took me time.
But I’m, I’m here and I’m still, I’m a developer and I’ve been doing well so far in my career.
[00:07:12] Grace: And I love what you said about reaching out to people, asking for help, asking them how did you get into software engineering? What do you do in a day and intro, asking them to help you introduce the other communities and showing you resources. I think that part is a really important step to help building up your network and
What would you say?
Because a lot of people in Tech Sisters just kind of realize that this is something that they should be doing, but it’s a little bit scary for some of our members. What kind of advice would you, you give for someone who’s feeling nervous about reaching out for help?
[00:07:43] Fatimah: So, like I said, I’m a go getter, so I do everything. I try my best to explore all routes to actually achieving my goal. So, If it means me going on YouTube learning more about that particular thing I have issues with, I do it. If it means me going to meet younger people, going to meet senior people in general role, I do it.
So what I would advise is that as long as you have a vision, a goal that you are working towards, there’s not too much of a thing to do whenever you’re trying to achieve something. There’s no, such thing as you are going extra.
There’s no extra. You should go as far as you think you can. You should even go more than you think you can go, because I reached out to people that I never thought I would be able to, I felt encouraged so many times going to meet senior developers, going to meet people that are not in into web development. Because I started with web, I’m still a web developer. Even going to meet people in cybersecurity, people that are data analyst, just to gather their knowledge and to be able to fight through everything to achieve that particular goal. So I’ll just tell them to go for it.
Don’t be shy. And the good thing about the community is that everybody’s ready to help. So I’ve never seen a community that is as helpful as tech. It’s, it actually, everybody wants you to be learning in tech. Everybody, once they know that you’re in tech, they are ready to help you. They want to just help you.
Everybody’s willing to help you. You just need that extra effort to walk up to them and talk with them and tell them all your issues. And, and mashAllah, you, you get help. You would get help. Don’t restrain yourself. Just go ahead and people are ready to help. People are so, so ready to help.
[00:09:21] Grace: Yeah, this is a thing that you don’t realize until you just get out of your shell and ask for help. People are very, very generous with their time and how long they’re willing to spend answering your questions and helping you. They’ll send you extra resources. They’ll remember you in the future if they see something that might be useful for you.
It is just to your benefits. So you were saying that you got introduced to these tech communities, you were become being active in them. How’d you go from there to getting your first tech job?
[00:09:53] Fatimah: Okay. So for my first, tech job, okay. During the process of asking on how I could, because when I started after learning html and css, I needed to start learning programming languages. So I’ll go on YouTube, then I’ll start, I would learn, I’ll learn Python today. Second day, someone else will tell me that no people don’t use Python again, learn this, I would go ahead.
So I was learning so many languages and I wasn’t good at any of them. So
someone, Actually told me that I needed to go, go for a structured program. So I, part of what the person shared with me was a fellowship program. So I engaged, I started a fellowship, a six months fellowship program where of course the area curriculums there, there standards, and.
Also in the fellowship we had like community of senior developers, people that we could actually walk up to and learn on how software development actually is in the world. So that, that kind of helped me. So the, the, the community I had and. And even in the fellowship, they encourage you to, to, to join communities and they also encourage you to join their own communities of previous student people talk to and get resources from.
[00:11:08] Grace: Yes, mashAllah. And I think you touched on something that is also a very frequent issue for a lot of new members is what language do I learn because we do definitely have people who are starting with JavaScript and then they kind of hit a roadblock and they think, oh, maybe I might learn Python , and then they start doing that.
And so you just so you can have so many unfinished projects in your GitHub. We’re not really moving any farther than
[00:11:35] Fatimah: You’re not learning anything.
Exactly. Exactly.
Exactly.
[00:11:39] Grace: So what was something you did, so you were saying that you went through that structured program. What was the difference of following that and you know, going through and committing to the course and finishing that to doing a YouTube video and kind of trying out lots of different things.
Because there’s advantages to two sides. So what do you think were some of the pros and cons of those approach?
[00:11:59] Fatimah: Okay. Okay. So for the structural program, it’s kind of makes your software journey shorter. Cause you are in the hands of an experienced professional and you are being taught, you are streamlined to a particular language, in particular technology. And you try that best to make sure that you’re actually very good at it before.
Before taking you to the next technology. So for YouTube one of the things I like about it is that you get to hear from, aside from your classroom, you get to hear from other developers. Like, you know, there are different approaches to solving programming programs.
So from YouTubers. Even, yeah, like three minute videos, six minute videos, and you’ll like, wow, how come, how come I didn’t think of this solution? And they kind of make it very, very simple. But first I would advise people to have a structured curriculum in, in place, something they are following.
So whenever, let’s say you want to learn about arrays and Java to just go on YouTube and search for just s it’s kind of different. It’s kind of. More you get more from it than going on YouTube and searching for introductory post to JavaScripts. They would, they would kind of, they would touch it, but they won’t go deep into it.
Cause most of the time they’re usually crash courses. Imagine you picking just one topic and the only thing that would make, you know, the topic, the, the, the particular topic you wanna pick would be you following in particular syllabus or structure that has already been put in place to that. So mine it’s kind of made my software development journey shorter.
It made it shorter and I was able to get a job after my fellowship with the knowledge I was taught there.
[00:13:44] Grace: Alhamdulillah yes, I, I definitely agree. I think YouTube, we can see it as a supplement to something that is a little bit more structured. YouTube, a lot of the YouTube videos are, if you look for the ones that are very uh, Detailed on a very specific subject. Those are the best ones. The ones that are just like a very broad overview, just see it as like a very high level introductory thing, but that shouldn’t be your only source.
And while you’re doing this, you need to be building your own projects. So that is like the most, more than with a course material. You have to be practicing these things.
[00:14:18] Fatimah: Exactly.
Exactly.
[00:14:20] Grace: One thing that we have and the members are talking about when going back to I was saying how they’re kind of indecisive on the technology, on the, the tech stack that they wanna learn.
Do you feel, and cuz you were going through this yourself, that because you ended up focusing in JavaScript that your time spent learning Python was didn’t help you or it was a waste.
[00:14:42] Fatimah: No, it wasn’t a waste cause. I, I, I, I haven’t actually used any I haven’t built any project, but along the line then I learned. php too. So I learned php, I learned Python, I learned, I, I think I learned a little bit of c plus plus .
So, so I just, I was around then. For the php, I actually had the front, cause I majorly do front and development.
So there are times when you would want to build a build a solution that wouldn’t require that you do not. Actually use a JavaScript project, like a JavaScript language, and it, there’s some that you could use all of you could use, you could use WordPress. So, so yes, yes. There are some solutions that you don’t need.
So stresses stuff and start writing logic and all of that. WordPress would suffice very for that particular solution. So my knowledge of php then actually still helps me because it’s, Different from when someone would do not have a programming experience, use WordPress. So present, it’s kind of, it’s very, very helpful.
My WordPress skills, very, very helpful in it. So it’s not, it’s not wasted. It’s not wasted,
[00:15:54] Grace: Yes. So it’s, it’s thinking about these languages and these skill sets as a tool in your toolbox. Or that you’re familiar with it, and the more practice you have with these tools, and you could see where I should apply them into different problems. So if you didn’t know php, you could force a JavaScript solution in there.
But sometimes, like you said, PHP is the, the easier way. It’s easier to use a WordPress thing and just kind of customize it. subhanAllah nothing is the waste.
[00:16:20] Fatimah: Nothing. Nothing is a waste. Nothing is a waste.
[00:16:25] Grace: So now you were saying that you’re in your full-time job as a front end web developer. What, what’s next? What do you hope to do next for you,
[00:16:33] Fatimah: Okay. Okay. Okay. So I, I currently focus on web, on web for now. So I, I, I have plans I focus on Web Zoom, so I have plans on, I’ve already started learning web three. I want to go into blockchain technologies. Yes. And I also have plans of also starting my mobile. Development journey. So obviously I’m not going to just go to go YouTube language, take a structured course for, cause I sort of, I have had the experience of going there and just search for content.
And I also have the experience of going through a structured program. So for, for me to make my journey to be more more meaningful and lesser like cut. My, the length of my learning period, I think I would go for structured programs for all of this. We start letting my blockchain start letting my mobile development and probably, I think I would start letting back end soon, but not anytime soon.
anytime soon. Anytime soon.
the meeting is, the
[00:17:37] Grace: like a true front end developer
[00:17:39] Fatimah: No, no. The meat is that people usually think, people usually think front end is simple. No, front
end is
not simple because, oh, no. The thing is, most users even get to interact with the front end, even before you are writing a back end code. I can, I can just do a manipulation and as far as the code works, nobody’s going to see any of any of my manipulations.
But for a front end person, any mistake I make is being seen by the whole world, by everybody. Accesses the website. So front end is not like, I don’t know why people see frontend and be like, oh, your front end developer, you’re not. But once you’re backend be like, wow, we’re backend developer. No frontend developer.
The front end development is not as, as people think. We actually like the forefront of what before people, people get to interact with first, even before using the features of the back.
[00:18:31] Grace: Yeah. One of the things that I like, Former front end developer. One of the things I like to say is you can ask somebody who is really good at Java to design something with c s s and see what the result is, ,
and it’s, it’s it’s a very, it’s very different. It’s very different way of thinking about doing things upon
alone. And that’s not taking away from either side. It’s, you know, they’re, they’re a complimentary skillset.
[00:18:57] Fatimah: Yes.
[00:18:58] Grace: there is something that you said in the beginning that I wanted to go back to. You were saying that on some of the job interviews that you went to you were having a hard time because you were wearing hijab when they wanted you to wear a less visible version of it.
We’ve heard that in a couple of other interviews from other Nigerians and from other countries. Has that changed when you’re in the tech field? Can you elaborate a little bit more on like what that experience has been for you?
[00:19:25] Fatimah: alhamdulillah it has been, I haven’t even had any reasons to, nobody has ever put down me. Nobody has ever discriminated me or thought I was less of a developer because of my job. alhamdulillah . I’m so happy about that. We take the the only constraint that happens once in a while is whenever you are in meetups and.
And the opposite sex wants to shake you. And he’d be like, no, I’m Muslim. I can’t do that. And they’ll be like, wow. But the good thing about tech is that people want to learn. I’m like, I’m so happy to be in tech. I I’m so happy to be in. Nobody is, they’re not, they don’t come with a defensive attitude. They want to actually learn like, wow, you don’t, you don’t shake hands.
Well, I never knew Muslims do this. I never, and you educate. That. So alhamdulillah like, I haven’t faced any backlash from cause of the use of my hijab, in tech. I have never, not for once, I’ve always been accepted for who I am.
[00:20:25] Grace: alhamdulillah, I’m so happy to hear that Fatimah. I’m really, really happy for you alhamdulillah. I think this is fundamentally true. Obviously tech is a massive field and some companies are just not good fits, but I think for the most part, people are genuinely good. They do genuinely want to know more about what’s going on.
They are curious and their curiosity comes from like a best interest and it’s a good opportunity to educate. And I think in tech people are more willing to listen and respect your boundaries people. Yeah. Cause I think in some other fields it’s more little bit more old fashioned and you don’t really have any boundaries, you know what I mean?
But I think in tech you can kind of assert that you, you have a little bit more autonomy. Wonderful.
What are some assumptions that you found that people, well, I guess maybe we’ve talked about this a little bit with the front end dev, but maybe we can find out some more, so some assumptions that people have about you or the work that you do.
[00:21:29] Fatimah: Aside from people thinking that it’s it’s very simple. They, they, they, they think the only language you use for front end development is just JavaScripts. So once, you’re a front end developer, they’ll be like your JavaScript developer, there are other languages that have been implemented in front end development.
Besides that, they, they think we are. Are less of developers that, backend developers, Those are like my major issues with them and I’m like, wow, no, this is not it. I struggle, I struggle to implement APIs. I struggle to implement. Without us, you nobody would be imagine coming to HTML onl y website.
Nobody wants interact. We also as important as order developers to.
[00:22:19] Grace: Yes, yes, yes. That’s it. But I’m glad we’re talking about
fatimah, what is something that you’re most proud of? So this can be something that you achieved, or a project that you did that’s like really close to your heart.
[00:22:34] Fatimah: Thank you. So I, I, as a Muslim, you have to be very conscious of the hereafter, you have to be very conscious of it. So I have always Thought or be way to do sadiqah jariah, something that whenever I’m gone would always return back to me my grave. So alhamdulillah like, that was part of the reasons why I thought I liked teaching at first when I tried to be a teacher.
So I have like, I have been able to, in my lookup community, I have been able to introduce. About 60 girls 60 secondary school students into their first introduction to software engineering. So, and I see you know, you cannot force people to learn software development or, I see quite a number of them at the, like, very, very interested pursuing a career and giving so much joy, so much joy in seeing young people coming.
I want to be like, I want to do this, I want to do this. What can I do to do this? And all of that. And also there is also okay, there I volunteered for, as a software instructor for some, some, some, some group of boys that were picked from the streets by certain organization. The the organisation is.
Chess in slums. It’s, it’s in Africa, it’s in Nigeria. So the, their mission is to make the boys better versions of themselves so I, alhamdulillah was more of the facilitators to teach these boys. And, and I alhamdulillah I, see most of their jobs, most of their work.
Now, I, our, since I, two of them since means their. Some of their work progress and I was like, wow, alhamdulillah these are boys that people have given up on and I see very brighter future in them. It’s like, like having , like seeing my children grow and becoming what I actually want for them.
So alhamdulillah software development has has really helped me and that was part of the reasons why I started my YouTube channel. So to be able to reach a wider or audience with my knowledge and alhamdulillah may Allah accept this act of ibadah on my part cause alhamdulillah I’m so happy that I can be able to.
Work and also prepare for my, hereafter using my job to, alhamdulillah so like I’m always very grateful for the opportunity to be developer and also the opportunity to give impact, like impact my society positively. alhamdulillah, I’m so happy about that. Very, very happy and always few time I remember that I can do this.
[00:25:07] Grace: Wow. May accept all of that from you and really amplify your, the effects of your efforts and your rewards. That is amazing. Fatimah. You’re doing so much good work, marsh.
[00:25:19] Fatimah: I
[00:25:20] Grace: I’m.
[00:25:21] Fatimah: alhamdulillah
[00:25:22] Grace: And that’s so much sadiqah jariah because you’re giving these, these children like the tools that are really going to help them into adulthood and build careers.
So anything that they do that’s gonna have barrakah and it is gonna come back to you. subhanallah, that’s amazing. I’m so happy that you’re able to use these skills and to have such a direct impact is really, really wonderful.
[00:25:40] Fatimah: And, and the good thing about introducing children to coding at a very young age or teenagers, is that it sort of increases their problem solving skills. You see, I had like two students that their parents came up to me Wow. That their, their children, like their words are better now at solving problems.
They don’t just cause at the end. community outreach I did where I said I thought more than success event, but there was a part where I introduced them into problem thinking and how they could impact their society. So they come up, they came up with very beautiful projects that I never thought we even had issues with.
In the society. So, so that, that sort of like expanded. They started thinking outside the box and I am delight even helping them in their school, like their parents actually seeing the difference. They see their children always in front of their computers and always looking serious and they’re like, mashAllah alhamdulillah.
They don’t just say they like, like they’re very serious teenagers now. I’m always very happy.
[00:26:36] Grace: Oh.
apart
[00:26:37] Fatimah: from coding, it’s has also impacted their life in their school curriculum alhamdulillah
[00:26:44] Grace: Um,
[00:26:44] Fatimah: that.
[00:26:45] Grace: Yeah, of course. That must make the teacher inside of you so happy Oh, fantastic.
And the other side of this, Fatimah, what is something that in your career that you regret or you wish that you did differently?
[00:27:02] Fatimah: I, I’m kind of thinking of what, what. Really? I don’t think I can think of one for now.
[00:27:13] Grace: Yeah.
[00:27:14] Fatimah: I don’t think I can think for one for now.
Not for now.
Not for now.
Yes. Yes.
[00:27:22] Grace: But it, this is an answer that we hear a lot alhamdulillah. I think especially as Muslims, we have that mindset that there’s things that bad that happened to us aren’t really bad because everything comes from Allah, all put of that qadr. And so we can have that sense of faith and tawakul that, whatever we did to get to where we are, that was what was meant to happen subhanAllah. I like what you were saying before, nothing was wasted.
[00:27:46] Fatimah: Nothing at all.
[00:27:48] Grace: Yeah. And the last question I have for you, Fatimah, what is somebody or something in your journey that you are most grateful for?
[00:27:56] Fatimah: I am most grateful for the connections. I have my network. My my community of especially LinkedIn too. LinkedIn has really helped my career. LinkedIn has helped me so much. I have met so many wonderful people, so many wonderful people in LinkedIn, and alhamdulillah, they have really contributed to making my good very, very seamless.
I’ve had so, So many great networks from I’ve, I’ve, I’ve gotten nice gigs from LinkedIn, so alhamdulillah. Also, I am so grateful for my husband too. I have, like, he has, he has been very, very supportive and very, very supportive. There are days where we would share chores. He would even do my, my chores at the house just because I have a deadline to meet up with.
And at the time I started my software engineering career was same time I started my master’s degree, my second degree. So it was, it was, and I remember I told you that I started a fellowship. I’m not far from there at that time. So it was very, very, I had, I didn’t have any free time at all. but alhamdulillah, he was always out.
Cause there were times where I would go for lectures. I was on a full-time master’s program. I would go for, he would take me to school, bring me back. Eventually was like my second, was like my shadow then, and just tries to . He tries to make everything very, very he made it very, very easy. Even my LinkedIn, he was actually the person that opened my LinkedIn and told me because he’s is a very active user of LinkedIn and he knew the power of, so he would he would go on my LinkedIn 10 connection.
Follow people on my behalf and told me to post this, do this, this, this, and has been very, very supportive. Very, very supportive. I.
[00:29:49] Grace: That’s, that’s very, very sweet. may Allah reward him. That’s so sweet. mashAllah.
Fatimah, is there anything else that you would like to add? Any last words of advice?
[00:29:59] Fatimah: Okay. So I would I would want people to always have the mindsets of whatever you are doing, whatever you are doing is worth doing. Well, put your best to anything you are doing. Cause I, I, that’s something about me like that alhamdulillah that Allah , has given me, Anything I start as far as I make the decision to start, since I don’t stop until I achieve it.
And I do, I do, I give my hundred percent switch. Like I said, I’m a go-getter. I do my, I give my hundred percent suite and make sure that I achieve it. And as a software developer even. Okay. People that are trying to come into tech, there are so many times where you’ll be down with imposter syndrome.
Please don’t give up. Talk to people. Have networks go for meet ups, go for, have tech communities where you would be able to share your experiences, share your fears, share ask for interview tips, ask for career advices, improve on your soft skills. Just don’t give up. Yeah, it happens a lot. It happens to the best of the best, even senior developers.
Gets that period there, there is always that period in time where you’d feel you are not enough for a certain job or a certain role. Don’t, don’t give up . Like don’t give up. Don’t just give up. I believe everything, everything. Your situation right now was pre-planned by Allah and you are giving up, please.
I don’t know. I don’t, I just don’t give up. I am a go getter. I give you a hundred percent to it, give you a hundred percent to it. So I usually tell new people that new newbies in tech. Software development is like, especially coding. There are different aspects of software development, especially the, like the web development, the coding aspects.
It, it can get overwhelming. The, the, it’s like, it’s like you baby, child, needs a hundred percent. I think. Like, remember when I first started, I used to be I, I used to like, I, I love sleeping very early. Like I love sleeping very early at night. Once after my shower I just go and sleep. But my software engineering journey and I wasn’t getting my started sleep around 12:00 PM it reduced my, I have stopped my sleeping.
My sleeping culture has been balanced. Now I have done, that’s cause I’ve able to achieve my tool and I’ve been able. I’ve been able to achieve my target and, and I’m like, I’m not where I want now, but I’m like, I’m in a very good state now, so just give you a hundred percent to anything you want to do and do it.
Well just do it. So, and you see the results coming up. It’s my same as if it’s not adding up, but trust me, as far as we don’t give up, it would add documenting. up.
[00:32:45] Grace: mashAllah, that’s perfect. It was such great advice. Thank you so much again, Fatimah. It was so lovely having you
on.
[00:32:50] Grace Witter: And as always, thank you so much for taking the time to listen today. If you liked it and you like what we’re doing at Tech Sisters consider following us, leaving a review, sharing this episode with any friends or even supporting us on Patrion. All of those really help us a lot. This is a completely non-profit organization. We’re just doing this for.
Sadaqua , so anything that helps more Muslim women find us and discover us and hear the stories is immensely helpful. And if you are a Muslim woman in tech, please go ahead and check out our community. It is completely free and fun and very supportive. You can join by going to our website tech-sisters.com and filling out the membership form, and you will get a link right away into our slack. So it’s really, really easy.
And that is all for me. And I’ll see you next week. As Salaam alaikum.