Amina Adewusi
NET|April 2020
In just over a year, Amina Adewusi went from teaching herself how to code to joining the engineering team at Guardian News & Media and speaking at industry events. Here she tells us about her inspirational journey and why we should all encourage diversity in developers
Oliver Lindberg
Amina Adewusi

Amina Adewusi was living her dream. As an independent investment analyst working across sub-Saharan Africa, she travelled frequently. When she and her husband decided to start a family, Adewusi remained optimistic that she could continue that work. But soon after becoming a mother at the end of 2017, the reality hit that her lifestyle wasn’t sustainable. Her baby needed a lot of her attention and energy. Accepting that she had to find a job that allowed her more flexibility, Adewusi googled ‘work from home’ and discovered that 80 per cent of the jobs that looked attractive to her were for software engineers. Adewusi, however, had no development experience.

She began researching coding bootcamps and found a lot in her hometown of London but they weren’t accessible to her. “My son was still very young and I wasn’t getting any sleep,” Adewusi remembers. “So the thought of going to a bootcamp Monday to Friday, nine to five, was absolutely impossible. Nevertheless I’m still really grateful that bootcamps exist because I benefited from their positive marketing material. It made me believe that I could do it. I chose to start learning Ruby as my first programming language because one of the bootcamps was advising it and had some materials on their website. I believe as long as you learn one language you can transpose that knowledge into others.”

This story is from the April 2020 edition of NET.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the April 2020 edition of NET.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM NETView All
Camille Gribbons
NET

Camille Gribbons

UX designer at Booking.com, Camille Gribbons reveals how she first got into the industry

time-read
7 mins  |
June 2020
THE 5G UI REVOLUTION
NET

THE 5G UI REVOLUTION

Tris Tolliday describes his vision of a web UI catapulted forwards by 5G

time-read
3 mins  |
June 2020
HOW TO SHOWCASE YOUR DEV SKILLS
NET

HOW TO SHOWCASE YOUR DEV SKILLS

Aude Barral shares 5 top tips for landing your dream developer job

time-read
3 mins  |
June 2020
KNIVES OUT
NET

KNIVES OUT

Murder mystery film, Knives Out, grabbed everyone’s attention, and so did the fun website that promoted it. Oblio tells Tom May how it created its innovative 3D navigation

time-read
6 mins  |
June 2020
HOW EMOTIONAL LABOUR HINDERS WOMEN IN TECH
NET

HOW EMOTIONAL LABOUR HINDERS WOMEN IN TECH

Christine Brewis, head of digital marketing at Studio Graphene, discusses how gender parity in tech has changed over the last ten years, and what more can be done

time-read
5 mins  |
June 2020
EDAN KWAN
NET

EDAN KWAN

He swapped life as a singer for a career making eye-popping digital visuals. The Lusion founder chats to Tom May about battling demons, winning awards and where digital advertising is heading

time-read
8 mins  |
June 2020
ANDREW COULDWELL
NET

ANDREW COULDWELL

The Brit in LA discusses his new book on design systems, Laying the Foundations

time-read
3 mins  |
June 2020
Top 5 Tips For Ensuring Web Content Is Accessible For All
NET

Top 5 Tips For Ensuring Web Content Is Accessible For All

Merlyn Meredith outlines five top tips for ensuring web content is accessible for all

time-read
2 mins  |
May 2020
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR BROWSERS?
NET

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR BROWSERS?

Nico Turco examines the state of play with browsers, whether developers should encourage diversity or monopoly and how Google fits into it all

time-read
6 mins  |
May 2020
YEARS IN THE MAKING
NET

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Exclusively for net: The latest in a series of anonymous accounts of nightmare clients

time-read
3 mins  |
May 2020