My Acceptance Into Microsoft Leap Cohort 3

So I stumbled upon an application posted on a WhatsApp group called DEVMINDS created by the popular Tech Genius Ada Nduka Oyom, its a group for women in tech to give room for training opportunity and job opportunity. A tech community you can always rely on.

I started my application in December 2019, the questions asked where about

• Talking about myself.
• Submission of CV in a markdown format.
• Any achievements.

Introducing Myself

So I introduced myself, which included my educational background which wasn’t computer science, and also wrote about my journey in tech which was, Introduction to Python for datascience and introduction to machine learning. I came across this path also from a tech genius Aminah Mardiyyah Rufai who was my classmate (biomedical engineering, University of Lagos). She introduced me to Python programming which was more advance than what we were taught in class — Matlab, my first programming language. I joined these two communities Data Science Nigeria and AI Saturdays Lagos which turned my life around, so I began to code in Python which wasn’t easy, I agree that it could be overwhelming but thanks to these communities for their guidance.

I didn’t get this the first time I came across it, I had to enroll again for their classes and started all over again, I knew I had to learn at my own pace without getting intimated or feeling like a failure.

Submitted My CV in Markdown Format.

I had no clue what that was but thanks to the internet, it was more of displaying your skills in tech through a format, So I had to update my Github profile and created a gist which is an easy method to share snippets or excerpts of data with others. A gist can be a string of code, a bash script, or some other small piece of data. These bits of information are hosted by GitHub as a repository. … Not only are gists free to create and store on GitHub, but they are also easy to create.

My Achievements were about the mini-projects I had done in my Python classes and also in a hackathon I participated in called NaijaHack organized by Uchi Uchibeke which was my first hackathon and I got to work with an amazing teammate called TeamSpark which included Alake Edah and Adegunle A. Babatunde.

**TeamSpark:** Naijahackathon Project — [Github repo](https://github.com/damkenny/TeamSpark)

• A Recruit assistant is a Machine learning web app. It helps HR/company to recruit rightly through database communication.
  - Developed a front-end UI that accessed the database and aesthetically rendered data.
  - Tech stack: Machine learning Model, CSS, Html, JavaScript, Jquery.

Invitation For Interview By Microsoft

The invite was sent by March 2020, at that time I had even forgotten I applied for Microsoft Leap Program, the Interview date was March 13th which was held at Wings Complex in Victoria Island, a day I can never forget. An unfortunate event happened that same day of my interview, I boarded a cab with some passengers who turned out to be armed robbers, where I lost all my valuables but I made sure I still got to the venue and explained the incident that had occurred and then my interview was rescheduled, Among all this, i had no phone but thanks to my family who stood by me, I had an interview to prepare for either-ways.

I had to brace myself up and forgot any emotions trying to hold me back and then I went for the interview on Monday 16th of March. It was series of tests that we had to write which included English, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and Dynamics, I never believed I could have written those tests with my mental state, because I had to pass a stage before moving to the next stage. Afterward, we were told to stay back for another series of interviews by different managers that same day, I still didn’t have a phone because I had retrieved my sim-cards with a police report and Affidavit which I didn’t have at that time until I was done with my interview.

The one-on-one interview was with Microsoft partners who I will be working with after the Microsoft leap Apprenticeship which was Tek-Experts and it went well. Also, I remember my last interviewer whose name was Mr. Benedict Agu, he explained what the training and job were all about and asked if it was something I could do and I responded, that I could do anything because I believed in myself.

Acceptance Mail From Microsoft

That moment was one of the happiest moments of my life and I looked back at the event that occurred and I thanked Allah for everything, which of the favor of Allah can I deny, none of course. He made me smile at the end of it all. The program was placed on hold due to Covid19 but was later asked to resume training by August 2020 which came as a job with a salary and a very great career path in IT, what more could i ask for. I was deployed to Microsoft Azure, so I can proudly say I am a Lady inTech. A cloud engineer in making and a Microsoft Azure Expert and all this was because I took the bold step to apply for Microsoft Leap Program organized by Microsoft.