Welcome back, I hope you enjoy episode 4 of the Dev Stories series! If you want to learn more about Victor, please checkout the links below. Victor’s Twitter: twitter.com/cinematic_dev Victor RU-vid: ru-vid.com/show-UClJ_5IM_-bzra7Ms57xcPOg Victor's Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/victor-anyirah-19b95156/
Incredibly inspiring videos you have here 🙂.. I'm a Nigerian teen that's aspiring to be a computer programmer /robotics engr and seeing my fellow Nigerians doing stuff like this is really dope 😎
Very cool and inspiring story! I also had a 2.8 gpa (in highschool) and thought I'd be doing labor jobs all my life. I discovered tech and its the best switch I ever made. I'm a mid level dev working in fintech now. Stop telling yourself you arent good enough and put yourself out there. I love this guy's message
I mean...coding/programming is kind of the manual labor of the software industry. The primeagen guy said he spent something like 3 or 5 years trying to get a change that saved 7 seconds on Netflix startup times....what a life.
@@knpstrr youre right. I think programming is more mentally taxing than labor so it evens out. Thats wild, i didnt know about that. On the other end of the spectrum, and what actually got me really interested in programming, was I spent several months on the side building a little web tool to help automate a huge part of my call center job. My productivity doubled within a week that I started using it, management caught notice, and now they use it company wide because it saved a significant amount of time and money. And it was just a stupid little javascript tool.
No, it is not interesting that you are the only black person in the whole company. Bro, you are a human being just like the rest of the employees over there. The color really does not matter. C'mon, we are in 2022... Please do not separate people. We are all one. Great interview by the way! Keep it up man !
As someone who just got an offer from one of the biggest software developing companies in the world without a degree, people like Victor inspired me so much on my journey. Just know IT IS possible.
Congratulations!! Show up and show out! Often times people try to define your value by your "credentials," but skill and solid work ethic will win every time!!
@@narayani2997 Hello! Sorry for the late reply. Everyone's journey will be different. For starters, find what you are passionate about, and see how you can apply that to software engineering. Next, find out what technologies you need to achieve that, and starting putting hours daily into it. Consistency is key. If you want somewhere to start, I high recommend CS50 course, you can enroll for free and it's a fantastic introduction into Computer Science.
I love your channel so much Bukola. You’re doing a lot for the black community and you don’t even know it! Giving us all these insights and having interesting people like Victor and others talk about their career journeys is invaluable! You have inspired me to start my own journey ❤️❤️
This dude is legit me. Nigerian, wanted to be a doctor, same college GPA, got inspired by The Social Network movie, and now a software engineer. What the heck?
Another stellar video Bukola, thanks! He said something amazing I'm hoping everyone remembers. Know your value and worth when it comes to being the Only one in this space. We earned our right just like everyone else to occupy those seats in tech. We studied hard, learned how to solve problems, and add value. Never short change yourself when you're negotiating. You deserve north of $200K just like everyone else - assuming they understand how to ask for what they want too, lol. Thanks again little sis! Blessing great people!
This is great! Your GPA won't stop you from getting that job. GPA shouldn't measure your skills, drive, or knowledge. I'm shocked jobs still require a GPA.
My imposter syndrome started with my gpa. It took me longer to complete my studies but I didn’t quit. I ended up seeking my own paid internship opportunities and later FTE. And out of all the years in tech I was only asked about it once. College felt like a gate keeper when it really isn’t. Experience is king.
as a 2.5 student its really trash when people would treat you like you were dumber bc you didn't work yourself to the bone for an A especially since these colleges don't teach. they just rush you through content so im glad im not the only one who uses the "just pass" for college mindset while working on outside projects
I graduated with a 2.76 GPA and am a upper-mid level engineer after one year. I took the same route as you and did 4 internships in my undergrad and got 6 job offers immediately after I graduated! Congratulations on your current and future successes.
@@marksolvent3259 Just have to apply and be confident in whatever the requested requirements are. Make sure you are prepped for the technical interview and do some practice ones with friends before the real one and treat it very seriously. After that, just do your best to correct anything that you might not have known in the mock interviews and apply it in the real ones
@@SarahMahmoud365 Considering I can take a web app from ground to completion in a matter of days I’d disagree. I also know 7+ programming languages fluently and can work with any framework. I just didn’t care about homework or school.
What a blessing to have a yt channel like Bukola's. Im truly honored that yt suggested me your videos. Bukola thank you so much for your effort. I'm a latino living in the Philippines and I'm in grade 11. 3 months ago I decided I wanted to learn to code, so I took the freeCodeCamp responsive design certificate and I'm about to finish it. Again thank you so much because your content has definitely show me a really good starter plan for my future. I thank God for your life. Also, I implemented the Atomic habits and Slight Edge techniques and that is how I have been able to consistently learn to code while maintaining a 94 avg in school. Btw, you are also ver pretty😜.
I was a college drop out making minimum wage selling cars, got inspired by Silicon Valley and the social network and hated my job, quit my job with no plan, re enrolled in college and today I am a senior dev.
I graduated with a 2.5 GPA and felt so hopeless. Hearing stories like this really helped me get back on my feet, last week I completed a job interview and it went very well! I'm hoping I'll get a job offer soon
I remembered in 2019 when I watched your first video where you were teaching yourself. I took a decision to teach myself coding. It took me 2 years from the time I started to the time a get a job. I work as full stack engineer here in Seattle waghinston. I am very happy. This is just a new journey for me. As black guys from cameroon who've been in the usa in 2017 and now work as software engineer is a very big progress. Thanks
Love this! And totally agree - GPA is something you can prioritize, but it isn’t necessarily important to work in the tech industry. Having valuable experience, Projects, Internships etc are waaay more important imo . Great video! 😀
Thanks so much, Victor for your advice, I appreciate it, I live in Germany and I have been working for a German company for the last 2 years and I am the only black software engineer in the whole company. I must say that the first year was not good at all for me and some people here could not even believe that a black person can program. I had to learn the German language so that I can be able to communicate with my colleagues because some did not even want to speak English to me but I never gave up and still worked hard.
I also had the mentality of doing the bare minimum in my classes and instead focused on projects. This was definitely an adjustment because during my first degree, grades were everything. I quickly realized that learning different technologies and programming languages outside of school would be far more beneficial than getting perfect scores in classes such as discrete math. It all worked out in the end. 😊
I really love these uplifting stories!!! I was one of the only Latinos in my Engineering program and now at work and can definitely resonate with this.
Funny, uh, in the beginning it seemed to be about being underprivileged and underrepresented, and then PlayStation 1, MCAT book, starts college at 16, gets support for an undergraduate research project...
That point about memorising questions is soooo true, but it’s so hard to not be tempted to memorise bc some company questions are so well known it’s hard to not want to at least know the code
Yes needed to hear this oftentimes we are afraid to take that leap to negotiate in tech. We gotta believe in our sauce. There’s a reason we were offered the job. ✊🏾 Great vid
FYI All Netflix senior engineer roles start at 500k mostly cash. Half a million dollars! Also netflix almost exclusively hires senior software engineers
I’m on the start of my UX journey. I recently graduated an online program and got my resume and cover letter together. Out of nowhere I start seeing a bunch of black people who made it the tech industry in my algorithm. At first I felt alone but now I don’t.
Hey I’m on my UX / UI journey too and have the same sentiments. I love seeing more diversity and specifically black people like ourselves breaking into spaces like tech. Do you have a LinkedIn and which online program did you graduate from?
This was a brilliant interview - what was said i.e. his journey, how he switched & studied and particularly not waiting to get that particular goal then to enjoy life 👏🏾👏🏾
Just started my journey self-teaching myself frontend last week. Goal is to land a frontend job in 6 months then slowly but surely pick up a few backend languages to market myself better. Wish me luck!
Actually I've heard that Netflix is the hardest company for programmers, and I'm impressed that graduate with 2.8 GPA and get a job from company that hard for software engineers... Good job, and motivational. Thanks for the motivation, I am sophomore student at IT field, and it was great motivation to not focus to GPA at university. Good luck for your job ;)
Black and Brown People....Stop calling yourself a MINORITY, there's nothing 'minor' about you, your abilities or your existence. Wonderful story as well!
Disappointment! so relatable omg 😂 my Haitian family thinks I’m lost essentially, I started in nursing then switched to biotech, and that was really a compromise for staying in the medical field for them but trying something new for me, and now I’m in computer science hopefully omw to cybersecurity. Great video!
These dev stories always feature geniuses, this guy learnt about microprocessors and built some iron man helmet to win an award while managing a pre-med degree? There's no way he's not having a bright career in whatever company he wants... Amazing story nonetheless!
Yes, I agree. This guy is a genius and his story is so impressive. Coming from a non-computer engineering background, I hardly understood what he was talking about. I'm just here for the inspiration
I had a hard college experience. I studied chemical engineering with the hopes that it would lead to a biomedical engineering career (that's what my advisors told me). As a result my gpa at the end of my undergrad year was a solid 2.8. I was kicked from my honors program and shame set in. But during that time I learned about web development and programming. I took every tutorial I could find. I made apps, games, Arduino projects, WebApps and more. I even got into a boot camp last year. After alot of trial and tribulation and finding a mentor I have now just accepted a position as a SWE. I am glad you shared this story Bukola, it gives more representation to those who think they can't make it because they didn't hit a particular mark
I had my first job as a Software Engineer out of a Bootcamp sitting next to Victor at Bird, prior to his joining Netflix! He kicks ass and is a cool dude -- the penny board is iconic.
@@briansanchez9663 They absolutely can! There are many senior/staff+ engineers at every company that I've worked at that didn't receive computer science degrees at university. Whether you learn through a bootcamp or on your own, what matters is that you know your stuff.
A computer science degree itself won't teach you everything "you need" to be a software engineer, either. Every job that you get, you'll have to be learning new things on the go. There are a lot of resources out there, free and $, to learn about coding and software engineering. Some are bad, and some are pretty good.
Woah. Victor interviewed me at Bird. Small world! He's like half my age and absolutely crushing it. That's crazy that even he references imposter syndrome, since I'd think that his accomplishments alone from college would've been enough to cure me of it had it been me. Or maybe he's just constantly around equally impactful engineers? Why am I even larping as a swe?
Learning that we deserve to be there is important indeed. Financial freedom is the goal and is even better when you can achieve that while doing a job that you absolutely love. I’m not there yet LOL. I hate my job.
This guy reminds me of myself currently now in school in Nigeria Delta State learning computer science and engineering principles while studying science laboratory technology. Hey 👋 bro create a company in Nigeria and become a employer your story is inspiring
Awesome video. I am about to graduate from my University in a week majoring in Computer Engineering. But this was inspiring because I feel so behind with languages and projects but like he did I just have to work hard and be confident.
The video and editing quality is stellar!! Would love to follow back up with him later to talk about balancing burnout/ mental health in a cutthroat work environment like Netflix
And then there's me, someone who got their 2 year degree in CS, focused on becoming a web dev, then realized I could mostly read JS but not entirely write it (however CSS and HTML are gtg but that really only helps with web design etc). I see people coming from the most random jobs and switching to coding and think "how do these people just pick this stuff up and learn it the way they do??" lol. This stuff does not click with me like it does with other people and I'll never know why.
Most of the time it don't just click with people. They learn it the same way people learn new languages. It didn't just click with me either. It's like learning Spanish. I've got my associates in cs and working on my bachleors. It definitely gets easier but don't ever get discouraged because it doesn't just click. Lol I don't know anyone in any of my classes who have said bam I know this. You have to learn it like anything else.. take a book in a language that's not your native language and try to read it. Same concept. Pick up a guitar and play a famous song.. pick up a physics book when you've only done pre algebra... very few people can pick up something and just have it click. I feel like anyone can learn anything if they like it enough and practice enough. If you don't have any sort of passion for it, it will take a lot longer and nobody just starts programming and instantly knows all the syntaxes and oops and everything else.. start from the beginning. Buy a class from udemy. Buy some books. Don't move forward if you don't quite understand something. It takes time. Learning this stuff overnight is not realistic. Just like the many get rich quick schemes. Anything worth doing usually takes time.
Wow he went to UTD and Richland at the same time I was there, I graduated 2016. That’s what’s up. Go Comets lol. I was in the Business school and he was in Computer Science. I wish much success to you
Victor sounds super smart and motivated. It’s no wonder he’s a lead engineer. When he talks about his own journey, it’s full of wisdom and is well articulated. I think he has a talent for inspiring passion in others. The engineers on his team are lucky to work with him!
Finally someone who comes from poverty like me…from the same continent as me….same first name as me as-well…& I’m also trying to get into the same industry.. so inspirational!!!!😭😭
I would love a study, insight or questioning as to why African immigrants are more inclined to go into tech and medicine vs African Americans. There seems to be an overrepresentation of African people in the black staff of tech companies. great video!
The U.S. immigration system filters out for the creme de la creme as letting in talented ppl benefits the U.S. This guy is the offspring of the best and brightest Africa has to offer whereas the majority of the black population does not have this capability. He is the jeremy lin of tech. There's not a whole lot of those.
@@jshawney3355 Naa you got it all wrong. Nigerians naturally are very intelligent and resilient people. They love to take risk, explore and also have a ferocious drive to becoming successful unlike some AA’s. Their parents also make them believe “Education is the best way to succeed”
@@Alex-dt3nx I think you meant to say Asian Americans. Nigerian American achievements in STEM is basically nonexistent in comparison to Asian American achievements. They dominate STEM the way blacks dominate the NBA
@@Alex-dt3nx that's not even close to true. Not even remotely. Asian Americans are the highest academically achieving group in America hands down. YOU need to do your research. A simple Google search will show you how wrong you are. When you walk around Harvard or Yale, you don't see Nigerians, you see Asians. When you walk around Facebook or Google offices, you do NOT see black faces. You see a lot of Asians. And dats fax yo . NaH MeAn ???
I love this series because I think it's really important to show that you can literally come from things like a 1.8 GPA, no college, no money, no nothing and come out on top
Definitely, we need more black guys (and ladies too) in tech. We blacks missed every other indurtialization, but the IT revolution is still young, we can get in en mass to take a big share of the industry. I am seriously dissappointed with black america...a bunch of them there sagging the pants and waiting to make it big as rappers. While the US is outsourcing over a trillion dollars every year in IT contracts and jobs. Black america wake up...
This is a great story. Sometimes it takes time to find your true passion, even if it goes against your upbringing. It also helps that his passion pays well after 2 years of experience.
If there's any career field where people don't care about your academic achievements or how much you've failed in the past, only about how much you want to learn and how hard you're willing to work, it's software engineering.
Around 90% of my colleagues at the startup where I work are black. In my experience there are more black software developers than white. This video was great. Loved the part where he talks about not feeling like an imposter and that others in the role who may seem better are actually just like everyone else.
The key take away here is that he wasn't lazy, he didnt get a 2.8 because hes not capable of a 4.0, he just didn't care about it that much because of more tangible skills. Can't get into Netflix by being lazy...don't forget that
This is amazing. As a fellow CS student and Sr developer i agree with the GPA aspect. I realized just mentally being able solve complex issues or think outside box makes us shine once given opportunity.
