Grace Ezuma’s story isn’t your typical tech career plot.
Starting with a childhood fascination for design software and a hilarious interpretation of cloud storage, her journey took her through twists and turns before landing a job as a Cloud engineer.
In this interview, Grace shares her struggles, breakthroughs, and valuable advice for aspiring tech professionals, proving that passion, perseverance, and a little help from mentors can take you far.
This publication focuses on sharing experiences and narratives on how ‘Techies’ have gotten into tech, highlighting their challenges, motivations, and valuable insights on how they have navigated the tech landscape from different starting points. If you would like to share your tech journey please fill this form.
Hi Grace, tell me three crazy things you have done to pursue your career in Cloud Engineering?
Grace: The first one is the fear of putting myself out there. I have never been one to talk about my learning and journey. In December 2022, I opened a Medium account and wrote an article “How I got into Tech.”
The second is going for an internship program, with literally zero knowledge about Cloud Computing. There, I gained my first hands-on experience working with a group of people and one of them became a mentor/friend.
And the third is making the decision to pursue my masters fully online, with my dad’s support.
Awww, love it for you. Let’s talk about your journey. Walk me through your medium post, how did you get into tech?
G: I have always been computer literate from the age of five. My parents owned a business centre (cyber cafe), so I was always there after school, weekends and during the holidays. I always marvelled at how my mom made those designs on CorelDraw and how my uncle typed so fast on the keyboard. It was always an intriguing experience whenever I came around.
I started designing on CorelDraw at the age of eight. I made simple cute logos for barber shops, saloons, canteens and law firms. I had a personal folder where I kept those designs (the desktop is gone sha. Lol). Dragging shapes, lines and picture icons around was so exciting and after some months, I started designing basic flyers with the names and details of their services. When I clocked nine, my dad got me my first laptop – a Dell. I was so happy when I found out he installed some apps I loved playing around with like CorelDraw, MS Word 2007, Mavis Beacon Typing and Encarta Kids.
Hope they gave you money oh?
G: No 😂
I was really little, I made those logos for fun because there were no games on our desktops in our cybercafe. It was only my parents and my uncle who saw those designs because they were the ones that operated the desktops.
Ah okay. Let’s go on.
G: After my primary education, I went to a boarding secondary school where we used little laptops to read, and we had our subjects’ lessons on them. I continued to learn how to design and type. After secondary school, I was asked to choose a discipline that I would love to major in. I was a science student, so I had two choices, Medicine or Computer Science. I went for the “easy” choice 🙂 ‘cos I was in love with my laptop so why not?
After my first year in the university, my dad asked me to go for a 3-month software training where I started my tech journey. I started taking Java classes, it was a physical class and I had two tutors. One taught me the fundamentals of Java and the other taught me the coding bit. The Java programming class lasted for two months and in the third month, I told my tutor that I wanted to learn web design and he taught me how to use Joomla and WordPress. It was an amazing experience, and I learnt a lot but because I didn’t keep practising, I began to forget what I was taught.
After my third year in the university, I had to go for my compulsory 6 months SIWES training, where I was introduced to Java Spring Boot, that was when the real coding started. I had to refresh my memory on Java, but at the end of the training I noticed I wasn’t so good with coding and I “packed my luggage” 😂I decided to give tech a rethink and do more research. Then I found Cloud Computing. I read different articles about it, learnt a lot about it and that has led to an interesting and sometimes confusing experience.
What is it that intrigued you about Cloud Computing?
G: If you asked my sister if she knew that I would be a techie, she would laugh and tell you a story from about six years ago.
I was in 100 level in uni and she was talking about saving some of her pictures in the cloud because of the lack of storage space on her phone. I asked her a very funny question and she still laughs when she sees me working and reminds me of that day. I asked her, “Which cloud do you want to save it to? Is it the one in the sky? Won’t aeroplanes destroy the storage when flying in the air?” She couldn’t stop laughing 😆 Ezinne, I know you are reading this, stop laughing please, I’m now a Cloud Engineer.
That’s hilarious! Walk me through your internship programme. How did you get in and how was it like getting that experience without prior knowledge
G: So it was Adora Nwodo’s NexaScale Cloud Mentorship Program. She posted a link on Twitter and asked everyone to apply for the program, and she reached out to the selected few. Funny enough, I was in Nysc camp at the beginning of the program and I was really depressed that I was in camp but when I went in, I was excited to begin, I couldn’t wait to go home and get my laptop.
We went through the Harvard CS50 Computer Science course and a cloud computing introductory course. These courses made me sure of what I was doing especially during the group projects we were working on.
Explain Cloud Computing to me in layman’s terms, what does it entail?
G: Cloud Computing is basically creating a whole virtual system that consists of basic components that our laptops and desktops have like Operating Systems, Storage, Basic Compute Functions, Servers etc; but in this case, the system isn’t physical but can be accessed through a computer through special softwares.
With Cloud Computing, you don’t have to worry too much about storage, too much cost of getting so many computers to do the work of one virtual system, the downtimes and network being exposed for exploitations. Cloud computing brings about Scalability, Cost Optimization, Data Management, Network Security etc.
You said you did research and started to learn about Cloud Computing. Where did you find these materials? Did you also try physical classes?
G: So I never got an opportunity to take a physical class. I did research on Google and reached out to a few people who were already in the field and asked for help. They gave me directions on how to get quality courses that are easy to learn from and understand.
How easy was it for you to get a job after University? Share what the hiring process was like.
G: Well, it wasn’t easy at all
After school, I failed to get a job until I was called to serve after 4 months and then I got to work as an IT Support Engineer at Adron Homes and Properties during my service. After that, I had to wait for 3 months before getting my present job. The thing is when you aren’t working, you feel like you are not doing enough but see that period as an opportunity to read, keep working on hands-on projects and also tell your story as my mentor, Cisco Nerd will say.
What does your day to day look like as a Cloud Engineer?
G: So as of now, I work as a Junior Cybersecurity Analyst and my job is mainly with servers, the network and securing the servers from cyber threats. But I still work on my personal cloud projects when I have free time. The goal is to be a certified Cloud Security Engineer as I am working towards that dream, not forgetting that every aspect in the field that will help me succeed.
So I have seen that you don’t particularly like coding. If you were not a Cloud Engineer what else do you think you might be able to do in tech?
G: I might just stick to being a technical writer and also try out UI/UX because I am a creative who is still very much in love with designing and creativity.
Right! And as a Cloud Engineer, what kind of challenges do you face at work?
G: Wow, this is a lot because I am presently facing one 😪
I have situations where a particular function isn’t properly linked and when I move ahead, I have that issue lingering and disrupting my work.
It can be something as small as inbound rules on a security group or connecting an instance through a SSH connection. In such situations, I reach out to older professionals in my field and discuss these issues; then they help provide solutions or give me directions on how to figure it out.
The truth in this field is, nobody is ready to spoon-feed you because they are also busy with their own issues and jobs. So if you are willing to be a cloud engineer, get ready to do lots of research and learning on your own but more importantly, find a mentor in the field.
Any advice for anyone who wants to get into Cloud Engineering?
G: Get ready to get frustrated 😂 because you will see shege!* Plenty shege, but don’t be too proud or shy to ask for help because you will move at a very slow pace if you don’t. Disturb your mentor with questions, no question is stupid, you will only die in silence and ignorance if you hold back.
You talk about the need for Mentors, any tips on how to get one?
G: Well, first find a mentor or a senior developer in your field of interest and follow them on their social media platforms.
Before you go. Are you reading or listening to any podcast about tech that you can share with us?
G: I get most of my updates during research but I listen to Darknet Diaries, a podcast that shares true stories about the dark side of the internet.
Thank you Grace!
*Shege – Frustration, exasperation