Meet Henry and know his Journey!
My name is Chuka Henry Okonkwo, a graduate in Accounting and a software engineer with One World Coders Rwanda. I am a citizen of Nigeria, who is passionate about learning new innovations, working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and building amazing products.
My Journey to software development has been a completely self-taught one. I wrote my first Hello World in June 2018 while following a Udemy video tutorial by Brad Traversy, and since then I have continued passionately on this path of continuous learning. Before then, I had no idea what software development was all about, even though my older brother was already a software engineer at that time.
In the year 2015, immediately after participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a statutory one year program for all graduates in Nigeria, I didn’t wait to secure a white-collar job, but rather set out on a journey to become an entrepreneur, by registering and operating my own agro-processing company in Kaduna, a city located in North-Western Nigeria.
To cut a long story short, things didn’t go down well for me as planned, my company packed up just after 2 years, and this was due to reasons I take complete responsibility for. Before then, I had not done proper market research of the industry I stepped into, I had limited knowledge of manufacturing and agriculture, I didn’t take bookkeeping serious, I had zero people skills. I was just a smart and adventurous young man who wanted to be independent by every legal means. The experience gathered from this short period I would say, has taught me a life-lesson that has helped me thrive in any environment I find myself today.
In the year 2018, I decided to learn a new skill that will make me globally relevant. I opted for software development after seeing and reading about how technology was positively impacting and changing the face of businesses around the world, and also contributing to the growth of economies around the world. I decided to be part of this evolution, initially because I wanted to learn and understand how I could infuse technology into my already failed business.
So far, the journey into software development for me has been interesting and challenging at the same time, especially coming from a non-traditional background. The past one year of my professional career experience has been highly impactful, I have had the privilege of working in one of the best technology companies in Africa, I have also had the privilege of working on the same team with the brightest minds, adopted industry best practices and built amazing products.
Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life, a new opportunity, a fresh start. Today, I become a One World Coder, working from our Kigali office. I’m excited about the future, I can’t wait to see what it brings.
Watch out for Henry!