Pivoting as a techie: How Covenant Went From Ghostwriter to Code writer & Software Engineer

Pivoting as a techie: How Covenant Went From Ghostwriter to Code writer & Software Engineer

Some of the most successful tech careers begin with the main character having a passion for computers from a young age. But for Covenant, his path to being a software engineer was unexpected. Even though he is a graduate of computer science, Covenant found himself drawn to the world of content creation, pursuing a career in ghostwriting. However, fate and a helpful friend, led him to an internship opportunity that kickstarted a career in Software Engineering.

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.

If you could have any superpower related to your work, what would it be and why?

Covenant: If there’s any superpower at all, I’ll say the power of engagement. It’s more like the ability to work with any team and any type of person. Teamwork is an essential skill to thrive in my line of career and I think I’m doing pretty well in it. I have had instances of working with seemingly difficult team members but it doesn’t stop us from achieving our set goal.

What’s your current role and what does it entail?

C: I currently work at Babban Gona Nigeria, an agritech company. I am an Associate Developer in the Mobile Team. The mobile team is also known as the “Dev Core” of the organisation. Our responsibility is building and maintenance of quality mobile applications (Android) that will be deployed to the various branches of the organisation all over the nation to facilitate agriculture.

Can you tell us a bit about your educational background? Did you always know you wanted to be a software engineer? 

C: I have a B.Sc in computer science and it was quite an interesting journey obtaining the degree. I never planned to pursue a career in software engineering, as a matter of fact, I never had plans to use my degree. It was during my final year on campus that I started grooming myself in content/ghostwriting because I thought that was my path, and I pursued that for a while.

How long did you pursue content writing and ghostwriting? Why did you decide to make such a switch career wise?

C: I used to love writing since childhood, but just as a hobby or simply as a form of relaxation. I just loved writing down my thoughts based on the knowledge I had acquired at that time. So my thought during my final year was to groom that skill because it would benefit me one day, and it did.

I pursued ghostwriting all through my youth service. I was a freelancer on Upwork for close to a year, offering ghostwriting services to international clients. However, my plan was to finish up with my youth service and go deeper into ghostwriting using the upwork freelance platform, until I got an internship offer in tech and decided to accept it.

Interesting, how did that offer come about?

C: It was divinely orchestrated. A friend and brother of mine who was a graduate of mechanical engineering was applying for a six month internship in tech. I happened to walk into him as he was applying and then he told me about it and was of the opinion that I could apply too since I am a computer science graduate. 

I was actually not interested because I was already earning as a writer. But so as not to disappoint him, I applied… Or rather he applied for me because he knew I wouldn’t do it if he left me to do it later Read Original