How the COVID Pandemic Led Me to Swap Medical Scrubs for Coding

Everyone loves a good story, they say… and this is mine.

I was born into a family deeply rooted in medicine. My mum is a nurse, many relatives work in medical fields, and I had easy access to the staff side of hospitals from a very young age. Being surrounded by doctors, nurses, and scientists, I naturally thought my path was set. I would be in science, just like the rest of my family.

Yet, life had other plans. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, something unexpected happened. Two of my favorite cousins, who were already exploring tech, unknowingly nudged me toward computers. One of them, more like an elder brother, guided me into the world of coding. Using my mum’s laptop, I opened a PDF titled “Sams Teach Yourself HTML, CSS, and JavaScript All in One”. YouTube tutorials were a stretch back then, because I had to carefully manage my data… 1GB at a time from the cheapest MTN plan I could find.

From 2020 to 2022, I barely touched the laptop for coding. But over time, curiosity grew, quietly building a fire inside me. I was a gentle, reserved student and boarding school life introduced me to a mentor, a school father who constantly pushed me beyond my limits. Even after he graduated, he remained a guiding voice. I still remember calling him during my senior year to learn about his journey in software engineering, and I was utterly amazed.

After secondary school, I attended my first DevFest in Ibadan in 2022. Around the same time, I enrolled at SQI College of ICT for a diploma in cybersecurity. While some of my peers are now in 400-level programs, I’ve realized that most of them are just beginning to explore tech… so in my own way, I’m ahead in experience and curiosity.

Since then, I’ve connected with brilliant minds on Twitter and at tech events, including volunteering at DevFest Ilorin 2024 and Build with AI Ogbomoso 2025. Today, I’m studying cybersecurity while diving deep into DevOps and cloud computing, focusing on AWS, and starting to contribute to open-source projects. I’m also passionate about helping newcomers navigate their first steps in tech.

Looking back, swapping stethoscopes for a keyboard was never planned, but it feels like destiny. The journey hasn’t been easy, and I’m still learning every day but every challenge has strengthened my passion for tech.

To anyone reading this who’s considering a pivot, whether from medicine, business, or any other field: curiosity, persistence and guidance from mentors can open doors you never imagined.

The adventure continues, one keystroke at a time. I look forward to sharing more of this journey with you in the chapters yet to come. Thank you for reading this far.🙏🏾

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Habeeblahi (Adesola) Jimoh
Habeeblahi (Adesola) Jimoh