Dr. Ehoneah Obed

Documenting my journey to becoming a Software Engineer

Member since May, 2022

About Me

Heya! One thing I love doing is helping people and I believe one of the key ways I do this is through sharing of my knowledge and personal experiences. I have therefore decided to use this platform to share my knowledge and experience to people who may decide to take the path that I have taken. So, the question is, what is this path? I am professionally trained as a pharmacist but I have been an ardent lover and user of various technologies. During my practice at a tertiary hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana, I discovered a number of pertinent health problems and how technology can be used to solve those problems. In my quest for finding ways to solve some of these health problems with technology, I discovered the field of digital health and how that is transforming the way healthcare is being delivered. I am so much interested in the field and look forward to building a career in digital health and hopefully starting a company (startup) in that field. To make this career transition, I have to pursue further education and I have come across several paths that can lead to that career goal of mine. I have therefore decided to explore almost all the options that I have. For further studies, some of the courses which I came across that can help me achieve that career goal include a masters program or PHD in any of the following: Digital Health, Health technology, Health Informatics, Information Technology, Computer Science and Computational Science. I have therefore started applying to various schools offering any of the programs above. In the time being, I decided to start learning more about emerging technologies and that led me to take a three months course in Amazon Web Services (AWS). I am currently an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. During the 3 months training that I undertook at Ghana Tech Lab, Accra, I was introduced to a lot of things which excited me the more. I came to realize the potential of things I could do if I had the right knowledge especially in software development. Prior to this time, I had taught myself a number programming languages, libraries and frameworks for web development. I could consider myself as a fullstack developer with knowledge in HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, WordPress, React, Laravel, and Codeigniter. However, I practiced less and didn't feel confident enough about my knowledge. I just knew I needed more. More learning, more practice, more projects and more connections with people in the industry. I started taking the Odin project to become a better web developer and a few days into it, I came across the ALX Software Engineering programme for Africans. Once I realized it was free to join, I was going to do everything in my capacity to qualify for it. I discovered the programme about 3 days to the deadline for the May 2022 Cohort. I therefore, sat through that night to finish my application to ALX. Fortunately for me, I got accepted into the program and a new phase of my life has started. I am now a Software Engineering Student looking forward to building a career in digital health. I know that this is just the beginning. As part of this programme, we spend about 70 hours a week learning, practicing, completing projects and building new relationships with our peers. As part of this journey, I am going to use this platform to document what I learn and share my journey to becoming a Software Engineer with you. Therefore, anyone at all looking to transition from their current career to software engineering will find what I post here relevant. Also, if you are a self-taught developer or you are thinking of teaching yourself software development, then you will also enjoy the content I publish here. Throughout my short journey of life, I have realized that we tend to give up on things easily when there is no form of accountability. I am therefore by this platform signing a deal to become accountable to you through sharing with you whatever I learn. Do share your thoughts and comments with me whenever you come across any of my post so I can truly remain accountable to you and never give up on this new found dream of mine.