Ahmed Bankole is a 16-year-old software engineer who started coding at the age of 13. Within a short period of time, Ahmed has worked on several projects.
Ahmed is our kid spotlight of the month. We had a chat with Ahmed and he told us how he started, the challenges, and how he has been able to stay focused
CAN WE MEET YOU?
My name is Ahmed Bankole
When did you start to code? I started at the age of 13
WHAT PROMPTED THAT?
Ahmed: I was one of the best students in IT in school, a teacher advised me to take some IT courses.
HOW DO YOU COPE WITH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AND LEARNING TO CODE ?
I have schedules. In weekdays, I focus on schooling and coding activities on weekend
WHERE DID YOU START CODING?
I used online platforms to start learning. I used w3school and other coding sites
HOW MANY PROJECTS HAVE YOU WORKED ON?
I have worked on over 50 projects; I do projects almost every day because through that I learn more
WHAT ARE CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING AS A KID IN THE TECH INDUSTRY?
Some of the challenges are that most of these opportunities are not for kids, when you want to apply for a summer Bootcamp or coding internship, you will find out that you need to be of a certain age before you can apply. Also when it comes to school work, when I have to be jumping from a school assignment to day to day activities and learning coding are major challenges
DID YOUR PARENT SUPPORT YOU WHEN YOU STARTED?
Initially, they didn’t know I was doing coding but over time, they got to know and they encouraged me by getting me a PC to continue. My first computer was through my parents when they found out I was learning to code. They got a mini laptop for me when I was 14 years.
HOW MANY PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES DO YOU KNOW?
I know C#, Python, and JavaScript. Because I didn’t have any coding coach or mentor so programming was a new thing to me and when I searched for programming languages, I saw many languages. I started with C at first but I didn’t really like it, a few days later I moved on to C++ and I learned it for 2 weeks which I couldn’t cope again because I couldn’t code efficiently so I didn’t feel I was doing it right and that’s what prompted me to learn C#. When I started C# within 2 months and I got much enthusiasm than others and over time, I decided to dive into the world of web development and that is why I started learning JavaScript in 2018.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL PEOPLE OF YOUR AGE THAT WANT TO GO INTO PROGRAMMING?
Firstly, I will like to say the tech ecosystem is big and there are a lot of opportunities there though there might be advantages or disadvantages at least self-goal is important. You get to know and meet people and by the time you get to age 18, you would have gained much experience.
Do you know any kid that is doing great stuff in the tech field and you want us to feature him/her? Kindly contact Rubies Technologies info@rubiestech.org
