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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Chima Profile</title>
<link href="./img/favicon.png" rel="shortcut icon">
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/slick.css">
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.2.4.min.js" integrity="sha256-BbhdlvQf/xTY9gja0Dq3HiwQF8LaCRTXxZKRutelT44=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
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<body>
<div id="barba-wrapper">
<div class="barba-container" data-prev="jamesprofile1920.html" data-next="ashleyprofile1920.html">
<div class="main clearfix">
<div class="profile-info">
<div class="slider">
<div class="profile__img profile__img_chima1"></div>
<div class="profile__img profile__img_chima2"></div>
<div class="profile__img profile__img_chima3"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="profile__name">Chima Nwosu</p>
<p class="profile__job">Software Engineer</p>
<a class="link-home no-barba" href="index.html">Home</a>
<a class="link-about no-barba" href="#">About</a>
<div class="content clearfix">
<p class="content__heading">Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from?</p>
<p class="content__text"> I grew up in Seven Sisters in Tottenham, of Nigerian descent. My house was very Nigerian. I learned English in school, as my parents instilled our native first, English when you left the house. I went to school in Wood Green, Stoke Newington, then I got a £2,000 a year scholarship to DeMontfort University in Leicester. There is where I started my first business with my partner at the time, a natural hair and holistic magazine. It went international, six different countries.
<p class="content__text">Once I was working on the magazine I was working 9-5, as I was the financial investor as well the director. I resigned last January, as the director and then I quit my job last October because I wanted to get into front end development. After an eight-month period being self-employed - building websites from scratch, dabbling in a bit of design - I landed a software engineer role for an augmented reality firm. I have been working there for the past month, currently on an app that allows women to try make-up in real time before they purchase.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What inspired or influenced you to get into tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">In college I was browsing websites thinking "I wonder how they did it?" I am driven by the how instead of the what; what’s going on behind the scenes. I met a guy that gave me training programmes on CDs and I learnt code from there, simple HTML. In uni I had a module on web design, I from that point on thought <em>"Ok there's money in this"</em> and also liked the problem solving aspect.</p>
<p class="content__text">I discovered what I love doing at 21. My friends have always been like <em>"you're lucky you've found what you did, when you did, because we're still looking"</em>. I'm 26 now and some of them still don’t know what they’re doing, haven’t had time to explore. At uni my course was quite broad, I did photography, video and sound editing, recording, 2D animation and more. I had that opportunity to really explore and realise I'm going to code.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What motivates you to stay in tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">One, the problem-solving aspect, two, the idea that I could wake up with an idea, jump on my laptop, and in a few weeks, build that idea. Developers work behind the scenes, but we create and control a user’s experience. People use their phones or ATMs or gaming, but there's always a developer at some stage.</p>
<p class="content__heading">Have there been any challenges working in tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">The job searching process was very interesting. My name is Chima Nathaniel Dixon-Owusu, and I was applying with Chima Owusu. After a bit of resistance I thought <em>“let's be smart and tweak your CV”</em>, and I changed my name to Nathaniel Dixon. Within a couple of weeks, I got interviews. They're thinking <em>"we won't be able to pronounce his name”</em> or <em>“Nathaniel sounds more British".</em></p>
<p class="content__text">When you get the job you have to navigate your team members who suggest, for example, for sports day, buying Afro wigs. I had to teach someone senior to me that this is not OK and why it is not OK, without coming across as if I am making a race problem. It's a lot of holding your tongue, if I'm honest.
<p class="content__text">Where I am working now I really appreciate, because it is truly diverse. There are Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Greek, which makes it easier, as a lot of conversations are learning about people’s different cultures. It's not just about tech; it's about their experience in tech from their background or country of origin.</p>
<p class="content__heading">What is your future in tech?</p>
<p class="content__text">It's bleak: tech keeps me employed but we're relying on it too much. Amazon is delivering food and products by drones. We are going to have robots doing stuff for us, did we forget I, Robot?. We know where this ends. I don't know why we are making things that we don't need when there are things that have not been solved.</p>
<p class="content__text">There is poverty everywhere, people need access to education, people need access to jobs, why aren’t we using tech to this? I love tech but I like it when it makes people’s lives easier, not when in takes away human functions. I think tech will take over and humans will become regressive, as AI is quite popular now and augmented reality too. Also, in the mobile space, there is going to be a disruption there as well, as we start merging apps with augmented reality, with stuff like Pokémon Go.</p>
<p class="content__heading">How do you see your current role developing?</p>
<p class="content__text">I stepped in as a front end developer and they wanted me to become a software engineer. I'm expected to build anything, which I like, as to stay in the industry you need to continuously learn. It’s going to get to the point where I’m not daunted by a new language but say <em>"I don't know this now but in a couple weeks I will and will be able to build something from it."</em>
<p class="content__text">I've also told myself that you have your own goals, but sometimes life has other plans. For example, I started the hair business, lost a lot of money and learnt from that. Business thicken your skin. I am hoping to pick up a few more programming languages, but if the industry takes me somewhere else, I'll go.
<p class="content__heading">What advice would you give to a young person?</p>
<p class="content__text">You're learning a new skill and it's never going to be easy. Just be patient. Network horizontally and not vertically: a lot people want to know founders but if you network with people on the same level as you, you end up meeting future founders. The only reason I am here is I sent out a tweet a couple of years ago and needed help on JQuery. Lola (Black Girl Tech) responded. I volunteered at her event, carried on volunteering, met Debs who talked to me about Black Techies.</p>
<p class="content__heading">Anything you would like to share?</p>
<p class="content__text">Black Girl Tech is great place to volunteer if you are looking to give back, or are a black woman or non-binary person who is looking to learn.</p>
<p class="content__text">Code Academy: it's free, learn how to code, it's non-committal, and you get to do what you want. Familiarise yourself with [online community]</p>
<p class ="content__text">Stack Overflow. Honest developers will tell 40-60 percent of our job is Googling because we don’t know the answer.</p>
<p class="content__text"><b>Twitter:</b> @chimannw</br></p>
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<p>Credits</p>
</div>
<p class="popup__text">The Black Techies Project is a photography and interview project that aims to increase the visibility of black people working in tech in the the UK.</p>
<p class="popup__text"><b>Interviews:</b> Hayley Reid<br><b>Photography:</b> Roxene Anderson<br><b>Coders:</b> Comuzi</br></p>
<p class="popup__text">With thanks to Helena Price and The Techies Project
(techiesproject.com).</p>
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