Breaking Into Tech as a Woman - Alumni Spotlight EP4: Glory Praise Emmanuel

that I actually wanted to be a medical doctor. I wanted to be a gynecologist to be very specific and I think I realized that it was not going to work for me and then the reality of the profession medicine hits me. I feel like a lot of ladies these days you're like oh tech is for the guys not not for the ladies. So for ladies like that what advice would they have to like is tech really for the guys? Why do you think tech is for the guys?

I mean, look at you for I there's there's really no excuse provided you're willing to learn. I I I believe that gender is not really a determinant of whatever. I really like to code a lot. But I was like, if I was going to do web three, I was going to write code. I cannot come to Kum and start talking to people in web 3.

One of the mistakes I made when I was getting into web two, I spent a lot of time figuring things out. So, I was looking for communities that I could learn with. I was looking for maybe a boot camp. Anything that is not just going to be only me trying to learn. If you were not a science student, say you were like an art student, a commercial student, do you think people in like that field already can like transition into tech?

Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of our alumni spotlight. Today in the house we have one of your favorite finest alumni. Drum rolls please. Voila. We have Glory Praise in the house.

Glory praise. How you doing today? Very well, thank you. That's amazing. So, I mean, I know Glory Praise, but they don't know Glory Praise.

So, like a quick introduction about Glor Praise. Let's have it. Um, hello. Hello, hello everyone. I'm happy to be here first of all.

Um, my name is Glory Praise Emmanuel and I'm a software engineer focusing on blockchain technology. I currently work as a developer advocate at inmax. Um so inmax is a layer 2 protocol focused on privacy and scalability. Um so I write code. I developer but aside that I also like to teach.

So I like to share information. I like to pass knowledge. I like people to understand what I know. I want everybody to like be on the same frequency with me at least to the most possible way that I can do that. So I I create content.

I have a YouTube channel where I try to break down web 3 and other technologies into like sizable bites that is easy to understand. I also make tutorials, you know, any kind of videos. So I have a YouTube channel for that. I also have a newsletter community where I put out opportunities um in web three. So from job opportunities to hackathons, web three events down to anything opportunities.

I call it the number one opportunities of stack. So you could just go there and find opportunities in web 3. All right. So like let's um I want to like know the very like genesis of how glory praise the um blockchain developer came about. So let's heard I mean as a child who wanted to be like a medical doctor or yeah who wanted to be like a medical doctor.

How did you like transition from being wanting to be a medical doctor to wanting to be like a software developer? So indeed I actually wanted to be a medical doctor. I wanted to be a gynecologist to be very specific and I think I realized that it was not going to work for me when I was in I think SS1 or SS2 and then the reality of the profession medicine hits me that I would have to be interacting with human body human flu and personally I don't like first of all I don't really like the human body I don't like I can't stand blood I can't stand any of those fluids. So one day I was just imagining just imagine that you finally becoming an encologist and you're helping like a woman deliver she's crying and you're seeing blood like I literally freak out as well. So I just knew that that dream was not necessarily mine.

It was just somebody's dream that it sounded so cool and I just joined and I was going to be a medical doctor as well. But then I think I started to think what do I actually want to do and I remember that right from J one I think I was like 10 years old when I started interacting with computers I did my first computer training at age 10. Oh that's and then I just got very familiar with it and I I was very curious about how it works. I was like instead of going to do medicine and be crying and be hating my life why not do something that is interesting. So I was like okay let me do software engineering and that was how I picked that as a career.

Interestingly my dad did not like the idea of me being an engineer. I think he wanted me to be a lawyer. Yes. He wanted me to study law. So it didn't make sense to him.

He was like go and be a lawyer. Science is not in Nigeria. Leave all of those things. But then I I just regardless I went to I went on with it and went to university to study computer engineering. And then that was like another whole world.

So I want to understand something I think I like one of your videos on YouTube where you said that oh from the age of 10 kind of you play is you know normally you would expect like a girl child to play like with dolls and all of that but you like already playing with radio trying to like yeah create things. What was it like growing up for you? Did you like get this oh why you playing with that or did you like ever have like this tomboy feeling or did was it like weird? Actually, it wasn't because so I even said all of those happened before age 10. Wow.

So that was like where when I was way way younger. So I remember that my both parents were working. So they would like keep us with our grandparents. So from school our grandparents would take us to their house like all my family members lived in the same city. So from school we go to my grandparents house and we'll stay there till they come and pick us up.

Sometimes also I remember that we did a lot of holidays with my grandparents. So living with my grandparents the kind of setting is different from how it is now. Literally everybody lives there are no fences. So you see this um house you see this you see literally like something and then you see another house. So all the children will usually come out to play and I would always come out to play as well.

So there was no gender. I I don't I don't think I know the gender of any of us were just playing but they were mostly boys. Oh yeah. Well, I I don't think I remember anybody's but I just know that we would sit down and we are playing with scrap trying to break things. At nightfall, everybody will now go back home with what they have made.

Yes, that's interesting. That's so cool. All right. Okay. I get the fact where that oh you wanted to be like a computer like engineered to like study computer engineering prior to like all the things that you love doing when you were a child.

So where did learning tailoring come in all of this? Oh my god, this is you know too much about I was I was just like I just understand for someone who really really loved concrete and all of that where tailoring why why did I learn tailoring? So well you know too much about that I'm scared don't worry. Okay. So, um I think how it happened was I I got into the university to study computer engineering but going to school I didn't exactly like know exactly how to start.

So school was teaching me math, physics, chemistry and I was barely surviving cuz I think that period as well okay I don't want to go into all of that but then I was just going to school and I was looking for communities. I was looking for information but I couldn't find any. So in the midst of that whenever I come home for holiday rather than just stay at home I decided why not learn something amazing. So what would I learn I thought I thought I thought I'm like okay let me go and learn how to sew because making clothes were very expensive I'm like tell me about it instead of going to go and pay tailor so why not and then I had a church lady like someone in my church that usually sold like all our clothes for my mom so I was like I want to go and learn how to sew and that's how I became an apprentice. So whenever I come home for holiday or whenever there's like a break and strike because there's like strike every okay market day I'll go home and then I will go to our shop and I'll learn how to sew.

Then when school is back I'll go back to school so that was just how I was in it for year one year two then I now got serious with tech and I dropped out. So when I when I finish I I didn't finish I I I imagine that I'm not you know you when you when you go to learn those kind of skills you bring a crate of tra I'm like I'm not finished using all of them but I never went back after I became serious with tech I just disappeared and she would always ask me I've not seen I'm like so can like can you like s anything at all it's been so long I can't I don't think I can do anything on the machine right now. Okay. A computer, not just a computer engineering graduate, but the best graduating student. How did that make you feel?

I want to like understand. I was not the highest graduate student. Oh, really? So So but but but you got like numerous award in school. Let's have I I don't think I got awards when when I got my first awards.

Would I stay in school? I can't really remember the timeline whether I was still in university. I can't remember the timeline to be honest. M. So how did you find or how did you get to hear about web page?

Where did you like begin? I found it on the internet. So I think I I had already like started doing tech. I was doing front end. Okay.

I was already like working in tech as a front end developer while still doing school. But then there was this whole vibe about web 3 then and I wanted to learn. I remember that it took me a while. It took me a whole year to decide to learn and I regret it. In fact, if I could go back in time, I would have just ended here.

But then when I finally decided to and I had like people that were like, "Okay, you can just just do the because I don't like anything that is not coding. I don't know. I really like to code a lot." But I was like, if I was going to do web three, I was going to write code. I cannot come to Kum and start talking to people in web 3.

So I was like, okay, where can I learn? Because one of the mistakes I made when I was getting into web two, I spent a lot of time figuring things out. So I was looking for communities that I could learn with. I was looking for maybe a boot camp, anything that is not just going to be only me trying to learn. So I remember I searched online for places, communities, and I found web three bridge.

I found web three ladies. And then I think after a couple of after I registered, I noticed somebody on my status also posted something about it. But that was like much later after I've registered and then I now asked the person questions. But yeah, I literally found web three bridge searching for web3 communities where to learn web 3 development and all of that. Well, you an onrip student.

Yeah. So the first time I was online but I didn't survive. Oh that's another story. What happened? Why why didn't you survive?

So I was in my final year and I had my final exams in March and Web3 bridge was in January. So I was like go to school and write exams or go to web3 bridge and actually like learn the skill. But I thought of okay instead of going why don't you just finish finish school. And then guess what happened January? Um I decided to stay back in school and interestingly I got into web three bridge called six.

Mhm. And web three ladies. So I just decided that okay I was just going to stay at home like stay back in school and then join online. I had to like send emails to web three rich telling them that I won't be able to come on site because of school. So I wanted to join the line cuz I had like an opportunity to come on site only for February 14 to reach and they went on strike.

Oh, so if you knew I just come on side. Yeah, I would have just come on side. I think we were destined for court actually. So I I didn't follow through with the courtes. I literally just dropped out.

I didn't even try after a while. I just dropped cuz it was so long and everything. So I left and then I registered again for court 7. And then even if school resumed that day, I like to come on this. I'm going all right.

Yeah. And I I came. So what was the experience like? What was your web 3 experience on? It was actually beautiful.

It was interesting. Very interesting meeting people that are driven like you. Like everybody was literally like hotrained. Like I mean everybody was trying to really understand it. I remember I think the best memories I have was when after our class so our class will start by 400 p.

m. and we'll have classes till sometimes 11 sometimes 12 sometimes 1 and after we eat we still come back and we stay in class till like 6:00 a.m. So learning, asking questions, vibing to music sometimes, sometimes rapping, sometimes dancing. But then we would just sit down and everybody was trying to learn.

Everybody was putting in the effort. So it was just really beautiful. So even if you're feeling down, by time you look around and you see that ah so if I give up, if you give up, I think it's a saying that say if you snooze, you lose. Yeah. All right.

That that's why. So now I know that you work as a developer advocate. Truth is when I heard the word developer advocate I was like you know like an advocate someone that like speaks on behalf of other people stuff like that then I had to like go to your YouTube and I saw your video where you spoke about oh we just just like don't speak for people be called community manage management and all of that so tell me what was it like for you working as a developer advocate first thing first I actually started working as a blockchain developer but then there was now like a a need for me to and first of all I do a lot of things that de do even as a dev so I usually speak at events like speaking at over 25 even up to 50 events I can't remember the few but then I speak at events a lot even as a like both online and offline even as a developer then I write I had a blog I still have a blog the blog is still up where I write I do all of those things and then I worked there was like a need to like so they're like could since you do all of this why not just do that as well. So being a developer advocate is not just about speaking at events. In fact depending on the company you work for the roles may actually like differ not necessarily differ but you may not do everything you may just focus on some part depending on the company depending on the needs of the company depending also like on the product that the company has.

So um as a developer advocate I like represent the company at events and stuff. I take care of documentations. There are some products like SDKs that things that um other developers will interface with or other users will interface with the documentation. Sometimes there were times where I helped with like building and maintaining. There were other times where I was just maintaining.

Yeah, something. There were other times that I would use the product and then try to create things that other people that will be using it will be able to help like it helps them use it. So like articles, like documentation, like tutorials, all of those things that other developers would find it easier to use the product. Yes. And then support as well because by the time you have all of those people, they will have questions.

So you now help answer those technical questions, support all of those things. So another question I have or something I'm thinking about feel like a lot of ladies these days you're like oh tech is for the guys not not for the ladies. So for ladies like that what advice to the house has to like give them is like really for the guys. I don't think tech is for the guys. I mean look at you for I look for I don't think I mean I think I think but but that narrative changed after I like came into like the tech space.

Just looking from like the outside, I'll think that tech is just for the guys. Honestly, I think tech is actually very broad and there are some tech roles that you find a lot of ladies in. Like there are some tech rules that you literally check if you check the statistic, you see a lot more ladies in than guys. I generally don't think there's anything for anybody. I believe that as a human being, provided you have a brain, you can actually learn anything.

No. So whether it is tech, whether it is medicine, whether it is law, anything at all, you decide that oh this is what I want you as far as your brain is working and I believe like at least most people their brains are working. So long your brain is working and you have the willingness to learn. Yeah. Because another thing is that people are just you're just I don't say lazy but then you maybe you're scared of oh I will not be able to I actually felt like that at different points where I felt like would I actually be able to handle all of this information maybe it's going to be too much for me but then like I said your brain is working okay I see but what if you were not a science student say you were like an art student or commercial student do you think people in like that field already can like transition into tech like I said at the end of the day still college.

Even if you are a science student, you literally went to learn it. Nobody was born with it in their brains. So, you learn everything. Even if you are an art student, you can also still learn things. I know a lot of people that are in tech, that are developers that have no science background.

You see them, they tell you, oh, I did um um arts. Some people will tell you that, oh, they did business, they did very some people did not go to school. Okay, what we say about those people? uh they don't have like let's say they dropped out from university or maybe even secondary school they stopped going to school secondary school and then you find older people like um I knew someone that was in his 50s and he was learning Python 50s yes he was learning Python just for knowledge I met a lady at an event she studied law and she's like a mom of how many children I can't even remember her son was actually trying to get into university and she was in web So there's there's really no excuse provided you're willing to learn. I I I believe that gender is not really a determinant of whatever.

Provided you want to learn, provided provided you have the interest, provided you have the resources which you have because the internet alone there's there's a lot of resources and there always like community like people around. There are different um groups, support groups in fact for ladies at this point. I don't even want to hear any ladies say women I will beat you because what I know all the communities women in this really these women at a point I'm like kilo not even there are a lot of those kind of support programs and these support programs they will give you resources they will give you mentorship they will literally pair you with like industry based mentors they will give you support tools you you see committees that are giving laptops power banks um mifi data to support to ces. Oh, I I don't believe there's any ladies, you've heard that there is no like chip this I think for our current um for what's going on currently web bridge like the registration for the next cohort and web bridge had to like partner with think women in defi right yeah so you don't have an excuse all right so my next question is for the lady that you've become what role would you say where bridge had to play in all of this okay so I think one thing that web priv gave me was community mm M and I think the community is actually very important because if you are doing something by yourself after a while you may get like a lot first of all you may not be able to find like the right resources you may just find scraps on the internet like you find this you find this but you can't piece it together so the community will literally like for me personally I found a lot of people that became like my friends became I used to say something that oh I don't have female friends all the friends I guys were people actually had female friends. So I had people that became my sisters like throughout apart from tech like down into like life like real life things people that are there for you.

So that community and that community also comes with support because when this person sees opportunity they'll be like oh are you look at this. So opportunities, support, friendship, family. In fact, literally people, people are just underrated. But then I got people that are still part of my life. Even 2 years, 3 years after the cohort, they are still part of my life and we are growing together.

So I think that is like one of the greatest things that like that's very emotional and very sweet. All right. So for a lady who loves cooking a lot and loves eating too, how are you able to balance it? Because we get like we hear people say, "Oh, I can't I can't be with a lady who is in check cuz you'll not have time for this or not have time for that." Are you able to like balance it properly with your work and like other stuff like Interestingly, I don't eat out.

I rarely eat out really really. So you cook or I cook most of the food I eat. So even if I buy in fact I learned how to buy food outside from people like some people that they would always buy food I usually like to cook my food but then it's not always easy because you know when you have a lot of things to do the last thing that is on your mind is going to go and cook for hours so what I do is literally like I cook in bulk. Oh yeah. So I cook in bulk and I preserve but before then I still manage to cook.

I don't know honestly how I but I don't really consider eating outside like part of that's never been part of my life. I've always been want to like make the food especially with since you see outside like we see the way people prepare food just blood of Jesus. I know someone in this room that does a lot. No. So, I prefer to cook my food.

And see, at the end of the day, you just find time for it. And then people that say they cannot be with a lady that does not cook. If you have a lady that has money that can hire a chef, that's still going to be a problem. You must not cook. Actually, I think that answers my next question.

I was going to say, oh, we hear there's money in tech. There's money in tech. And GP just said if you have a lady that can afford high. So there's money there's money in tech, right? There's money everywhere.

All right. That that's cool. So this brings like almost my last question, right? So I want I want to like know your cohort. Was there anyone you were like really close to?

Yeah, I think my roommates. Okay. So we had like I had three roommates. Were four in a room. So I think the other three ladies I was really close to them cuz we're living like in the same room.

Like one thing that we bridge does is like regardless of the cohort that you're in, you're part of a community. So even in the next cohort, the next I think I even mentored two other courts after court eight. I think nine either quarts nine and third I can't remember but I know I've mentored mentored two quarts. Okay. How do you how are you able to transition from being a student to being a mentor?

Was there a part Um I feel first of all I feel bridge will give you the opportunity to actually honestly I don't I don't know if there was like a part that I would say this was what I did to become a mentor even in web two when I was in web two after I learned I remember that I also gave back to the community through teaching and mentorship. So I remember that even where I was in the state I was I was like in some hubs where I literally taught people and then even after that online when I was okay by myself I used to do like online trainings and stuff. So when I learned web 3 it it made sense to do the same thing like give back to the community rather than just learn and go anyway and the most easiest way for me to like give back is literally like to share the knowledge and experience that I have gathered. So that was just what I did. Yeah.

I think I when I got opportunity to I just I think you have like a thing for sharing knowledge cuz imagine you have like a YouTube channel. Yeah. Let's talk about that. How's your YouTube? How's it going?

Yeah, it's it's going well. Interestingly, I actually started the YouTube channel when I was in the cohort. Oh, really? Yes. So, I had it I had it in mind for years.

But in fact, I remember that I had done the banner. had done I think I even created the channel but it was just there but while I was in the cohort it was compulsory that we created videos so I was like okay this is the opportunity so I literally just remade the banner did everything all the things I wanted to do I just started doing it from there and I I even remember the first vlog I did was I I actually bought an iPhone to cover the first Lagos conference that happened so my phone was crap so I was like when I go back to I'll come with an iPhone. So I went I bought an iPhone just to cover that event. So that was actually where I started experimenting with YouTube and after the court I just continued that that's really beautiful. See it would help reshape your range.

I mean that's like a really beautiful story. So to wrap it up let's say what's one word if you like to say one word to web three bridge right now. What would it be? Web three bridge but to say one word I know like one word like just say something to bridge. What would it be?

Thank you for everything, the people. Thank you for the knowledge. Thank you for the opportunities that being a member of this community has given to me. I'm really grateful. I can't even pay everything back.

But as much as I can, I would try to like give back to the community. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. It was lovely to have you. So you guys, we've come to the end of this episode.

Like I said, we had like the big GP in the house. So I don't know if you heard us speaking about her YouTube channel. But for you ladies, guys, any gender looking to like start a career in tech, don't be discouraged. Like you said, no excuse. Find her YouTube channel and this video.

Do not forget to leave a like, a comment, and do not forget to follow us. See you on the next episode. For now, bye. you.