Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Victory Lelekumo is a Data Scientist from Warri, Delta State who moved to Lagos in 2019 to hustle. She started driving with UBER E-hailing, two months after her relocation to Lagos and she did that for a little over two years until she decided to start her journey into Tech.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Delta State University, Abraka and her professional motivation stems from her desire to be more and do more.

As a career woman, her greatest aspiration is to be one of the most sought-after Data Scientists in the world and be a force in the Tech industry. To this effect, in 2021, she transitioned into tech.

Victory found out about Tech4dev when she was at the lowest point of her life. She was experiencing difficulty in her business as the contract with her driver-partner had just ended. Devastated, she decided to take a short break from driving to rest from the stress of navigating Lagos roads and venture into another career path — Tech.

While working as a driver, she saved everything she made and invested it with hope that the returns would fund her lifestyle till she finds her feet. Two months after, she realized that the investment wasn’t as solid as she thought and she and a thousand other individuals had lost everything they put in. During this period, she also ended a long-term relationship and had to move into a friend’s apartment. It was really a trying time.

Thrown into uncertainty, Victory started to surf the net for opportunities and it was on one of those days, she came across the Women Techsters advert on Instagram. She applied and got accepted into the program.

Victory applied because she had started to gain some interest in Tech and she really wanted to be a woman in Tech. She realized that self-learning was not working for her and she could not afford to pay the high learning fee, if she wanted to learn from a tech school. She knew she did not want to continue being an E-hailing driver, but that she wanted to build a career in Tech.

Days after receiving her Email of acceptance, she lost her closest sibling, this would have made it really hard for her to focus on continuing with the program but she made sure to persevere.

When asked how she feels about finishing the training despite the rough phase she had to go through, she said, “I am so proud of myself that I did not just finish, but I finished with a Summa Cum Laude and I am dedicating this win, to him.”

Her tech journey has been amazing as she has gone from being a novice to being able to apply principles and code. Her major challenge was the accent barrier from her facilitator, but she made sure to listen keenly to what he was saying and when she didn’t understand, she learned to ask questions for clarification. She also attended her classes consistently regardless of how frustrated she was on some days.

Now, Victory is familiar with programming languages and other skills like Python, SQL, Web Scraping, Git, Machine Learning, People Management, and Communication.

The highlights of the training for her was townhall meetings, getting an Email from Diwura when she needed it the most, working with her teammates, the Tech Girls Drive, and most importantly, getting to the end of the fellowship.

Moving forward, Victory plans to further her studies in the Data Science field as learning is a never-ending process and she desires to be the best at what she does. She also hopes to impart the lives of women and young ladies as she navigates through life. Victory hopes to secure an internship role or an Entry-Level role and hopefully, an MSc in Machine Learning.