A Leap of Faith: From Medicine to Tech 🚀
Guest post by Fartun M Omar, User Research Assistant at Meta
👋🏾 Salaam, we are Somalis in Tech and welcome to our monthly newsletter. Each month we’ll bring you the latest from the community, tech news and a community guest feature.
This newsletter is brought to you by Dahabshiil!
Our mutual interest in harnessing technology to address community challenges has led to our exciting partnership. 🤝
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🚨📣 Upcoming opportunities
Here’s a rundown of the latest opportunities we have coming your way! We encourage you to apply. 💛
Somalis in Tech Mentorship Scheme 🤝
We’re super excited to introduce Mentoring to the community. It is the single most requested initiative from you all. For this pilot we’ll handle the matching of mentors and mentees. Future versions will be online-based where mentees can choose a mentee without dependence on the SiT team.
The first cohort will run for 8 weeks. After this, we’ll gather feedback and make improvements before launching it more widely.
As we anticipate more mentee-to-mentor applications we won’t be able to place everyone with a mentor in the first cohort. But rest assured this won’t be your only chance to find a mentor via the SiT community.
If you’re thinking about becoming a mentor but not sure, please read this guide we’ve put together (and just do it ✔️)
Makers Represent Scholarship 🎓
Learn to code for FREE and launch your career in tech today! Our partners Makers are offering Somalis in Tech community members scholarships for their 16-week coding bootcamps.
Successful applicants will partake in Makers brand new Bootcamp curriculum where you can specialise after 8 weeks, plus receive well-being coaching and career support to get you started in tech.
Places are limited, to check if you’re eligible and apply click here
Python Level 1 course 💻
We have partnered with award-winning educational provider and social enterprise, Coding with CodeX to offer our first Python: Level 1 course! You'll learn the fundamentals of coding in a collaborative and supportive environment that makes learning fun and stress-free. The course is designed for those who want to take their first step towards becoming a software engineer or just learn coding as a skill or way to upskill in their current role
🌍 Local Meetups
It’s been a pretty busy few weeks! Why don’t we run you through what the community has been up to.
SiT x Deen Developers Eid Meetup 🇬🇧
We collaborated with Deen Developers and organised a community a meetup in London. It was a chance for members to network with a wider group of people!
Want to organise your own meetup ❓
Feedback from the Eid meetup showed that you all enjoy and benefit from in person meetups!
It’s not about having a fancy venue or even providing food. People just want to come together, learn from each other and have a break from the screen. So we’ve made the process to host your own local meetup super easy.
Review our guidelines for hosting a meetup.
Fill out the local meetups form with your name and city.
Someone from the SiT will get in touch! Simple as that.
A Leap of Faith: From Medicine to Tech
Join us as we sit down with Fartun Omar, a User Research Assistant at Meta to discuss how she pivoted to a career in tech.
Hi, my name is Fartun and I have been working in tech for about a year. I’m passionate about encouraging Somali and other women of colour to join the industry, especially those coming from a nontraditional background.
My time in university was confusing, to say the least! If I had it my way, I would probably have studied fashion in New York but as we know being a first-generation Somali adds a certain level of pressure to pursue specific careers. It didn’t help my case that I was naturally talented in science & math – I felt that meant a career as a doctor was written for me.
At university, I majored in pre-medicine, and whilst I enjoyed learning and the challenging nature of the course, I felt limited by the narrow career path. I enjoyed problem solving, but I felt I wanted to work collaboratively with others, and in a role that allowed for more work-life balance.
I also enjoyed the feeling that comes from working on a diverse set of projects, and moving from project to project quickly gave me a sense of urgency when completing tasks which I found helpful. A career in tech appealed to me for these reasons, and because it allowed me to pursue my creative side and meet others through collaborative projects and industry events.
Diverse problems need diverse minds. 🧠
It wasn’t until 2021, when I seriously considered a career in tech after stumbling upon videos on TikTok (admittedly, very Gen Z of me!) A big challenge in my job search was that I was often up against strong candidates who came from computer science backgrounds, but I found it helpful to focus on myself, my strengths and the transferable skills I had from my degree. Coding is not the be all and end all of a career in tech, often times recruiters are looking for a variety of qualities in candidates!
My background in health sciences & biotechnology was valuable – I had strong analytical skills, I understood research processes, data analysis, and could pick up on patterns and variables others looked past. Like many others I mistakenly assumed that a career in tech was not possible because of my limited technical knowledge. But tech is a diverse field, and it needs people who think in different ways about how to solve problems.
Once I started thinking about my background as a strength, rather than a weakness I felt much more empowered. Just consider the vast amount of technical products produced, and variety of audiences and markets they need to serve.
Trust your gut. ⭐️
It was certainly daunting to decide to switch career paths whilst still studying, but I knew what I wanted for my future and my career. Often, we are limited by the beliefs of others or the fear of not being able to accomplish a goal. I read about the “sunk-cost fallacy” phenomena in a book (search it up!) and recognized my attachment to life expectations I have outgrown. I found strength in research, community and networking to help me build the confidence I needed to make my decision.
I have been working in my current role now for about 11 months and I am so happy I took that leap of faith when I did. I encourage all young women to put their own needs first when deciding their future career, because doing otherwise may lead us towards burnout or mental distress. It is okay to start over at any point in your life and I wish that was encouraged more in our community.
Questions for Fartun? You can find her over on Linkedin.
🐪 Maah-Maah
Cid wax kusiisa wax badan baad aragtaa, cid kula talisase wax yar
Many people will give you things, but few will advise you
Mahadsanid 👋🏾