From a Math Major to a Product Design Career Path
Ifeoluwa shares her Wentors’ Insider Story about her journey as a product designer
Ifeoluwa Fagbongbe, an undergraduate of the mathematics major at the prestigious university of Lagos with a plethora of skills including communication, product design, sales and marketing among the many things she has picked up as an enthusiastic young lady with a beaming interest in the technology industry.
She had participated in our IWD 2022 Tribe mentorship cohort and opted to share her story with us.
You know we love to hear and tell the stories of amazing women in our community. Ifeoluwa’s energy was contagious on the call, full of positive energy and she’s someone I am rooting for and I believe would be back to share stories about her career advancement really soon.
I love having deep conversations with people. I love creating memories with people. I love making random videos of people. I love singing, I love dancing, and I love meditating. Like, sometimes I just like to be on my own, where I get to think about a lot of things.
One of the things I looked out for in our conversation was why she opted for Mathematics as a major and her pivot into the technology industry through product design.
“I don’t want to do something that I’d not have fun doing. I want to learn and earn”
Ife had attempted learning data science, web development, digital marketing, but had always found herself loose interest during the learning process of the aforementioned skills.
She heard about product design and decided to do further research on what it is and what it can become to/for her. She found out that creating great products is a function of empathy, an emotion that resonates with her so well. There began her journey into tech, and her steady climb as a product designer. With a number of projects and case studies in her bags, she has finally found that one career path where she can learn, have fun, and earn all at once.
She had registered for a number of bootcamps with the goal to radically improve her product design skill in March 2022 with Africa Agility.
How did you stumble upon Wentors?
“At the time, I think Wentors was partnered with Africa Agility, and I saw the announcement for a mentorship cohort. I had applied for the March cohort, but didn’t get in, I don’t know why, but I was glad when I received Wendy’s email informing me of another opportunity in the Tribe Mentorship Cohort.
I applied and that’s how I got in”
How was your experience with your wentor?
“It was amazing, and I’m actually happy that I intentionally and consciously attended.
I just missed only one, so I’m happy that I was available.
She has a lot to offer. And yes, she opened my eyes to somethings that I thought were normal, like my CV, my LinkedIn profile, etc.
And she gave us some tasks to carry out — write your story, go and check out some people that you like — She gave me some ideas, though I have not done some.
So, it was as amazing experience. I like her. I like her voice; I like how she calls my name. I like what she says. So, I had an amazing time.”
How was your experience with your Tribe?
“Well, just one person that joined all the session with me.
I know Tomi, and I feel like it was just only two of us that always joined the call. I don’t know what happened to the other people.
We networked at some point, and she said we should still keep in touch. She also talks like a product manager, I think with 2 years of experience, so it was really great connecting with her”
As a community, have women from across Africa, and across four other continents. So, there’s every tendency that someone joining a call with you might not be in the same region as you are.
And this is important to note because, it is somewhat useful to have another perspective about the work that you do. Even if you are in the same region, you might have not done the same level of work.
This presents an opportunity to learn how the work you do is implemented either at a much higher or lower scale than what you currently do. In all, it is an avenue to learn greatly.
What’s one thing you want to tell us?
“Thank you so much. Because I had the best three weeks of my life, and it was insightful, and I don’t regret it.”
We encourage members of our community and especially those who participated in our mentorship cohorts to nurture the relationships that have.
To close out, she reminded us that women can be great too.
As we look towards having our first physical meetup, we hope we’d be seeing a number of our community members beyond the screens of our laptops.
We can’t wait.
