Family and flexibility are the impetus for new career as a fintech software developer
As Ifeoma Idoko entered her 30s, she began to think more about starting a family and having the flexibility that would allow her to spend more time with loved ones and be more in control of her own schedule.
Her career as a financial advisor in wealth management didn’t allow her the flexibility she was craving, but had solidified her love of finance and accounting.
While trying to convince her brother to attend InceptionU’s Evolve six-month full stack developer program, she convinced herself in the process!
Ifeoma now works for OneVest as a junior software developer. OneVest is a turn-key “wealth-as-a-service” platform based in Calgary and Toronto.
“Sometimes I step back and I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this work! I didn’t believe that I could actually get here and get here this quickly,” says Idoko.
Ifeoma says she loves working at OneVest because of the team culture and learning opportunities.
“Not only am I worried about my growth, someone else is worried about my growth as well. And I have the flexibility I was looking for,” she says.
Ifeoma explains that the development team works in two-week sprints. They are assigned a certain amount of work to do and meet Monday to Friday for a 15-minute call every morning. She works independently to get her work done on her own time and schedule. At the end of the two weeks, they review the work as a team and then a new two-week cycle starts again.
This type of agile software development is common in the tech industry and one of the things she learned at InceptionU.
Leveraging her previous career experience as a financial advisor, she’s able to provide value to the company, both from a tech and business growth perspective.
“I am 100% leveraging my previous career. What we’re building at OneVest is what financial advisors would use and I was a financial advisor, so I’m still leveraging that knowledge today.”
She took a huge leap of faith when she enrolled in the Full-stack Developer Program, having little technical knowledge and a very basic understanding of C++ programming language that she had forgotten.
She was intimidated at first but persevered. She enjoyed the Essential Skills component of the program that focuses on getting to know yourself better and creating your own career path.
“Learning to be a developer and learning how to learn really helped me. I learned about myself as well. It wasn’t just about coding. I still apply what I learned in my work and my personal environment. I now choose things that suit my personality,” she says.
“This was an experience I don’t think I would have received anywhere else. I’m so grateful that I trusted the InceptionU process, and that it could work for me.”
Ifeoma is excited about her future at OneVest - the company has grown from 5 to about 30 employees in the last year and is recruiting a diverse workforce who are working remotely and hybrid-style from Calgary, Toronto, Brazil and even Nigeria.
