Transitioning into tech; Ozioma Sarah Eze on her experiences.

Ozioma Sarah Eze (O.S.E), a vibrant 22-year-old Nigerian woman of Igbo descent is letting us in on her experiences as a woman in the tech space with her one year know-how. 

In this episode of Sunday interviews with Angel (#SIWA), she spoke to us about her transition into the tech ecosystem, how it has helped her view the world and her living her best life in the process. 

ADW: What is your full name, street name and what do you do?

Ozioma: My name is EZE OZIOMA SARAH and I have plenty of street names. Some people call me Ose which means Pepper in igbo (it is actually an acronym for my full name), others call me Aboki because I own a brand “ABOKI’s Kilishi” that distributes kilishi in University of Nigeria (UNN),

Another set of people call me “Medusa” because it is rumored that most of my hairstyles and braids give the look, another set of people call me “Ozy Bundle” because they think I have money.

But you can call me Ezinne Pixel because I’m a digital product designer.

ADW: You mentioned UNN, does this mean you're a student? And if so, what is your course of study?

Ozioma: Yes. I am an overstay student of pure and industrial chemistry, UNN. I say overstay because I was supposed to graduate or at least complete my 4 year contract with the institution in question as at 2021 but ASUU and Covid 19 has other plans so I’m still a student.

ADW: From chemistry to tech, how did this change in careers come to be?

Ozioma: I can’t exactly pin point what pivoted me into tech. Honestly, I think it was mostly my association with the male friends in my life that influenced my switch. You see, most of my friends kept going into tech and kept talking about it like they'd discovered an oil rig or stumbled upon a hidden gem of some sort. 

Also, probably the most important, was the grave fear of Sapa! I honestly don’t want to be poor. I want the good life and I like to earn my good life in a good way (if not I for don go marry one ambassador Pikin like that).

ADW: Are you ever going to make use of your soon to be acquired chemistry certificate?

Ozioma: I honestly can't say. If I am ever going to use it though, it will be because I’m furthering an education geared toward cosmetic production but that would be until I have made all the money I want to make in this life. However, I’m quite sure if they keep drawing complex chemical structures, I’ll back off.

ADW: What inspires you as a digital product designer?

Ozioma: I would say the process before each design. Let me explain. I am a digital product designer, and what I do is to design and improve the experiences of users while using a particular digital product(s). 

In other to achieve this, i.e to design product with the best experiences for users, I have to carry out research on the kind of people that would use the product I’m designing. Are they students? Are they elderly people? Are they tech savvy? Are they kids? etc. 

These are all different kinds of users and they behave differently too so it is the findings from my research for whatever category of users I’m designing it for that primarily inspires my design. 

ADW: How has it been in this industry? Any ups or/and downs?

Ozioma: There have definitely been ups and downs! I started designing in March 2021 i.e, one year of designing experience. And I would say I have had one of the best support systems transitioning into tech because a good number of my friends are already into tech like I mentioned earlier. I have received guidance, advice, opportunities and even internet subscription to help me start off my journey. 

I have also been privileged to have two design mentors who are world-class designers (I mean some people don't even have one person to reach out to in their journeys. But I have two and I am immensely grateful for that).

My first mentor is from an internship program I applied for sometime in may last year. And the second is a designer based in Germany whose mentorship program I applied for in January, and was picked out of 2400 people that applied at the time (It was a big deal for me, it still is). I have also had the opportunity to work with a Nigerian startup company as a UI/UX designer. So yeah, these are some ups.

The downs for me currently are predominantly in my learning process. There are times when I feel like I’m an imposter, like I’m not as good as I think I should be (which is something I think every designer or even creative goes through). I think it’s more difficult for the beginner which I still identify as because frankly, you are just starting out in this space and there are so many things you don’t know. It is also a problem when you know because you are not exactly a pro in your knowledge, so it's just a lot. 

Then there is social media that puts you in the Sameed space or rather an illusionary close proximity with people who have been in the game long before you. And it's a problem because even if I know these guys have been doing this for a while, there is something about the human mind that still makes you want to compare your output to theirs though they have more experiences, so it takes a lot of discipline and control not to fall into depression from comparison.

For some people, there also exist the fact that they are not yet making money out of tech and it gets them worried, but I think it’s different for me because first of all I did not get into tech to get quick money, I came into tech with a mindset to learn and be good then earn. And learning takes time, it’s a process, I mean, I watched my guys learn their craft for almost 3 years or more before earning massively from it. That’s not to say that there are no people with one year experience like myself or even less already earning good money but I’m just trying to work at my own pace, make nobody pressure me. 

Though, there might be a downside of missing opportunities I could have gotten if I was probably actively applying for jobs and all that, but this is my journey, I want to do it my own way and have my peace of mind.

ADW: How have you been able to balance being a designer, a brand owner and a student?

Ozioma: Not going to lie, I have not been able to balance them properly. I doubt I even try to at this point. I channel the bulk of my energy to my design career, then my brand. My academics have been crawling since 2021, but a motivational speaker once said, "you can fly, run, walk or even crawl, by all means just keep moving". But, I’m still making attempt to move out of this school.

ADW: Was pivoting a hard decision?

Ozioma: I won’t say it was a hard decision. It was more a hard action. I made the decision to pivot in Mid 2020 and didn't really begin until March 2021. I owe it to procrastination and excuses by the way.

ADW:  What do you love about your career?

Ozioma: That I am impacting lives because actual humans get to use the product I design. And that’s what I always wanted to do, to impact people's lives and I have also grown to love pushing pixels around too.

ADW: What will you do if you were not a designer?

Ozioma: I’ll probably be a writer or a public speaker.

ADW: How has your career impacted you?

Ozioma: One of the most important skills required to be a good product designer or UI/UX designer is to be able to empathize with your users because that gives you a better understanding of how your product will work for them or how they might work with your products. And being able to empathize simply means to be able to feel and understand someone else’s situation like you were the one in the situation. It has helped me with my relationship with people, I’m able to relate with them and understand people better even without experiencing their predicament first hand. 

Designing has also helped me recognize patterns a whole lot (I don’t know how this happened). Even in human behaviors, I easily notice a pattern and I can almost accurately tell what they might do next or what they can do or can’t do just by looking at the pattern in their behaviors.

For instance, I remember getting lost in Ogige market (UNN) once, a friend and I left the stuff we bought in a particular store to get something somewhere else, and because of the twist and turns in the market we could not exactly pinpoint where the store we left our stuff was located. I was able to trace us back to the shop because I remembered the pattern of our movement when we left the store. I told my friend to trust me and follow my lead and she was shocked when we got to the shop without missing a turn.

ADW: What's your favourite design yet?

Ozioma: The one I’m about to conclude presently. I’m excited about it. It’s a house hunting project I designed for students to easily find lodges of their choice around school without having to move around to actively search.

ADW: What's your least favorite design?

Ozioma: Probably the first thing I designed.

As the interview steadily came to an end, we asked miss Ozioma AKA Ezinne Pixel to write a message to her future to which she wrote, 

"OSE, I want you to look back at this and see that I actually did put in the effort, the hard work and due diligence to get what we both wanted. And that this could tutor my decisions into what I set my mind to do. No one good at their craft gets to where they are by accident. The magic is hard work, consistency and a bit of luck too but mostly hard work and consistency".

We are genuinely thrilled to see how it all unfolds for this woman in tech and currently anticipating what OSE (from the future) has to say to the message from her past!