Lamina Precious, A woman in tech

A brief introduction about you.
My name is Precious, I'm a 21-year-old user interface/experience designer at Check design company (Check DC), a design agency in Lagos. I once tried being a developer (laughs) but Nah. I’ve been designing now for over three years.

Why did you quit being a developer?
You know life is funny, at that point I was learning javascript and it just wasn’t entering. Then I saw some designs and I was like I'd like to find out more and recreate them. I started learning and I realized I enjoyed it, so I focused on that and left development.

How did you get where you are now?

As a child, I was never the type to read books. I liked tech stuff a lot. I was always playing games on computers and doing other things. Also, my dad was an IT guy and I tried to learn a lot of things from him along the way and that definitely fueled my interest. From primary school, I knew I was going to study computer science because I really wanted to create games. I’m not creating games now but in the future.

How did you get into your present role?
When I started designing, I was doing a lot of self-learning and I was posting my designs online; on Twitter and dribble. At one time I was doing a design challenge that’s still pinned to my Twitter. The lead designer at Check DC sent me a dm and was like he likes my designs and am I into design fully? We had a full discussion. At that time, my graduation was close and I was definitely looking for a job so we hit it off and you know the rest.

Is this your dream job?
Well, I love working at a design agency, it's fun and the growth is amazing and fast, but my dream job is to be like a senior UI designer at Adobe. But I can settle for other FAANGS.

Why Adobe?
When you think of design, your go-to is Adobe. They have all the tools, photoshop, illustrator, XD. I basically just love the idea of working for a company that creates stuff that helps people create stuff.

What’s a typical day like at your job?
I wake up in the morning, pray and then I go to my laptop and work. The only time I leave my laptop is when I want to eat, but I still watch something when I eat too so…

What do you think your most important skill is?

I think one thing everyone at my job commends me for is my work rate. My work rate is like 1000000%. I’m very efficient and I get the job done. If you give me a job and tell me it has to be done by this time, then it’ll definitely be done by that time. So I think my dedication to being efficient and getting things done is definitely it. Just to say, I’m also really good at design.

What’s something you wish you knew before you got into design?
I think I would have just loved a direct way of learning, a different learning style. I’m self-taught so I learnt in a scattered way and that made me skip a lot of steps and processes. So I had to learn these things at a stage where I should have known them.

What do you hate the most about your job?
It’s stressful (fake tears), stress, stress, stress. ‘I just want to relax and be taken care of’

Let’s focus on the good. What do you love about your job?

I love the fact that I get to create beautiful things. Like when I'm stressed I just look at the beautiful things I designed and I know the stress is worth it.

What task at work do you hate the most?

Mhmm, I think corporate websites. We do different websites but I’m personally not a fan of corporate websites because I like to over-do my designs sometimes. Corporate websites just stress me because of how minimal they have to be. I like websites that deal with a lot of colours and present a chance for exploration. Sometimes I get really excited about fun websites because it's a chance to learn something new.

Do you think being a woman has had any effect on your work?
I think it's pretty much been the same. At work, everyone is a designer regardless of gender and you’re just required to do your job. Like right now the company is trying to increase the number of female designers by employing more females but once you get in you’re just a designer.

Why do you think it's important for women to be included in tech?
Women are amazing and I feel like a lot more can be done if women have the opportunity to work in tech. I believe it really should be about the job and women can do the job. It’s not rocket science.

Advice to your younger self.

It’s okay to fail. When you’re learning something new there’ll definitely be challenges. You just have to keep trying and one day you’ll have your eureka moment.

Thank you, Precious, definitely rooting for you!