Women In Tech: Nsovo Manganyi

Meet Nsovo Manganyi, a mother, a wife, and a software engineer currently working for a company called Yoco. She loves giving back to the community and co-organize black girls’ code events.

Walks us through your journey and how you got into IT.

I always knew that I wanted to solve problems of some sort! I studied at the University of Johannesburg, and on my first day in a programming class, we wrote an application Hello world, and this is when I fell in love with code! The journey has not been all roses; passion, determination, and dedication have kept me loving what I do every day. I started working as a C# developer and joined a company that worked in agile, and this is when my whole career perspective shifted. Understanding the product, an idea from ideation to implementation, and understanding the full cycle of programming made it easy to do what I loved most; code. I learned to be a problem solver, and whatever language was required for solving the problem- I learned it. Throughout my years, I have added Java and Angular to my experiences. I am currently using more Python and React.

A typical day at work.

I start my day by making tea, followed by a Stand up(a ritual that teams practice to keep updated), where I give an update of the work I did yesterday and what I will be doing for the day and state whether I am blocked or not. I also break down my story into small manageable tasks. I like to write down my goals for the day which helps me focus.

What do I know now that I wish I knew when I was younger/starting?

Ask questions; it helps improve your learning. There are a lot of people willing to answer and assist. I would also say, by reading documentation, in most cases, my programming struggles have been solved by going back and trying to understand what the documentation specifies. Read a lot about coding in order to learn the basics and write clean code. I think another aspect would get familiar with IDE and shortcuts so that you can focus on the work at hand and be productive. Lastly, the most important one is being kind to yourself (no one was born coding). Do your best!

Have you experienced any challenges as a female in this industry?

I don’t like dwelling on such. I have encountered and still encounter a lot, but I don’t let that define me. The thought that really stuck in my head was when I walked into a meeting with my fellow team who were males; the client assumed that I was the tester. I guess it is because of the lack of representation of women in the engineering space. I believe that this space is for solving problems, and in that sense, we use our brains. I believe that if we were to see a male brain and a woman’s brain, there wouldn’t be a difference. 

What do you hope to leave behind as your Legacy?

I want to leave systems that help our economy and change people’s life. 

I want to leave systems that help our economy and change people’s lives. I hope to encourage and mentor as many females as I can. I want to see the ratio of males and females balanced in teams and in the tech hierarchy. I hope to encourage young girls to dream of being in STEM spaces and know that they belong so that they can shine, be amazing and change the world and their surroundings.