Meet Naledi Subspace Mgedezi: A Passionate Software Engineer on a Mission.

Meet Naledi, a Software Engineer, fitness enthusiast, and mental health advocate from Kanana Park, South of Johannesburg. Despite being a social grant baby, Naledi pursued extracurricular activities like public speaking and athletics. She eventually discovered a passion for the tech industry and now works in cloud solutions and products. Read on to learn more about Naledi’s inspiring journey towards personal growth and making a positive impact on others.

Tell us about your background; Your humble beginnings.

I come from a township in the South of Johannesburg, Kanana Park. I was raised by my grandmother, I am the first grandchild. I did my grade 1-3 in a local school, then changed schools, not that we became rich😂, I was very much a social grant baby. I did a lot of extramural activities at school, the one time I was in athletics, shot put, and book quiz, and in high school, I did public speaking right through matric and some debate.

What are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about:

– Being a Software Engineer – Being in the tech space is the most amazing thing I have allowed myself to be part of.

– Fitness – I love what the gym does for my brain and body, most of all it just helps me challenge my physical abilities.

– Helping People – When I learned that helping someone is not about giving them money or buying them food, but sharing information can help them so much more. I think my passion for information sharing comes from public speaking but I know how much I needed the content that I do share on my Youtube channel.

– Mental health – Mental health is a struggle for many of us and it’s something that I do talk about a lot for others to know that they’re not alone and hopefully, it will get better.

– Personal Growth – Making an intentional effort to grow as an individual, to ensure that I have healthy habits, behaviour, and attitude that will help me become who I want to be.

How did you come about having a career in tech?

Well, I did a career aptitude test and one of the careers was Software Engineer, but that’s not how it happened. I’ve always known that there was an IT industry but didn’t know much about it, I just thought that it was people who fixed computers and whatnot. So I went to an open day at UJ and went to the Faculty of Science. I shared how I didn’t know what I wanted to study but whatever I wanted to study had to have Mathematics and fortunately, I was directed to the Computer Science department stand. Even when they explained what they did, I didn’t understand, I was just excited that I could still do Mathematics. That’s what I studied.

What do you love about your job?

I recently started my job in December, but what I love is the ability to dive a little bit more in cloud solutions and products that I had little knowledge about. I’m learning a lot, and I’m contributing to building solutions as well. The great team that I’m part of, and the healthy working environment.

What traits or skills does one need to grow in this field?

– Curiosity: The drive to learn and understand things

– Persistence: Knowing that a lot of challenges will be faced in the technology projects, code breaks, tight deadlines, etc. One needs to keep pushing forward in the face of those challenges and take lessons as well.

– Willingness to learn/ Adapt: Tech is an ever-changing space and requires one to learn and adapt constantly.

– Collaboration: Teamwork makes the dream work, and the ability to work in a team and work well is important.

– Believing In yourself and your skills, and knowing that you don’t know everything, you can never know everything, and there’s so much to learn.

What is the most challenging thing about your job, and what have you done to overcome it?

I would say, figuring things out technically, and learning how different things tie together in order to solve problems. I wouldn’t say I’ve overcome it or ever will but I ask for help, do some research etc.

Who do you look up to? And how have they contributed towards your growth?

This is really a difficult one, I would say that I do admire a couple of people for various reasons, in terms of the work that they do. They have become the constant motivation for what I do and still want to do. They are a definition of “Dreams come true”, and I can be whoever I want to be, not a bird obviously😂.

How important is it to surround yourself with a community of like-minded people?

Surrounding yourself with like-minded people puts some form of accountability on yourself and the things that you want to achieve- Assuming that the like-minded people are success-driven and goal-oriented. It’s also important that your goals are yours alone, they can be influenced but it’s something that you really want. With self-awareness being one of the most important life skills, it’s important that you don’t compare yourself with anyone. But over and above it helps to keep yourself motivated and focused, when there’s support from other people who are just like yourself.

What do you want to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered for being a kind person overall, others are extras. The extra is being someone who had blind faith in their life journey and went for a lot of things not because I am a master of everything, I’m not, but because I kept on thinking “What’s the worst that could happen?”, and not being a victim of any circumstance.