Temitope Shitta

My name is Temitope Shitta, I am 23 years old Nigerian with a career in Technology. I studied Computer Science at the University of Warwick where I graduated in 2021 and got a first-class bachelor’s degree. Through a 2020 summer internship I was able to secure a Graduate Technology Developer role at Barclays. My main interest is in AI and Machine Learning and I’m able to explore this area more through my Graduate role where I’m currently working in a Data Science team.
Try not to be too daunted by the lack of diversity in the space as this can be a barrier to asking for help. Try and find a mentor in your area you can confide in or go to when you need advice, they can encourage you and be there to give you confidence in speaking out or making key decisions in your career. Also reach out to peers in your field to make friends and exchange ideas, knowledge, and advice.
I spent most of my time as a child and preteen playing computer games and developed an interest in how computers work through this. So, I decided to take GCSE Computing in Secondary school. I really enjoyed it and knew that I wanted a career in coding; so, I continued to advance in this subject at A levels and eventually at degree level.
The project I’m most proud of is my University Dissertation which investigated Song Similarity Searching and how feature learning and reduction and mathematical distance metrics can be used to determine how similar a sung cover is to the original version of the song. This involved me doing extensive research into Convolutional Autoencoders and numeric representations of musical features. I’ve also done some smaller personal projects such as developing an interpreter that uses a recursive descent parser in python to interpret a programming language grammar that I had come up with.
I am most proud of graduating. I found university quite difficult so I’m proud of myself for persevering through it and getting my degree.
My normal workday is a combination of meetings with my team to discuss projects, planning out the tasks for projects I’ve been assigned, carrying out those tasks through implementing code or performing data analysis. And finally personal research and development to improve my skills.
My favourite part of my job is working in an area I’m interested in, Data Science, and getting to learn and try new technologies that I’ve never used before.
I haven’t had any major setbacks yet as I’m still quite early in my career.
Funnily enough I didn’t. The people that inspired me most were mostly my peers especially other black women in technology who were on the same career path as me because we were always there to look out and support each other.
In my free time I enjoy reading science fiction books and manga!
Yes, I have unfortunately, and it never really goes away. I’ve found it helps to speak to my peers about it because most of them feel the same way. And reminding myself of my career journey and how hard I worked to get where I am.
I’m not sure how to answer this question. But I think any woman who has the guts to pursue their passion in any industry deserves the utmost respect.
Biggest strength: my perseverance Biggest weakness: my procrastination
Reaching out to other black women who are interested in a career in Technology (through LinkedIn) and letting them know that they’re free to ask me for any advice.
You’re doing a lot better than you think you are, so keep going!
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