Emily Timothy; a founder in-the-making

“Everything about tech is fascinating to me. The fact that what you code is different from the output was very fascinating for me. I used to wonder how computers understood the instructions.”

EveryGirl ended and Emily Timothy made a promise to be the best version of herself and potentially run a startup that solves a problem for the society. It’s been over a year and Emily is currently the community manager for FemCode Africa and a Front-end developer at Kamel Technologies Limited. As far as running a startup goes, Emily is doing a great job. 

“I am currently learning and transitioning to product management and it’s been challenging merging work and building a new skill amongst other things.”

Emily hails from Kaduna State but spent most of her growing-up years in Taraba State. She holds a higher national diploma in Biochemistry from Abia State Polytechnic and is a lover of Volleyball and good music. 

During her visit to Abuja courtesy of the EveryGirl program, Emily was particularly very excited about the visit to EHA clinic. Knowing about her choice of becoming a medical doctor when she was younger gives clarity about her excitement. She was in awe of the technology utilized by the clinic in their attendance and maintenance of patients’ health and asked a lot of questions about the working of every technology she came across. 

“It was my first time visiting a clinic of that nature and I was so glad I got to encounter such. I was also inspired, maybe the startup I talked about building will be health-related and help a lot of people. This will definitely make my mom proud as she sort of opposed my career shift and felt betrayed when I wanted to change my course from biochemistry to computer science.”

Emily Timothy was a fellow of the EveryGirl program hosted by the KSH Foundation. A program aimed at empowering, enabling, and introducing young women to technology.

What was EveryGirl’s impact on your personal and professional life?

I’ll forever be grateful for the personal development session we had in EveryGirl, especially the one on self-confidence. I was the kind of person who would never speak even when I had something to say. But EveryGirl taught me how to be confident. I got so better, I surprised myself with a speaking engagement Google/IO extended event where I spoke on the topic “Soft Skills Every Developer Needs”. I also now participate in Hackathons. 

What constantly makes you hopeful for the future?

The certainty that technology keeps growing with novel innovations popping up every day. I am excited about the knowledge that I will be a part of a solution that addresses people’s problems. 

An advice you’ll give to a younger version of yourself and one that your older self still finds to be very useful.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone. Be you and never stop learning. Discover what you are good at and build on it. Also, be sure to enjoy every aspect of your career, every step of the way.