Lambda School mentors at Paystack hosted a group of 35 Lambda School students at their office in Lagos, Nigeria on January 25, 2020. Students had the opportunity to meet the Paystack Product and Engineering teams, learn about the people and processes behind their product, and participate in mock interviews with the staff.

Ezra Olubi, the CTO and co-founder of Paystack spoke with students about building the company, along with his experience building the payment platform Eyowo and serving as CTO of Jobberman, one of Nigeria’s largest online job sites. Students also heard from Khadijah Abu, Product Lead at Paystack, and Loknan Nanyak, Infrastructure and Security Lead at Paystack.

The Paystack team gave an overview of the Engineering, Product, and Infrastructure organizations at Paystack, and students participated in a Q&A panel and mock interviews, enjoyed snacks, and mingled with their fellow classmates and new friends.

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Lambda Student and meetup coordinator Amira Adediran said that these meetups provide opportunities for students to really experience the tech world outside of their computer screens, from product planning to coding.

"Visits like this are very advantageous," she said. "It is a nice feeling to see people doing things you aspire to someday – it makes it feel more achievable. Also the visit helped to put things into perspective and take away some of the fear of the unknown. It is also very inspiring to hear about the amazing products that are being built and how they impact the lives of the users."

Lambda School’s mentor program provides students with opportunities to find new connections in their communities, discover new job opportunities, and prepare for their future careers.

"I think it is a great opportunity for networking, which I believe is a very important tool," Amira said. "I also think was a very good source of encouragement for Lambda students; it helps in a way to clear certain doubts we may have in ourselves ... this made us all feel good and capable in many ways."

The Lambda School pilot program in Africa includes 80 students from five countries. Several of these students traveled far distances to attend the Paystack meetup, and we commend them for their grit and determination.

We'd like to thank our partners at Paystack for hosting this meetup and for their continued mentorship of our students. If you’d like to apply to mentor a Lambda student or host a group of students at your office, please apply at https://lambdaschool.com/mentor-program. 

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Published February 11, 2020