From NBA intern to county web admin, this young technologist has reached one goal — and is ready for the next

Technical.ly

3 days ago

For Yafiah Abdullah, tech is just part of the journey.
The 22 year old from Newark, Delaware, attended St. Georges Technical High School thinking she might become an electrical engineer before she decided to give computer science a try. It stuck — she went on to major in CS at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, before launching her career in Delaware.
Currently, Abdullah works as lead web administrator for New Castle County, a job she enjoys while also looking forward toward continuing her education, as she looks to combine her tech experience with a law degree.
'In the end, my angle is to go to law school and become an intellectual property attorney within a tech space,' Abdullah told Technical.ly.
In this edition of Technical.ly's How I Got Here series, Abdulla discusses her journey from 1,000 Kids Coding to government technologist, and shares advice for anyone looking to follow a similar career path.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was growing up, I really wanted to work in law. But going into vo-tech high school, I went into information technology. Now that I've graduated college and have started my career, I've realized that I can still align both of those passions together.
But right now, I'm happy with where I am in my journey, working within the public sector and learning more about the processes and policies within tech.
What was your education like?
When I was in high school, I did Code Differently's 1,000 Kids Coding Program for pretty much the duration of my senior year of high school. We started with basic HTML and CSS coding and then we moved into workforce integration — making sure that we know how to adapt to the workspace we're going into as developers, especially as younger talent.
From there, I went to college, where I started working with one of my professors on a project with a researcher on our campus. That exposed me to more product development, and less of what I had been working on with software development. It allowed me to see what else was possible within the field, rather than just being a developer and working on back end or front end or full stack development.
From there, I did a full stack engineering internship with the NBA — that was a nice change of pace, working in a faster-paced development space with engineers, and just overall working in entertainment.
When I finished college, I wanted to develop my skills more before I took to the workforce, so I went back to Code Differently as an adult learner in its Software Engineering bootcamp. That allowed me to develop my personal skills, speaking skills and my development skills. And then I did a Code Differently externship with a financial service company, doing full stack development on the product side, building compliance products. And then from there, I got my new role in New Castle County government.
Who have been your biggest influences?
Definitely my parents. When I was in high school exploring different career areas, I was looking more at electrical engineering. And my dad was like, 'give information technologies a shot, see how you like it,' and he explained all the career paths. So that pushed me forward within my journey in tech. Throughout my whole career, my dad has always pushed me to just learn, to continuously be a sponge, making sure that I get every piece of information that can project me forward in my career.
What does a typical day look like in your job with New Castle County?
I'm working primarily on accessibility within the website, making sure that we are meeting all accessibility policies within the state law. Also, we're currently working on the site redesign and making sure that our subject matter experts are up to date on accessibility policy.
Currently I'm working primarily on a lot of housekeeping, going through making sure that, on the website, any old initiatives, any old links or broken links are all cleaned up, and we are presenting a website that is fully functioning for the constituents. And I've also been writing policy outlines for user guides, and just tackling any web issues that come up. That's my role.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in doing what you do?
Be as persistent as possible. Know where you're going, know where you want to end up. Talk to people, ask them about their experience, making sure that you're not steadfast in doing things a certain way. Being adaptable within any environment that you come into and being able to change will help, because technology is always changing. You have to be able to adapt as quickly as possible.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Imposter syndrome is definitely real, especially being younger and working with more senior engineers. You may sit back and take in the information rather than put your input in because you're scared that it's not as useful, but as a newer person you're a fresher audience, so anything you say is going to be impactful.