Bridging Cultures and Code in a Tech Career Odyssey with Rachel Irabor's Power Platform Mastery

Today's guest is from Malta . She works at KPMG as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 developer . She was first awarded her MVP in 2023 . Her words she's just a girl in love with tech who loves baking and reading novels . She's self-driven and passionate about learning and dedicated to building tech communities . You can find links to her bios , socials , etc .

In the show notes for this episode . Welcome to the show , rachel .

I tried selling , like selling clothes , stuff like that . I tried selling baked goose . But every time what stopped me was money to like to continue like money , to continue like money to actually invest into that business . So I was still in school and a friend talked about , like this power platform Boots Camp and was like , okay , let me go .

And I went for the Boots Camp . I think before then , before that period I was , I was studying industrial mathematics . Industrial mathematics is amazing , but it was not something I applied for , applied for engineering and I was giving mathematics , so it was not something I applied for .

I did not know what I wanted to do , like what the future had for me , what was my future career or what I wanted to go for . I was just , I was asking lecturers like , okay , what can I do with industrial mathematics ? And they were telling me that I can work anywhere . I can work anywhere . Where can I work , please ? Yeah , so , yeah , so it was .

So I think . The power platform , boots Camp I'm before then I actually did not know much about tech careers , like I know about tech , but I did not know that , okay , they are tech careers and anyone can go into tech . You understand , because when you say tech , it looks like that's like that big Mountain that nobody can cross into .

So I got to know about power platform and I was building so as a Boots Camp for just 10 days . I was using applications , they were giving us assignments , I was building applications to building workflows , catbots . I viewed a dashboard , but it was terrible . Yeah , that's what was terrible . So , but it was nice .

It was a nice experience and Like coming from a background that I had no idea about carers in tech and being able to do all of that .

So I actually fell in love with power platform and also the community , because during the Boots Camp , david Abu , which is a he's a cloud advocate at Microsoft , he advised us to join the community , the power-added community , to post online . If we have questions , we should post online stuff like that . So I felt a lot of power platform .

I fell in love with the community and the community has helped me a lot , yeah .

So the boot camp was obviously the turning point for you and massively influential Over that 10 days kind of what were all the things that you covered ? What did you at the end of it ? What were you thinking about your next steps ?

So it was really encouraging then talking about how companies are using power platform , then showing us how to build like three Theory screen application , showing us how to build workflows just to send the weather , like how the weather looks like the next day , and Also building chat boards for businesses .

And then I think another thing that helped a lot was actually giving us assignments , like something that you can go back home and work on and come back the next day , and Also creating a .

There's a we , the community , has like a WhatsApp chat that everybody is in , so when you have questions , you can easily just post your questions there and People can answer your questions . So it was amazing like everybody was free . You , there was no , that's when you have questions . Yeah , it's not that feeling that this question you have is silly .

You , you understand , so , yeah , so it's really , really amazing .

How did what did you do next ? How did your career start to develop ?

So I took the exam and I had no idea what was the next step , like , what is the next thing for me to do right now ? I've seen so many people around me because I finally came to Twitter . I was not using Twitter before then , but I finally came to Twitter and I was using Twitter . I've seen so many people around me .

They were all in data , like they were data analysts . Data is awesome Definitely it's awesome but it's not something for me , because I was seeing so many people in data and I also wanted to . Okay , let me venture into that particular field because I'm seeing so many people in data .

I was already seeing people in Power Platform in Nigeria , because this was 2022 , early 2022 . I was not really seeing much people in Power Platform . I was like , okay , since I'm seeing so many people in data , let me go into data and I started learning Python .

I started learning Python , but I think I was just I was doing the 100 days of code , 100 days of Python , and I was also doing school alongside . I was going ninth class back to back . Ninth class is like something you have to spend the whole 19 school reading . After ninth class I go home , I go back again to school . So it was stressful .

Yeah , so it was really stressful . So I was learning Python . I was like , okay , this thing I'm learning , I'm not really getting anything from this , I'm just posting online . I'm doing 100 days of code , but what am I learning ?

So I was like , okay , no , if it was now , I think I would have taken the course and also checked on other resources online to learn about Python . But then I was doing it differently . So I stopped Python and I was like , okay , I restart to a pre-donor , I restart to Azure , restart to Foyi , restart to Mary Myers .

I was like , because I saw them , they were in Power Platform . I restarted them . I was like , okay , I noticed that I'm Power Platform and I want to know how your day-to-day looks like . I'm not a person who likes Power BI , but because I'm not good with dashboards , but I love Power Apps . I love Power Apps and Power Automate .

I would love to know how your day-to-day looks like . How do you do ? What do you do at your work ? I'm very , very curious about it . They were like , okay , fine , definitely . I was like , okay , if I have this question , I think a lot of persons too we have this particular question . I started doing a Twitter space where I invited them .

A lot of persons joined the call . They spoke about their journey , they spoke about what they do their day-to-day . I was like , okay , this is amazing . Yeah , this is really nice . I was like , okay , I started Twitter spaces every time I was inviting people in the community to talk about how to get started .

What is your personal experiences like From the Twitter spaces ? That's where I had the idea where I created a podcast named A Girl in Love Tech . Yeah , apart from that , also because I was trying to navigate my way in all of this , I was trying to navigate my way and also to learn , and also to learn .

So , the boot camp before the Twitter space , the boot camp I attended . I reached out to David Abu and I told him that , okay , I would love to be a part of the persons actually organizing this boot camp , because when I was learning , I noticed a lot of things that I had like I did not really have so much strength in .

I'm not a confident person , I'm not really good with communicating . Clearly , I have anxiety , like when you call my name , it's like the word wants to fall on my head , yeah . So I was like , okay , so why just cry and say , okay , I have these weaknesses , why not work on them ? So , and also I was noticing that my journey is slow and I was making .

I was not really knowing what to do . So I reached out to him and told him that , okay , I would like to be a part of the team organizing this boot camp to help out and also to tutor . And then what I knew there was just how to build a three screen view power apps application yeah , and also what's the different applications in power platform do .

So I reached out to him and he said , okay , fine , I can join the community . So from there we started organizing the boot camps and I started tutoring in the boot camp . So all of this helped me a lot to my journey . After the boot camp , and also I reached out to two persons in the Nigerian power platform community .

I was like okay , I know that a lot of persons out there and they're interested in power platform because through that Twitter spaces I was seeing a lot of persons asking questions about power platform . I know they are interested in power platform . I would love to hold I don't have so much knowledge about this was in 2022 .

I don't have so much knowledge about power platform , but I would love it if you could join me to organize a weekend classes , like weekend classes every Saturday , so that people can attend . So we created a telegram group and also started having classes every weekend , yeah , and I joined the Nigerian power platform leadership group .

Visually , though , I was speaking at different events . So on LinkedIn , I was also . I was posting this on Twitter and I was posting this on LinkedIn . Like , my LinkedIn is full on my Twitter . You can see a lot of posts there . So , on LinkedIn , somebody reached out to me .

That was , I think , 2020 , that was like four months , five months into my journey , into my power platform journey . Somebody reached out to me on LinkedIn and told me that's okay , the person just sends me a connection and I accept it , like on LinkedIn , and the person sends me a message .

That was the first time I spoke to him and I was like wait , yo hi , I have your plate for this job . I was like no , I've not applied for this job . It's like , okay , send me your CV so that I can be a reference for you , like I can do a referral for you . Yeah , and that was it .

And then I have a YouTube channel where I post the live videos . I speak at different events and I also travel to volunteer at events and then I contribute to the telecommunity blog posts , where I actually contributes on blog post . I contribute to the student ambassador community yeah , because I became a student ambassador last year and also I do a lot .

I can't even count them . I'm also part of different communities where I'm volunteering . I'm part of communities where I'm volunteering . I also have I host events where I host classes to talk about Power Platform , talk about Power Automate and , yeah , it's a lot , so it's nice to be recognized , yeah .

What do you want to go for . You don't have to , because a lot of things out there . When people are looking for careers to join , the first question they ask is is there money in this ? Are there opportunities in this ? I'm hearing a lot of residents saying this is the rule trending right now and I want to jump into it . What do you think ?

So I think you have to decide what you want to do first . You have to decide and you have to take it one step at a time . You don't have to overwhelm yourself . Like we have Power Platform right now . We have so many applications in Power Platform .

So when you're trying to jump into Power Platform , I'll say , okay , why not go for Power Apps first or Power Automate ?

And I think one thing I've noticed is that when you're using Power Automate , when you're using Power Apps because at first what I wanted to learn was Power Apps , and while learning Power Apps , I noticed that most times I had to use Power Automate , so I had to learn Power Automate also , so I had to learn Power Automate . So something like that .

You just have to take it one step at a time . You don't need to overwhelm yourself because you're going to get burnt out , and one of the advice I'll give is join the community . It's very important . It's going to take a long way . Have people around you that supports you . People that advice you and try to listen to people . Nobody's know it all .

Yeah , try to listen to people . When people talk to you , they reach out to you . Okay , this thing you are doing is not right . Can you try to listen to people ? And also , I think , try to build projects . I think the best way to learn is that it's not just learning , reading , learning parts , going through courses , doing 100 courses in a year .

I think , just build along , learn along and build .

And I think one thing that has helped me a lot is teaching , teaching what I have learned , building , learning and teaching , because it's like it's meant that knowledge yeah , because when you are going to speak in an event or when you are trying to teach in a group of people , you have to do a bit of research .

That means you have no idea about it , because you are going to try and get prepared for questions that will be asked during that class , or during the class , people might ask you questions , like recently I spoke at Xtonia and somebody asked me questions about licensing Licensing your power platform .

I've always looked at it as being very hard , but I was like , ok , since somebody asked me this question , why not just look into it ? You understand so stuff like that . It opens you to knowledge and there's something people miss out a lot why , working on your technical skills , why not also work on your soft skills ? Soft skills is very important .

It's going to take you a long way .

Alongside your technical skills , like skills like speaking , being able to communicate clearly , presentation , being able to present , because , let me say , for instance , if you are a data analyst and you are building a dashboard , you have to explain what you have built , yeah , and also , if you are a data analyst , you also have soft skills that you need to learn .

You need to learn design colors , how to use colors , a lot of things and in power platform , I think , soft skills that you need to learn speaking clearly . You have to learn documentation how to document , which is very important . You have to learn how to either being a developer or a consultant . I think it's very important to learn how to gather requirements .

So there are a lot of things to do that we need to work on and , while learning , like I said , take it step by step process . It's not easy . Half people around you yeah , I think there are a lot , but I forgot something .