Our Black in Tech series features the career path & advice from Black professionals in the tech industry. In this Q&A, Prosper Onungwa, Software Engineer II at Cohere Health shares his story.
What were your dreams or aspirations as a child? Who inspired you while growing up?
For a while, I thought that I wanted to be a doctor or the host of Nigeria’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? TV show. I constantly switched between these two aspirations while growing up in Abia State, Nigeria. My biggest inspirations were my parents and Frank Edoho, the host of Nigeria’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? TV show at the time. I felt that Frank and my parents had really interesting jobs. My father sold computers and would sometimes leave them at home for us to play with as he configured and set them up to eventually sell. My mother taught accounting at the local secondary school.
Where did you go to college? What did you study and what did you do after graduating?
I went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York where I studied Computer Science. I got a scholarship to attend Vassar after secondary school in Nigeria through the EducationUSA program. Through this program, I was able to prepare my college applications and take the required standardized tests for admissions. While at Vassar, I learned about their dual degree Engineering program with Dartmouth College. It would entail starting a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) degree at Dartmouth during my junior year, then coming back to Vassar to complete the Bachelor of Arts (B.A), and finally returning to Dartmouth for a fifth year to complete the B.E. I was intrigued by the dual degree program and started taking the prerequisite courses. I eventually got admitted and went on to study Computer Engineering at Dartmouth. It was at a career fair during my final fifth year in engineering school that I found out about Cohere Health.
What inspired you to get into the tech industry?
Towards the end of high school, while I was applying to Nigerian and American colleges, I realized that I did not have the patience required for medical school and I also didn’t think that I would enjoy it as much as I had thought. I realized that I enjoyed playing around with the computers that my dad would bring home from work. I found myself tinkering with their settings, trying to help my dad configure them or trying to install games for me and my siblings to play. I also watched him go from selling large, bulky desktops to slimmer laptops, so I’ve always been fascinated by the evolution of technology. Technological programs are not yet well established in Nigeria so when I got the opportunity to come and study in the US, I knew I had to make the most of it and get into tech.
What has your career path looked like in tech and the various positions you’ve held before joining Cohere Health?
Cohere Health was my first job out of college! While attending college, I didn’t get an external internship until my senior year at Vassar. However, I still tried to make the most of the situation and took on any opportunity to code and build side projects. I worked as a business analyst intern for Vassar’s Information Systems department where I built financial reports and helped maintain different types of data in their management software, Workday. It was cool to get a peek into how our school operated.
While at Dartmouth, I found out about the DALI Lab, a campus job where students could design and build web and mobile applications for sponsoring partners and organizations. I ended up working at the DALI Lab for about two years. This was where I learned a lot about web development, which is a huge responsibility in my current role. I was able to work on cool projects which were great talking points during my job search.
After my senior year, I landed an internship at a pharmaceutical company. That role was more centered around data engineering. However, it led me to the realization that I was more interested in web development. From there, I decided to focus more on web development during my fifth year of schooling. After graduating engineering school in 2021, I joined Cohere where I started out as a Software Engineer I. I have since been promoted to a Software Engineer II.
Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position as Software Engineer II at Cohere Health?
I plan and build features for Cohere Health’s clinical review workflow. I work on the frontend and backend parts of our application, and I help maintain the cloud infrastructure that powers them. I also provide technical and mentoring support whenever I can.
What has attributed to your success thus far and what types of obstacles have you had to overcome along the way as a Black professional?
I have always been willing to try new things. I am not afraid to make mistakes, as I find great value in learning from them. I have had to make the most out of many situations, even though they may not have been ideal. I have also learned to manage imposter syndrome or feeling like I do not belong in spaces where there are not many others that look like me. Thankfully, I have a supportive network of family, friends, and colleagues. We remind each other of how far we have come and what we are capable of doing. Something else that I have learned is to not be bothered by other people’s perception of you. People may undervalue you initially, but if you keep doing great work and focus on what is most important, good things will eventually come around.
Are you involved with any professional organizations outside of the company? Volunteer work?
I am occasionally involved with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
What advice would you give to other Black professionals who are interested in joining the tech industry?
Don’t be afraid of failure. I have realized that building great technology also requires a lot of patience and consistency. It rarely goes well at first, but you have to keep at it to get better and improve. To get started, work on projects that interest you and always be ready to learn new skills. Tech is also a very vast field with very many applications. Try to play to your strengths and find what sector interests you; there is certainly a niche somewhere for you.
While general awareness of the problem of diversity in the tech industry is a step forward, to make a lasting change, real actions need to be taken. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on what companies or employees can do to step up and make a difference?
I believe that companies should start looking for tech talent in places that they have not traditionally looked. I doubt that I would have found out about Cohere if I did not attend my undergraduate institutions. This has made me realize that lots of opportunities are not even available to underrepresented communities, so they never get a chance to showcase their unique talents. I believe a diverse group of people can lead to more creative and well-rounded solutions for a company. Diversity will continue to be important in the increasingly connected global economy. As employees, I believe that the little things we do in our day-to-day life to ensure that our work environment is welcoming and equitable for all backgrounds, goes a long way. We should continue to support each other in the form of mentorship, referrals, and being vocal about career & learning opportunities.
Q&A
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I enjoy playing video games, reading novels, creative writing, and playing chess.
How do you manage stress?
I like exercising and I recently took up recreational Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). I’ve learned a lot of grit and discipline through this.
How many cups of coffee do you have in a day?
Haha! One to three cups depending on stress level for the day.
Any book or podcast recommendations?
Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It uses well explained statistics and quantitative data to show that despite the bad news we hear on the news everyday, the world is actually slowly getting better in the grand scheme of things.
