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

Mark Smith: 0:37
Welcome to the MVP Show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. 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.

Rachel Irabor: 1:33
Thank you so much, Mark. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you.

Mark Smith: 1:38
I'm really happy to have you on the show. You're a star in the community, so it'll be good to unpack your journey and what you've been up to. Before we go there, tell me about food, family and fun. What do they mean to you?

Rachel Irabor: 1:55
I think I can start from fun first. I don't do much for fun. I love reading novels to relax. I love watching funny movies just to laugh and just to relax. Then for family, I love my mom a lot. I recently lost my dad. That was in 2022. I lost my dad in 2022. I just have my mom, two brothers and one sister.

Mark Smith: 2:30
Nice, where did you originate from before Malta?

Rachel Irabor: 2:33
I'm from Nigeria.

Mark Smith: 2:35
Nice. Is it far for you to travel? Then? If you need to go home, is it because I've been to Malta? I stayed for a week, my wife and I. I know where your office is because I saw it while I was in Malta. Tell me, how hard is it to get from Malta to Nigeria across the Med?

Rachel Irabor: 2:55
It's not a straight flight. I'll either have to travel to Turkey, then from Turkey to Nigeria I'll have to travel to Lagos, or I'll have to travel to London. Either I'll go to an airport and then travel to Lagos, nigeria.

Mark Smith: 3:15
So there's a direct flight from Luton to Nigeria.

Rachel Irabor: 3:18
Yeah, I think I saw. I traveled recently and I saw a board where Nigeria was written like Lagos. Nigeria was there and I was like, okay, wow, that's nice.

Mark Smith: 3:31
When I lived in London, luton was our main airport, so I did lots of trips out of that airport as well. How long have you been in Malta?

Rachel Irabor: 3:40
I've been in Malta now for a year and one month Do you love it. It's nice. It's small, but it's nice it's definitely small right. Yeah, it's small.

Mark Smith: 3:53
Have you traveled much around the islands?

Rachel Irabor: 3:56
I don't really go out much. I just mostly just go out for work or maybe hanging out with colleagues. Yes, I don't really go out much, but I do travel around Europe. Yeah, I travel around Europe.

Mark Smith: 4:10
Yeah, nice, nice. There's just so much to see and do. Right, and particularly what I love about Malta is its history, incredible history. It's been pivotal in so many things and the town is beautiful, and then there's those like castles and stuff up on the hills outside of Malta, right?

Rachel Irabor: 4:31
Yeah, that's Valetta. It's beautiful, and where I live I have, like, a view of the sea, so it's really really beautiful, yeah, so it's amazing.

Mark Smith: 4:40
How did you get into tech? What was your journey to getting into technology?

Rachel Irabor: 4:45
Okay, I say this a lot, I say tech found me, like Power Platform found me, because I was actually trying to be independent, like not to reach out to my parents all the time when I needed money or needed to get something. So I was trying to be independent. I was trying a lot of things. I was trying I tried baking. 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.

Rachel Irabor: 5:40
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.

Rachel Irabor: 6:22
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.

Rachel Irabor: 6:58
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.

Mark Smith: 7:38
Nice, tell me, tell me a bit more detail around the boot camp. What was what was involved in the boot camp? Because, because what you just talked about is amazing way For people if they wanted to start a career in Microsoft business application. 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?

Rachel Irabor: 8:07
Yeah, okay for the Boots Camp. It was more of beginner level, like what is in power platform, stories of web. Microsoft power platform is being used and it's story about Fui. You know Fui.

Mark Smith: 8:21
No.

Rachel Irabor: 8:22
She's from Nigeria. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mark Smith: 8:25
Yes, sorry, I do.

Rachel Irabor: 8:26
Yeah for you from Nigeria story about Fui on how she Came into power platform. 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.

Mark Smith: 10:20
I'm in one of the WhatsApp communities for Nigeria. I'm in the Nigeria Dynamics 365 UG WhatsApp group.

Rachel Irabor: 10:27
Yeah.

Mark Smith: 10:28
And I've been in that group for oh how many members. There's 372 members in there and I think I've been in that. Do you know Hamad? Yes, I know Hamad. He set it up.

Rachel Irabor: 10:39
Yeah, I know.

Mark Smith: 10:40
Hamad yeah, so I think he set it up, boy. This is before I left from London, so this is like four or five years ago, so it's been very good. I always say I love seeing how the Nigeria community has, in the last five years, just exploded globally. Right, and you're a testament to that. Tell me about. The bootcap ended. What happened next? How did what did you do next? How did your career start to develop?

Rachel Irabor: 11:08
Okay, I started Boots Camp. I think I had like I did not. I got to a point that I had no idea what was the next step. I had no idea what the next step was. After the Boots Camp I got to, I took Power Platform for the Mental Certification exam because we were encouraged to take the exam. 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?

Rachel Irabor: 11:35
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.

Rachel Irabor: 12:17
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.

Rachel Irabor: 13:54
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.

Rachel Irabor: 14:27
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.

Rachel Irabor: 15:48
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.

Mark Smith: 16:35
That is. That's such a good, and you said it felt slow to you, but for me it's like you covered a lot in about two years. Right and two years you. Really. How did you end up then getting a job at KPMG?

Rachel Irabor: 16:50
Okay, I was posting a lot online because from the boot camp, david Abu told us that we should try learning. We should post online about our learning journey Like if I learn something today.

Mark Smith: 17:02
David's a smart guy. Yeah, david's a smart guy, I totally agree with him.

Rachel Irabor: 17:05
Yeah, so if I completed the learning parts today, I'll post it online. This is what I learned from this learning part. If maybe I had, if I have a question, I'll just use the power editor hashtag and post it online. And I was also speaking at different events. I was speaking at different events, different user groups. 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.

Rachel Irabor: 17:37
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.

Mark Smith: 18:11
And you got the job.

Rachel Irabor: 18:13
Yeah, I went for the interview. I went for the interview took like a month. I went for the interview and then I got the job. Wow.

Mark Smith: 18:22
And so that's still another big thing, right, because you actually had to move countries for that job. Is that right? Yes, I did. Yeah, I feel.

Rachel Irabor: 18:30
It's amazing. I still can't believe it. I think it took me a long time. So actually, when I was staying in Nigeria, I was actually just running around to relocate to Mota. I could not believe it. That's, I was actually like my skills is making this happen? Yeah, so it's unbelievable.

Mark Smith: 18:51
This is amazing. I want to make sure we get links to your podcast and social media those type of things in the show notes for this episode and I recommend everyone go check it out because this is an amazing story. Tell me, how did you become an MVP?

Rachel Irabor: 19:05
My contributions to the community. I do a lot in the community. I have, like I said, I have a podcast. I also have. My podcast is everywhere. It's on Spotify, it's on YouTube, it's on Google podcast, it's on Anko, it's on LinkedIn, twitter, because it's live, live podcast, so you get to listen to it live and also ask questions. 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.

Mark Smith: 20:22
Yes, it's so, so, so good to see you in the community and all the contributions that you make. If someone came to you and let's say they're still at school and they're going, what should I do for a career and what steps should I take to get into a career like what they see you doing, rachel? What would you recommend they do?

Rachel Irabor: 20:48
Okay. I think it depends on what the question the acts. I recently spoke to someone recently and she wants to be a data analyst. She wants to be a data analyst and she was thinking of also coming into Power Platform. So I said there's one thing that you need to do you don't have to overwhelm yourself. You need to decide first. 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?

Rachel Irabor: 21:22
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.

Rachel Irabor: 21:40
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.

Rachel Irabor: 22:50
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?

Rachel Irabor: 23:50
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.

Mark Smith: 24:53
Yeah, hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MBP Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time.