His parents almost sent him to learn a trade. Then Al-Amin Ajao found his way into tech.

Al-Amin Ajao never envisioned a conventional career path for himself. The structured routine of office life, complete with daily commutes and weekday workdays, held no allure for him. Preferring a different direction, he entered Lagos State University (LASU) in 2016 to pursue electronic and computer engineering, a choice influenced by his scientific inclination and his elder brother's interest in computers.

As he dove deeper into coding, project building, and attending hackathons during his university years, he discovered the allure of software engineering: the flexibility it provided, allowing him to balance work and personal life. This appeal convinced Ajao that software engineering was the career path he wished to pursue long-term.

Despite his initial lack of seriousness in secondary school, Ajao's academic performance dramatically improved when he prepared for the UTME. This newfound dedication eventually secured his admission into LASU. By his second year, however, his focus began to extend beyond his studies. Ajao met friends learning to code and was captivated by their projects.

He began learning independently through online courses and practical work, eventually leading to a senior project and freelance gigs. By his fourth year, Ajao interned at Divergent Innovation Hub, gaining professional software engineering experience. He also collaborated with friends on a LASU campus delivery platform, but the project was sidelined when graduation arrived.

Upon graduation in 2021, Ajao found his ideal career. Working as a frontend engineer at Woodcore, a fintech platform, he appreciated the flexibility to work while maintaining personal time. This role allowed him to lead key features, review code, and mentor others, fostering his professional growth. The company's remote operations exposed him to international tech firms, igniting his desire to work beyond Nigeria.

In 2022, Ajao joined Offscript, a Swedish tech company, transitioning to a full-stack engineer role. His backend development experience, lacking proper documentation, pushed him to deepen his backend skills. After years specializing in frontend development, he found the repetitive nature of the work unsatisfying, and backend engineering offered fresh challenges to explore.