A degree in Petroleum Engineering was supposed to lead me into the oil and gas industry. For a long time, that was the career path I imagined for myself. But life took me in a different direction, one shaped by curiosity, unexpected opportunities, professional setbacks and a willingness to learn beyond the boundaries of my original discipline.

Today, my journey spans software engineering, international technology teams, open-source development and artificial intelligence. It is a journey I did not plan from the beginning, but one I have built step by step through learning, experimentation and the courage to embrace new possibilities. When I graduated in 2016, I expected to build a career in the petroleum industry. I spent the following years navigating the early stages of my professional life, including my time at MOJEC between 2016 and 2020. In 2021, I joined Reliance Infosystems, where I worked with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. That experience became an important turning point.

It exposed me to the wider possibilities of technology and encouraged me to look beyond the professional path I had originally envisioned.

I began learning JavaScript and React, driven by a growing interest in how software is designed, developed and used to solve real-world problems. What started as an exploration gradually became a serious career pursuit. In 2022, I joined Softcom as a product engineer working on KwikSell. There, I gained practical experience building production software, developing customer-facing features and integrating application programming interfaces (APIs) to meet product requirements. For the first time, I began to see software engineering not merely as an alternative to my original career plan, but as a field in which I could grow, solve meaningful problems and build products that serve people.

From writing code to solving complex problems My next major step was joining Andela, the global technology talent network.

Through engagements facilitated by the network, I gained experience working with distributed engineering teams and supporting technology projects for international businesses. These engagements included work involving a California-based neurotechnology company and a technology platform within a major global pet-care business. My responsibilities expanded beyond frontend development into platform engineering, experimentation, analytics, privacy and consent, e-commerce, and backend integrations.

I also contributed to work involving the consolidation of technology platforms serving customers in the United States and the United Kingdom, improvements to customer-journey measurement, and infrastructure supporting product teams and users. These experiences changed the way I understood engineering. I began to appreciate that becoming a better engineer required more than learning programming languages or keeping up with new frameworks. It meant understanding the problem behind the code, identifying the needs of users, making sound technical decisions and collaborating with people across different disciplines.

I became increasingly interested in how individual engineering decisions affect an entire product, its business objectives and the people who depend on it.

However, my journey was not without setbacks. I experienced layoffs and unexpected career changes that forced me to reassess my direction and think carefully about what I wanted to do next. Those moments were challenging, but they also reminded me that no career is guaranteed to follow a straight line. I could not rely solely on the skills that had brought me to a particular point. I had to keep learning, remain adaptable and be willing to explore what was emerging in the industry. That mindset eventually drew me towards artificial intelligence.

Towards the end of 2025, I began exploring AI integrations more deeply, particularly the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a framework that enables AI applications to connect with external tools and data sources. I was interested in understanding how AI systems could move beyond generating responses to interacting with the tools, information and services people use in their everyday work. My exploration soon developed into contributions to open-source projects within the MCP ecosystem.

According to my account of the work, several of my technical contributions were reviewed and merged into official open-source repositories. For me, this represented an important step in my development as an engineer. I was no longer simply learning how to use existing technologies; I was also contributing to projects involved in building the infrastructure through which emerging AI applications can operate. Open-source development has given me another way to learn, collaborate and exchange ideas with engineers beyond my immediate professional environment.

It has also reinforced my belief that meaningful contributions to technology do not always require working within a large organisation. Developers can participate in shared projects, solve specific technical problems and help improve tools that others can use. My interest in AI continues to grow through this combination of practical experimentation, technical learning and community participation.

Sharing what I learn with the developer community In May 2026, I was invited to speak at a Cursor technology meetup at the University of Lagos. According to the event information provided to me, the gathering attracted more than 500 attendees.

My presentation, titled Building an MCP Server and Integrating with ChatGPT, focused on how developers can build tools that allow AI assistants to interact with external systems and data. The opportunity allowed me to share practical knowledge about an emerging area of AI development with an audience interested in exploring new possibilities in software engineering. I value opportunities like this because I believe that learning becomes more meaningful when it is shared.

Building software is one way to contribute to the technology ecosystem, but participating in open-source projects, presenting technical ideas and exchanging knowledge with other developers can also help move the community forward. Technology evolves quickly, and none of us can know everything. However, we can learn from one another, document what we discover and make it easier for others to build on that knowledge. That philosophy has increasingly become part of how I approach my work.

Taking technology and AI conversations into secondary schools My interest in sharing knowledge extends beyond professional developers. I am also interested in helping young people understand the opportunities emerging in technology and how they can prepare for a future increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence. In October 2026, I visited Cifman College in Lagos to speak with secondary-school students about technology careers and the skills they could begin developing while still in school.

The session, titled Choosing a Career in Technology and Preparing for the Future of AI, introduced students to fields such as software engineering, cybersecurity, design, data and artificial intelligence. We also discussed practical ways to develop relevant skills and the importance of using AI responsibly and productively.

The engagement was particularly meaningful to me because my own career had not followed the route I once expected. When I was in secondary school, I did not imagine that I would eventually become a software engineer. Even after graduating from university with a degree in Petroleum Engineering, I expected to establish myself in the oil and gas industry.

My experience has taught me that young people need exposure to possibilities beyond the careers they already know. They need opportunities to explore their interests, develop practical skills and understand that their professional identities can evolve over time. I wanted the students to leave with a broader understanding of what is possible, rather than the impression that they must make one career decision and follow it for the rest of their lives.

I also wanted them to recognise that AI is not just a subject for technology specialists. It is becoming relevant to education, business, creativity and everyday problem-solving. Learning how to engage with it critically and responsibly can help young people prepare for opportunities that may not yet be fully visible. For me, engaging with students is a way to make some of the lessons from my own journey useful to others.

Reinvention is a continuous process Looking back, I can see how each stage of my career prepared me for the next, even when I did not recognise it at the time. My background in Petroleum Engineering gave me an initial professional foundation. My subsequent experiences exposed me to software development, product engineering, international collaboration and increasingly complex technical challenges.

My exploration of open source and AI has since created new opportunities to learn, contribute and share knowledge. None of this happened through a perfectly mapped plan. It required me to recognise opportunities, invest time in learning unfamiliar skills, respond to setbacks and remain open to changing direction. For Nigerian professionals, I believe this is an important lesson. A university degree can provide a foundation, but it does not have to define the limits of a person’s career. Skills can be developed, interests can change and opportunities can emerge in industries that once seemed unrelated to one’s academic background.

My experience working with distributed teams has also shown me that professionals can contribute to international technology projects while building their careers from Nigeria. Open-source communities, remote collaboration and developer events offer different ways to participate in a global industry, although each requires sustained learning, commitment and the ability to deliver meaningful work. I do not see my transition from Petroleum Engineering to software development and AI as a finished story.

Technology continues to evolve, and there is still much I want to learn, build and contribute. Beyond my own professional growth, I want to use what I learn to help other people discover opportunities, particularly young Nigerians who may not yet see themselves represented in emerging technology fields. My journey is ultimately about more than moving from one industry to another. It is about understanding that reinvention is possible, that setbacks do not have to determine the outcome of a career, and that continuous learning can open doors we may never have considered at the beginning. I started out expecting to build a future in petroleum engineering.

Today, I am building that future in software engineering and artificial intelligence, while exploring how I can contribute to the communities and young people who will help shape what comes next. If there is one lesson I have taken from this journey, it is that the career you begin with does not have to be the career you end up pursuing. Sometimes, the most meaningful opportunities emerge when you are willing to learn something new, question your assumptions and take a chance on a different direction.

I am Oyewole Ayodele Oluwatobi.