From Schlumberger Desktop Apps to Modern Web Engineering

My journey into software development truly began in 2017 during my Industrial Training period at the University of Benin. I was selected among nine students from various departments for the prestigious Schlumberger Technology Program. I represented Computer Science, alongside peers from Petroleum Engineering, Geology, Physics, and Computer Engineering.

It all started with a call from Prof. Joseph Ebeniro of The Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering. He informed me that I had been selected for a technical program sponsored by Schlumberger.

The Challenge

The program kicked off with an introductory session led by Oluwatosin Ogedengbe from Schlumberger. We received a breakdown of the upstream and downstream oil chain from Mr. Charles, and then Mr. Chris introduced us to C#, the language we would use to build experimental solutions addressing urgent industry challenges.

We identified four problem areas, split into two teams, and my team was tasked with developing a Petrel plugin to visualize fluid distribution on surfaces. It was intense, collaborative, and exciting. After three weeks of building, I ended up in Lagos as the technical presenter at the Schlumberger booth during NAPE Conference 2017.

This experience ignited my passion for C# and the .NET ecosystem.

The Process

Motivated by what I learned, I chose a challenging final-year project: building a fingerprint biometrics attendance system for my department using C#. It pushed my limits technically but strengthened my problem-solving skills and engineering confidence.

After graduation, I went on to build software solutions through my startup, PiedTech Solutions:

• Stegan - a steganography-based system that encrypts information into images.
• Paymag - a school management application for pre-primary, primary, and secondary institutions.

Paymag later received endorsement from NAPPS Edo (National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools), a major milestone for both me and PiedTech.

However, despite my growth in desktop development, transitioning to web technologies especially ASP.NET, felt difficult. I had limited mentorship and most of my learning was self-guided.

Pivoting to the Web

Everything shifted in 2020 during my NYSC service year in Kaduna. I decided to finally commit to web development. I learned HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap, and began teaching them at my Place of Primary Assignment. Still, I didn’t have any solid projects yet.

Fast forward to 2021, I locked in for six months. I wrote CVs to pay bills while learning from freecodecamp youtube channel using roadmap from roadmap.sh religiously. That grind shaped me into a self-taught frontend engineer.

I joined the Anambra Techies community, continued learning, unlearning, and building.

The Victory

Today, I build confidently with:

• React
• Next.js
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Sanity
• Hygraph
• and other modern tools

I’ve expanded into:

• Mobile development with React Native (in progress)
• Web3 exploration: Cairo, Solidity, Wagmi
• AI : Agentic AI workflows from a frontend perspective

This is my story. This is my journey.

And while I might have skipped some chapters… let’s save the rest for future speaking engagements. 😄