From staying behind on campus to study extra material to helping aspiring data analysts land roles across industries, Mariam Adeoti’s journey into tech is a story of intention, visibility, and soft-life wins.
Today, Mariam is a thriving data analyst, YouTuber, and mentor on platforms like Veet. But her path didn’t begin in tech. It started with numbers and an unwavering drive to figure things out.
From Economics to Ecosystems: A New Path Emerges
Mariam’s love for numbers began early. It led her to study Economics at university, where she was known as a bookworm; the kind who stayed back during semester breaks to get ahead of the curriculum. She even asked senior colleagues for course outlines before classes began.
But in her third year, something shifted.
After hearing from older students that no matter how hard she studied, lecturers often held back top grades, she stopped chasing perfection and started chasing meaning. She began volunteering more, building a richer experience outside the classroom.
That decision eventually led her to the FATE Foundation after graduation, where she joined the Research and Policy team. One of her first tasks was mapping players in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. It seemed simple until she realized how hard it was to find clean, reliable data. Websites were broken or outdated, and manually sorting information became frustrating. She thought the problem was her approach.
But really, the solution was data analytics.
“That search led me to discover data analytics… I realized I already loved statistics. This was just a natural next step.”
The Lagos Leap and Finding Her Lane in Data
Around the same time, Mariam moved to Lagos, a sharp contrast to the quiet town life she had always known. The noise, the traffic, the pace, it was overwhelming. But discovering that data analysis could be done remotely, using her love for numbers, gave her clarity.
The COVID lockdowns offered uninterrupted time to study. She told her manager at FATE Foundation about her interest, and soon, any data-adjacent task found its way to her desk. Though there wasn’t a formal data department then, she was eventually given the title of Data Analyst. And just like that, she had carved a niche for herself in the organization.
That was her official start. But it was only the beginning.
Three Years In: From Analyst to Educator and Mentor
Mariam has now worked in tech for over three years, with her first formal data analyst title earned in the non-profit sector. Her transition into a proper startup environment came in 2022 and with it, new challenges, deeper learning curves, and greater impact.
One of the proudest aspects of her journey isn’t the job title or the pay. It’s the ripple effect of her work.
“Tech changed my life,” she says.
But what I’m most proud of is helping others break into the data space.
Through mentoring, educational content, and personal storytelling on platforms like YouTube, she’s watched her influence grow. People reach out with messages saying they landed a role after following her advice. That, she admits, is her quiet win.
On Mentorship: “Don’t Learn Everything at Once”
As a mentor on Veet, Mariam understands how overwhelming the early days can be especially in data analytics, where the number of tools, resources, and buzzwords can quickly lead to burnout.
One piece of advice she gives often? Focus.
Pick one tool — Excel, Python, anything and go deep. Build projects with it. Then grow from there.
She also encourages visibility. Instead of building beautiful dashboards or analyses and keeping them buried in your laptop, she believes in sharing your work publicly. Visibility, she says, opens doors.
Tackling Challenges
For Mariam, no project is without its own hurdles. But her approach is grounded: reach out to her network, Google relentlessly, and, in recent times, turn to ChatGPT. Sometimes, she asks it to explain technical concepts using movie characters because why not make learning fun?
Soft Babe Energy and Life Outside Tech
Outside work, Mariam describes herself as a soft babe and proudly so. She travels often, exploring co-working spaces and soaking in new experiences. But her love for community hasn’t faded.
She still volunteers, especially with non-profits, and often helps organizations structure internal systems or run programs around vocational skills. It’s something she began during her university years and continues today, even if she doesn’t always share it online.
Therapy, too, has played a major role in her personal growth.
If you haven’t interacted with me in the past three years, you probably don’t know me anymore.
From how she dresses to how she shows up, Mariam credits therapy for giving her confidence, clarity, and a deeper awareness of her purpose. To her, tech isn’t just about code and tools, it’s about creating meaningful impact.
What Mentees Are Saying
Mariam’s impact goes beyond tutorials and toolkits, it’s in the way she makes people feel seen and capable. Here’s what some of her mentees have shared:
Advice for Aspiring Data Analysts: Start Smart, Stay Focused
When asked what she’d tell someone trying to break into the field today, Mariam is quick with her answer:
Stop comparing yourself to people on social media.
Start building industry-specific knowledge.
It’s not just about mastering tools, it’s about understanding how they’re applied in spaces like fintech, edtech and others. That knowledge, she explains, makes you stand out in the job market.
You don’t have to learn it all. Go deep, then grow.
🔗 Book a Mentorship Session with Mariam
Ready to break into tech or grow in your current role?
👉 Book a session now via https://www.joinveet.com/mentor/mariam-adeoti
