Nigerian entrepreneur Adeshola Cole of Tritek Consulting on the road to achieving the milestone.
Adeshola Cole is no stranger to hard work and perseverance. When she was just two years old, she was sent to a foster home in Birmingham in the United Kingdom (UK) where in her 10 years, she experienced bullying and severe racism.
“I was the only black child within that village and was constantly ridiculed because of the way I looked. It was a lot of bullying. I think that’s why I am who I am today because I am quite a strong a person and I am not afraid to fight for what I want,” says Cole.
By age 12, her parents relocated Cole back to Nigeria where she lived until graduating from Lagos State University with a degree in literature and English before moving back to the UK. Throughout those years, Cole had a passion for the arts and dreamed of becoming an actor one day. But as life would have it, it was a career in tech that would eventually give Cole her true purpose in life.
That realization did not come easily to her. From doing several odd jobs in the UK upon her return to make ends meet like cleaning hotels as well as working as a chambermaid and working for a betting company for about three years, Cole found herself working in the financial services sector.
“That was the eye-opener that I needed from a professional perspective. I joined NatWest Bank. I started off as a cashier and worked my way up to be the bank manager. That role really opened me up to customer service and leadership and responsibility because I had to manage so many people with different levels of expertise.”
After a 10-year stint with the bank, Cole became frustrated with the limitations of the financial industry for people of color.
A friend of hers suggested she look at project management and business analysis and on completing the course, Cole found her true calling.
“I became a project manager and from there I just had the passion for helping a lot of people and mentored a lot of aspiring professionals who went on to get numerous jobs within tech. In March 2017, Tritek consulting was birthed and as they say the rest is history.”
Today, Cole is a mentor and coach recognized for her work in helping the black community transition into the tech space. Her firm is a project management and business analysis company that provides training and practical work experience with mentorship support. The company has grown from just two customers about five years ago to over 3,000 candidates on the platform with over 500 success stories and 180 of those testimonials coming last year alone.
“Ultimately the goal is to help people get into tech and our numbers have increased to over 200 percent post Covid. Having a vision and going with that vision to see it grow is a huge motivation in itself.”