Skyrocketing in Tech

Skyrocketing in Tech

Guidelines on how to start a tech career

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In recent times, tech skills have been in high demand in the global economy. Whether you want to get a full-time job or become a freelancer, there are tons of opportunities waiting for you. There are lot of career paths to choose from and the tech sector is one that offers endless opportunities to learn and develop.

Why start a tech career?

Following the digitalization of many industries across the global, African businesses have also turned up towards digitalization of their processes. These businesses are matching up with international talent and competing on a global scale. A good number of tech startups have emerged in Sub-Saharan Africa the past decade.

Tech Career paths

The pre-requisite of venturing into tech is so lower that you do not need a college degree to land a tech job. Anyone can enter the tech industry irrespective of there age. Tech roles can be grouped into two(2):

  • Developer rolesCode. e.g. UI/UX Designing, Web development, Mobile App Development, Software Engineering, Data Science, Developer Operations, Developer Relations, Cloud Engineering, etc.
  • Non developer rolesNo code. e.g. Digital Marketing, Customer Success, Sales, Business Development, Partnership, Operations, Finance, HR, Product Management, Product Marketing, Project Management, Quality Assurance, Business Intelligence, Solution Architecture, etc. To fully understand where you are and where you want to be, you would need to design a tech career roadmap.

First step in starting a tech career is Personal evaluation. It is important to understand how far you have come in your journey. You ask yourself questions like:

  • What do people say you good at?
  • What aspect of your work/course excites you the most/least?
  • What motivate you?
  • How do you spend your spare time?
  • Have you done things in your career/work/business that you are super proud of, what are they?

Next step is Acknowledging your Strengths and Skills. Tech is limitless and a lot of skills we acquire or use daily are can be transferred into this industry.

  • Start by identifying your own unique skills e.g. are you good at organizing, talking to people, are you a good writer, can you spot mistakes easily, etc.
  • Include skills that you have picked up or developed in the course of your work or study eg technical writing, the use of spreadsheets and/or spreadsheet packages like excel or google sheets, book-keeping, etc.
  • Skills are transferable
  • Note them down and compare them to skills needed in your chosen tech career path.
  • Now compare them to skills needed in other tech careers.
  • Plan for the skills you would want to improve on and the new skills you need to acquire.

Nowadays there are generally 2 types of skills: Hard Skills and Soft Skills.

When people hear ‘hard skills’ the first thing that comes to mind is something hard, like panel beating, electric works and wiring, mechanic repairs, carpentry, bricklaying, barrow pushing, etc. Your mind forms a picture of people mostly men, doing physically straining jobs and sweating .

Although these are equally hard skills, they are not the type of skills I will be enumerating on. Let’s go a little softer shall we;

Examples of Hard Skills

  • Technical writing
  • Programming
  • Visual Design
  • Use of Social Media Platforms
  • Use of document and financial processing software eg Excel, QuickBooks, etc.
  • Data mining
  • Book-keeping
  • Copywriting
  • Proof editing

Soft skills are general known as people skills, it involves managing and relating with individuals or/ and group.

Examples of Soft Skills

  • Presentation skills.
  • Negotiation skills.
  • Communication skills.
  • Interpersonal skills.
  • Leadership skills.
  • Adaptability skills.
  • Stakeholder Management.

Remember evaluating yourself and identifying the skills you have, and the skills you want to acquire will help you choose a suitable tech career path.

How to Smoothly Transition into Tech in Africa (Developer and Non-Developer role)

Whether you want to transition from your current job role to a tech role or start fresh tech career, you would to:

  • Do your research, explore your interests.
  • Take a crash course or intro course.
  • Try out a side project or volunteer for one.
  • Join a community.
  • Get a mentor or shadow someone senior (offline or online).
  • Identify your transferable skills and highlight them on your resume/cv.
  • Build on your new knowledge and start applying for jobs/opportunities including internships, support roles, project based work, etc.
  • Keep learning...

Ways to Accelerate your Tech Journey

  • Join communities.
  • Attend tech events.
  • Volunteer for tech projects.
  • Networking (offline & online)
  • Side projects & Experiments.
  • Subscribe and read tech blogs.
  • Watch and listen to videos, podcasts and audio rooms that give info about tech.
  • Get a coach or mentor (if possible).

Bonus tip: Join a startup.

Joining a tech startup gives you the opportunity to learn and lead multiple things/initiatives and most times you would have autonomy.

Reference Designing a Tech Career Roadmap by Yewande Odumosu