How to leverage your present resources to get into tech jobs

Tech will power the world, that’s already evident by the amount of money flowing into tech daily. No matter who you’re, you can find your place in tech if you would just start.

Oct 16, 2021

Since you’re here, I guess you know that tech is eating into every industry. In not many years from now, we won’t be having the “tech as an industry talk” but the “tech as an infrastructure talk”. This means; tech will be in every industry, powering automation, productivity and scale. I ain’t a soothsayer or psychic, but I could guess who you’re or why you’re reading this, and that I will do. You may intercept or belong to one of the following categories;

You’re a tech lover: you have always wanted to work in tech, but because of your inclination due to environment or course of study, you are presently doing something else.
You’re unemployed and tired of being so: you have seen the different “tech bro, tech sis” talk on Twitter and you have always been like “where una dey see this money?” (this is Nigeria pidgin English, which means where are you seeing this money).
You’re tired of your job or boss: you have a cranky boss who gives you tasks they can’t achieve or you earn a salary that is merely enough to cover for your transport fare to the same job, or maybe you just hate the job (it isn’t what you want to do).
You want to earn better: you just want to live that lifestyle of your dream, and with all you have heard and seen on social media, tech seems to be the fastest route to it. I mean who wouldn’t want the faster route.
You want to be part of the future: since you know it’s the future, and you intend to live in the future, why not have a taste of what the future is like. You’re right, it’s the future.

It’s very much possible you do not fall into any of these categories. As I said, I am not a psychic, so, I might be wrong, but statistics say you either belong to one or intercept more than one, so blame the stats.

If you intend to transition into tech, it is a good one, but it’s not so easy a task. You would require resources that are not so easy to find, augment or come by (especially if you’re Nigerian). Interestingly, because tech is a mix of science and art, you can improvise. “If you really want to transit, nothing should stop you.” this is a statement many people in the field already believe as the reality. To give you a heads up; no matter which industry you’re transiting into, change is not always easy-peasy. Change requires adaptation, which usually comes bearing its own layers of mountains to climb. Transiting into tech is not any special, if you should be transiting from law to fashion design today, you would have the same hurdle to scale.

This article is supposed to make it easier for you or at least ginger you, so, let’s get to it. “A bird at hand is better than a thousand in the forest”, “Use what you have to get what you want”, these are all proverbs we chew in the mouth while we were much younger without knowing it resonates deeper than the surface connotation. Recently, I met a young Back-end developer who is a student of Electrical Electronics at the University of Ibadan, due to the situation that surrounded our meeting, I had to ask him about his tech journey. To my surprise, he only got into tech about 8 months before we met, and he had already started taking full projects on his own. He learned his back-end development skills by sitting in his street mosque for 12 hours daily with his '“battery-less” laptop to use the Mosque’s power supply during the pandemic. Fast-forward to when we met, he had a better laptop and some money-spinning projects at hand.

“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better” - Jim Rohn

Things won’t be easy at the start, but as you get in, you can be sure you are in for a life-changing experience. I don’t know everything there’s is to know about this, as I myself is just finding my foothold in tech, but here are some thoughts to consider;

Start by self-evaluating

It’s important you have your mind made up before you start this journey, as it’s of a lifetime. Any skill you decide to acquire in tech is one that you will learn for a lifetime, because, if what to do doesn’t change, the way of doing it keeps changing daily. This is more reason why what you need to learn are the skills, not the tools. Many times we mix up the tools for the skill. The skill will remain the same, but the tools in tech keep evolving.

“Think about whether you are truly willing to keep learning and expanding your skill-set,” advised Kanika Tolver, who transitioned into web and mobile development.

You definitely can’t know everything required to learn before you start learning, rather I even advise that you start with the faintest idea you have on how to start. Some months ago, while I was self-learning product design, I decided to get on a website that matches designers with mentors to help make their career journey smoother. In three days, I spoke with about three mentors, and one thing that was common to all the meetings was the question - “what have you done so far?” Seniors in this tech thing always want to know what you have done to help them know where to step in. They want to pick you up in the cradle bed, not from the birth bed. To start, you need to ask some questions of yourself, to be sure you aren’t having a misplaced passion. You shouldn’t be doing this tech thing because of peer pressure or for fancy, when you get in, it’s serious work and you must be ready to get your hands dirty if you want to taste the sweetest spot. One of the things you should do while self-evaluating is to get your proverbial foot in the door by analysing your present skill-set and interests and see how they intercept. As you explore specialities and roles, check for the ones that will let you combine existing knowledge with new experiences and concepts. These will give you a soft landing. For example, if you’re transiting from fashion design, one role to look into is UI/UX design as you’re already familiar with the concept of colours and probably you’re passionate about aesthetics and user experience. I advise that you also take this self-evaluation test called Ikigai.

Get around those who know

“If you hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later, you are going to get a haircut. That’s my journey to tech. I attended every tech meetup, every launch, and conference.” posted on Twitter by Adewale Yusuf, who was formerly founder/CEO of Techpoint Africa, and presently CEO of TalentQL. According to the young Back-end developer I mentioned earlier, one thing that stood out of the many things that helped him learn was his circle of friends. In his 200 level days, he stayed in a room of 4, of which he was the only one who doesn't code. Also, I met a young lady recently, she was learning HTML/CSS because her best friend is a programmer, she had heard a lot about the possibilities in the tech ecosystem. This is not to say you should forsake your present friends, but maybe all you need is just to get around someone who’s in tech already. Tech thrives on community, and you also need to belong to one, if you can. Start by making friends in the tech scene, or much more, join tech communities around you. You can check Benjamin Dada’s blog for a list of some tech communities in Nigeria, some of them you can just be a member of their social media groups. These communities sometimes afford you access to mentorship, learning resources, scholarships and gadgets. Even if they don’t offer you all these, merely being a part of a thriving community gives you the ginger you need. Getting around those who know might be as little as reading tech news media outlets like Techcrunch, Techpoint Africa, Techcabal etc., or following tech YouTubers or tech personalities on Twitter. I am presently guiding a lady who’s a fashion designer into tech, and all she started with was to read an article on Techcrunch daily. You can do the same, don’t forget, it’s a journey, so every step counts.

Maximize available resources

Due to the peculiarity of our country (Nigeria), it may be more difficult to learn tech skills than in other countries due to unstable power supply, cost of gadgets, and creepy connectivity, but all these in themselves shouldn’t deter you from living the life you desire. The essence of this article is to help you find a work-around for these challenges. Finding people of peculiar mindset is very important and that’s why I discussed it in this article. You must have heard of persons who learnt coding on their phones and are now working in FAANG companies (In finance, “FAANG” is an acronym that refers to the stocks of five prominent American technology companies: Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX); and Alphabet (GOOG) (formerly known as Google)). About three years ago, I worked with a young man who learnt coding with markers and whiteboards. When learning - using textbooks, he would write his code on a whiteboard, and when he gets access to his trainer’s laptop, he inputs the code to see if it works. Since then, things have even become much easier that you can easily get apps on your phone to write and test some of your codes. Osaretin Asemota, a well-experienced investor in Africa’s tech ecosystem posted on Twitter some weeks ago “There are many pathways here on the internet to getting what you want. A laptop is a want until it becomes a need. When it becomes a need, you will find one or someone will find one for you. A boy who started coding from his phone in Port Harcourt now works at Facebook.” Mentors invest in substance not ideas, the best way to get the gadgets you want is to start by taking the first step into whatever you want to learn, do not start by asking for a laptop or data subscription. Start with the hard work - find any way you can to start learning. You can utilize any of the following means to start;

Learn using your phone, or a borrowed laptop/device; you can even buy a cheap one to kickstart your journey. Don’t start by yearning for a premium device, you will never start.
For power supply, find a co-learning space or a library to learn; most libraries give you a constant power supply for particular hours during the day.
Leverage free resources online to learn; there are a lot of them on the internet, you just have to find them.
Most importantly, be creative; as they say, there is no limitation except the ones you create. This has been my anthem since the release of Ayra Starr’s Gen Z anthem.

Learn how to use search engines (Google)

Great leaders ask great questions, most persons who are at the pinnacle of their career today, asked the right questions and most probably got the right answers. The questions you ask are more important than the people you ask. I have seen people get the opportunity to ask great leaders questions and they choose to ask the most irrelevant of all questions. We have the opportunity to live in an age where all you need to ask the billionaires of our world questions is just an internet-accessible device and data subscription, don’t misuse it. Google is a great platform that helps to figure out answers to your questions in seconds, use it well. I got access to several resources whilst I was starting out to learn product design that sped up my learning journey. Ask the right questions and always know where to look for the right answers, they are all there on the internet. You can learn how to get more out of google search here.

Get an internship/job in a tech start-up with your present skills

Another way to go about all of this is to get a job/internship at a tech start-up, your present skill-set may not be a core tech skill like programming, design etc., but you’re still needed in a start-up. We have non-technical roles like human resources manager, customer experience, customer representative, usability testers etc. in startups all around, you just have to look. Evaluate your present skills, see which one you can put together to get an internship or job at a start-up. This brings you closer to home, you will get to meet people of like passion and also develop a passion for the ecosystem and possibly the role you’re yearning for. I presently work in a non-technical role (Business development manager) with a start-up, and it has helped me to see the lapses in the ecosystem and learn how things really work. You can choose to do the same, if you’re lucky to work in the office, you may get access to a computer/laptop, free internet and maybe get enough money to get needed gadgets for your beloved tech career. One story that truly inspires me and I believe a number of other techies is that of Mitchelle Chibundu who moved from being an intern at Flutterwave with makeup skills to becoming a product designer in a public tech company - Wise in just five years.

According to a report by Stackoverflow (A public platform where developers go to ask and answer questions related to coding), 90% of developers are self-taught; which means the greater number of people in tech today, learnt on their own through the use of resources available freely online. You can do the same, you don’t need expensive courses, or gadgets to start learning tech skills, start from the resources presently available to you, and see where it gets you. The tech industry work on “meritocracy”, people want to get problems solved, and it doesn’t matter which school you attended, gadgets you use, the country you belong or how you learnt the skill if you can prove your worth.

You must have heard that tech will take over the future, whoever told didn’t lie, it’s the truth, and you must have seen it all around. Tech will power the world, that’s already evident by the amount of money flowing into tech daily. No matter who you’re, you can find your place in tech if you would just start. If it’s truly the future, I guess you want to be a part of it, why not buckle up, take the step and start learning that skill today. If you do, you can be sure you are in for a life-changing experience.

The Eleapsis

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