Dear Tech Rookie, You Can Do It!

Venturing into unfamiliar things can be, most of the time, scary and overwhelming, especially when you are totally clueless about where to begin. I can tell you for free that being a newbie, rookie or junior in any field or role is not a crime. You definitely didn’t kill anyone (not that anyone should even pay to hear that🙄). I’m not here to give you aspire-to-perspire advice, but to let you know that you can go from a total rookie to pro in tech, regardless of your previous work experience, because I’ve been there and done it.

Never would I have imagined when I finished my Business degree at University, that I will be a Product Manager or even a Product Designer because I studied an unrelated course to Computer Science.

It’s funny how everyone always says “tech is the future” or “the next big thing” when in reality, technology is our reality. It became my reality; when I had to prove myself in a new appointment at work to draw up a roadmap and gather requirements for a new software product that the company planned to develop. Now, guys, this was me who worked in the Customer Support team and was clueless about it all. I won’t even lie, it terrified me and it took a lot of hard work to not feel like an imposter or that I might never stop making rookie mistakes, I stayed up many nights watching YouTube videos and taking online courses to at least give me an idea.

Let’s skip all the long back story, I was able to successfully launch the product with a team of extremely talented individuals. Yippeee 🥂, I finally broke into the long-talked-out “tech” that seemed so far-fetched. After over 3 years of building products and managing existing solutions at different stages in their lifecycle, I started to pick more interest in the User experience aspect. Yeah Yeah, we all know that famous Product Management intersection Venn diagram

https://www.mindtheproduct.com/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/

Then I made another big leap to focus on learning everything about conducting In-depth user research, defining the problem and insights, designing functional and aesthetically pleasing interfaces, and how I could ensure all this resulted in designing an optimised user experience. I became a rookie once more and started to learn in as many ways as I could to level up.

Here are my most recommended steps of that have helped me throughout my journey:

1. Researching is king- A course, degree or Bootcamp doesn’t teach you everything, you still need to combine knowledge from other experienced sources. Doing your research should be a continuous thing, especially If you are just planning to transition into tech and you don’t know where to start. Research offers that clarity of where you want to focus your energy because every tech role is broad. Thoroughly reading up, and watching free videos and tutorials is key to knowing if you want to start with coding roles or non-coding roles. If you have also started and want to improve your skills there is a ton of free and paid resources that have been tried and trusted by others that can also serve you, so dig out that information and use it. I used to use Stackoverflow to find recommended solutions to blockers we faced sometimes. This means your Solution can come from anywhere.
2. Leverage your existing skills- Skills you already have from working in your previous or current role are transferable and can be applied in whatever tech role you want to skills advance in. When trying to find a job, go through the job description to see what matches your current background and then learn the other required skills mentioned
3. Take up challenges- Even when you feel you are not ready, take up that challenge because if you don’t then how else will you learn? Say yes to the task even if you are not yet sure of how to accomplish it (well except for things that don’t seem like they can be logically accomplished)
4. Collaborate and network- These two work together, joining communities in whatever niche you want to focus on gives you access to experienced individuals who are currently excelling in the field you want to grow in. Making an effort to also connect with people on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram who are equally starting as you helps you in collaborating to create projects for your portfolio.
5. Be dedicated and Consistent- You don’t have to do something every day to be consistent as long as you constantly put effort into being better you’ll definitely become an expert at it. It may take time but it is doable. DO NOT COMPARE YOUR JOURNEY TO SOMEONE ELSE’S OWN, it can be used as a motivation but not a benchmark for your success. Practise continuously and stay informed on new trends. These are a few helpful free resources

• Starting in Software development- Freecodecamp
• Starting in Product Management- Product school, Product Dive, Product Plan
• Starting in UI/UX Design- Udacity, Coursera, UX collective
• Starting in Quality Assurance Testing- Udacity
• Starting in Data Science and Analytics- Datacamp

Ultimately there are loads of other resources on platforms like Udemy, Edx, Coursera, Pluralsight, Interaction Design Foundation, General Assembly etc but these are just a few to use as an entry point.

I was once a babe who mentally logged out once I heard MySQL server, API or Pull request (it’s all lingo used by developers which is just plain English in software development). Now I can go into a Gitlab/GitHub repository to review code changes before a merge. That confidence took some time to build but all these tips helped me out. You have got this!

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