Developing your technology skills: the eternal students

Until quite recently, getting a good job in the tech industry without having gone to college was an ordeal. Yet, everything was simpler: the web was still a new concept and mobile apps and complex architectures were not yet on the map. The process was linear: high school, college, work (and in rare cases, specialization).

Nowadays, we find other schemes apart from the traditional way through college. The number of students at university has decreased significantly. College is not the only choice when it comes to making your way through the working world.

Actually, companies are one of the reasons for the professional training to be accelerated. There are two main reasons for this: due to high demand, people start working even if they have not completed their studies; and, technology advances and connectivity allow companies to offer online training, using specific methods to accelerate learning and achieve specific results.

A few years ago, the demand for professional talent was low and software companies were scarce. Demand was simple. There were not many positions available and it was very difficult to get a job until you got your degree. Methodologies as well as platforms and architectures were few and not too complex. With the boost in telecommunications infrastructure, technology evolved and the diversity became huge. Nowadays, you start by seeking what you feel most passionate about, something specific, where you would like to use the technology. That is the reason why many people are trained to work on the field directly, with courses, training, bootcamps, academies, and any other option useful to build the right profile and help them get the job they love to do.

Technologies evolve, they change. With this in mind, we need to allocate part of our time to learn new things all the time. That is where skill development stems from.

Instruction and training

When it comes to technology, you never finish studying. Even when this is the case for most industries, it is much more evident and necessary regarding software development. Here are some ideas to optimize and develop your professional potential from day one:

#1: Find your skill set for the market

You need to identify the segment you are interested in and that suits your preferences and skills. In addition, in order to find a fit and grow, you need to be aware of the market demands. You need to know what skills are needed right now and, in order to meet that demand, study and position yourself in the market.

Usually, companies look for a specific skill set for a certain project or position. That is why having the inclination to study and learn what the market needs is the best way to go. For example, a software back-end engineer needs to master various languages, needs to be able to read an architecture, design software, needs to know how to run automated testing and know about Cloud infrastructure.

In connection with the example above, if a back-end developer only knows about Python and databases in particular, but knows nothing about unit testing, pipeline automation and cloud infrastructure, he or she will have a hard time finding a good job or will find it with a low seniority.

Lacking the experience the market demands creates a technical default that may delay or affect your career path.

#2: Focus on specific skills

There are skill groups for predefined profiles. At Spark Digital, the tech area has different communities that provide a framework for specific areas of knowledge. Some of these communities are Architecture, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile, QA and DevOps. In each framework, specific learning is sought for those roles.

There are some sub-specializations within each community. A front-end developer will be 99% of the time working on JavaScript, will probably sub-specialize in particular frameworks, such as Angular, React, Vue.js, etc.

Additionally, we need to consider not only the skills to develop but also where those skills are going to be applied: finance technology (for example, to work on wallets or banks), agriculture, medicine, education, etc. Companies are often looking for expertise in a specific technology purpose. This implies a new variable to the many already mentioned.

#3: Seniority from experience vs. Seniority from knowledge

There are so many resources we can use to train ourselves in any area: courses, online material, lectures, videos, teachers, platforms, workshops… Although the know-how is necessary, having experience in actual implementation is highly relevant.

There has to be a balance between theory and practice. You need to know when to implement your knowledge in order to get experience from it. Someone with two-year experience working as a back-end developer will be more sought after than someone with no experience whatsoever.

When beginning your path, getting a junior position in a company is a good idea. These companies offer the necessary training to take the first steps forward. The talent market today is very limited, and especially reduced regarding high seniority. Therefore, we need to focus on training and transforming people.

Another possibility to get experience is forming your own start-up with friends, your own project, using web apps to simulate and develop a project, etc.

#4: Soft skills in addition to hard skills

In addition to the necessary know-how, we need to work on our soft skills to complement our professional profile and to ease the growth in the IT industry.

In this sense, college is a great place to develop communication skills, management, leadership, and strategic thinking skills. These can be a game changer for engineers and developers. It is vital that we acquire these skills early in our career, since it may be hard to find time to develop them later on.

Here are some of the main soft skills we need:

• Leadership and management: if you want to take your career to the next level, this skill is a “must”.
• Teamwork: This skill helps with successful cooperation and to optimize time. It is also useful when it comes to accepting and dealing with diversity.
• Time management: Manage time and plan work efficiently.
• Adaptation to change: Projects are different. To be a right fit in the workplace, you need to be able to adapt to new environments and cultures.
• Assertive communication: This is key to coexisting, interacting and efficiently passing through complex concepts.
• Creativity: Being proactive and a team player, finding creative solutions and negotiating agreements.

#5: Continuous training

During your entire career, it is key to prioritize time and activities in order to be able to work and study simultaneously. This dynamic is permanent and can only be maintained if you learn to manage time effectively.

Technology evolves rapidly and that implies we need to stay ahead of our game. You can’t “not have time to study”. The time is there; you just need to learn how to manage it.

It is quite common that new projects demand new skills. We cannot know everything, but we do have the necessary guidelines to learn. This is a permanent condition.

The role of the company regarding talent training

In an ever-changing market such as IT, it is vital for a company to develop creative strategies to boost the staff’s skills. To do so, a certain balance between compensation and learning is necessary; this means not only that the employees must feel appreciated and financially compensated, but also that the company should guarantee that the talent will have room to learn and grow.

Companies have their own training strategies. Some companies start training from scratch. Others offer courses and e-learning. Some companies offer mentoring in order to accelerate the process with the help of an expert.

At Spark, we use many tools when it comes to developing professional careers: mentoring, internal projects, project incubation, academies, workshops. Additionally, we are associated with one of the best online learning platforms, having access to unlimited courses for our staff.

At Spark, we work hard to give everyone the training they deserve. We offer many choices in our hiring package, but we also make sure every team member has room for training. In order to do that, the leaders of each area make their best efforts to carry out all initiatives and secure the staff’s participation.

Conclusion

The idea of traditional formal education as a necessity is shifting. Ways to learn evolve hand in hand with technology.

If you are planning to embark into Technology, you need to bet on developing and expanding constantly as a natural part of your professional life. You also need to find a safe and supportive environment when diving into the constant development of your soft skills.

It is a long way to go, filled with effort and rewards. It is a choice you make in your technical and professional development working on what you love the most: technology.

Pablo Gamba — Director of Technology @ Spark Digital