Build and Sustain Your Career in Tech
Read on how you can build and sustain your career in tech by Chioma James, our guest speaker at the February online seminar held by Kwarabuild Women in Tech.
Technology in Nigeria is growing and the need to be world class developers is the aim of many Nigerian developers. Most of them however get carried away and forget that it’s not enough to build as sustenance is also important. You must know that technology changes rapidly and you must be able get acquainted in using recent technology. I used to disagree with this fact until time went by and I started seeing how many people got displaced from their jobs.
Technology has made many switches from post offices to emails, from newspapers to blogs and social media, fax to online calls…the list goes on. I remember my excitement when I learnt the Windows operating system. I always wanted to operate any computer at sight. After a year, I came across Windows Vista (deprecated) OS operated by a ten-year-old child and I could hardly do anything with the system. I don’t know if you noticed that a lot of modern and current websites no longer display on older browsers. Nowadays, technology forces one to update to the newest versions of apps and browsers.
Another area that most tech newbies encounter challenges is with choosing a path. One can easily get confused and intimidated by various programming languages, framework and tools. I started with Python, then moved to Android and now, I’m currently building with Javascript. I call it Technology WAR (Python or JavaScript, React or Vue, AWS or GCP).
At this point we can agree that Technology is fast paced and widely vast. Hence, here are some of the ways one can build and sustain oneself in a tech career field:
1. Choose a path and trust/face your hustle. When you don’t know what to ask, ask questions like: ‘Am I missing anything out? Is there anything in need to know?’
2. Don’t be scared. Believe in yourself and celebrate small wins.
3. Be consistent. Don’t be discouraged.
4. Collaborate with others and don’t be shy to say anything you don’t know. Forget all the paparazzi you see on social media. Nobody knows it all.
5. Always try out new technology.
6. Know when to make a switch. I admire all tech tools/languages. Don’t be a judge. I have always heard that Angular is better than React. However, I found React easier to learn. So, find what suits you and stick to it.
7. Always ask questions. You can learn from anyone.
8. Stay up to date. Google is your friend. If you work with web technology for instance, don’t hesitate to search for things like…‘What’s new in JavaScript?’
9. It is very important to carry out quality projects. It’s not about the number of projects you do, it is the quality that matters. Three solid projects are great to start with.
10. Be a master at what you do. When the time comes for a switch for a newer technology don’t hesitate. Embrace change.
11. Surround yourselves with people that are passionate and that will help you. Don’t be an island.
12. Recruiters may have their own issues. Be consistent and continue to try your best regardless of the number of rejections you get. You will learn from your errors and it will pay off.
13. Lastly, strengthen your knowledge about Social media management and Digital Marketing.
Chioma James is a Front-end Engineer and Community Manager for Lepsta Inc. Prior to this, she was a Program Assistant for Andela Learning Community where the program has successfully trained 22,000 developers across various cities in Africa. She is a graduate of the University of Lagos Akoka, where she studied Building Construction. She is passionate about educating communities and women about technology and how they can use it to solve problems around them.
You can follow Chioma James via her twitter handle @chiomy0. Also, follow KBwomenintech on twitter @KBWomenintech
