Designing A Tech Career Roadmap

Starting a Career in Tech can be a bit challenging, but after I did a thorough research I figured out the best way to make the process a bit easier. I will be sharing with you the details on how to create a roadmap for in your tech Career. "Opportunities don't happen, you create them" _ Chris Grosser.

Yes, Designing your Tech. career roadmap means you're intentionally creating an opportunity for yourself in the Tech. Industry. It won't just happen on it's own, that's where awareness comes to play. According to Yewande Odumosu, awareness will enable you make the right decision in your Tech. I shared a video link at the end of this article, endeavor to watch it and you will definitely get great value.

Tech. skills is in high demand and one of the most lucrative industry that exist in this 21st century. Whether you want to get a full-time job or become a freelancer, there are lots of opportunities in Tech. There are lot of career paths to choose from and the tech sector is one that offers endless opportunities to learn and develop.

Why begin a Tech. Career?

As Tech. has become the new norm, 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 lot of tech startups have emerged in 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 roles – Code. e.g. UI/UX Designing, Web development, Mobile App Development, Software Engineering, Data Science, Developer Operations, Developer Relations, Cloud Engineering, etc. Non developer roles – No code. e.g: Business Intelligence, Business Development, Customer Success, Digital Marketing, Sales, Partnership, Operations, Finance, HR, Product Management, Product Marketing, Project Management, Quality Assurance, 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 crucial 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 thing you must do is to 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.

Begin 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.

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

Hard Skills:

When people hear ‘hard skills’ the first thing that comes to mind is something very difficult, like hard rock , bricklaying, barrow pushing, etc. Your mind forms a picture of people mostly men, doing very tedious jobs and sweating .

In as much as these are equally hard skills, they are not the type of skills I will be enumerating on.

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:

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

Examples of Soft Skills

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

Remember evaluating yourself and identifying the skills you have, and the skills you want to acquire will help you select the best tech career path for you.

Thee best way to 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 want 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

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

Joining a tech startup gives you the privilege to learn and practice a whole lot of great things/initiatives and often you would have autonomy.

Reference: Designing a Tech. Career Roadmap by Yewande Odumosu

Video link: youtu.be/EZ6oX7HvAHA