Rebecca AkinmolayanIf you heard of the gold fever, diamond rush, and oil boom of the 20th century, then you will understand the tech-volution of our times. Major cities and settlements were formed as a result of the rush for gold, diamond, oil etc. Places like Jos (Tin), Enugu (Coal), Port Harcourt and Warri (oil) because people naturally flowed and migrated to those places to mine natural resources seeking a better life.
Tech is the new oil, and the migration is in cyberspace. No lab or refinery or smelting furnace is needed. You just need your head (of course), data, smartphone, or laptop.
What is tech? Tech is the ‘T’ in STEM. STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Never has there been so many free courses, scholarships, and push for upskilling into as we have now. We have new phrases, commonly used like women in tech, women in STEM, techie/techy, etc.
To me, there are two kinds of techies; those who work in tech (as a career or business) and those who use tech for work and business. Everybody cannot work in tech obviously.
So, you want to venture into tech? What do you want?
If you walk into a store without a list or budget, you may end up getting what you don’t need. The same goes with deciding what to study. There are too many options to choose from. You may end up jumping from one trending free course to another without specializing which is dangerous.
What do you want to learn/become?
Find out your pathway and be willing to go through the process
You want to be a front-end developer- you need to know the languages to learn. Full stack developer, data scientist? Product designer?
Here is where it gets tricky. Nobody will push you as most courses are self-paced. It is easy to fall off because it is not structured like a classroom.
And hell yes, you can cheat with Google, you can get the certificate but the beauty about tech is that it is a skill set. There is no middle ground, either u know it or you don’t.
Be willing to pay for premium courses:
YouTube and Twitter are very good places for every beginner, the resources are endless but at a point, you may need to part with cash.
Explore the free courses; but except it is being sponsored, most free courses are just a bait to the paid masterclass.
Mentorship is very important. Having a tutor is crucial especially if you migrated to tech in old age.
Join tech communities:
Iron sharpens iron. You would grow exponentially when you mix with like minds. Ask questions, nobody was born with tech knowledge.
Lastly, be patient with yourself:
You went through primary, secondary, and maybe university to get to where you are today, and you were doing probably nothing else except studying. Now, you are working, with family wahala, Nigeria wahala, traffic wahala and you want to be a techie in six months, no be juju be dat?
Thanks for the write up.
It’s eye opening
Someone said the best time to plant a tree 🎄 was yesterday, and the second best time is now.
Investing in a future in tech is more that necessary now for every individual, cos the application of tech is relatively becoming a basic necessity in our world.