My Tech Journey

Why I Transitioned To Tech

I am a graduate of philosophy, epistemology major to be precise. I don't know if that's an actual thing. I say this because I studied in Nigeria and the pillars of philosophy were not taught as distinctive segments. That being said, epistemology was my favorite. It involves studying knowledge, the channels through which it is attained, its validity, scope, and methods. I consider this a fascinating voyage because what we know shapes what we do and in turn, defines who we are.

Back in the university, I remember how our lecturers overemphasized the versatility of the discipline. The students were assured of their relevance in the labor market, thus, It was a long preach from inception to the completion of my academic years. You can't imagine how stoked I was until reality set in.

My first job was a teaching job in a secondary school. I mean this was the only line of the profession I could fit into. I shuffled between Literature-In-English, Government, and Mathematics; news flash, the school was understaffed and I was on fire. Simply put, I offered to help even with the meager salary. I've always loved and felt comfortable with the subjects I handled, so it was a piece of cake for me.

Preparing three lesson notes for the whole junior secondary classes was overwhelming but I was never found lagging. Omo e choke! (E choke is Nigerian slang for expressing something overwhelming).

Long story short, I started dreading classes, management meetings, inspections, etc. For some reason, I didn't want to be there, what I thought was my passion for teaching diminished. My teaching career was dead before it even started.

I started searching for a new job which involved a lot of internet surfing and research. I saw a lot of web developer, mobile developer, data analyst, IT Support, project manager, and technical analyst jobs. That was when it struck "Tech is the new blood money".

I realized it was a profitable line of profession but I understood that whatever I settled for has to be something I enjoy and I am passionate about.

How I Transitioned To Tech?

On one of my job-hunting sprees, I stumbled on a website that I'd prefer not to mention. I felt "this website" could look better and aside from the visual appearance, the user experience was not pleasant at all. I went from job hunting to surfing "how to create a website".

I could deduce from my research that website development had two factions - frontend and backend development.

YouTube was my first learning platform. I also patronized Codecademy, Progate, Freecodecamp and a host of many others.

I started with HTML and CSS which are the basics. I enjoyed CSS which is a styling sheet for beautifying web pages. The styling effects and animations were the real deal for me. This particular interest fueled my decision to stick to front-end development.

I acquainted myself with the basics before attempting a shot at an internship with a Nigerian company. I got the internship and I think that built the foundations of my career.

I started using frontend frameworks like Angular, and Vue and libraries like React. Later, I got an actual job as a front-end developer in another Nigerian company. I know you think I should be fulfilled at this point but I feel like there is more and I want more.

The Challenges I Encountered

Being self-taught was challenging especially when you have a code issue or an error that you cannot decipher what caused it. This is quite disheartening sometimes because thoughts like "You're not meant for this", "you'll never get the hang of this", "you will never be badass at this", "no one will hire you", "You're half baked", starts creeping into your head.

It got to me. I let it get to me.

This caused a breach in my career voyage considering the amount of time spent without coding. A lot of people transition from a non-tech background and a few of them experience the imposter syndrome. I lost confidence in myself and my skills. I saw a lot of testimonies online and I wondered why my career trajectory was slow if not stagnant. I told myself I wasn't tech material and slowly from lack of consistency, I eventually quit.

At some point, I stumbled upon an article about imposter syndrome. The article showed me a different perspective and made me understand that Imposter Syndrome affects a lot of people and revealed how to deal with the famous mind hazard.

Moving forward, I refrained from comparing myself to others. Rather, I channeled my time and energy to learning new things. As much as reaffirming my self-worth was important, joining communities of like-minded people was pivotal. This helped a great deal, I had people to learn from and ask questions at my disposal

Things I Wish I Knew Before Delving into Tech

Being a tech newbie can be fun and overwhelming at the same time because the tech space is vast and competitive. There are a lot of things to do whether you want to code or not. So you can still be in tech and not code and still reap from the bounty.

There are some things I wish I had known when I started that would have been so helpful to my tech journey.

• Decide on your niche.

• Get a full grasp of the fundamentals.

• Learn.

• Network.

• Be Consistent.

And I'm done! I hope this was an interesting read.