How do you leverage yourself and become a better, more valuable person in the market? The tech industry has now revolutionized into something far different than we ever imagined!
Unawareness
Should I call it ‘lazy’? Sometimes, I think we all knew what we were supposed to do when we were selected to pursue certain courses. “I am a Software Engineer, and I love building solutions using web and mobile technologies,” someone might say that — well, I’m giving an example based on my experience.
I didn’t know what niche I would take—data science, web dev, ML, you name it. But sometimes, you have to try everything, and if you’re lucky enough, you could find a mentor. That's the best approach to getting yourself straight up to achieving your goals.
You might mix this with procrastination, but it all comes down to your ambitions and goals of becoming the person you want to be.
I wasted almost the first year of my campus life not knowing what to do! Well, I don’t regret it, and I wouldn’t advise you to either. I believe the decisions I made at that time were better for me at that moment! Perhaps I could mix it with unawareness!
The greatest killer is that some of us might never have been introduced to or known someone who had done something similar to what we did. But again, how could you blame that? I came to realize that I should blame myself for not reaching out to my class representatives (you call them advisors? lecturers) and asking them a few questions about what the future holds for us — as for me, as a software engineer!
Technology
You might say you were unaware, but are we living in the '80s? Technology has penetrated all over the continent, even in rural areas. All you could blame yourself for is not having a phone to access the internet. They say all you could have ever done is ask, but are you asking the right person? You don’t need to ask an electrician about SWE; perhaps you could ask an engineer in the field, someone with experience.
You can’t reach them? Have you tried social media platforms? You can direct message them. We have a community of engineers/professionals in your field. Maybe try Quora or Reddit? Post a message and find out if you’re on the right path!
DON’T BLAME TECHNOLOGY! Can you? I think you might answer this yourself.
Procrastination, the Killer of All
There are ways you could defeat this enemy. I always find it working perfectly for me — being self-motivated. I could find myself in a deep trench and have no one to pull me out at the right time. People are busy, I could say. You have to find a reason to want to do something. But it all boils down to your goals. I might not explain more on this, but didn’t I say? DON’T BLAME TECHNOLOGY! A lot of people have undergone this, and they’ve probably written about how to overcome it, but not me for this one, huh? Perhaps another time. But I can leave you with one of the good articles I read earlier today—might not be the same day you read this blog 😀.
Here it is.
What Do You Actually Need to Do?
Well, to all of those uneasy words, you may not even understand what I am actually saying.
An easy and short answer would be: "You gotta do what you actually need to do to get there." Yes, I want to be a software developer. I have only a little knowledge of the SDLC life cycle, and yet I need to know how to build a working system from scratch. I gotta find out where I can start, learn HTML, JS, Jest, and all you need to build performant systems.
For my friends outside tech, you went for a tourism course. Maybe you need to beat the rest in an interview. You need to work smart and master languages to attract your job market, be it English, Swahili for local jobs, and so on. This might not be a good example, but all you may ask yourself is, what if you’re in a panel interview with four others? What can distinguish you? Well, find out what you can do best in your field that the rest might not have done better, and then you got it! Leave a comment for more on this!
Tough Times Never Last, Only Tough People Last
One of my mentors used to tell me, all you gotta do is start, and never be in a position where you feel comfortable. I get it now. Strive to become someone better every day. Don’t compare yourself with someone else. We are all in a race, and our destinies are different.
A lot I have said: GO HARD OR GO HOME! The world might not be fair at some point, but you should never misjudge someone going hard, maybe learning 60 hours a week and getting a job, and say it is LUCK! Don’t. You will be rewarded by what you’ve done.
Find your spot, your gaps, fill in. If you gotta do some projects, just do it. Grind. It will all pay off in the end, and you'll become a better and more valuable person in the market. Referrals may not work if you don’t know anything. It might be tough, but you gotta start early.
Teruuusss!!! I am a nerd, seated at my Mama’s garage writing this, exploring the internet. Reach out to me via my mail. See you in the next one.