How to Start A Career in Tech: 2021 guide

It is 2021 and many are trying to recover from the losses of 2020 as many lost jobs, businesses, or failed in their career.

While the pandemic lasted and things happened last year it might be surprising to know that many still kept their jobs, got new jobs, or even got a promotion check this article out Where the jobs are: Tech hiring is on the rise. As more companies try to navigate the pandemic there has been an increase in the adoption of technology and this has also given rise to more technology jobs which has in turn made remote work more possible.

In the next few paragraphs, I will be talking about the opportunities that have been made possible by technology and how you can get started with a career in tech:

Choose the right domain for yourself.

hey! tech is like an ocean, you can easily get lost without a direction, there are so many fields in tech so make sure you do your research and pick a specific domain that suits you and stick to it and know it and be known for it, what do you want to be? A Web developer? Check The 2020 Web Developer Roadmap – A Visual Guide to Becoming a Front End, Back End, or DevOps Developer by Quincy Larson and for other tech fields check this article How to choose the best tech career path for you by Colin Smith and Which Tech Career Path Is Right For You? A Guide To Four Of The Most Rewarding Jobs In Tech Right Now by Emily Stevens for the several rewarding career paths in tech. Pick one and invest your limited time in mastering it, as it is said: Code, Eat, Sleep and Repeat.

Set goals and pursue them.

You cannot afford to be random this year, because you failed to hit your goals last year is not an excuse not to try again, you will get lost, having a goal will be a compass to lead you to your destination, be very specific about what you want to achieve and pursue it with your all, let your goals be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Be self-motivated.

There is always a limit to the extent to which someone else will be willing to push you into achieving your goals, if you don't push yourself sorry then, because you will be left behind, let the benefits of becoming a developer in whatever domain you choose or the dream of who you want to become in the near future be your motivation, the benefit you may derive from choosing a career in tech may vary depending on your current situation and need, so don’t give up. Check this video by Danny Thompson.

Choose a learning style and method.

There are several styles of learning as there are also learning methods because “everyone learns different ways and has various opportunities to learn.” The style of learning you might eventually choose will be depended on the learning path you have chosen and they include Self-Learning, Coding Boot Camps and College degree. talk2MeGooseman has done a good job highlighting the pros and cons of each and also listing some learning resources if you chose the self-learning path in his article How Do I Get Started Coding? Pros, Cons & Advice to help you. I think one of the most effective learning styles, when it comes to learning tech is Project-based learning or learning by doing that is the pattern many tutorials and videos are designed with. Building stuff in your domain is in itself a motivation to keep learning. A caution here, don't just fall into the habit of learning without really practicing what you learned, be proactive in your learning learn as you build, build as you learn. Doing this will both keep you motivated and it will help you master what you have learned.

Learn the fundamentals.

A lot of companies will prefer to hire someone with a better understanding of the fundamentals of a particular language or domain, one who knows what is happening under the hood - if you are going into Web then start with the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and learn them well or whatever the fundamentals are in your choosing domain, a good knowledge of this will help you when you move up to learn any of frameworks such as ReactJs, VueJs or Angular for front end web developers.

NB: If you are thinking of starting out as a web dev, then a good knowledge of Vanilla JavaScript will definitely pay off, JavaScript has become a very versatile programming language, so you might want to spend some time learning it.

Be up to date, Be current.

Understand your specific industry and know where it is, at every point in time and where it is heading to, knowing this will help you tailor your learning to in-demand skills. You can subscribe to any of these online technology media for updates Techcrunch, Engadget, The Next Media and many more, you could also read yearly State of the Developer Report, that is published by different organizations.

Join a community.

If getting into tech is your goal for 2020

I recommend building a community around you

Build relationships with people who already developers

Get to know people who are on the journey with you

Look for and help people who are at the start of their journey

— Fresh Prince of JavaScript (@willjohnsonio ) January 6, 2020

As you build a career in tech, it will become obvious that you need to be close to people of like mind, especially when you are just starting out learning technology things can become boring sooner than you think. That's why tech communities are so helpful, there are usually general tech communities or technology-specific tech communities, find one in your region and join, you can easily find one on Meetup. There are also online tech communities and you can find them on Twitter, Slack or Facebook, these are also very helpful.

Get a mentor.

This is great if you can, getting someone who is more experienced in the field you are interested in, someone you can look up to and ask questions whenever you are blocked would be a plus. But I know finding a mentor can be quite a thing so even if your don't have or can't find an active mentor, the community is always open on twitter, you can also ask your questions in forums or on stackoverflow and you would sure get an answer.

Build an online developer profile.

Having a GitHub developer account, can serve as your online profile, it is most likely where employers will want to look at to determine if you are a good fit for the position you are applying for, so create your profile and start commiting code to it regularly.

Practice algorithm skills.

It is also important to learn and improve on your algorithm skills, most companies that you might want to apply to will want to test your algorithm skills, so start practicing in whatever programming languages you choose and there are platforms for this, such as leetcode and HackerRank, or you can as well join the #ProjectEuler challenge by FreeCodeCamp.

Begin to imagine or think of a project you can build with the knowledge of what you have or still learning, pen it down and start building it as you progress in your learning.

Always ask questions.

One secret of becoming better than you were in tech is your ability to ask questions and as it is always said “Google is your friend”, no matter how foolish you think your question may sound, you will always get an answer to it if you learn to use your search engine. You can also get helpful answers from platforms such as Quora, Stack Overflow, Coderwall, Dev.to, Hashnode and even twitter to your questions.