The Technology (Tech) Field is one that has tremendously grown in the past decades following numerous technologies and tech start-ups. with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an extensive shift in the tech field and how it has influenced most operations in other different fields. The need to thrive in this field and not just be mediocre or lose your mind is highly necessitated.
In our class orientation today, did l mention am a student at Refactory? Okay, not necessary, we were elated to hear from Ronald K Sebuhinja, Chief Technical Officer at Yo Uganda, and as someone who has been in the tech field for a while now, his presentation was mind-boggling!
So how can you ace your way through this tech field?
Have a passion for the field.
Not just passion for coding but passion for the ever-changing technologies. Take it upon yourself to find out what the latest tech invention is, what programming language is selling like hot cakes. The tech field and late nights go hand in hand and if your passion can't see you through the late nights, you might never succeed.
Acquire Knowledge.
Learn as much as you can, don't fall back on that one programming language you were first introduced to. Learn how to achieve the same tasks in a different language. Have it on a virtual machine so you don't dismantle your perfect setup.
Familiarize yourself with the whole pipeline of production, from the idealization, planning, development to deployment. The tech field is constantly changing don't limit yourself to just coding but be flexible and move with the changes.
Identify what you're good at.
Scale down what you like and what you are actually good at and strengthen the area you're already excelling at. If you are strong at back-end development, explore more in that. Forcing yourself in a field you are not genuinely good at could end up stalling your overall development progress.
Practice, practice, practice.
You will never know what is missing in your code if you don't write it down. Practice as often as you can, code a complete website and deploy it on any of the free hosting platforms. Share your work on platforms like GitHub and get feedback. Write documentation for your programs, make it look like a real gig, and do it to the "customer's" satisfaction.
While you're at the practice, check out other services in the field and see how they run, could you manipulate a certain platform that you just came across? Practice both as a tech user as well as a tech developer.
Network.
Most of the opportunities will always come easily through the networks you have cultivated. Get out of your introverted programmer mode and join tech communities, locally and internationally. Interact with your idols in the tech field, attend tech seminars or in the modern-day, webinars. These will even introduce you to new tech findings that you would have never known about or maybe have taken longer to know about.
Take care of your health.
Having established that the tech field and late nights go hand in hand, very many developers have traded their health, sleep, relationships for perfect code. Take breaks before your body demands them, move upcountry for 5 days without your computer, love and accept to be loved, get married, raise a dog with someone you love. Generally have a life outside your code and computers.
Consistently be on the lookout for opportunities.
Programming opportunities are literally available in everything, whatever field. It could be the commerce sector, there's now the association with tech, which is e-commerce. Look out for what you can transform to technology, and that is almost everything. Seek remote freelance opportunities, when you are sure of what you can provide. This will, in turn, keep you growing in the tech field.
May the force of tech be with you as you thrive in this field.
