Five Common Mistakes to Avoid When starting out your Tech journey in a Third-World Country
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Introduction
The journey into the world of technology is fraught with difficulties, and for developing countries, the difficulties multiply. These difficulties, when not handled constructively, may either re-route us down the paths of mistakes, cause the termination of great ideas that could bring great transformations, or even hamper the full expression of these worthwhile ideas.
In this article, I will be highlighting some of the mistakes that could affect a smooth entry into the world of information technology, and some possible suggestions to help us avoid them
Mistakes to avoid as a tech Newbie
Not sure of your IT goals before starting out: Goals are what we live for, be it general life goals or career goals and they're the means to achieving our dreams and life calling. If we don't figure them out before embarking on actions, we may be right on our way to either buying into someone's goal and helping them achieve it or way to a life without fulfillment.
What we find with many entrants into the space of IT today are those who don't know what exactly they want to use information technology to achieve. I don't blame them though because there is indeed a need for some level of knowledge before setting out to build your long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals.
For those moving into the tech space I have two suggestions that could help us build a long-standing goal, and that is:
A) Participating in a quality starter course that exposes you to the very basis of all areas, and then finding which area your inner being resonates with. This will not just sponsor your goal setting but also help you achieve my next point.
B) Choosing a Mentor: What makes a mentor powerful is that he is ahead in the knowledge or path that you are interested in, and this places him in a position to vet and fine-tune your goals after the initial step of finding what resonates with your personality.
Why It seems like setting a goal is a thing not taken with great seriousness, we must be fully aware that making goal setting a casual activity may cause us to end in casual positions, and not having one at all is suicidal to life.
The Wrong Mindset: Another thing common that I want to spot is the mindset. Many move into Information technology as a way to get them up to the economic status they've been envisaging for years. While I'm not ruling that out as a goal, I want to sincerely warn against being set forward at the kickstart.
At the start, you should be so much concerned about how to add value to the space you have chosen by solving relevant problems. Because you get paid for value created, and the hunger to be relevant has a way of fueling your zeal and passion, shooting up your grit score, and setting you up for success.
A wrong attitude towards problems: Great minds love problems, why do small minds hate problems, hence they want it all figured out and to have all that they want on a bed of roses. If you check biographies, most people of renown were people who fought rejections, failures, innumerable problems, and resistance with the grit factor in them.
I recently found out that problems are opportunities in disguise. Only if you have the password to unlock the opportunity, which is knowledge and strength of character. But I was still disturbed because those who I believe had this knowledge and were born into these problems in third-world countries are trying to run away for greener pastures through "JAPA Avenue". Going forward many reasons pop up in my mind, but we'll not be going into those in this article.
Lacking self-confidence: This is a major challenge for starters in the world of Tech. We must realize that lack of self-confidence has stem from fear, and also we should be aware that the feeling that is impacted by lack of self-confidence doesn't leave us at our best version, hence the need to build self-confidence to be able to attract and sustain opportunities that will bring about our career growth.
Inability to say No: Learning how to politely say "No" when it should be said is a valuable skill set when starting in tech. Most people out of excess respect find this difficult. But I must inform you that if you can't use the word "No", you may find yourself living out somebody's goal.
People who can use the word "No", most often command respect and are often better positioned to evade some well-planned schemes or manipulations. The ability to use this word is strengthened when you love yourself and deflate every form of fear whatsoever. This is needed for proper time management.
Conclusion
Why we pursue the technical skills necessary to succeed in the world of Tech, we must not be eluded from the fact that soft skills are some relevant enhancers through which our inherent potential will find expression. Let's not ignore them, they can be developed and nurtured.