Conquering Tech Hurdles — My Experience
Hi Readers 👋🏽
In this article, I have highlighted some difficulties I experienced when I started out my career in tech and how I went about solving them.
Hurdle #1 — Starting
“Got an idea to start”, “Thinking to start” and “Making a commitment to start” is one aspect of life.
Actually “Starting” what you truly want to do in life, is a completely different ball game.”
― Manoj Arora, From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom
I think that the biggest and greatest hurdle I had to face was “starting”. I had no idea what to do or where to look. I questioned myself at every chance I got. I wondered if I wasn’t too “old” and “too far gone” to start over. I fought an internal constant battle on whether to go ahead or not. I heard voices tell me that I couldn’t do this.
The solution to this though was having a support system. I had friends and family tell me that I could do whatever set my heart to. They encouraged me daily — sent me blog posts, articles, podcasts, and everything that they thought I needed to get ahead. They kept telling me “no pressures” and to take each day as it came and thankfully that was all the motivation I needed to move forward.
Hurdle #2 — Resources
Crossing this second hurdle was more work than I had anticipated. You can imagine the ton of resources we have floating around the web alone — some good and the others not so good. Finding the perfect resource for your work and expanding your knowledge has to be intentional and this takes a lot of time and research. A lot of the resources are not up-to-date, confusing, and contradicting and this can be a nightmare for anyone let alone a newbie.
My solution to this was asking for recommendations from those who have walked the path before me. I did this by joining any tech community I came across just to get access to experts in their various fields and ask relevant questions pertaining to the information I needed per time.
You would be surprised how much people are willing to help you.
Hurdle #3 — Mentorship
According to Bob Proctor, “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”
In my journey so far, this was extremely challenging. I personally thought that I needed to physically get a mentor in the tech space before I could even start — I mean it was a completely new career path and I was really clueless. The feeling I had then was indescribable so I spent a lot of time on the internet just reading and searching for ways to get a mentor.
I ended up telling myself that I didn’t need a physical mentor in the tech space to start. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone needs someone they look up to. Everyone needs someone who will help them up the career ladder quicker and more accurately. Mentors in your chosen field help you avoid the same career mistakes they themselves made. But hey if you do not get one in your field, just keep going. Eventually, you would find one you really admire, and then you can reach out but this can be very tricky. I have a couple of people I look up to that I go to for advice. I belong to communities where I can ask questions and get answers. Some of them are people that are very far from me geographically who don’t even know I exist but I read their books, articles, blogs, etc and it has helped me in my journey.
Hurdle #4 — Choosing a niche
My tech journey was a really interesting one. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do but I was open to the idea of being in the ecosystem. I started out with frontend development learning HTML, CSS, and JS after which I got stuck and quit. Then I transitioned into Product Management and Design.
I found that I love it here. I overcame this hurdle by being open to suggestions about my career choice having failed multiple times in the past. I needed to see with another pair of eyes about where I was headed and I’m glad I did that because I have zero regrets.
Life in itself is a journey that comes with so many uncertainties and obstacles but we owe it to ourselves to persevere and keep pushing forward because there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. No one becomes an expert overnight as being an expert in any field requires hard work.
I will leave with a final quote that reads — “Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.”
― Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
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