I started my journey into tech in 2016 when I initially had the inclination to build a website that could produce past questions and answers for students of The University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
I wanted to build a site that would convert all the existing past questions and answers to softcopy and would also have a technology that could automatically convert these documents and make them readily available to the students. The technology was supposed to be universal; available for use within all the states of Nigeria.
And so, “Myschoolaid” was born.
At the time, I was a 300 level student of Accounting in the said school and I had just very recently acquired a laptop for my academic studies and so, I went on to the web and I searched for how to build a website. I saw a lot of very juicy offers and I learned a lot of things and my passion for tech was birthed. Ever since that experience in 2016, I’ve always wanted to go into tech.
In 2017, I almost dropped out of school to pursue my career in tech (I wish I had, though 😪) but as at the time, I wasn’t exactly exposed and I was supposed to be in my final year in the University. I had to choose between school and tech. I chose school and later realized that “school na scam”. Lol.
Anyway, immediately after my final year program, I had all the time in the world and so I began to chase my little dreams once again. At this time, Myschoolaid was officially a failed business and I just wanted to build websites – I just wanted to know what tech was about and I just wanted to dive into it. And so I registered for free courses on Google and I began to take them (I still have those materials from 2019 😄).
By January 2020, I had a full understanding of what tech was about and how to go into it and I fully understood what I wanted – I wanted to become a Fullstack Web Developer; frontend, backend, everything. I just wanted to build websites and I wanted to build them well.
The story continues, but that’s not the focus of this post. Maybe I should do another post detailing my journey into tech?
I’ll definitely think about that.
The reason I’m putting up this post though is that I want to answer a question that has been posed to me many times in the few years I have actively been involved in tech – “how do I get into tech?”
In the wake of the Covid lockdowns of 2020, awareness of digital skills have greatly increased and I have had many close friends that have come to me and asked me what digital skills they should take. This is because back in 2016/2017 when I started Myschoolaid, I had become somewhat popular in school for being the guy that missed lectures to sit in the hostel to press laptop.
A lot of my friends, colleagues and roommates thought I was into Yahoo (I wish 😂) and so they gave me many nicknames and called me many things.
So when the lockdown came, I was practically the closest person they knew in the now-emerging “laptop-pressing” (or in other words, digital skills) world. I took the liberty to make a lot of noise about grabbing digital skills during the lockdown and I even went on to organize a three-weeks intensive training for free. The training was meant to teach people how to build websites with their mobile phones as well as graphics design with Canva.
I was a self-acclaimed digital skills crooner.
I still am.
The idea behind this post though is that so many people don’t have the privilege that I had, of knowing what I wanted to do before I even started it. A lot of people are hoping to gather digital skills and tech because they’ve seen the social relevance and other benefits – but they don’t know where to start and how to start.
I’ve had to give a lot of people free advice and even carried out mentorship and follow up for these people so they can find their feet in tech. Well, no more free advice – here’s a whole post to pour out all the advice I’ve ever given out and some more.
If you’re still undecided on how you want to go into tech, then take the liberty to read through this post to the end. It will take you a lot more time to complete the post, but it will save you a lot of time you would have rather spent undecided and surfing the internet, trying to make things work. More so, you get to enroll in my free mentorship program (you’ll find the link while you continue reading). The mentorship program will help you kickstart your journey into tech seamlessly and will also provide a community you can grow with.
You’re welcome.
Now that we’ve spent all this time talking about appetizers and preliminaries, let’s dive into the main dish! Allons-y!
First of all, What Are Digital Skills?
I’m not going to give you a “standard” definition of Digital Skills. If you need that, you can always find your way around Google. I would rather give you a breakdown of what I know from the many years of experience in this field.
Digital skills are basically skills that are relevant to the digital world. The digital world, in this case, being the “laptop-pressing” world. Lol.
Well, yeah. The digital world is simply the world that is powered by computers in their diverse forms – or in other words, the internet. So this means that digital skills are those sets of skills that are relevant in developing the internet.
Whether you like it or not, all of us are contributing to the development of the internet. The internet is not just being built by a set of geeks with photochromic goggles and Macbooks. You and I build the internet with every single post, meme, story, picture, etc that we share. It’s just that some people handle the technical aspects while some others handle the non-technical aspects. If you do not have the knowledge of any of these technical aspects, then you are definitely building the internet through non-technical aspects.
The Technical Aspects of The Internet
By now, I want to believe you are strongly following the flow – the technical aspects of the internet refers to the aspects being built by the geeks with photochromic glasses and Macbooks.
Got it? Good.
The technical aspects of the internet require technical digital skills; web development, mobile app development, blockchain development, business analytics and the likes. These skills require some sort of special knowledge, as well as special tools. They require a high level of professionalism in order for them to be carried out properly and they are usually the hardest, most boring but most lucrative digital skills. If you are cut out for hard work that will take a lot of time but will later fetch you a lot of money then you can stop reading this post and ship off to pick up a technical digital skill of your choice.
If you aren’t, well, keep reading.
The Non-Technical Aspects of The Internet
This aspect of the internet is the most popular and features skills such as copywriting, content creation, digital marketing, graphics design, etc. These skills are relatively easier to acquire and do not necessarily need you to spend so much time to acquire them or monetise them.
A newbie web developer will need at least 6 months to perfect the most basic skills required for sustainable web development. A newbie copywriter can become a professional in 3 months or less.
A mobile app developer will need a perfectly functioning, high-end laptop to begin his journey but a digital marketer can start at any time with his mobile phone – as long as it can connect to the internet.
From this distinction, we can see that digital skills can actually be acquired from the comfort of your home, on your Tecno Pop 2 and without further ado after reading this post.
Las las, to enter tech no hard, na you wan make am 😂
On a more serious note, though, before beginning your journey into tech, you have to first of all understand that the next tab you open on your browser can actually start your journey. Your very next Google search can start your journey, clicking on this link can start your mentorship program, you just have to be ready to start.
I Am Ready, What Next?
Well, the very next thing to do is to take some time to do very good research on the type of digital skills you would like to acquire. I’ve given a good distinction between the both of them – assess your capabilities and decide on whether you have the resources (money, time and data) to begin a technical skill. If you don’t, consider taking on a non-technical skill.
Still undecided? Click here and let’s talk
I Have Decided, Which Skill Should I Learn?
The truth is that I can’t tell you the exact skill you can learn. I can point you in various directions but ultimately, you will be the one to choose what you would be able to do… That’s after doing proper research.
If you’ve decided to take on a technical skill, the 3 most prominent skills in Nigeria currently are web development, mobile app development and blockchain development. These skills are related to an extent and can be categorized as Software Development.
If you’ve decided to take on a non-technical skill, the 3 most prominent skills in Nigeria currently are graphics design, digital marketing and copywriting. These skills are also intertwined and it doesn’t matter the one you decide to start with, you can actually do all 3, and very effectively too.
Ultimately, if you don’t have a laptop, don’t go for any technical skill – That’s a professional advice! This doesn’t mean that all the other digital skills do not require a laptop for efficiency. They definitely do. But at least you don’t need a laptop to start. You can start with your phone, and as time goes on, you upgrade to a laptop for efficiency.
Special Offer:
As a professional Fullstack Web Developer, I have a special offer for those that want to go into web development. If you have a perfectly functioning laptop, click here to get course files to kickstart your journey.
If you still have a few questions to ask after all these, you’re free to hit my personal DM here.
Signed,
Awesome Bassey.
Award Winning,
Fullstack Javascript Web Developer.
P.S: I’m working on other posts like this that will answer many of the questions I’m expecting to get in my DM so take advantage of these links while they are still available. My DM will not be available to the world forever. Most of these links will be replaced with links to other posts I will make along the way.
Got it? Ciao.
