Everyone can be digitally trained. Not everyone should be a techie

By John Kent-Adebayo, guest contributor

Every few months someone asks me which tech skill pays the most. It is the wrong first question, and I learnt that the slow way.

Here is the distinction I wish someone had made for me. Digital skills are for everyone now: using a spreadsheet properly, working with online tools, making sense of data. Becoming a techie, someone whose job is to build, design or run technology, is a different choice. It should come from what you are good at, not from what is trending.

I tried almost everything first

My own path into tech was not a straight line. I started with networking. Then I tried mobile app development. I did social media management. I moved into UI/UX design, and that was where I first got paid for tech work.

None of it was wasted. But somewhere along the line I noticed what I was actually good at: selling, conversion, figuring out why people use a product and why they stop. That pushed me into growth, and growth pushed me into product management. Today I lead product at Notch Software.

If someone had asked me at the start what I was good at, instead of what was trending, I would have saved a few years.

Tech is not one job

When people say "I want to go into tech", they usually mean coding. But a product needs people who can design it, test it, sell it, support it, read its data and decide what to build next. Many of those roles need very little code.

Picking a path because someone on Twitter is making money from it is how people end up three months into a course they hate. Many start. Fewer finish.

A week before anyone picks

In every tech training programme I have run, from Africa Trainovation Consulting to ATB Tech Hub today, I have kept one habit: nobody locks in a track on day one.

The first week is orientation. We explain each track in plain language: what the work looks like on a normal Tuesday, what kind of person tends to enjoy it, and what it takes to get a first job in it. Then people are free to switch.

Many do. Whatever track is trending usually gets the most sign-ups; right now that is data analytics. After orientation, some of those people realise they would rather design, or test, or manage a product. Changing your mind in week one is cheap. Changing it after three months is not.

Demola walked into Africa Trainovation Consulting straight out of secondary school. His uncle had told him to go and learn a tech skill, and he arrived sure it would be data analytics. During orientation week I watched how he worked through problems and asked him a lot of questions. It was clear software development suited him better. He took the assessment, switched tracks, and never looked back. Before I left ATC he was an intern and then a facilitator, teaching the people who came after him. Today he is a developer on NotchCRM at Notch Software, the company where I work.

Four questions before you pick a skill

If you are trying to choose, here is what I tell people:

1. What do people already come to you for? Fixing their phones, explaining things, organising events, arguing with data? That is a clue.

2. Do you enjoy the problem, or just the salary? Every tech job has boring parts. You need to like the work enough to sit through them.

3. Can you practise it with what you have? Some skills need a strong laptop. Some can start on a phone. Be honest about your setup.

4. Who will you learn with? People who learn alone quit more. Find a community, a hub, or even two friends going the same way.

Start early, start honest

I still tell young people that tech is a good place to be, and that the earlier you start, the better. But start honest. Look at your strengths and weaknesses before you look at the job adverts.

The goal is not to become a techie. The goal is to find the place in tech where you will actually thrive, and then go hard at it.

John Kent-Adebayo is Head of Product at Notch Software, founder of Savey Africa, and Program Manager at ATB Tech Hub, Abeokuta.