Navigating Your Tech Career From Learning to Getting Opportunities

The Spaces explores how to navigate a tech career from learning to landing real opportunities. Host Abisala introduces speakers including mobile developer Adefalani (Michael) and cybersecurity professional Tega. Adefalani shares a practical playbook: beyond continuous learning, you must increase visibility, build evidence (live, usable projects), and show up consistently. He stresses openness to criticism, strong soft skills, and managing early-stage pay expectations while prioritizing experience, impact, and problem-solving projects—often via internships or low-paid gigs—before bigger rewards follow. Tega narrates her transition from electrical engineering through brief stints in web development and data analysis to cybersecurity, emphasizing owning your journey, choosing a domain, defining a clear WHY, assessing your starting point, and crafting a personalized roadmap. She highlights foundational skills (networking, Windows/Linux basics), community participation (niche Spaces), professional outreach on LinkedIn, and sharing learning in public. Abisala reinforces that even introverts can start small by posting progress and modeling others’ approaches, noting internships can convert to full-time roles. The session closes with audience-focused guidance on practical next steps and a question on volunteering and internships to unlock opportunities.

Navigating Tech Careers: From Learning to Opportunities — Webinar Summary

Session Overview

This session focuses on practical strategies to move from learning to real opportunities in tech. It emphasizes visibility, building evidence of capability, consistent public presence, soft skills, choosing a clear domain, and managing expectations around earnings. The conversation blends personal journeys with actionable guidance for newcomers and those already in the field seeking clarity and momentum.

Speakers

• Abisala (Host/Moderator)
• Adefalani (Mobile Developer; began in web, transitioned to mobile via internship)
• Tega (Cybersecurity Professional; background in Electrical Engineering; pivoted after exploring web dev and data analysis)
• Dennis (UI/UX Designer, Product Strategist; introduced but not yet speaking in this excerpt)
• Cheesy (Product Manager; introduced but not yet speaking in this excerpt)

Key Highlights

• Visibility matters: skills without visibility stall your progress. Let your immediate network know what you do and share your work publicly.
• Evidence beats claims: demonstrate capability with live, usable projects, not just practice samples.
• Consistency creates trust: showing up regularly (e.g., sharing learnings, projects, progress) signals reliability and growth.
• Soft skills are decisive: openness to feedback, communication, and being easy to work with often tip hiring decisions.
• Manage money expectations early: focus on learning, impact, and experience; compensation typically grows progressively.
• Choose a domain and know your why: avoid being a generalist without depth; clarity of motivation sustains effort.
• Build fundamentals: networking, operating systems (Windows/Linux), and core concepts are crucial, especially in security.
• Community and outreach: niche communities, respectful cold outreach, and targeted Spaces/webinars accelerate learning and opportunity discovery.
• Start sharing early: even small progress updates help others relate to your journey and recognize your growth.
• Internships and volunteering can be launchpads: readiness and attitude during these phases can convert to full-time roles.

Detailed Notes by Speaker

Adefalani (Mobile Developer)

• Entry & early struggle:

  • Studied Computer Science; initial pathway into tech was straightforward academically.
  • Early experience was isolating—limited community, resources, and infrastructure challenges.
  • Internship became the turning point: entered as a web developer but pivoted to mobile to meet team needs, despite minimal prior experience.
  • Faced self-doubt and frequent mistakes while upskilling; persisted to ship a first mobile app to the stores—this tangible product became critical “evidence.”

• Core strategy for moving from learning to opportunities:

  1. Visibility:
     • People can’t hire you if they don’t know what you do.
     • Start with immediate circles (classmates, friends, church/mosque, gym, social groups). Announce you’re learning and available to help.
  2. Evidence (Results):
     • Claims must be backed by deliverables. Have at least one live, accessible project (e.g., a deployed website, a mobile app).
     • Strangers especially rely on results; without artifacts, visibility alone is ineffective.
  3. Show up every day:
     • Consistent posting of progress, projects, and learnings across platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, X/Twitter) builds a track record.
     • Invite feedback; be open to criticism. Early work will be rough—improve publicly.

• Soft skills & attitude:

  • Technical brilliance without good interpersonal skills is a liability; teams prefer teachable, communicative collaborators.
  • Accept critique without defensiveness; demonstrate growth mindset.

• Managing expectations & compensation:

  • Early stages are not about “big money.” Expect progressive earnings as experience and results compound.
  • Prioritize meaningful, usable projects—even free or low-paid initially—so long as they create real impact and a credible portfolio.

Abisala (Host/Moderator)

• Reinforced visibility and consistency:

  • Being an introvert isn’t an exemption; start with “baby steps” (weekly updates, small shares). Momentum builds with practice.
  • Model others in your niche to learn how to communicate your progress.
  • Share your learning journey (e.g., monthly recaps, certificates, project milestones) so audiences relate to and trust your growth.

• Quality and readiness:

  • Don’t ship half-baked work; aim for usable, reliable outputs.
  • Be prepared for opportunities; an anecdote highlighted an intern who accepted a modest internship, performed well, and converted to a full-time role.

• Career scaffolding:

  • There is a “do the work” phase with modest rewards; bigger rewards come later but still require continued effort.

Tega (Cybersecurity Professional)

• Own your journey and choose your path:

  • Background in Electrical Engineering; explored web dev (stalled at JavaScript) and data analysis (Power BI, Excel, basic SQL) but lacked fulfillment.
  • Selected cybersecurity intentionally, driven by self-knowledge and desire for impactful work.
  • Emphasized crafting a personal plan/strategy and resisting distraction/comparison.

• Know your why:

  • Motivation must be clear and honest (impact, love of the work, etc.). Money alone is insufficient to sustain long-term effort.
  • Selecting a specific domain reduces the risk of being a “jack of all trades, master of none.”

• Foundations & learning approach:

  • All pros started with basics (e.g., TryHackMe, bootcamps). Don’t mythologize others’ trajectories.
  • Build core fundamentals: networking, Windows/Linux OS basics, and other domain prerequisites.
  • Conduct personal research (YouTube, roadmaps) before seeking advice; then validate plans with practitioners.

• Professional outreach etiquette:

  • When messaging on LinkedIn/X, send concise, respectful, purpose-driven notes (brief intro, specific question/context), rather than vague greetings.
  • Apply feedback contextually, assess your current level, and iterate your plan.

• Accessibility of tech:

  • Degree background isn’t a barrier; cited cohort peers from non-tech fields (e.g., industrial chemistry, microbiology) succeeding in a cybersecurity internship in Lagos.
  • It’s not too late to start; consistent effort pays off.

• From learning to earning:

  • Putting herself out there was decisive—joining niche communities and Spaces, overcoming assumptions about online toxicity, and eventually contributing vocally to discussions.
  • Engagement in domain-specific forums/Spaces surfaces opportunities and accelerates credibility.
  • Note: Her detailed example of a networking-related opportunity was beginning but cut short in this excerpt.

Practical Guidance (Synthesized)

• Clarify direction:
  • Define your motivation (why), select a primary domain, and draft a simple roadmap.
• Build fundamentals:
  • Identify the core concepts/tools for your domain and study systematically.
• Create evidence:
  • Ship 1–3 usable projects; deploy publicly; write concise case studies.
• Establish visibility:
  • Announce your focus to your immediate network; share weekly progress and lessons.
• Engage communities:
  • Join niche groups, Spaces/webinars; ask thoughtful questions; offer help where possible.
• Seek feedback:
  • Invite critiques; iterate; demonstrate the improvement cycle publicly.
• Outreach professionally:
  • Research first; contact practitioners with specific, respectful questions; apply their feedback.
• Leverage entry points:
  • Pursue internships, apprenticeships, or volunteering to accrue relevant experience and references.
• Develop soft skills:
  • Practice communication, collaboration, and receptiveness to feedback; reliability is a strong differentiator.
• Manage expectations:
  • Accept progressive earnings early on; optimize for learning, impact, and portfolio credibility.

Notable Anecdotes

• Adefalani’s first shipped app (post-internship pivot) served as a credibility anchor for future opportunities.
• Host’s example of an intern who embraced a modestly paid role and converted to full-time due to preparedness and performance.
• Tega’s internship cohort included several non-tech degree holders who succeeded through consistent effort and foundational learning.

Open Threads / Upcoming Segments

• Dennis (UI/UX) and Cheesy (Product Management) were introduced and expected to share transition stories and strategies, but their segments are not included in this excerpt.
• Tega began outlining a concrete networking-related scenario from community engagement leading to opportunities; details were cut off and may appear later in the session.