“Finding your passion isn’t just about careers and money. it’s about finding your authentic self. The one you've buried beneath other people's needs.” ~Kristin Hannah, Distant Shores
While watching this lovely video by Yewande Odumosu, I couldn’t help but think back to this quote I saw on Pinterest a while ago. Yewande Odumosu explores in her talk about "Designing a tech career roadmap”, steps to achieving your career in Tech. These steps are broken down into four main points.
1. Evaluating where you are
Firstly, who are you? What do you like? what keeps you going? what do people like about you? what are your skills, etc.? These are questions and more that Yewande Odumosu asks us to ask ourselves to discover who we are. In summary, you need to go on a journey to find yourself.
For this step, I try to gather the data on myself and begin to build a profile about myself, my values, and my interest.
2. Understanding your strength and skills
Good, now you know yourself. Define where your skills fall into. Is it a skill that comes naturally to you (which Odumosu identifies as Hard skills), do you need to develop more on(identified by Odumosu as Soft skills) or do you need to adopt a skill in the future? she further asks us to understand the journey we are on to achieve our career goals, is it linear or nonlinear and decide what skills we would need to develop along the way. She advises us to gain skills that are transferable and applicable to various paths we are interested in.
This step helps me turn my dream life into step by step milestone to achieving my ultimate goal while gathering skills and experiences that will build my portfolio and make me a valuable investment to employers.
3. Transitioning into Tech in African
It can be quite difficult transitioning to tech in Africa, Odumosu says, but regardless you should identify your area of interest and start with it. How do you start? She mentions that you should:
take an introduction course - she says this helps you identify if it’s the best fit for you.
join a community or volunteer on a side project - This helps you widen your base knowledge.
get a mentor - follow people who inspire you or are on the track you want to be on.
identify your transferable skills - This gives you an advantage in knowing your strength to sell yourself well.
Build on your Knowledge - Keep learning, and trying different jobs and opportunities.
4. Find your Ikigai
Odumosu finally concludes you should find your ikigai( a Japanese term that means a reason for living). This is a combination of what you are good at plus what you love plus what is needed by others plus what you can be paid.
I think that combining those four elements and applying them to my life will help me discover what I will be happiest doing, in other words, my passion.
Conclusion
The first step is always to have the courage to start, whatever passion or interest you have, try it, explore it, and learn about it. Keep learning. I believe if you follow all the steps above religiously and honestly you would discover strengths about yourself that are beyond your limits.