"This is 2022, and you're still complaining of being broke. Why will you not be broke when you've refused to add value to yourself. This is a digital era, learn digital skills, join Tech. Tech people are cashing out millions..."

Hey dear, I know you've heard that countless times. I know you feel like if you don't join the digital space, then you're of no value to yourself or the society. I know how bad you want to stop being broke. How bad you want to stop bugging people for urgent 2k, and how much you'd love to have enough and even help others too. 

But just before you make that decision, here's a bit of facts you should know:

1. The skill acquisition process of Tech is highly taxing

For starters, tech courses are very expensive. I don't think there are currently any tech school--both home and abroad--that'd be willing to intensively train people for less than 6 figures, except it's scholarship. 

I know they say there are free courses that you could take online, but they're rarely intensive. Also, do you know how much data you'd have to consume? It's not child's play, because with tech, you just don't learn by watching videos, you also have to practice. 

With practicing, you would realize there's a whole lot of knowledge you'd still have to consume to be able to do stuff. Tech is not like other skills, you can't learn and master it using just one base. You have to learn from multiple channels. You'd need to watch countless YouTube videos, spend lots of hours googling stuff, visit websites that sometimes you'd have to end up paying for subscriptions to access the materials you need. Or is it the apps you'd need to download? 

As a techie, you need a very good laptop, because the softwares you'd be needing might not run well on an average laptop. Which is why Laptop vendors tend to ask what you intend using the laptop you want to purchase for, so as to recommend the right one for you. 

When acquiring a tech skill, be ready to spend moneyyyyyy, time and resources. 

2. Tech is broad and interwoven. 

In Tech, we have numerous skills and they're all interwoven. We have mobile app development, frontend web development, backend web development, cyber security, product design and development, network engineering, cloud computing, machine learning, UI/UX design, data science, software development amongst many others. 

As a frontend web developer, you'd have to learn the basics which is Html, CSS, and Javascript, but that's barely enough. You'd still have to learn frameworks of each basic. For CSS, there's Sass, Bootstrap, Material UI and co. Then you have to choose your preferred framework for Javascript. React, Angular, Vue or just vanilla JavaScript. 

Now, I can choose to be a React dev but it is highly advisable to have basic knowledge of other languages. I'm required to have basic knowledge of at least one backend language because I'd have to interact with backend logics to be able to render frontend UIs. So how do I interact with something I have no knowledge of?

Most professional UI/UX designers also have knowledge about Graphics and Product design. Backend devs do not only just write one language, because in the tech world, everything depends on everything. 

It'll take quite a while to acquire a skill in tech, because you'd constantly be branching out to learn other skills. Of course, they'll tell you a friend of theirs make millions of naira weekly from just CSS, but guyyy this is Nigeria. 

3. It's true there are lots of roles waiting to be filled in the Tech world. But due to the vast tech skills we have, job roles/internships for your specific tech skill might not be so available. Or sometimes, those roles require high-end expertise and experience. 

Sometimes, go on Twitter or join Facebook groups to listen to/read about the process of Techies getting a job. How many interviews, months and experience it takes them. Even Whites, and you'd know that this journey is no fairytale.

4. Tech is hard!

Forget grit. Forget the motivation that comes from wanting to leave trenches. Tech is hard. Without passion, without being a problem-solver and thinker, without being stubborn and determined, you will run. Because the money they enticed you with will not come so quickly, instead, you will have headaches, back aches, blurry eyesight, insomnia, ulcer, body pain. There are days tech will milk your bank account and mental-strength dry. So many hazards are involved with Tech so much that when the money comes, you don't even feel ecstatic. 

5. Not all of us will be techies

We can't all be Techies and that's fine. There are other skills you can acquire and you'll do excellently well with them. Education is not scam, schooling is not needless. You can be a lecturer, civil servant, doctor, lawyer, linguist, microbiologist and you won't be regarded as less or cliche. 

Primary skills is not backward or anything, you can be a fashion designer, car repairer, shoemaker, furniture maker, interior decorator and the likes. 

You can be a business personel, a trader, a vendor, a anything that works well for you and still add value to yourself and your society. 

Don't let anyone make you feel as if you're doomed because you're not in Tech. 

But if after all this, you'd still want to be a Techie, then congratulations. Welcome onboard, na your type we dey find????

Credit:Yetunde Morenikeji(writer)