5 Mindset Shifts That Help You Build a Successful Career in Tech
Why the way you think about yourself might be more important than your technical skills
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Have you been told that you have to be good at math to work in tech? That you need to learn how to program? Or that tech is for men?
Don’t let people fool you. None of that is true.
You don’t have to be a math genius, you don’t have to know a programming language, and your genitalia is irrelevant.
The first two things can be helpful in some tech jobs, but the third is definitely not necessary.
In the 20+ years I’ve worked in tech, I’ve learned some important truths: there’s not just one way to be a person in tech. And that the tech industry is too diverse to focus on one technical skill set only.
To be great at something, you have to enjoy what you do. Or at least 80% of it.
While these stereotypes discourage women and underrepresented groups from entering the tech industry, companies complain that there aren’t enough people to fill tech job openings.
Yes, even as several large tech companies are currently laying off employees, companies still struggle to find enough talent to fill their ranks.
This isn’t surprising because, on the one hand, the stereotypical idea of working in the tech industry scares people away. On the other hand, digitalization has ensured that we need people who understand tech everywhere.
This is the perfect time to start thinking about a tech career. Some fields will guarantee great job opportunities and a high, stable income for years to come. These include cybersecurity, cloud computing, and data science/analytics.
By talking to successful people in tech and from my interviews with women working in tech, I’ve learned that it’s much more important to cultivate the following mindsets than to focus solely on technical expertise.
#1 Don’t let others define who you are
One day I was standing at a high table in front of a conference venue, going through the slides for my…
