How to hack your dream job
Life can be quite unfair, remembering while growing up most persons have wonderful dreams. We had our career, family etc. all planned out but alas life happened. You couldn’t get to college. You couldn’t study the course of your choice. You couldn’t get the dream job you have always hoped for. You couldn’t raise the loving family you have always prayed for. That is really unfair, isn’t it? But what if you could have your dream come true, would you still go for it? Are you still willing to fight for it this time or you’re hoping it happens. You have a higher chance of succeeding with the former, happen to life and not vice-versa.
If information Technology (IT) interest you, then you may be on your way to recovering your dream back. Few major disciplines are set to disrupt the future and they are centered around STEM which includes science, engineer and possibly economics. These disciplines are set to disrupt every industry you can think of this includes: Agriculture, Education, Finance, Manufacturing, Health etc. While having an academic background on this is great, not having isn’t an absolute obstacle as the knowledge and skill required could be build it/out of school.
The internet is becoming an open university with tons of materials added daily that you can’t probably exhaust on your lifetime, you can learn your way to success, thanks to Udemy, Coursera, edX and other similar learning platform. You can learn about a broad range of courses which includes UI/UX design, Data Analytics, Data Science, Programming, Web development, Software testing etc. The list is endless.
Also, while you are learning it is important you are able to gain practical experience as this is very important in IT field, the ability to translate the knowledge into practice helps solidify the knowledge. The secret to sharpening your skill is through practice,....., practice and practice. Working on project(s) helps to build your confidence on what you need to know to position yourself rightly in the workforce.
Some online courses have project work which is a great opportunity to build yourself, ensure to search for online study that provides this opportunity. You may also want to consider working for family and friends for a token. This is to ensure you start building your portfolio while still improving on your skill. While some may advise you work for free, it isn’t always a good strategy except if you see it as a great way to contribute to an organization that cannot pay for it. Free services can be abused easily and even people without interest may still engage you knowing it cost them nothing. It is far better to work at say 95% discount than free, paid services appreciates better. You may also want to get sincere feedback for your users as this is very important to help you improve. Join freelancing platforms such as Techres, Fiverr, Upwork and similar ones with lots of remote jobs available. However, getting people to trust you may be difficult as well as getting your first gig, a way to overcome this is to ask family and friends, whom you are interested in your services to make purchases via the platforms. Encourage them to also review your services too.
Another way to break into your dream career is to start with a career with a low barrier of entry. These career actually help you to get into the industry while you navigate your way through to the dream career. Some of these jobs even offer training to get you started and earn too. Examples of such jobs are software testing and digital marketing. Even though they are core specialization, it is much easier getting into the industry, interacting with other developer e.g. Data Scientist, Software Developer, Business Analyst, Software Test Analyst, Test Automation Engineer, Cybersecurity Expert, Robotics Process Automation experts, Digital Marketing Expert through it then you can transition into another career of your choice.
With great plan, this could be achieved within 1-2 years