How would you like your breakfast served Sir/Madam?

Imagine you were asked this question on a beautiful morning, sun rays kissing the ocean waters and its radiating blue. You are sitting on the porch by the sea, swiping through travel blogs for your next thrill. You did, your years of hard work, sweat, and pains beginning to pay off. You spotted a beautiful opportunity in the tech space, positioned yourself, and took a bet on yourself. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Let your mind roam a bit…Then come back to 2022 where it is all going to start. Everywhere you turn to, you hear tech this and tech that. Someone you know, got a remote gig paying in dollars to work as a techie, or you heard about Paystack’s big payday. You have even heard about a few companies closing several rounds of funding in millions of dollars. Truthfully, there is so much buzz about tech these days and it could seem like noise. If you are active on Twitter, you should be familiar with the terms ‘tech bro’ or ‘tech sis’. While it can all seem overbearing, deep down you know you want a piece of the action. This article will help remove the fog and help you come to a few steps closer to your desire.

What Tech Opportunities exist?

There are multiple ways to gain entry into the tech space if you are keen on getting involved. Let’s start from the with the least difficult;

Choose to pursue a career in Tech. This happens to be a common entry point for anyone hoping to get into tech. Not only is it the easiest, but it also requires the least initial investment by far than any other means to get explore tech opportunities. What is most required is to possess the requisite skills and drive. Now you can approach this from two angles; Technical and non-technical careers.

Technical Careers

 This simply implies that you have to have the technical skills required to take on a job or project. To achieve this, you would need to have undergone training or gained certification in any of the widely used programming languages or tech-related applications.

A wide range of career opportunities exists for you to choose as well as the requisite tools you need for the job.

UI/UX:

This is like graphics design PRO MAX, except this time it is for designing the feel and look of a web page, application, etc. You are responsible for ensuring that a user gets an optimized experience whenever they interact with your product. Tools include Flutter, Adobe XD, Figma, etc.

Front End Developer

Here you are required to implement designs and mock-ups for webpages as well as debugging and managing user information. Tools required include, HTML, CSS etc.

Mobile Developer. Here you take already working ideas from a webpage to mobile. You are required to build apps and ensure optimum functionality. Tools include; React Native, Xamarin, Appcelerator, etc.

Full-Stack Developer

 Just as the term ‘Full’ implies, you will be responsible for taking on a project from idealization to delivery. This requires a well-rounded knowledge of design, implementation, and programming. Tools required to involve those for UI/UX designing, Programming Languages, HTML. The whole nine (9) yards.

Software Development

You would need to know how to write codes for applications and programs using programming languages. Also known as backend development. You focus on scripting, server monitoring, database management. Tools are Python, PHP, Java, JavaScript, GitHub, etc.

Non-Technical Careers

Not everyone can or would like to code and that is fine. You still have ample opportunities to get your foot in the door without writing a single code. Some job prospects that exist include;

Product Management

As a product manager, you will be required to provide oversight to a project. You will bring the needed balance required to execute the project. This means properly articulating customer needs to the product design and implementation teams. And most importantly providing leadership and direction to a project.

Software Quality Assurance.

This entails monitoring and ensuring best practices in software engineering processes and projects. A lot of times, a software quality assurance personnel can double as a software tester. Run automated and manual tests to ensure bug-free products as well as optimized user experience.

Tech Support Specialist.

If helping customers resolve issues that they encounter while using your company’s product or service is your forte then this will be a good fit for you.

Software Sales Representative.

The ability to sell anything will always keep you relevant regardless of the industry. Drive sales, close deals, and people the toast of your company because you are directly involved in driving the growth of the company by generating revenue.

Tech Lawyer

It is no secret that operating a business within any legal geographical entity requires a nod from the governing bodies that exist within such space. As a Lawyer, you will be required to be versed in existing laws that allow a business to function. Tasks from company registration to specialized registration with specific bodies governing the industry, liaising with regulatory bodies and keeping the company abreast on policy changes. You must limit the barest issues that may hurt the company in any and every way in the immediate and near future. You will also be responsible for drafting B2B and B2C contractual agreements as well as partnership agreements. The level of detail required here is no small fit considering how quickly agreements can go sour. So many blurry lines and murky waters will need to be navigated. The upside is substantially rewarding.

Exploring Tech as a Business Owner.

Running any business requires a myriad of skills and grits that are not reserved for the faint of hearts. But you feel you have got it in you and want to cut your teeth at tech, then by all means go for it. As with every business, you will need to identify a gap that your tech solution can fill in. Tech solution in this context will mean, creating a tech-based application that can automate, scale, or make a process easier. Not creating an app for ordering ‘Small chops’. If you possess some tech skills, you could start out creating a Minimum

Viable Product and see how the market responds to it. If you do not possess tech skills, at least possess project management skills and team up with software developers to help bring your solution to fruition. You will need to test your solutions and improve as you go along or revise the entire project to deliver a consumer-centric product. When you finally have a viable product, you can begin scaling and possibly position your business for investor inputs if you so desire. Some business owners have been renowned for building businesses with exit plans in place. These guys are known as Serial Entrepreneurs. Richard Branson is an ideal example. Bringing it back home, Sim Shagaya is another good example of a Serial entrepreneur. If you are the kind of business owner that holds on dearly to their enterprise and views it more or less like a parent to a child, you could just focus on building the business to any length you so desire while holding on to the majority stake of the company.

Spotting opportunities as an Investor.

This part is reserved for the big players who have substantial liquid cash reserves and a healthy appetite for taking big risks. If you are adequately conversant with the tech space or follow tech blogs for updates. Two words that come to mind that best describe this category of tech players are Angel Investors. While it has been previously acknowledged that taking on opportunities is a playground for the big players, not-so-big players too have a shot at this investment game. This is only made easier when funds are pooled together by like minds and used to diversify tech-related investments and reduce risks. It helps to be up to date with activities within the tech space as these investment opportunities are not usually available to the news-press. Chances are that by the time they make it to the news, it is too late. To achieve this, you will need to grow a strong network with the tech space. Go to tech forums, subscribe to newsletters of companies that pique your interest. Pay for valuable information, if you have to. The shot most times is usually worth it. As with any kind of investment, due diligence should never be compromised. In 2021 Paystack, a payment processing platform in Nigeria took a big win when American company Stripe acquired it for a reported $200,000,000. This acquisition saw investors reaping as much as 1,440% return on investment in 5 years, with the likes of Jason Njoku, Dr. Ola Brown, Kola Aina to mention a few as beneficiaries.

What Next?

The ball is in your court. What has been captured so far in this article comes close but does not entirely do justice to dealing with all areas you could capture tech-related opportunities. The space as it is limitless. Opportunities also exist within Crypto, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Web 3, and now Metaverse. Everywhere you look, there is something out there for. You need to pick interest in any desired field and do the work it requires. Everyone can get a tiny piece of this humongous pie and it will be more than enough.

Remember to start out dreaming, then wake up and go chase that dream.