Leaving the tech industry
Why would you want to close this laptop and cut this connectivity? keep nailing it!
A Sicilian proverb says that Every promise is a debt and is owed, blessed is he who keeps his word.
Made a silenced Promise to write an article about every video posted by senegoddess who is really sharing her experience with the world for people like me and you to get the opinion of a woman working in tech and for girls and boys willing to work into tech to know what to expect from their future career. The topic of this article is about people leaving the tech industry and tech companies leaving silicon valley which is considered the mecca of tech.
The tech industry is a hard industry with things evolving fastly. Tech trends could only last one or two years before being disrupted other stacks forcing the tech professional to update her skill. Because the tech industry is an ever-evolving industry, being a curious and long-life learner is a must in this industry because languages, frameworks, and methodologies are constantly updated with new functionalities but while we grow we have more social liabilities like raising kids and other social activities that may leave us with less and less time to plunge into a book, a course or a tutorial in order to keep our knowledge and skills up to date.
Yes, the tech industry is very hard even if compared to other industries it is an industry where professionals are very well paid but again in this industry, you should be ready to not count the number of hours and nights you could spend working on a tech feature on which the entire business of your tech company depends on. Then seeing software engineers like mbenda doing side activities like producing and editing videos and sharing them with the world with regards to the decreasing extra time that they have is something that we should value and applauded. Thank Mbenda for sharing your journey with the world, you and all other professionals sharing experience through the medium of video or simple articles are showing us how to see and you are not only leading us but you are giving us a compass that helps us find the north signal and take the direction that we would take.
I think that that is one of the reasons that people are leaving the tech industry. This reason is that people are more and more willing to lead and to do creative works with no time and schedule boundaries. it is not a trend tied to the tech industry but even other industries are experiencing this trend of people willing to do work that matters, work that makes them feel that they are in control and not following a script. People in tech and in other industries want responsibilities. They want to be leaders not only managers because leading is very different from managing. If you want to know the difference between leading and managing then I really advise you to read Seth Godin on this topic of the difference between management and leadership. This is not for saying that there are no opportunities for being an enthusiastic leading into the tech industry but this industry is actually less and less human-centered most of the work is about building and setting up smart algorithms that serve people and organizations but tech professionals are seeking more social connections with the world that surround them, a world that clearly shows the stigma of the meaningful contribution that they have made in the tech industry.
There are not only tech professionals who are seeking change. Even the tech organisations are considering and thinking about transforming the way they work because the pandemic has shown them that maybe there is another better way of working that could be not time-bound or real-time but asynchronously organized works where everyone chose the timeframe that best fits his schedule for producing his best work. That’s why some tech companies are thinking that the geographic space of silicon may not be a requirement for them and I was highlighting that silicon valley is actually more a mindset than a geographical location. Big tech companies like Tesla and Palantir are leading the valley like how many tech professionals are leaving the tech industry but this is strange for me to see tech professionals leaving this industry because all the data that I actually see shows me that there is a hiring bubble in the tech industry that will need more and more hands and brains the coming months.
Then my final advice to those who are willing to leave the tech industry is about telling them to stay in this industry because whatever they will do after will likely have something related to tech. Maybe changing project, team, or company could give you a second breath and new momentum that could ignite a long future exciting journey. I am not only advising you to stay into tech but more you should be among those who are deciding about the ins and outs of big tech.
PS: Thank you for sharing mbenda, hope you have an ever-exciting career and more time and enthusiasm for creatively sharing your experience with others.
Keep nailing it, Mbenda!
