5 Mindset Shifts That Help You Build a Successful Career in Tech

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.

The first two things can be helpful in some tech jobs, but the third is definitely not necessary.

You don’t have to be a math genius, you don’t have to know a programming language, and your gender is irrelevant.

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, 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 women away.?On the other hand, digitalization has ensured that we need more and more people who understand tech.

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 talk.?Within 10 minutes, 3 men approached me and tried to check in to the conference.

As a species, we’re conditioned to immediately categorize and classify what we see.?People will look at you, their bias will kick in, and they’ll make a judgment about you.

These men saw a woman with a laptop in front of a conference venue. Women are usually the organizers or concierges. So that’s what they concluded.

People will make assumptions about you based on the color of your skin, your age, or your gender. And then they’ll try to treat you according to their assumptions.

Don't let their perception of you define or bother you.

Remember that people’s behavior has more to do with who they are and little with what you’re capable of.?Don’t let them discourage you or make you doubt yourself.

People’s assumptions about your capabilities and role in life don't define what you can or will do.?They don’t know you.

Your job is to be the best version of yourself, not the best version of what others think is possible for you.

Go out and show the world who you are and what you’re capable of.

Even your family’s perception of what you can or can’t do shouldn’t stop you from following your dreams. Your parents are also a product of their upbringing and culture. What they think is possible is limited by the biases they were subjected to.?

They might mean well, but they shouldn’t be the reason you don’t try to become your true self. They might not yet see what is possible for you.

#2 Don’t ask for permission

One of the most important lessons to learn when growing up is that you don’t have to ask permission anymore. By the time you understand what that means, you may be pretty old.

Technology is a field that thrives on innovation.?If you have an idea and think it’s great. Find a way to make it happen.

Whether it’s a better way to organize customer data, a subject matter expert group on a topic you’re passionate about, or a whole new way to store and protect data in the cloud.?Just do it.

Of course, you should tell your manager or the business unit that would benefit, but then start implementing it.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made during my career was waiting for someone to give me the green light to get started.?Or telling me what resources I’m allowed to use.

Maybe it’s a women’s thing, but I felt like I had to wait for someone to give me permission. It felt disruptive to try to do my own thing.

Don’t make that mistake. I’ve had a lot of good ideas over the years that were implemented by people who didn’t wait for permission from others.

The tech industry thrives on disruption.?

If you feel like you have an idea that will change the way things can be done or make life better and more interesting, just do it. Make it happen.

#3 Allow yourself to explore

When you’re a child, people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. And you probably feel like you have to choose a career that you’ll pursue until you retire.

You’re asked to make an important decision about your life at a very young age and without having the information you need.

The career path you choose may not be what you expected. Maybe it looked more fun from the outside. Maybe the right career for you didn’t even exist when you decided what you wanted to do. Or perhaps you didn’t know about it.

When I first chose my career, the Internet and this entire digitalized world as we now know it didn’t exist. Before switching to IT, I did a whole chemistry degree, including a Ph.D. I haven’t regretted it for a second.

Allow yourself to explore.?Try as many different careers as possible before deciding which one you want to stick with.

Don’t suffer through your work-life because of a decision you made before you were old enough to drink alcohol.

To be great at something, you have to enjoy what you do. Or at least 80% of it.

Exploring different paths doesn’t make you inconsistent. It gives you insight. A career change isn’t a failure but an opportunity for personal development and growth.

#4 Develop a growth mindset and allow yourself to fail

To succeed, you have to redefine what failure means to you. Don’t be ashamed of failure.

We have this ridiculous expectation that we have to be good at everything we do from the start.

If you’re a woman going into tech, you may not have developed your interest in tech until later in life. Many men you meet at Uni or in the workplace will have a big head start.

Compared to them, you may feel like a failure.?And you might even fail one exam or two.

But more experience or more knowledge doesn’t translate into more talent.

Remember, if you can’t do something or solve a problem at a certain time, it doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to do it.

It just shows you that you need to learn more and try again.

Failure isn’t final and absolute — unless you somehow manage to end your life in the process, but that’s a different kind of failure.

Something only becomes a true failure when you decide not to try again because you’re afraid of failing again.

Get used to not knowing something or not getting it right the first time. That way, you can learn new things about the field and yourself.

Trying a different solution, understanding that you don’t like doing something and switching to something more fun isn’t a failure. And having to learn more to be successful definitely isn’t a failure either!

All of tech is built on people trying a different approach time and time again after each failure — so allow yourself to fail and try something new.

#5 Embrace a lifelong learning habit and remain curious

Even if you’ve been working in the field forever, there will be something you don’t know or new technology you need to learn about.

The only constant in technology is change.

If you want to be successful, you have to embrace always learning new things.

Don’t try to hide that you don’t know something, ask questions and keep learning. In tech, many people love nothing better than to explain their technology to you in detail. Even if you already know everything you want to know.

Plus, Google is your friend. There are countless resources, pieces of training, and blogs that will teach you new skills or explain a new buzzword. There’s so much knowledge out there that just looking at the search results can be exhausting.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try to remember what got you into tech in the first place. You probably have a passion for technology and a curious mind. Try to reignite that.

With new developments, don’t only think about the details you’ll have to learn. Think about the outcome and the impact it’ll have on the world. That’s how you stay curious about technology.

Try not to see your lack of knowledge about a particular subject as a problem. Take it as an opportunity to learn something new and amazing.

Final thoughts

If you have a passion for technology, you can learn any skill you need to succeed.?Everything I’ve ever needed to be successful in technology I learned along the way.

A surefire way to not succeed in tech is to insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done.?To hide behind the knowledge you gained years ago and gatekeep technology because you feel threatened by new ideas and people.

The most successful people I’ve met in the industry aren’t the ones with the greatest technical skills.?They’re the ones who believe in their ability to learn new things, willing to try new things (and fail), and open and curious about new developments.

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I first published this article on Medium on June 13, 2022