Tech, The New Oil and Gas.

Hello dear readers, 

How do you do? 

Today, on the Gist With Noble, our guest is a tech bro who makes millions from the comfort of his home. He is going to give us an insight on how his journey has been and a few tips on how to be a tech bro/sis, so let’s dive in!

Can we meet you? 

 Tech Bro: I’m a frontend web developer, I currently work at a Startup based in Portugal. 

Interesting, how did you become a web developer? 

Tech Bro: Well, funny story actually. When I finished secondary school, I used to read a lot and I always had so many websites that I used to read/download from. So, I equally  wanted to build a website where people could get every book they ever wanted to read. So before I got admitted into the university, my dad sent me off to learn desktop publishing (that’s Microsoft word, excel, etc.). While I was there, I saw people learning web development, and I got hooked. When I entered the university, in 200L, we took a computer science course, and that really got my interest running. The rest from there is history ?

That’s great, so for you, it’s really about passion and not money?

Tech Bro: it started as a passion, but now, to be honest, it’s mostly about money. 

How much money are we talking about here?

Tech Bro: I currently do 2 jobs, but that’s temporary. My major role pays the equivalent of 1.3Million NGN per month. 

Wait what??? 

Ha mad sooooo!!!

Please sir, where dem dey learn this web development thing? 

Tech Bro: There are many places online really. 

Enlighten us oooo

Tech Bro: So to learn programming for free, your top resource would be freecodecamp.org. You can also check w3schools.com for a gentler (but not so modern) approach. Paid websites include udemy.com, (really cheap. Just search for web development and you’ll get great options). Also udacity, coursera, etc. I highly recommend Udemy tho. 

Hmmmm, so how long does it take to be a professional web developer? 

Tech Bro: Well, everyone’s journey is different. It took me 2 years to get my first serious role. I was a student and I was exploring different options. People have gotten jobs 6 months after they started learning so there’s really no particular time frame. 

Amazing, what do you think helped you get better? Did you have a mentor? Or was it just learning and learning from those websites?

Tech Bro: I didn’t have a mentor (at least not initially) and that was one of my problems. I mostly just learned from many different places. Also, it used to be a lot harder, nowadays there’s a lot of communities and new resources spring up everyday. 

So what would you recommend for someone that wants to go into tech?

Tech Bro: Well, my advice would be to first do research into all the available fields and opportunities. Read people’s stories online, and most importantly, carve out a path for yourself. roadmap.sh has some great roadmaps that can be used for reference.

You mentioned available fields and opportunities, can you shed more light? 

Tech Bro: For Software Development, we have:

– web development

– mobile development 

– UI design

– Data science

Then Writing;

– copywriting (most common)

– Technical writing (you will have to be able to do technical research)

– UX writing

And then there is digital marketing but the ones that don’t involve coding are;

– UI design

– Writing

– Digital marketing

So me seff like this I’m a tech sis *happy dance* lol.

Now tell us, how does it feel like making millions from the comfort of your home???

Tech Bro: ???. Well, there’s no better feeling really. 

If there was anything you would have done differently, what would it be?

Tech Bro: I would have joined a community very early on. That’s one thing that could’ve really accelerated my career. But besides that, I have no regrets, I’ve been pretty lucky. 

Hmmm great! This has been really inspiring but please can you be a bit clear with the money aspect. Like how much salary did you start with few years back and how did it go from there because I know this million didn’t come overnight. 

Tech Bro: I got my first gig for 20k (NGN) in 2017. But my first full time job was for a client in Maldives in 2018, the pay was 500$ monthly (around 150k at the time) and it was a contract gig that turned into a job. Before that, I’d gotten 40k/month contract jobs, i even once went to lagos for 3 weeks to work on a gig that paid 30k ?. 

After that remote role, I got a full time role in Lagos, almost 2 years after the first one I mentioned, December 2019, the pay was 200k and it came with accomodation. It was pretty sweet for me at the time.

Guess what? 4 months after that, in March 2020, I moved to working for a bank (contract position), pay was 400k. My mind was blown, I was the king of my world but only a few months after that, I got a role with a company in the US that paid the equivalent of 900k NGN monthly. I was there for a year.

I recently got a new job with a Portugese startup that pays the equivalent of 1.3 million naira monthly. 

So in summary, I’d say my growth was pretty slow for my first 2 professional years but then took a leap from there. 

Madddd oooooo!!! Omooo, tech is the new Oil and Gas. My head aff burst ????, I don’t know how to continue from here, talk about growth!!!!

Hmmmmm, my dear readers, hustle ooooo!! 

Till I come your way next time.. 

Lots of love, 

Noble.