The booming tech industry has uncovered some incredible and innovative ideas. Amidst this ever-accelerating rate, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and confused to break into this industry. And, even if one ever wanted to break into tech, they always have to worry about being savvy at coding or some other tech skill set. But, Aina Alive has been busting all those myths.
Founder of Bee Agile Tutoring, Youth Career Consultant, Mentor, and Creator, Aina has been helping professionals break into the tech industry by going code-free. Her company, Bee Agile Tutoring, has one simple purpose; to help individuals get into the tech industry and hand them the tools and techniques to become better leaders there.
Aina has pivoted 5 times in her career, and she soon realised how professionals lacked common resources and guidance to thrive in tech. She says, “I was never intrigued by IT. I always thought I needed coding skills or a special degree to do so. Well, I was wrong.”
After creating various successful leaders in the roles like Scrum Master, Product Owner and Project Manager, Aina aims to navigate her mentees to their esteemed skills that can help them bag their dream role.
Her approaches aim at transforming careers by leveraging her experiences and elucidating professionals to deal with the tech industry, things that she learnt the hard way! Today, she shares her top 3 learnings with us.
Be Rational
Aina explains how professionalism can be challenging. One of the most difficult aspects of breaking into IT is to compete with highly skilled professionals already thriving in the industry. While it’s common to get all panicky and scared when you experience such huge competition, she suggests writing down the personal definition of “being a professional”, adding the skills needed to achieve that professional goal and then prioritising learning them with the available avenues.
She used Pareto Law (20% effort which will give you 80% of results) if you have too many items on your list.
Skills Are Your Best Friend
One of the imperative yet unnoticed aspects is upgrading skills. Aina says, “I have struggled to see the reality of progress and importance of skill set in my early career. I discovered that a skillset is more than a degree or a certificate and, an ideally honed skill can land you to your dream job in no time.” Her coaching revolves around improving skills that prepare the coaches for the future.
Aina suggests, instead of relying on degrees and certificates, we must lean on skills like negotiating small things, practising empathy and compassion and trying to understand situations rather than misinterpreting or judging them.
Leaders Are Self-Aware
We are currently in the middle of the competition and recovering industries. Aina believes, holding on to the power of self-awareness and honesty with yourself are the propellers to push you ahead as a leader.
She says, “To be great leaders, we need to learn to manage ourselves first and then only we’ll be able to manage our teams and organizations.” Her coaching shows you ways to prepare for the leadership roles in tech while leaving no aspect on the table.
Perhaps, the most interesting part of Bee Agile Coaching is the interactive and engaging learning. There is never a dull moment in the coaching sessions with Aina.
Aina’s most striking learnings would be seen in her upcoming book. The book has pieces of advice from the older self to a young 20-year-old and to many more newbies of the industry. The lessons are tied up in pieces of mistakes and examples, tables and samples of resumes, samples of professional letter writing, nuggets and fun pictures. In other words, the book’s a treasure for young professionals who often believe job processes and career stress is real.
While she continues to help professionals bag leadership roles in tech, Aina has successfully made her spot in the Top 30 Female Entrepreneurs of The NYC Journal 2021, she has helped hundreds of professionals to find their dream job and is soon expanding her coaching footprints internationally.
