Sharing mistakes to avoid as a woman in tech to help more women thrive in a male dominated industry. Everyone messes up once in a while, even techies. Your mistakes in the tech world can either make you or mar you. Imagine carving out a career for yourself only to watch it all crumble because of a teensy mistake you never really paid attention to. 

Thankfully, we here at Heels and Tech are always here and on time to guide and help you avoid 4 crazy mistakes that could ruin your tech career as soon as it starts.

Not Being part of a Tech Community

There’s this quote we love at Heels and Tech, “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much”.

Working in a male-dominated industry could mean that you might find it difficult to fit in. You might feel you don’t belong everywhere you look. You could even find that contrary to popular belief, many men may support you and a few don’t. Yet you might feel lost in a team of mostly men, especially if you are the only female there. 

Believe it or not, getting support from like-minded women who are thriving in the tech world might boost your morale. You might not even realize how ‘just there’ you might be until you become part of a tech women community. It will help you connect with women who have gone through similar experiences and even overcome them. 

One of the main reasons women give up on tech is that they don’t have role models and peers who are female techies too. This is why we really think you should become part of a tech community for women. Trust us, we are not wrong on this one.

There are a lot of benefits you get to derive from joining a female tech community. You could get advice from female experts in your field. Also, you also get to support each other when your other colleagues at work don’t understand what it feels like to be the only woman in a team meeting. You could also find out how to negotiate your salary and balance work with your family and personal life. If you’re looking for other career roles in tech, this is also a great place to be, you can get access to exclusive career opportunities you usually wouldn’t get access to. The list is endless. 

Heels and Tech has a wonderful female community you too can benefit from. You can check out our amazing community on telegram here, and on slack here..

Not Knowing What Your Strengths Are

What a mistake to make!

Not knowing what your strengths are can lead you to unnecessarily compare yourself with others and look down on your abilities. It could even make your inner critic sound like a cacophony of confusing words. What could make it look worse is when you see your colleagues ‘succeeding’ in things you wish you could just figure out. This can be unnerving, and you’ll find yourself missing out on possibilities before you realize it.

Here’s how to find your strengths

Consider the best days you’ve ever had at work. What were you up to, and how did it make you feel? Your strengths may feel intuitive and easy to you, but we often make the blunder of assuming that because it is easy for you means that it is easy for everyone, which can result in your skills being overlooked.

Your strengths may propel you into a state of flow, in which challenge and fascination intersect and you lose sight of time. Speak with trusted relatives, friends, and colleagues about their perceptions of your strengths. You might notice that you have the same strengths at home and in the office.

Being Disorganized

Who loves to work with a disorganized person? Nobody!

We’re going to keep this really short and straight to the point. When you’re disorganized you displease your employer and the entire team. You even make it look like you don’t have an iota of knowledge of what you’re doing.

Imagine not being able to arrange your personal space at work, or not doing your tasks accordingly. Even if your employer chases you to be disorganized, over time, you might just lose that job and have a taint on your career. Nobody wants that!

Tech involves several activities, to stay in tech and progress in your career, you should be able to stay organized. Here, we dug out some tips to stay organized for you. We do hope they do you some good in your journey into and in tech.

• Write things down.
• Focus on one task per time.
• Clean up your office space before you begin the day’s work.
• Make schedules and deadlines.
• Run away from procrastination.
• Arrange your stuff; know where to find everything and anything you want.
• Keep only the things you need with you
• On your laptop, if you’re using the Chrome browser, group your tabs according to the tasks you are performing on each of them.
• Throw away or give out stuff you don’t need anymore.

There are many more! We hope these few make a difference.

Not Negotiating Your Salary

It is okay to feel excited about your first tech job. After all, you’ve been searching for so long and you finally land an opportunity. Many times women make the mistake of not negotiating their salaries probably because they’ve searched for a job too long, they’re nonchalant about it, or they’re desperate for job roles.

Whatever the case, taking whatever is thrown at you is wrong. It is one of the worst mistakes you can make in your tech career. This is why you ought to know your worth as a techie, understand your position in the market and go for roles that offer what you need and deserve.

Unfortunately, some women ignore salary negotiation out of a false sense of fear. Sometimes they fear getting their future employer mad or upset, losing the job offer totally, or even getting turned down by the manager. Many times, this is an irrational fear. Negotiation is not impolite. It won’t cause you to lose your job offer. You have the right to negotiate your salary. You should also inquire about plans to increase your salary as you progress in the job.

Don’t run away from salary negotiation, that’s a bad mistake. Go all the way for it and stay confident of the value you’re bringing to the job table. We believe in you! Know your worth and negotiate your worth!

Summary

Succeeding in tech can be the easiest thing you could have ever done if you follow through with the processes right. Mistakes can be costly. Most of the time, we can’t undo an error or blunder that has been committed. 

Tech is a highly competitive industry. You don’t want mistakes messing up a career you’ve built or one you are just trying to build. Remember, you’re not irreplaceable, so you can’t afford to be nonchalant about your progress in your career field.

We believe in the thousands of women who read our articles and we know you will make the best decision in your career, especially after reading this article.

We do encourage you to take note of these 4 mistakes and avoid them as much as you can.

Don’t Forget…

We have the best learning opportunities for you!

If you’re interested in transitioning into tech as a woman or advancing your tech skills, click here and pick any of our amazing tech courses. There’s even a plus! You get to be part of a community of like-minded women, and that even helps you avoid the first mistake (Do you remember what it was??).

Also see the best tech courses for women of color.

We love you, and good luck!