As I started my journey in tech, I had no idea of what could be the challenges that will come on my way. For me, it takes only had work and determination to succeed in tech. But I was totally wrong because there is more to that and I was not aware of it.

It goes without saying that in everything we put our head, in every project, journey we engage ourselves, we will face some difficulties at a certain time. As far as I'm concerned, my tech journey was full of challenges and till today, I'm still struggling with them.

In this article, I will share the challenges I mostly faced during my tech journey and also how I overcome them. But before, I want to point out the fact that listening to other people in tech telling their stories, helps me a lot to understand that failures, difficulties or challenges are just a part of the normal way.

The lack of experienced people

It may sound weird but it is true. I didn't have a person, a man or a woman who has, at that time the expertise needed to lend me a hand. Someone like a mentor, who can guide me throughout my journey, or at least the beginning of my journey.

At a given moment, I found some elders in the university I went, but this doesn't work as expected. They didn't talk about their failures or how they faced them. Thus, I was facing a lot of challenges but didn't know they were actually challenges. It was so confusing for me !

Inadequate access to materials

Being in tech without having a computer is definitely complicated, especially for a beginner. When I started my journey in tech, It took me some months to have my first laptop. But guess what ? It was beautiful but super slow.

Not for the simple stuff, but if it come to Android Studio or Visual Studio Code, It is terrible. And I used to submit my projects late. Later on, my searches prove me that my RAM and the frequency of my laptop were very low. The next time I purchased a computer (the second one), I paid attention to every single detail.

My personal caracter

Yes, my personal appearance was a challenge for me and I will explain how this is possible. In fact, I was a very shy girl. I mean, totally shy. My mates used to laugh at people and this worsened things. My problem was that I didn't want to make mistakes in front of others. And that attitude prevented me from interacting with others.

Frankly speaking, I really lose a lot and when I think about it today, it makes me very angry. Progressively, I learn that it was not great to behave like that and I started working on myself. I make the first steps, I connect with people and share a lot with them.

Lack of real information about communities

I was in my first year at university and nobody to tell me how I can search for tech communities. Finally, I tried myself to find some information about tech communities in my area and how to join them as a participant or as a volunteer.

And trust me, It was difficult. Either the community is no more active or it is not as serious as it should be. The first community I registered to was an online community of geeks. They were no black and they were all english native speakers but I am a francophon. Could you imagine ? Of course yes!

It took me a long time to discover the Women TechMakers and the Google Developers Group communities. Today, I belong to many communities, in tech or not and I'm very proud of that progress.

Imposter syndrome

I really hope that this happens to everybody. The most important here is the courage to overcome it. At some time in my tech career, I was totally convinced that I couldn't make it. Everything became confused in my head and the solution was to Just Give Up.

This is not a joke but the imposter syndrome can make you feel like you are nothing. I lose confidence on who I am and what I am able to achieve. Even on my skills, interpersonal or coding, I doubt.

This is something that can happen to you at anytime of your career and you have to be aware and prevent it. Social media like youtube and twitter helped me a lot to go through this.

To put in a nutshell, it was not easy to be where I am now. Every single day, I still fight to become a better version of ME. Can I even write down all the challenges I faced ? I'm not sure but I highlight those who marked me and also pushed me to be who I am today.