My 18 year old cousin is just about to finish high school and of course we had to have the conversation of what she wants to study in university. To be honest, software engineering was never really my first option. I was interested in a field in engineering, but was never quite sure which. Funny story, I ended up in software engineering because it was the only engineering field being offered at the university my parents enrolled me in. Luckily, I ended up loving it enough to see it through, and well, here we are.
Part of the discussions with Nia, I went through a list of roles in my field that do not involve coding, and those seemed to peak her interest a little. I hope I’ve convinced her enough to become yet another badass tech girlie. To the best of my ability, I will shine a light on all the other roles within tech that software engineers fully rely on for smooth progress in their work. From ideation, building, to releasing to customers and more.
Design/ UI UX
The appearance and feel of applications and websites has to come from somewhere. There’s quite a number of areas of expertise under this discipline. And from the titles, you can guess what the role entails.
1. User Experience (UX) design
This is basically the feel and flow of the app. I define it as a user’s journey through the app. From installing it, to signing up and moving around it.
2. User Interface (UI) design
The appearance of all the images, icons, fonts, alignment, colors, hues etc.
3. Product design
Identifying a gap in the market, blending that with the business goals and coming up with an innovative solution. This involves quite a bit of researching and cross-team interaction which in my opinion is a great way to maintain cohesion throughout the company in your day-to-days.
4. Content design
Product Management
Product management or the PM role is multifaceted. It involves overseeing the lifecycle of product from conceptualization to launch. From my understanding of the PMs I have worked with, they bridge the gap between multiple teams for instance engineering, research, design, leadership as well. We personally hold several syncs with them to make sure what we’re building is on track in all fronts.
Research
This particular role plays a huge part in informing decision making. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think people just wake up and build stuff without at least first finding out the gaps in the market and user areas. The more information the better.
Project Management
Slightly small scale compared to product management. It still involves overseeing the beginning and completion of a project with everything in between. Resource allocation, project planning, communication across all stakeholders in the project, etc. One of the skill I have noticed with PMs, both project and product is cross-discipline communication across teams, and they’re always the best informed in regard to the project. My PMs know more about the project I’m working on than I do.
Support Specialist
We probably have been users of an application where we’ve had to raise a ticket because some part of it did not work as expected. There’s someone else at the end of that ticket whose main role is to respond and address those tickets.
It’s important to remember that as much you don not particularly need to know how to code, you would still need to understand some technicalities of the product you’re working in a way that you would explain it to someone who has no idea what it is.
Where to learn
Places in Kenya to learn from and get certified:
2. ALX Africa
3. Alt school
There’s so many roles within the tech industry that don’t involve coding or learning programming. Sales, technical writing, leadership! If you’re in one of those comment below and let us know you’re experience 🙂
Insightful read but do we have universities that offer the above roles as a course?
Typically people pursue separate certifications as opposed to university degree to gain qualifications in these roles. AltSchool, Moringa and ALX Africa are some viable options. You could even opt for an online course on Google Certification.