You Got Into Tech. Now, How Do You Actually Move Up?
Getting in was supposed to be the hard part.
You made the switch. Maybe you came from banking, teaching, marketing, or oil and gas. You put in the hours, learned the skill, and landed the role. Now you’re inside the industry, and it still doesn’t feel like you’re moving.
Because getting in and moving up are two different games. And nobody tells you that until you’re already stuck.
Why Career Switchers Stall at the First Level
Most switchers enter tech junior, regardless of how senior they were before. You could have been managing teams and budgets, but in tech, you’re starting over.
The mistake is assuming what got you in will get you up. It won’t. Moving up requires something different.
What Actually Moves You Up
- Stop hiding where you came from
A lot of switchers spend their first year minimising their previous experience, afraid of seeming like they don’t belong. That’s a mistake.
Your background is your edge if you use it.
The former banker who moved into fintech product understands the customer in ways a straight-line CS graduate never will. The ex-teacher in edtech UX brings depth that no textbook gives you. Stop trying to be a generic tech person. Be the specific, unusually useful combination that you actually are.
- Make your thinking visible
In your old career, you built a reputation over the years. In tech, you’re rebuilding it, and the people who move up fast understand that visibility is not vanity, it’s infrastructure.
Write about what you’re learning. Speak up in meetings with the perspective only you have. Put your hand up for projects that stretch you publicly. People get promoted when decision-makers have a clear picture of what they contribute. Great work,k nobody can see keeps you exactly where you are.
- Talk business, not just tech
This is where switchers have a natural advantage; most don’t use it.
Technically strong people in Nigerian tech often struggle to connect their work to business outcomes. You came from somewhere that required business thinking. Use it.
Not “I redesigned the onboarding flow.” But “the redesign reduced drop-off by 30% in two weeks.” Numbers. Outcomes. Business language. That’s what gets you into rooms where decisions are made.
- Find a sponsor, not just a mentor
Mentors give you advice. Sponsors, put your name in rooms you’re not in yet.
You earn a sponsor by delivering consistently and making the people above you look good. Sponsors don’t advocate for people who need hand-holding; they advocate for people who make them confident.
- Take the work nobody wants
Every team has important but unsexy problems. The broken internal tool. The outdated documentation. The difficult client nobody wants to manage.
Junior people avoid these. Fast-growing professionals take them on because solving visible problems builds visible credibility. When you’ve fixed three things nobody else would touch, people start thinking about you differently.
- Upskill with a target, not anxiety
Because you switched careers, there’s a constant fear that you don’t know enough. So you keep taking courses, another certification, another skill, without a clear direction.
Random upskilling doesn’t move you up. Look at the role two steps ahead of you. What does that person know that you don’t? Close that gap specifically. Everything else is procrastination dressed as productivity.
The Reality of Moving Up in Nigerian Tech
Many companies here don’t have structured career ladders. Which means the professionals who grow are the ones who make themselves undeniable, building external credibility alongside internal reputation, and knowing when the ceiling in their current environment is lower than their potential.
Want to grow faster with the right structure around you?
The IGHub Fellowship is a paid training and career acceleration program for professionals serious about moving up. Real projects, real mentorship, real network in the Nigerian tech ecosystem.
Apply for the IGHub Fellowship & Paid Training at [link] — new cohort forming now, spots are limited
