Discussing Professional Skills for Career Success in the Technology Space

Global Lab Network hosted the first community call of the year 2023 on 31st of August on the topic, ‘Professional Skills for Career Success in the Technology Space’. It was discussed how young professionals could get ahead with their Tech careers leveraging core technical and translational skills. These insights, drawn from experienced professionals; Winifred Kotin a technology business leader, Francis Addai a senior software engineer and Enock Nyamador a GIS specialist, encompassed a comprehensive framework for achieving excellence in the technology sector. They shared some key skills that one must have to thrive in the Technology space.

The first speaker, Francis spoke on Professionals in technology excelling because of their problem solving and critical thinking capabilities. He spoke on how the journey begins with the art of identifying a problem. This initial step sets the foundation for finding innovative solutions, even when the answers are not immediately apparent. The ability to dissect complex issues and arrive at effective solutions is a skill that transcends domains, making it a cornerstone of success. He further went on to talk about how much of a daunting challenge it can be navigating the Technology Landscape and hence having a mentor can be invaluable. A mentor provides not only guidance but also a wealth of experience and wisdom. Their insights can help individuals navigate the industry’s nuances and make informed career decisions, ultimately contributing to their growth and development. He went on to highlight that, a growth mindset is a fundamental attribute in a tech professional’s toolkit and as they progress in their technology career, the importance of effective communication cannot be overstated. He made a key statement which is; “If you have an effective way of communicating your ideas, it is directly proportional to how fast you grow”. It becomes a pivotal skill in building relationships, conveying ideas, and garnering support. Developing clear and concise communication skills ensures you can surround yourself with advocates and possible collaborators.

Francis further emphasized on time management in a fast-paced tech industry. Good time management skills lead to optimizing productivity an essential aspect of maintaining a successful career trajectory. He also spoke on self-belief and accountability. Belief in oneself and the ability to deliver on commitments is foundational. It is not enough to accept tasks; true success comes from consistently meeting and exceeding expectations.

If you have an effective way of communicating your ideas, it is directly proportional to how fast you grow.

Francis Addai

The second speaker Enock shared his professional journey transitioning into the GIS space and how it began with a passion for scouting information. He spoke on how his curiosity around cartography led him to research on it and that led to a development of keen interest and propelled him to pursue his current career in GIS. Cultivating a curious tendency to explore new topics and domains can lead to unforeseen opportunities and broadened horizons. Tenacity and a relentless quest for knowledge drive growth. This drive encourages you to embrace change and transition between fields seamlessly, like Enock’s journey from cartography to GIS. He went on to speak on Volunteerism. The culture of volunteering offers abundant learning opportunities. Engaging in volunteer work not only contributes to personal growth but also expands your professional network and skillset. He further reiterated Francis’s point on communication leading to collaborators by adding the need for networking. It is a universal asset across all industries. Building a robust professional network facilitates access to opportunities, mentorship, and collaborations, which can be invaluable in the technology sector.

Snapshot of speakers and moderator

The conversation went on with speaker, Winifred sharing on how diversifying one’s skill set and seizing varied opportunities could lead to a multifaceted and fulfilling career. Don’t confine yourself to a single niche; explore new avenues for growth. She also spoke on recognizing and leveraging one’s innate talents and abilities. These unique strengths can set you apart and enable you to excel in your chosen field. She shared insights on innovation. Innovation is at the heart of technological progress. Continuously seeking ways to improve processes, products, or solutions is a key driver of success in the dynamic tech industry. She further shared why staying relevant to user needs is essential. Keeping a user-centric focus and delivering value to both your employer and end-users ensures long-term success and impact. She made a key statement which is “Be focused on delivering excellence”. When work is not delivered with excellence, time exposes the low quality of your work. She advised on leveraging adaptability and flexibility. The ability to adapt to evolving industry trends and demands is crucial. A flexible mindset allows you to navigate change effectively and remain resilient in the face of challenges.

Be focused on delivering excellence.

Winifred Kotin

In conclusion, success in the technology space is not solely dependent on technical skills; it also hinges on cultivating these vital professional skills and strategies. By embracing these principles, you can navigate the dynamic and ever-evolving technology sector with confidence and purpose.

Watch the full discussion in the video below and check out our community call for videos of our previous discussions. Our next event for the year, Science Café, will be held on 28th September 2023. Dr. Cyril D. Boateng will make a presentation on Geophysics as a Tool for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana, followed by an expert-led discussion on the topic. Register for the next event by clicking http://bit.ly/scicafe23. You’re also welcome to join our Facebook group or follow our Twitter feed to get quick updates on this and future events/activities.

How to Get Started in Data Analytics – Insights from Experience

Data Analytics is one of the promising skills in the world of technology that has proved useful across all fields – from health, education, agriculture, construction, transportation, telecommunications, retail, banking, to finance. How does one harness this skill to ensure that impact is created on the Africancontinent?  Global Lab Network hosted its November 2021 Community Call to discuss how individuals can get started with data science. The speakers were Derek Degbedzui, Founder and Researcher with M.A.I.L.S-Connect, and Emmanuel Sekyi, Tech Lead at PaalUp.

Cross-section of the participants on the call

The discussion started with Derek mentioning data as one of the things we struggle to understand in terms of what it offers the world, and this makes it necessary for its study to solve problems. Data analytics in its simplest context enables us to have autonomy or control over the sources of data that we have gathered. He mentioned how important or useful data is and compared the traditional research process in academia to the real world, emphasising the role of modern data science in making broader and better decisions.

Derek further highlighted the failure of systems to solve future problems as a challenge to data science. He also demonstrated the thinking process that should be considered in building a system with the example of a ranking system for newsfeed. The major processes involved were setting goals and objectives and prioritizing these objectives. He also asked a mind-blowing question which is; “At what level should Africans be comfortable to say that we can use analytics to solve our problems and that they wouldn’t pose any challenge to us in the future?”  He answered by saying that Africans should engage in more research and our application or solutions should be explained to the public through engagements.

At what level should Africans be comfortable to say that we can use analytics to solve our problems and that they wouldn’t pose any challenge to us in the future?

Derek Degbedzui

The second speaker, Emmanuel, delved into the topic using a data-driven approach, to describe what beginners need to consider or learn to zoom into the field of data science. His approach used the data science process of gathering data (published articles), analysis, and interpretation to seek advice from the entire data science community. The approach used a public API from dev.to, with the hashtags #datascience #dataanalytics #beginners to gather 1 million data points relating to machine learning and data science. The data was then cleaned and insights extracted. Common themes or insights from the analysis were to learn how to build a model and learn the python programming language, pandas, numPy, and matplotlib.  

Emmanuel went further to explore some relevant skills needed as a beginner and refuted the advice of taking too many online courses. He further explained that those courses will not in themselves help you to become a data scientist, but by building stuff, you are most suited to work in the data science industry. The relevant skills one should learn were categorized into four groups:

1. Getting data (data scraping/crawling, working with APIs, SQL)
2. Asking a good question (unambiguous, questions whose answers are testable, what-if questions)
3.  Programming languages (Python)
4. Mathematics (Linear Algebra, Basic Calculus, Basic Statistics)

He also emphasized that one mistake people make is to think that technical skills are the most important thing in data science but he begs to differ. He stated that the best data scientist is one with domain knowledge who is learning data skills to apply to whatever domain they are working in. Emmanuel concluded his presentation by saying, a good data scientist should have: a core domain knowledge (46%), the ability to ask good questions (23%), programming skills (15%), and knowledge of mathematics (15%).

The conversation continued with questions, comments, and contributions from participants. Deborah Dormah Kanubala, a lecturer and researcher at Academic City University College, a participant on the call, talked about the essence of ethics in data science and research. She buttressed the point that machine learning engineers should not only focus on the performance of models but also ensure that their models are not biased or discriminatory towards any marginalized group or give the wrong result to any person underrepresented in the dataset. She highlighted the fact that engineers should be concerned about the source of the data and how it was collected to ensure that the data is a good representation of what they want to use it for.

Another participant, Soh asked Emmanuel to explain how machine learning has a bearing on data analytics. Emmanuel answered by saying that the science of working with data is data science. Everything that falls in the category of working with any form of data would fall under data science. The term data analytics is mostly used when you describe the application of data in industry or analysis of data for some insight. And machine learning is the application of mathematical methods to get insight from data. So, you can simply say that data science is a broad umbrella under which data analytics and machine learning falls.

Another participant, Harry asked about policies regarding the use of data on the continent mostly around people who are building health tech solutions. Derek answered by saying though real-world data collection has issues such as privacy and regulatory concerns we do not necessarily need the policy frameworks to be able to know the limits within which to operate. He made us understand that any team that works on a data project mostly relies on the advice of the technical person or the domain expert to provide the guiding principles. Failure to have the domain expert provide guidance could be detrimental. We can also open stakeholder engagement to know the limit within which to operate. Deborah added that the country has no well-defined policy or framework for data usage as compared to the general data protection regulation (GDPR) which is strictly adhered to in Europe. She added that some researchers use randomly generated data which needs no regulation and for publicly available data, the user should cite the source of the data. Kizito, a participant, also added that the constitution is a framework of all frameworks so we do not need an act specifically for data protection or regulation since the constitution has sufficient regulation to protect individual rights. Therefore, if any data company uses your data in a wrong manner you can go to the law court and seek redress.

Concluding, Emmanuel advised that the participants should build stuff that only they can build, i.e. in their domain of expertise. Derek also concluded that we should always remind ourselves of the call to duty, which is, for every opportunity that we have, we should be able to utilize them to benefit others and solve problems.

Watch the full discussion in the video below and check out our Community Call playlist for videos of our previous discussions. Our final event for the year, Science Cafe, will be held on 17 December 2021. Mr Leo Ayerakwa will make a presentation on The Role of R&D in Ghana’s National Development, followed by an expert-led discussion on the topic. You’re welcome to join our Facebook group or follow our Twitter feed to get quick updates on this and future events/activities.

Engaging Forces Senior High Technical School Students with STEM Skills and Careers

Global Lab Network’s outreach initiative dubbed ‘Community Action’ is aimed at spiking the interest of young Ghanaians in STEM, through presentations, workshops, and hands-on activities. It also enables our Community members to give back while building on their planning, organising, leadership, and public speaking skills. 

Jacob Amengor leading a session on WASH at 2019 Nneka World Changers Camp

Recently, we partnered with Forces Old Students Association (FOSA) to engage current students of Forces Senior High Technical School at Burma Camp, Accra, through a one-day programme. The programme was focused on teaching students to develop their creativity and problem solving skills, and exposing them to a myriad of career opportunities possible with a STEM degree.

In the first session, Gameli Adzaho, who joined the session remotely via Zoom, highlighted the importance of developing creativity and problem-solving skills. He shared tips on how students can become better problem solvers, emphasising the importance of learning, networking, and gaining valuable experiences. Through examples of two young innovators, Kelvin Doe and Richard Turere, the students appreciated that it was possible to find solutions to some common local challenges even with minimal resources. The main takeaway from that session was the importance of applying knowledge gained from STEM to impact lives in local communities and around the world.

Next, Evans Owusu gave a talk on “Physics: the path to 21^st century success.” Through this presentation he exposed students to various career options including Law, Education, Environment & Energy, Engineering, Media, Research, Information Technology, Finance, and High-Tech, open to people with STEM backgrounds. He went on to outline the skills one is likely to acquire from studying STEM degrees such as computing, report writing, critical thinking, programming, problem solving, and communication, among others. On key attitudes needed for success in STEM fields, Evans stressed the importance of passion, consistency, determination, resilience, as well as dedication.

Evans presenting to an attentive audience of students

Overall, it was a wonderful experience for the team to support FOSA in their bid to widen the horizons of the students and expose them to new possibilities. Over the past few years, we have been delivering sessions to young people in schools, universities, churches, and communities in both rural and urban areas. Some of the other topics we have covered so far include Design Thinking, Digital Literacy, Science Communication, and Environmental Stewardship. To learn more about Global Lab Network’s activities, kindly like our Facebook page, or if you would like to be more involved you can even join our Community!