With a background in community management and content marketing, Michael Oladele has quickly climbed the ranks, demonstrating a knack for product thinking and strategic planning. In this interview, Michael shares his insights into the dynamic world of tech marketing, from the daily hustle to the unique challenges and rewards of working in a fast-paced industry.
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Before we start, can I just ask, why marketing?
Michael: I didn’t plan to be a marketer, I sort of stumbled into it. In University, a friend of mine was like ‘you write, can you help us do Social Media Management for an account’ and I was like ‘yeah, sure’. So I started social media management and from there I moved to content marketing. Eventually during NYSC, there was an opportunity to be community manager at Cowrywise and I picked that up.
After NYSC, while I was still working as a Community Management at Cowrywise, I decided to go into marketing full-time and that was because I had learned a lot and enjoyed the work. It was very rewarding, productive and also a bit fulfilling.
For your mind, you get to say it was not planned.
M: 😂
Where do you work and what is it like on a day to day?
M: I work for a fintech company in Nigeria. My day to day is very diverse and not very clear so I am just going to take a look at my calendar and share what today was like.
So today, I had an 11am meeting with some of my team members and then I also had a 12pm meeting with another team member. From 1:30pm to 5pm I usually do serious work, like, strategy or product thinking. But sometimes, it’s not like that. Like today at 3 pm I had a partnership conversation with a potential influencer. Then I had another meeting at 4:30 pm and now, I am having this interview.
It’s a lot of Google meets and a few Zoom calls but when I don’t have meetings, I’m mostly reading on content marketing, product marketing and also developing ideas and directing my team on how we can execute those ideas. Last week alone, I spent an insane amount of time studying push notifications.
Right! So from your experience, can you describe what it’s really like working in tech?
M: I think working in the tech ecosystem has been deeply rewarding but, I speak for myself because it may not be the same for everyone.
What I particularly like about the tech industry is the fact that there is room for significant growth and I don’t mean this as a get rich quick scheme or a place you enter and like in one month or one year you are already making millions. I think it’s deeply rewarding because not all career paths are like tech. There are some career paths that, if you give it your all you may still not make significant financial progress especially in Nigeria – like, there’s just maybe a cap to how far you can go in these career paths and it’s no fault of yours but just by virtue of the job itself or industry. I like the fact that the tech industry is not particularly like that.
I also like that it opens up doors of possibilities. It is relatively easier to enter tech or to start a career in tech than other industries. And I say this because if someone says I want to go into product management, you can easily go online; there is a list of free courses that you can take to get into product management. Then you start those courses and before you know it you start applying for internships, and maybe after a couple of months you get something and then before you know it, you start your entry level roles and you go into mid level and then in years you land a managerial role. You yourself will see significant results of that decision. You don’t necessarily have to go through another four years of university to start your career in tech. I think that’s what I mean by there’s room for possibilities.
Also, I know people say job security is not a thing, I think there is a sense of career security in tech. The knowledge you’re gaining, the skills you’re learning, the things you’re doing on a day to day basis, if you lose a job, you know that there are possibilities to get a new one. And this does not mean that you lose your job on Monday, you get another on Tuesday. But because of the specific tech skills that you have, there are chances that there are companies out there looking for what you have.
And I think what I also love about it is the flexibility that comes with working in tech. You can work from home, you can do a hybrid system. There’s also a level of coolness to the way work is done. There’s a level of seeming mutual respect to the way employees treat themselves. Like I said, these may just be my experiences but yeah, these are what I love about working in tech.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about working in tech?
M: So there’s a misconception that you start out earning a 500k salary. But quite a number of entry level, especially no-code level, marketing roles for example, will most likely start with 100k or 150k.
Wow!
M: Yeah, that’s the truth. Most especially for entry level roles. But the only reason this is attractive, still, is because earning 150k at a tech company is not the same thing as earning 150k at a traditional company. A 150k salary at a tech company can become 700k in 2 years. In a traditional company the best you can get is 250k. So the misconception that you start high is not necessarily true. If you are starting out and you just finished taking some courses and managed to get a 150k job, they are not cheating you, don’t start saying ‘this is not the coding future they promised me in tech’ 😂. Just know that there is something amazing about starting with a 150k salary and knowing that in the next 6 months or in a year, you can request for a raise.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role?
M: Biggest challenge was learning. One of the things that helped me out personally while I was starting my career out in tech was the fact that I worked in a company where most people were my superiors, so it made it super easy to learn from them. That’s one of the things I appreciated. I started as an intern then moved to an associate role before I became a manager. So that made it very easy to learn from people who were my managers. There were other challenges but minimal.
What kind of skills do you think are most important for success in tech marketing?
M: Get the hard skills you need to get for your role but for soft skills, I think the most important thing is problem solving. I don’t think there is anything more important than having problem solving skills and it’s something I am learning myself now that I am in a managerial role and have people on my team. It’s not just about posting on social media or writing on a blog but that you can think through how to use your skills to solve a problem.
Do you call yourself a tech bro or do you think no-code techies should shy away from that term?
M: I don’t even call myself anything like that to be honest. It’s not because I don’t think no-code techies should use that term but… I mean, you can call yourself anything you want. I believe if you are working in tech, you are working in tech. I don’t get the whole beef, so if you want to call yourself a tech bro or sis, even if you are not coding, you are working in tech so go ahead.
What advice would you give someone who is interested in pursuing a career in tech marketing?
M: I will say there are a number of things that have been proven to work. Pick what you want to do, take time to figure it out, learn the skills, do all the courses that people talk about, do the certification and maybe after some time, start looking for internship roles and entry level roles. Pitch yourself to companies, volunteer a lot, set up your LinkedIn profile, talk about what you are learning, share your experience, and put yourself out there. That’s what needs to be done.
What book or podcast do you listen to that helps you with your work, please share with us.
M: So I read a marketing newsletter called Marketing for Geeks by Lade Falobi. Lenny’s newsletter, Reforge blog. That’s about it.
Thank you Michael!