August 7, 2013
Cool Jobs: Young Tech Entrepreneur Talks Balancing 9-to-5 With Side Hustles
We have good news for you. You can have a cool career and make a good living. No need to choose between loving your job and paying your mortgage. The following profile, part of the BlackEnterprise.com Cool Jobs series, offers a peek into the nuts and bolts, perks and salaries behind enjoyable careers.
China Muoka isn’t your typical 27-year-old professional. The senior IT recruiter at NY Staff Search loves working in human resources, connecting awesome talent with some of the country’s top companies in industries including publishing, technology and commerce. He also has a passion for filling market voids via the Web, serving as founder of JobClickr.com and Rentish.com, two ventures that were born after marrying everyday problems among friends to solutions.
BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the Nigerian-American innovator on how young professionals can maximize opportunities in technology and how they too can become innovators in their own right.
BlackEnterprise.com: By day you work in human resources and by night you’re the founder of several Web businesses. How do you balance your day job with side hustle pursuits?
Muoka: I prioritize my day hours, use my evenings for my side businesses, and sometimes dedicate one or two days in the weekend per month to my businesses as well.
What tips do you have for other young professionals who seek to start their own side businesses and balance their day jobs?
First, spend time thinking. Many people don’t want to just sit still and think, and the truth is, man is an intelligent being. If you spend time thinking on a solution or a business concept long enough, the urge to start one will come.
Second, spend time reading, researching and asking questions. Many businesses fail because their founders didn’t have a quest for knowledge and they didn’t research whether market timing is right or didnt’ ask the right questions.
And last, network. One of the biggest things I’ve learned as a human resources professional that businesses are built on partnerships and networks. Attend events, tech meetings, and Meet-up groups.
What are the biggest career mistakes you see millennials making when it comes to the tech industry?
They are not taking the right courses in school. The world is getting very digital. For millennials to become relevant in the tech industry, young people must figure out where the world is heading. Then they can decipher the roles companies will need.
For starters, Google released a [recent] report on big data. Think about it, every digital device or Website you want to use today is always asking for some data (your name, email, password etc.). The question is: What will they do with all these data? How will it help them in the future? These questions should suggest to you that very soon data managers, data scientists, and data architect professionals will be in high demand. This type of thought process applies to other sectors of technology [or even other industries]. Don’t go to where everyone has been; Go where everyone is heading.