Ahanna Anaba is a trade and finance professional leading global sales and partnerships at Finverity, a UK-based supply chain finance fintech helping banks and lenders close the $2.5 trillion trade finance gap through technology.
She is the Founder of the Women in Trade Network, a community of 600+ senior women across Africa and the global trade ecosystem. Her experience includes managing over $1.3 billion in transactions at Africa’s first digital deal platform, contributing to industry initiatives such as the Trade Finance Conference of Parties (TFCOP) where she serves as Africa Chair, and being recognised as a finalist in the Black British Business Awards.
Many people rule themselves out of tech before they even understand what technology companies actually need.
There is still a belief that working in tech requires a computer science degree, years of coding experience, or a highly technical background. That simply is not true.
Many successful careers in tech started somewhere else. They came from banking, operations, consulting, logistics, healthcare, education, and many other industries. What they brought was industry knowledge, commercial judgement, problem solving ability, and real understanding of how people and businesses work.
For women considering a move into tech, this is particularly important. Too often, women assume that without a computer science degree or a traditional technical background, they do not belong in the sector. They do
Tech companies need engineers, but they also need product thinkers, customer advocates, operators, and people who understand customers, markets and business problems.
The question is not whether you are technical enough to enter tech.
The better question is: what do you already understand that could make you valuable in a technology business?
Pivots often begin before the job title changes
A pivot does not always start with a new job title.
As companies across every industry become more digital, the first step is often much smaller than people expect. It may start with a project, working alongside a product team, supporting a digital transformation initiative, or volunteering for work involving data, automation, customer experience, or process improvement.
Over time, exposure creates familiarity. Familiarity builds confidence. Confidence creates opportunities.
Curiosity is one of the most valuable skills in technology. The people who successfully move into tech are often the ones asking questions, seeking exposure to new areas, and paying attention to where change is happening.
Soft skills are not soft
One of the most persistent misconceptions about tech careers is that technical skill is the only skill that matters.
Many of the roles that drive growth in technology depend heavily on communication, adaptability, stakeholder management, and judgement.
People who can manage stakeholders, align teams, explain complex ideas clearly and build trust already have valuable skills.
This is particularly true in fintech, where technology intersects with regulation, risk management, customer behaviour, institutional processes, and trust. Someone who understands markets, customers, institutions, and the wider ecosystem around a product can often create value as quickly as someone with purely technical expertise.
Industry experience is an asset
One of the biggest mistakes career changers make is assuming they are starting from zero. You are usually not.
Take someone who has run a logistics operation for fifteen years. On paper, she doesn’t have the ‘technical experience’. In practice, she knows where shipments go wrong, why a process buckles under pressure, and what a frustrated customer does next.
Put her near a company building logistics software and she is not behind the engineers. She understands the industry the product is designed to serve.
The same applies elsewhere. Banking brings risk and compliance expertise. Sales brings customer insight. Consulting brings structured problem-solving. Policy brings regulatory understanding. Operations bring execution.
These skills do not disappear when you move into tech. They become assets.
The most successful career pivots happen when people learn to translate their experience into the language of the new industry, showing how it connects to the problems technology companies are trying to solve.
Women should own non-linear paths
For many women, career paths are not always linear. That can actually make them more relevant to the way tech works.
Technology moves quickly. Products, markets, and customer expectations constantly change. In that kind of environment, the ability to learn quickly is not a nice-to-have. It is one of the most important skills you can bring.
Professionals who have worked across industries often develop resilience, adaptability, and confidence – qualities that are valuable in tech.
Many women also wait until they feel fully qualified before putting themselves forward. In a sector that changes constantly, waiting to feel completely ready can mean missing the opportunity to learn by doing. Tech rewards people who learn, adapt and keep moving.
Women moving into tech should not feel the need to hide the story of how they arrived there. A non-linear career path can become a powerful part of a professional identity because it demonstrates range, adaptability, and the ability to connect ideas across different contexts.
You are not “just trying tech”. You are bringing a unique combination of skills, experience, and perspective that can help solve real-world problems. And that is exactly what technology is supposed to do.
What matters most
The future of tech will not be built only by software engineers. It will also be shaped by people who understand customers, industries, markets, regulation, operations, systems, and human behaviour.
The practical work is to map your experience to the problems tech companies are solving: What customer problems do you understand? What products, processes, or systems have you helped improve? What risks, regulations, or markets do you understand? What have you helped sell, launch, adopt, or scale?
Once you can answer those questions clearly, your experience becomes your advantage. Pivoting into tech is not about pretending to start from scratch. It is about learning how to translate what you already know into the problems technology is trying to solve.
