Tiana Cline, Hypertext Media
Name: Tiana Cline
Designation: Editor of Tarsus Channel, Managing Editor of htxt.africa and Tech Made Easy, and tech consultant to Women & Home South Africa.
Company: Hypertext Media
What do you do every day? I manage the overall production flow of all of our publications – both print and digital – to ensure that we meet our deadlines and produce top-notch content that people actually want to read on a daily basis. There’s also a lot of research, tweaking, brainstorming, editing, gadgets, gaming and digital stuff that happens along the way…
How did you get into the tech space? I’ve always been passionate about technology, but I actually started my publishing career in fashion at ELLE South Africa when it was still under the reins of Nadine Rubin. One of my (many) duties was to review books and movies for the magazine.
During a press screening I was chatting to a well-known entertainment journalist who asked me what I wanted to do for a living. My response? Play video games. At this point I was in the middle of my second honours thesis as well, and he would often give me research advice. He kindly introduced me to a writer at a student magazine who had a page on gaming and said I could take it over.
The very next day I was driving over to pick up the office PlayStation 2! When my time at ELLE came to an end, my next step was to write for a business-technology magazine – mainly interviewing CIOs and CTOs. I ended up taking over a monthly video game publication at the age of 21 when the editor left, something I did lovingly for four years, and everything just continued to flow from there.
What was the best advice anyone ever gave you? No one will remember you for being nice, but they will remember you for being good at your job.
What advice would you give someone wanting to get into the tech sector? Learn SEO, social bookmarking – everything and anything digital that you can, while you can. Coding? Try it. Find a mentor. Make connections and network extensively to get your face out there. You could also blog about something you’re passionate about. Most importantly, don’t take your studies for granted. Do I sound like a Hallmark card for ICT here? 😉
What motivates you to get out of bed everyday? My family… and the possibility that I might be travelling somewhere exciting at some point.
Who do you want to be when you grow up? Iris Apfel… or a security analyst at Kaspersky Lab. I’m multi-faceted.
Find me on:
Twitter: @tianatweets
LinkedIn: http://za.linkedin.com/in/tianacline
