The Ultimate Guide On How To Get Into TECH
To get into tech today, you don’t need a degree related to tech or even learn to code.
Your curiosity and drive are sufficient to get you a job in tech within 100days if you’re ambitious enough.
In this article, you’ll learn how you can transfer your current skills to a suitable niche in tech that has lesser requirements but pay well.
I’m going to teach you step-by-step what actions you’ll need to take to be qualified for lucrative roles in tech that are in demand.
Step 0: Start the journey to get into tech
Make a list of your past and current professional skills. Think about your responsibilities in all the roles you’ve held. To avoid missing some important skills, use these steps to map out every possible skill you can think of:
- Start with your current role and list out the skills that make you qualified for the role.
- Take a look at other companies that have similar positions via job boards. Go through the requirement for the position so you can have an idea of other skills you have but might not be aware of.
- List out contributing skills that support your role. Here you can also list out skills you’ve acquired but rarely use.
The reason for highlighting your skills is to be aware of your strengths which will be very important in discovering what area of tech you can pivot to.
Step 1: Decide on what industry interests you
Before you make your way into tech, you have to decide what industry you’d like to serve. Every industry today makes use of technology to get things done easier, faster, and more securely. We have tech in:
- Finance
- Agriculture
- Healthcare
- Real Estate
- Marketing
- Construction
- Creative (art)
- Entertainment
- Government
- Education
- Legal
- Information(IT)
If you are comfortable with your current industry, your tech transition might be easier as a result of your existing knowledge of the industry, which serves as a relevant experience in the tech world.
You can see from the list that tech is everywhere.
Step 2: Tech roles discovery
At this stage, you’ll go beyond the popular roles you think exist in tech to increase your chance of finding the sweet spot in tech. There are lots of unpopular roles in tech that pay more than some of the popular ones you know. Your discovery of these roles starts here.
- Grab the list you created from step 0 and take note of the industry you’ve picked from step 1.
- For each skill on the list, search google for how you can apply the skill in tech for the industry you picked.
- Do this for each skill to have a list of tech roles
Doing this process helps you discover the various roles in tech to which you can transfer your existing skills. It also helps you discover various tech options in the industry you’re interested in beyond the traditional roles.
Step 3: Find similar roles
Different companies have different names for the same job role.
Make a list of tech roles from the previous step, and then search for similar roles on Google.
For example, if you’re interested in a cybersecurity career path, you can have a role like “security analyst” on your list, other companies might call it a SOC analyst or InfoSec analyst
Step 4: Role validation
To determine which tech roles are in high demand and have fewer requirements, you’ll need to do some research.
Check out popular job boards and platforms like:
- Indeed
- Monster
- Simply Hired
- Freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
Search for each tech role and note the number of jobs available. Then, compare the demand for the role in previous years to the current year. This will give you an idea of whether the demand for the role is increasing or decreasing. You don’t want to invest time in acquiring skills that nobody wants.
Step 5: Choose low-entry barrier tech roles
Competition is great but not when you’re trying to get into the tech field especially if you’ve got zero tech background. To get your foot at the door as soon as possible, you’ll need to follow the least resistance route.
Two ways to accurately do this is to check:
- Popular job boards for requirements and responsibilities for the roles you’ve validated in the previous step.
- LinkedIn profiles of those who currently hold/ have held the position. If the profile is optimized, you’ll see the responsibilities carried out by the individual in that role.
Step 6: Personality match
Your unique qualities are what make you valuable.If you choose a role that doesn’t fit your personality, you might struggle or get burned out quickly.
To decide what role aligns with your personality, consider the day-to-day activities involved from the list you currently have. The last thing you want is getting feedback that you’re bad at your job.
Step 7: Trim your list
For you to break into tech, you’ll need a roadmap for a career path to focus on. It’s time to visualize yourself performing your first tech role and getting paid well for it.
If you want to make money in the tech industry, you need to specialize. Specialists are always in demand and paid more than generalists.
For example, a SaaS SEO specialist will make more than a general SEO writer. The same logic applies to other tech roles like customer success.
If you want to dominate your field, pick an in-demand sub-niche and become the best at it.
Step 8: Plan your entry
Once you know what area you want to specialize in, make a plan for acquiring the necessary skills. This plan should include a start and end date, as well as a realistic weekly time commitment for acquiring the skills you need for your first (or next) tech position.
Step 9: Acquire in-demand skills
At this stage, the next question is where do you start from in acquiring the skills you need to be qualified for a position in tech.
Check job boards for the tech area you want to specialize in to see what companies are looking for in candidates. There will be some requirements that are common to many postings.
- Make a list of these recurring skills/requirements that keep showing up from different companies for the same role
- Check if the role requires certification. Every certification has a list of domains/concepts you must know to pass it. With this, you accomplish three(3) things. You have:
- An outline to guide you in learning the fundamentals
- A way to test yourself on how ready you are to perform that role
- One of the requirements to get hired for the role.
Step 10: Tech Skills mastery
You’ll need more than just knowledge to succeed in the tech industry. You need to understand how to apply your knowledge in different scenarios. The best way to do this is to simulate scenarios for the industry you’re interested in.
To do this, you’ll need to understand each concept beyond the definition. At the same time, you’ll also want to avoid getting lost in a rabbit hole.
A simple approach you can use is to
- utilize resources from three different sources(Youtube, Udemy, Bootcamps, Books, etc.).
- Master the fundamentals. The fundamentals are the concepts every specialist in the field must know. For example, what does every front-end developer know? At the basic level, HTML.
- Build your portfolio using freelance projects. To do this, create an online repository by getting a website/blog(you can also use notion) to document a likely scenario and your recommendation/solution based on acquired knowledge.
The more you practice, the better and more confident you become. Sometimes hiring managers in tech companies want to see you have put in the effort.
Step 11: Brand yourself for a tech role
Wouldn’t it be great if jobs applied to you instead of you having to apply to them? Well, You’ll need to do more than just send out resumes and cover letters to make it happen.
If you want to land your first job interview without having to wait in line, you need to leverage social media. To do this, you need to brand yourself online as the best candidate for the tech role you want. This means focusing on establishing yourself as a thought-leader gradually online via social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) to break into the tech industry.
You’ll accomplish three(3) things by doing this.
- reinforcing your knowledge of concepts as you share insights and get engagement.
- Puts you in front of the right audience including those who will hire you.
- Command a higher pay as you build trust and influence.
Most of the tech jobs/services I have done in the past came from connecting and interacting with people on LinkedIn and Twitter. That’s how easy it is to skip job search and work in tech.