LAND A JOB IN TECH WITHOUT ANY WORK EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY
Have you always dreamed of a job in tech but had no clue how to get in? Are you doubting yourself because you do not have technical experience such as coding, developing etc or you haven’t worked in that industry before? Not to worry, you can still land a job in tech sooner than you think. Here are some practical steps you can take to land your job in tech today!
I currently have 4 years of work experience in tech and I never really thought about working in this industry. My career path started that way and I now ended up enjoying it. Working for a tech company can come with a lot of perks. Many tech companies are known for their interesting and beneficial perks aside from monetary compensation. Think of perks like stock options, health/life insurance, unlimited PTO, yearly pay raise, work from home allowance, education reimbursement, and the list can literally go on and on.
‘‘Think of perks like stock options, health/life insurance, unlimited PTO, yearly pay raise, work from home allowance, education reimbursement, and the list can literally go on and on.’’
Get referred
This is the reason why we have a LinkedIn profile right. The easiest way to get your foot in the tech industry is to get referred by someone who is also working for a tech company. A lot of people that work for a tech company receive a referral bonus so actually, many of the employees are eager to source within their network to find that perfect candidate. Send people that work for a tech company a personal message to ask if they know whether or not they are currently hiring. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can already be on the next phase of the interview.
2. No tech experience? Match your experience with the right tech roles
Okay so a lot of people sometimes think that you need to know how to code or be into Javascripts, CSS and so on to work in tech. Well, you have those technical developing/engineering roles but in every tech company, you have different roles that require little to no technical experience. If you have always worked in a customer service role you can consider roles like Customer Success Specialist, Customer Success Team Lead/Manager. These roles focus on building and maintaining customer relationships. If you have a lot of experience in retail, you can consider roles like Business Development Rep, Account Executive, Sales Manager, Product Specialist but also roles that focus on building strong and profitable customer relationships. If you have experience in teaching or coaching you can consider roles like Learning and Development, Diversity and Inclusion Program specialist.
3. Re-locate to a tech hub
Listen, if you really want to work in tech and you find yourself to be far from a tech hub, you’re missing a big chance here. Find cities where you will find the company headquarters. Why? Because these offices are often looking for a lot of people to hire for their different markets and departments. For example, 5 years ago, I moved to Dublin to work for Google. Dublin (Ireland) is known to be a major tech hub where a lot of tech companies have based their EMEA head offices. This means, you have a lot of tech companies to choose from. Another plus is, if you speak more languages next to English, it can really work in your benefit. As I already mentioned, the head offices are usually hiring across markets and departments. So let’s say you want to be an account executive and you speak German, it can really make you a competitive candidate in the job market. The reason is, it’s harder to find German speakers in Ireland than there are English speakers. Nevertheless they need those native speakers to do the job, so therefore, it gets you in a very interesting position in terms of negotiating your compensation! So start googling where those tech hubs are in your country or even in your continent and consider moving closer to the job.
PS: Because of covid-19 a lot of tech companies have even gone completely remote. So it might be even possible to work in a tech hub without actually moving to that city or country.
4. Linkedin is your best friend
If you’re still not using LinkedIn to skip the traditional way of applying for jobs then you’re missing out. Tech employees are always sourcing within their network to refer someone for the new role. Meaning..most of the time, they will create a post where it says something like ‘‘Tiktok is currently hiring! We are looking for …..”. The company name and the word ‘‘hiring’’ are the magic words. When you log into your account, type in the search bar the company you are looking to apply for and type the word hiring next to the company name. Below the search bar, click on the ‘‘post’’ tab. Most of the search results will be posts where employees of that company have created a post where they are using these keywords in a sentence. Filter to see the latest posts first and simply reach out to those people. It really can be as simple as that!