TECH
GETTING STARTED IN TECH
A career in tech is a career without limits. From software engineering to product design to data science, to web development, the range of roles and opportunities in tech are endless.All roles in tech are not created equal, as such, everyone is able to find a role that he or she likes in tech, be it one that involves heavy coding, data analysis, customer interactions, or paperwork. So yes, there is a place in tech for everybody!Below are some tips that will help you to kickstart your career in tech:
RESEARCH
Look into some of the major areas in tech and read about them to see if they are of any interest to you. Depending on what you are looking for, you will type in something different in your search browser. For instance, if you are looking for tech career paths that are heavy on data analysis/manipulation, you would search for something along the lines of "tech career paths that involve data manipulation and data analysis". If you are looking for something that is heavy on coding, you would search for something along the lines of "tech career paths that involve programming". You can also search for paths that involve a lot of graphics, paths that involves no programming/coding, and even paths that involves customer interaction. Google will be able to provide you with some answer as to where to look for your next step. NOTE: You can always email us ([email protected]) with questions if you have any.
DECIDE WHICH PATH TO TAKE
After doing your research (and emailing us with your questions), it’s time to take the next step in the process, and that is to decide on the path to take. Two things can happen here, a. You will be interested in more than one path and be very confused on which path you should explore, or b. You will be interested in one path and be ready to explore If you are in the first area(a), you will do the same thing as someone with only one interest/someone who has chosen to pursue one interest. Select one path and begin to investigate it. Doing more research on the path and looking into what people in that career do day-to-day can help you to see if it is the path for you. This will help you to move on to the next step smoothly. Another thing you can do is to weigh your current skills and passions. If you love art and graphics, then a path that involves design will work well for you even though you might be interested in software engineering. This is just to help you in picking one path to start with. REMEMBER: Picking one path to begin with doesn’t mean you cannot explore other areas later. KEEP IN MIND: All tech roles do not grant the same opportunities as it related to job growth. Some roles/paths do not hire as much as others. It is important to love the work you do, but it is also important to go for a path with which you can find a job quicker. That is not to say ignore your passions but do keep this in consideration in your decision making and make a choice that provides you with some balance when it comes to passion and job opportunities.
START LEARNING
You have made it far in the process, congratulations! One of the many questions you probably have might be “where should I begin looking for resources to learn?” We have a great list of resources, some of which are paid and some that are free. You can begin looking at some of the resources on our list (click here), or you can contact us for help if you need it (look above for our contact info). Aside our resources, some of the great places you can begin to look for learning materials are: a. YouTube b. Udemy c. Coursera d. HarvardX courses e. freeCodeCamp f. LinkedIn g. Google (this is a blanket point, meaning, you can find so many resources on google.) Just as how you searched for the career paths, you will search for resources using the same method. An example of this would be, “Learning resources for data science,” “free places to learn how to code,” “free business analytics full course,” “where to find free (insert career path) learning resources). In addition, you can add “reddit” to the end of each of these searches and find reddit posts where people are discussing such topics. This is a helpful way to find resources, and as mentioned before, we are also here to provide you with guidance in the best way we know how if you reach out to us.
NETWORK (LinkedIn)
This is not so much a step in the process, but something you should be doing through all the steps that are outlined here. Over the past few years, LinkedIn has become a networking site that a lot of people have been using to secure job opportunities. If you do not have a LinkedIn profile already, please do yourself a favor and create one. After creating one, start looking for people who are you in your industry and connect/follow them. This will expose you to some of the conversations surrounding the industry you want to enter. LinkedIn also helps you to connect with recruiters and see job openings in your industry. In general, this is a great tool that you should definitely use. Being on LinkedIn and connecting with people can also expose you to other networking groups that you can join. Click here to read our article on how networking groups can help you to secure your next opportunity. Click here to look at our LinkedIn guide.
BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO
You have been learning, now it is time to start preparing for a job in the near/far future. One of the first things you should start doing if job search is something that is of interest to you is to start building your portfolio. Start working on personal projects, so that you can demonstrate how skillful you are in your area of study on your resume. Afterall, your resume is what is going to speak for you before you get the opportunity to do so at an interview. How do you find project ideas if you can’t come up with some you ask? You can search online and find a lot of projects that you can build by yourself. A lot of courses on Coursera, Udemy, HarvardX, and even YouTube are also project based and you can do those projects and extend them for more practice. This not only a great way to beautify your portfolio, but it’s also a great way to learn and add to your skills.
BUILD YOUR RESUME
One of the first things you should begin doing after learning and building your portfolio is to build your resume. Different areas in tech might have different formats that they approve of, but the resume template that we share in our resource section (click here for our resume template) is a general one that follow the guidelines and will be approved by most if not all tech companies/recruiters. Click here to read our article on how to build a great resume. Here are some tips for perfecting your resume: a. Keep is at no more than a page b. Start bullet points with action words (past tense for current positions, past tense for past positions that you no longer hold) c. Have at least 2 but no more than 4 bullet points under each position to avoid being repetitive d. Keep off old irrelevant jobs especially if they make your page count go beyond one e. Limit personal information to phone number, email, and LinkedIn customized link (optional but recommended)
SEARCH FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES
You have been learning, you have built a great portfolio, and you have taken time to perfect your resume. That is all great! Now it’s time to look for a job. A tool that I will advise you to use aside using Google to search for jobs is LinkedIn. As discussed above, LinkedIn is a great tool that can help you with more than networking. A lot of recruiters have been using LinkedIn to find talent to fill the roles they are hiring for. Aside this, a lot of companies post their job openings on LinkedIn to find the right candidates to fill those spots. Managers and other professionals who also have vacancies on their teams also post about those opportunities on LinkedIn as well, so it can be a helpful tool for you if you take the time to learn how to use it. Aside LinkedIn, sites like Glassdoor and Indeed are also great in helping you to find companies that are hiring for the role that you are looking for. Visiting companies’ website and looking through their career section can also expose you to the opportunities they might have available. Aside the discussed resources, there are a lot of resources on the internet that takes a little google search to find.