Transitioning into tech is exciting, but if you don't already have a STEM background or experience it can also be daunting and stressful. Without access to the right career advice or support, many non-STEM professionals fall into tech by accident and have to figure things out on the go, often in isolation. The good news is that this does not have to be the case! There are many non-STEM professionals that have successfully transitioned and built their careers in tech, both in STEM and non-STEM roles so you can learn from their mistakes to avoid making them yourself.
Let’s take a look at the 5 common, easy to make, mistakes and how to avoid them:
Mistake 1: Not considering career in tech as an option
Many professionals with non-STEM education and work experience who now work in tech had not considered tech as a viable option for their careers until they ‘fell into tech by accident’. Like myself. One of the reasons why is that most spotlight continues to be placed on the STEM related roles in tech. And if such roles don’t interest you, or require mostly skills you don’t currently have, tech can seem like an unachievable aspiration.
However, as many as 50% of jobs in tech, if not more are non-STEM related while being crucial to tech work getting done. This means that you don’t need to have STEM related education and/or experience to work in tech and that anyone can work in tech regardless of their personal and professional backgrounds! Therefore, tech is a solid career option for everyone who’s interested.
Mistake 2: Assuming you need to start from scratch to work in tech
It is easy to assume that to work in a new area, such as tech, you must always start in a junior role. This is true for some roles and career paths. You are unlikely to become a software developer or a data scientist overnight simply because you want to work in tech! Instead, you will likely need to undertake training and build your experience.
However, this is not a default option for all roles in tech. Regardless of what career stage you are now, from being a student to a senior professional with 30+ years of experience, you already have existing and transferable skills and experience that you can bring to a role in tech. You will still need to learn new skills and gain more experience once in tech, as everyone in tech does due to how fast the industry moves forward, but the good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch!
Mistake 3: (Paying for and) undertaking long coding courses and bootcamps
There is nothing wrong with investing your money and/or time to undertake a several weeks long course or bootcamp to gain and develop technical skills such as coding. Provided that this is something you are doing because you’re interested in coding, or at least curious about trying it out to see if you like it or not.
If you don’t want to learn to code and are only doing it because you assume you have to in order to work in tech, it may be better to pause and consider other options. You don’t have to learn to code to work in tech unless you want to as there are many roles and career paths available in tech that don’t require coding skills. So if coding isn’t key to your career plans, you can focus your time and effort on exploring other options that may be more relevant, aligned (and enjoyable) to you.
Mistake 4: Downplaying your non-STEM education and experience
Many professionals with non-STEM education and experience see their backgrounds as a setback rather than a strength; particularly during the transition and in the early stages of the ‘career in tech’ journey. This is not surprising since STEM related work in tech is often more visible and presented as well as perceived as more important and ‘specialist’ than non-STEM work. It’s not difficult to, without realising it, shift into downplaying your background, or even apologise for it (like I used to do)!
However, since non-STEM expertise is crucial for tech work to get done, people with non-STEM skills and experience are much needed. Therefore, it is as acceptable to keep advancing your career as a non-STEM expert as it is to become a STEM one! Wherever you are on your career path, you already have plenty of expert and/or transferable skills and experience that you can bring to a job tech. And you can always explore pivoting between non-STEM and STEM in the course of your career.
Mistake 5: Not demonstrating your interest in tech during job hunt
We have established that to transition into tech, you can leverage your existing and transferable skills and experience. But, that in itself is not enough. Another common mistake to avoid is underestimating the importance of showing your interest in and passion for tech.
When first transitioning into tech as a non-STEM professional, you need to demonstrate that you both can and want to do the job. Regardless of what your knowledge of technology is at present, there are multiple ways in which you can prove your interest in and passion for tech - for example, by undertaking short and free online certifications, by producing relevant content like blogs or videos, attending industry events, or by shadowing / being mentored by professionals in tech.
Time to wrap up
In this blog, we talked about the 5 common mistakes that non-STEM professionals tend to make when transitioning into tech without STEM education or experience. We also covered tips for how to avoid making these mistakes to make your transition into tech more efficient and smoother by learning from others.
If you’d like to find out more about different career in tech paths from people with diverse personal and professional backgrounds, you can check out www.extraordinarytechstories.com (a platform I set up to give people in tech a space to share their journeys, inspire others, and make tech more diverse and inclusive).
And if you’d like to get more support during your transition into or career in tech, feel free to check my profile and reach out to me to find out more about how I could help you during your journey.