Getting into Tech

Pathways to careers in technology

As one of the fastest-growing fields, the tech industry is expected to have exponential growth in the number of job opportunities it can provide. Taking the IT industry as an example, according to the Occupational Handbook, “About 418,500 openings each year, on average, are projected to come from growth and replacement needs”.

If you are working in a non-tech field and thinking of switching to a tech one, you might not know where to start. This page will provide you with resources to help you succeed along this career switch path. Before you start your career switch, you need to know if tech is the right career for you. We also recommend that you read through How To Switch Careers: A Step-By-Step Guide to get a general sense of how to plan for your career search.

Explore the drop-down menu below for advice and resources for every step of the process.

Career Research

Take a look at the different career paths in the tech field so that you can find the right one for you. When considering a new career path, consider not only the salary and open job opportunities but also consider if this new career fits with your value and can provide a better experience compared to your current career. Once you learn more about a career path, take notes on the following questions:

What concerns do I have about this work?

What skills can I transfer from my current career?
What skills do I need to develop?
Is there any certificate requirement for this career?
What information am I still missing?

The answer to these questions can help you see the gap between you and your career, and help you make a better plan for the switch process. Below are some resources you can use for your career research:

Networking always starts with people you know. Ask your families and friends and see if any of them work in a tech career, and hear about their real experience
As one of the world’s largest professional network platforms, LinkedIn is a good resource to start your career research. To begin with, follow Leveraging the Power of LinkedIn to build your profile page. After that, start to build your connections. Do you have any connections in the tech field? Would they be willing to connect with you to discuss the field? If you do not have any tech-related connections, use the master search bar on LinkedIn to search for tech people in your area.
Go through 42 of the Best Technology Careers list to see what potential tech careers you can look for. Also, several entry-level roles in technology may help you transition faster into technology if you don’t have all the time and technical skills. These roles include Quality Assurance analysts, System Administrators, and Business Analysts.
Refer to the Occupational Outlook Handbook for the job summary, salary, outlook, and more
O*NET provides you with details on technology skills requirements, tasks, and work activities for a specific job. My Next Move, a website developed by O*NET, provided summarized information for careers (the UVA Career Center website provides links to My Next Move for tech job types)
Besides a detailed description of the structure and outlook of a profession, Firsthand also provides an abundant amount of resources you can refer to and other related professions to look for
Whether or not you are considering going abroad, GoinGlobal can provide you career guide and job search both in State and across the world
Most importantly, we are a resource to you! Come to one of our events and meet women in the field. We are a welcoming organization formed to help you be supported in a Tech career. Participate in CWIT events for more tech career insights

Other Resources:

On Wellesley’s Career Education website, you can find career advice for different tech career paths and professional organizations where you can “find your people”

Skills & Certificates

Now that you have chosen the career path, it’s time to gain skills in the gap area. Refer back to the notes you took during career research and see what skills are required for your new career. While there are lots of different online courses and resources available, consider the following question:

Do the companies in the career require certifications?
How much time do I have for this career switch process? 3 months? A year?
Can I join a full-time course or do I need to keep working and take online courses?
How much budget do I have for skill development?

These questions can help you to choose the method to develop skills that fit your current situation. Here are some skill development organizations and platforms:

Consider going back to school to gain a degree
Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC), a local community college provides various Programs of Study to help you start the skill-gaining process

Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center provides both online and in-person courses and apprenticeships for you to gain a skill
Columbia CCE and Virginia Tech’s Student Engineers' Council provide a list of different online resources to develop tech-related or more general skills

Besides the platform listed in Columbia and Virginia Tech’s link, some other useful resources are:

Class Central: where you can find courses across different providers, universities, and institutions
LinkedIn Learning and Coursera: popular platforms to look for a course
Revature can connect you with a company looking for entry-level tech talents, and then provide you with training to help you become qualified for the job

Other Resources:
If you are looking into computer science and coding:

Google Tech Dev Guide: a collection of resources for technical skill growth and tech interview prep
Codecademy: find a coding class that fits your coding level

W3Schools: Your online textbook for self-study

EXPERIENCE

Throughout the process of gaining the required skills, it is a good idea to acquire some experience along the way. These experiences can give you a further understanding of the tech career, apply the knowledge you are learning, and prove to the companies that you are passionate about and are capable of the job. Here are some ways that you can use to gain experience:

Create your work Portfolio. If you are a front-end developer, build a collection of webs and APPs you designed; if you are a mechanical engineer, create a machine design collection. A portfolio can directly demonstrate your skills and experiences to the companies
Check out the CWIT’s event page and participate
Become a volunteer in Tech and Engineering related fields.
You might not feel ready to start a full-time job yet, but you can try out for an internship! An internship serves as a bridge to later job opportunities in many cases. Follow the advice in the upcoming Job Opportunities & Networking section to find your internship

Other Resources:
Some volunteering events near Charlottesville that you can participate in are:

IT4Causes
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville construction volunteer
Become a mentor at C4K

JOB Opportunities & Networking

Finally, it is time to look for a job in the tech field! But job opportunities will not come to you by themselves. You need to reach out to people in the industry when looking for a job position. You might be familiar with the term networking because it is a practice someone should keep doing throughout their career. Here are some general principles on how to build your network. Specifically talking about switching to a tech career, you can:

Join professional organizations to meet people in your field. Charlottesville Women in Tech is a great place to start. We can offer advice, connections in the community, and support. We also have a special site for open positions for Jobs - CWIT in the Charlottesville area.
Take advantage of websites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Meetup to look up people in the field and job opportunities in your area
Visit Company’s website to get more insight about the job. Take advantage of the “contact us” section to connect with the company
Conduct Informational Interviews. By talking to someone who is working in the tech career, you can get some tips and inspirations on how to design your career path, a real look into a tech career’s typically working day, but most importantly, you can hear some insights about the tech field that can not be found on the internet. Here is an article on How to Get the Most Out of an Informational Interview

RESUME

Don’t forget to demonstrate your new skills and experiences to the companies! A resume is a one-page document that communicates the most important, relevant information about you to employers. Here are some of the general tips about how to create a good resume from the UVA Career Center. If you do not have a resume yet or want to recreate one for your new tech career:

Follow the format of this Tech resume sample. You can also find many online resume generators to use.
This article from Virginia Tech provides everything you need to know about Resume formats and some extra samples.
This Technical Resume Writing article provides more information on the contents you need to include in your technical resume.

If you already have a good resume and want to adjust for the tech career:

Write a new summary about yourself to highlight skills and experiences relevant to the tech industry
Add new keywords, skills, experiences, and certificates you gained to your resume
Reformat your resume. Make sure your resume is still on one page and all the experience is in timeline order
Before you submit your resume to a company, read the job description and requirements posted on the company’s website.
Modify your resume to highlight your skills that match the job

INTERVIEWS

Congratulations on your progress so far! The final step between you and a tech job is the interview. Different from other industries, a tech company might ask you to conduct a technical interview (most commonly for coders) besides the regular one to test if you are qualified for the job. Check out How to Prepare for (and Ace) the technical interview to get some advice, and here are some resources to help you:

Refer back to the resources in the Skills & Certificates section. Go back to the resource you used to gain the skill, review, and practice
Use the Interview Prep - Google Tech Dev Guide

Refer to this Technical Interview Questions and Answers if you meet questions in specific tech fields

It might feel overwhelming when switching to a career that you do not know very well, but remember that by doing enough preparation and research, you can find the right path. We hope that this article helps you find a good starting point for your career switch process. Check out the rest of our website for more resources!