Tech jobs seem to be the most promising and well-paid professions one could pick up nowadays. The number of IT switchers, i.e. people who decided to retrain, has skyrocketed over the past years. Tech vacancies attract with high salaries and endless professional growth. Moreover, this industry has always been fine with completely remote work. The demand for specialists rises and shows no signs of slowing down. Yet, despite all advantages, there are many obstacles on the way.
For example, when the job seeker looks at the vacancy descriptions, even requirements for entry-level positions may look very demanding. Recruiters often emphasize they look for people with a completed degree (bachelor’s or master’s), at least one year of experience, various certificates or an impressive list of programming languages.
Firstly, don’t be afraid of these requirements. Most likely, you are dealing with a wish list for the most fitting candidate. It means that even if you don’t possess all the necessary skills, your chances to get the chosen position remain pretty high. If the person is confident at performing the main tasks, additional certificates and new programming languages, employers will overlook some missing certificates. On top of that, new employees often take special entry training at the new workplace. This brief introductory course helps understand what skills one should master in the first place. Still, tech jobs demand some specific knowledge not everyone can get fast. Another crucial question is what to start with? There are dozens of coding languages or data analytics tools. What is better to learn first?
We teamed up with Jooble, one of the biggest job search engines worldwide, to examine tech jobs that could suit beginners, i.e. people who haven’t got specific hard skills yet but would like to enter the IT world. Here are some takeaways from our research.
Digital marketing specialist
These people are in charge of launching marketing campaigns aimed at increasing sales or broadening brand awareness. They also work on strategies to attract new clients and strengthen customer loyalty. Online presence is one of the most crucial factors for successful company activity nowadays. High-quality website or app, friendly and exciting social media profiles, responsive customer service, cross-industry communication, and performance reports – all these elements create an integral vision of the company as a market player. That’s why specialists who know how to introduce business to the customers and make them loyal to it are priceless. Digital promotion doesn’t require profound hard skills. Yet it’s not a piece of cake. You have to learn SEO fundamentals and PPC campaigns, get an understanding of brand awareness policy and become familiar with the content and email marketing strategies, and affiliate networking. To make better decisions, specialists should know how to use data analytics tools.
However, all these requirements can be learnt already in the process This fast-developing sphere always requires constant training. However, what you need from the very first day is strong emotional intelligence, creativity, adaptability, and management skills.
Digital project manager
Project manager is another high-paying tech job that doesn’t require hard technical, for example, coding skills. Even internships for project managers can be quite lucrative. On the other hand, these people have to fully understand what different company teams do and how to organize their fruitful cooperation. Since the central part of the work implies coordinating tech-related units, you have to know much about their tasks. Project managers provide a day-to-day interaction between web developers, DevOps, product managers, web designers, clients, and other possible stakeholders.
PMs (as project managers are usually called) run various meetings, so they have to keep in mind details about each of them. These specialists also recap emails and presentations. Thus, strong communication skills are a must for project managers. Leading projects to successful completion is impossible without a clear understanding of the ultimate goals and coordination between very different teams.
Apart from great communication skills, PMs have to possess technical expertise in the spheres they deal with. To speak the language of their company and clients, specialists must understand how main mechanisms work and what roadblocks would be the best for the project.
Time and risk management are two indispensable elements of successful work as a PM. The first skill requires an ability to prioritize tasks effectively and allocate time resources according to the main roadblocks of the project. It’s much easier said than done. Coordinating different teams and their schedules also requires much talent. Making a detailed plan that involves many people with their own deadlines is challenging. The next complicated task is to make them abide by it.
Plus, PMs have to foresee, identify, critically assess, and mitigate potential risks. All these skills belong more to soft ones and need to be backed by hard skills necessary for this job. Yet, project managers are always sought-after specialists whose services are priceless when you need to coordinate many busy people.
Web editor
The web editor is a good job if you like writing and reading. People of this profession are constantly dealing with texts of all kinds. Moreover, you will need to analyze tons of information fast. Media and company blogs post something every single day.
On top of that, editors are required to have some tech skills. They are in charge of uploading, formatting, and optimizing content for website users. Quite often, web editors participate in revising materials and making sure that the whole article is well-formatted and available for visitors.
Content management systems such as WordPress or Squarespace require training, but in general, they are user-friendly. You won’t need ages to master them. Good web editors also have strong copywriting skills. They understand how to optimize texts and make them more SEO-friendly.
Keeping track of visual trends is also a must. Editors deal with images, videos, and graphics accompanying the texts. They should be attentive to details and keep a sharp eye, even though the amount of information produced by media or product companies daily is tremendous. Content that appeals to the audience and gets good feedback is the ultimate goal for web editors. This goal is impossible to reach without accuracy, good writing English, attention to details (checking if the information is updated etc), and creativity. However, if you feel that writing is your thing, don’t hesitate to try this career path.
To sum up, there are many tech-job that will suit beginners in the IT industry. These professions are tightly connected to the world of technologies, but they don’t require many hard skills at once. Therefore, you can start the professional path such jobs and figure out what sphere attracts you the most later.
