3 reasons why a non-linear path into tech is an advantage

Technology is the future. Its growth has been exponential and it is continuing to increase at an accelerated rate. Many industries have, and are, being disrupted. As a result of this, companies are investing heavily in their tech to not only keep their businesses alive, but also to grow into the future digital market.

Where there is growth, there are opportunities, and with such a rapid increase in an industry’s size, demand outweighs supply. In 2021 alone, there were two million UK job vacancies in the Tech industry according to the?BBC. With such a huge shortage in fulfilled roles, there is a big push from companies across different industries to encourage more people into Tech.

I, for one, am one of those who moved into Tech from an unrelated profession, previously being a Physiotherapist before transitioning into Software Engineering. In this post I am going to give you three reasons why following a non-linear path into Tech can be an advantage.

People

There is a common misconception that if you work in Tech your day will be spent simply typing away on the computer with little to no interaction with others, hacking away with a black hoody on and a command prompt with green text.

This is simply not true — well, the bit about the hoody and command prompt is.

Whilst there are times spent working in isolation as you focus on a particular piece of work, this is certainly not how the majority of your day is spent. There is no such thing as a “typical” day, as each day varies based on what is happening within the team and the type of work you have on. However, most days involve a lot of communication with others and can be a mix of planned team meetings, adhoc catchups and collaboration with colleagues on shared work.

Interacting effectively with others, whether that be verbal or written, is a vital skill to possess in order to succeed within your team. You could be discussing how to implement a design with a UX Designer, the implementation of a new feature with a Software Engineer, or how a given feature is to be tested with a QA Engineer.

Knowing how to effectively communicate with others in order to work towards a common goal is essential. Possessing a solid and varied set of communication skills and styles can help you and others collaborate to work together to build and deliver quality products. Communication skills are universal and professions which have a strong emphasis on solid communication skills, such as Psychology or Teaching, can really equip you with the required attributes needed within Tech teams.

Problem Solving

Ultimately everything that you work on in Tech is a problem that requires solving. A problem is identified, it is defined, and a solution is proposed, implemented and tested.

The difficulty is that problems are often vague, blurry and poorly defined, with a lot of moving parts. Complex problems require deep understanding of the business problem and what steps are required to break the issue down so that it can be tackled in smaller chunks. This requires strong problem solving skills in combination with creative thinking and an analytical mindset.

Problem solving skills are essential too in many other fields. Consider medicine as an example. A patient presents to a doctor’s clinic with a problem: their symptoms. Based on these symptoms described, the doctor needs to consider the possible causes of the problem (the illness), devise a solution (the treatment), and analyse the results (a follow-up appointment).

High level skills such as these, also referred to as meta skills, are common with those in backgrounds that require critical thinking. These are often common in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related backgrounds, but are not exclusive to these fields. For example, consider professions such as Accountants or Lawyers, who come across problems that need resolving on a daily basis.

Problems are problems in the end, and whilst those problems vary in terms of context, complexity and application, how to solve them requires a shared universal approach.

Perspective

Software is written by programmers, but software is written for users. The difficulty lies in writing both quality, robust software?and?software that adequately addresses the user’s needs and requirements. To do this, we need to not only have a clear understanding and perspective of how we are going to build that something, but most importantly, why we are building the software in the first place and how it is going to be used.

Those who have a background in customer-facing roles possess a good understanding of client’s needs. Areas such as Sales or Marketing require daily interactions with their clients, and as such develop a strong understanding of why they want what they want and what they actually want.

Within Tech, these skills could be utilised well in roles such as Product Managers for example, who interact with their potential users or clients to deeply understand and capture their requirements. From there, they must then effectively represent and translate their ideas to their team and ensure that expectations are aligned so that what is built correctly addresses the original asks.

Further, those who transition from a customer-focused role may bring new, fresh ideas to the table in ways that were not previously considered.

Final Thoughts

The traditional path of going from school to university to graduate with a Computer Science, or similar IT-related, degree is the typical route into Tech. Whilst this is the typical route, it is not the only way. There are many other routes now available, such as self-taught, online courses and/or bootcamps. Core, fundamental skills are required to be in an employable position for entry-level jobs, but the experience and skills gained from other professions, if related, can put you in a unique position to succeed in the industry.