How to land your first job in tech – without being a computer science graduate

Getting a role in technology is much more than just being good with computers.?Finding a job that suits your skills & interests is often easier said than done.?However, in the IT field, there are ways to break into the industry, outside of the traditional path.

Explore what type of role you are looking for

Probably the most important step in your career journey.?Before throwing yourself into learning a new skill, take time to research what the role you aspire to actually involves, do you know what is required for this role, is it something which you can see yourself enjoying??This will help guide you to what direction you should take.?Do you want to work in front end development or perhaps you are more interested in Cyber Security??Why don’t you try connecting with someone in that position, or identify a mentor.

Take FREE Online Skills Courses

There are plenty of courses available online…Excel skills, personal development & lifestyle courses, personal development and skills specific courses.

Many of the specific IT skills courses can be costly, and it can be off putting investing ￡1000’s to train in an area that you are not totally sure about.?You may get half way through the course which you have already paid for and realise it is not what you expected.?Why not try a FREE Skills Bootcamp, where you can access learning materials in a time & place that suits you, giving you the chance to explore a particular IT area, such as UX Design or Data Analytics, to understand if this is a path you are interested in…before spending all that money on training.?

OpenClassrooms and AMS Tech Skilling have partnered to offer 6 Skills Bootcamps:

·??????UX Design

·??????Digital Marketing

·??????Web Development

·??????Data Analytics

·??????Business Analytics

·??????Agile Project Management

These are funded by the Department for Education, as part of their Skills for Life initiative and with them, you have the support of a mentor who is an expert in their field, helping you understand what careers are available.?For anyone who completes training and is excited about putting into practice what they have just learned – you are guaranteed an interview with one of AMS’ s many clients.?Learn more about these Skills Bootcamps here.

After completing the training, you may decided that it is not a career you wish to move into, however you will still have a new skill that you can add to your CV.

Tailor your Tech CV

How long do you spend tailoring your CV??Maybe you have a “one size fits all” CV.?By not tailoring your CV to the role you are applying for, is selling yourself short.?After all, you have the job description with everything that the employer is looking for in a candidate, so use that to make your CV appropriate to that specific role.

My tip would be to have a template CV, containing the standard personal information, education, basic employment history etc, which can be tailored to the role you’re are seeking.?For example, you do not need to showcase your experience working as a cashier at the local supermarket, for a role as a Java Developer – that is unless you have been writing the software used on the cash register!?Certainly, you don’t have to completely delete this section of work history, but equally you do not need to give a detailed explanation about that role.?A better description could be:

Cashier, Supermarkets R US, Jan 2021-Dec 2021 – customer service & checkout position.

Aim Lower

By aiming lower, do not assume you are under valuing yourself, but if you don’t have a lot of practical IT experience, consider one of the multiple employers hiring entry level positions, internships & apprenticeships – giving you some relevant work history for your CV and helping you to obtain the physical skills needed for a role in your chosen IT career path.

Roles as junior developers, helpdesk and support, testers or administrators are often easier to land, than a more lucrative role, and usually offer excellent progression opportunities, so you will be able to work your way up in no time!

Optimise your LI profile

So you have registered for a LinkedIn account, but have no idea what it should look like.?The term “Professional Social Media Profile” simply scares you because you are scared that you should not upload the same selfies and holiday snaps that you usually would on Snap Chat or post that TikTok you created with your pals.?Do not sweat, it need not be as scary as you think.?Yes, it is a typically professional platform, however recruiters do often like to see some personality shining through, simple content such as some of your hobbies, or interests is totally fine.?Or perhaps you have been involved in a charity event, again perfectly ok to share this on LinkedIn.

All star LinkedIn profiles are 40 times more likely to receive job opportunities, than a beginner profile.?When you’re building out your profile, LinkedIn will tell you how well you’re doing with their Profile Strength Meter.

What you need to get that all star profile:

Profile picture – not a selfie, but a headshot of you looking like you are ready to take on any challenge which comes along.?The picture should be brightly lit, with your head taking up at least 70% of the image.?Snappr.com can scan your profile picture to evaluate how suitable it is and gives some recommendations for a better profile picture.

Headline – I’ll let you in to a recruiter’s secret – when a search is run on LinkedIn, it automatically searches the headline first, over any text contained in the main body of a person’s profile.?The goal for you here is to make your profile appear in more searches and to stand out from other profiles in those searches.?OK, so here is where you should think like a recruiter.?As a recruiter, one of our mean search strategies involves key word searches.?Here we take some crucial skills from the job description, consider alternative and similar words for these skills and create a rather complicated search, which will yield some profiles which look like they match what we are looking for to fill the role.?What will a recruiter be looking for when hiring for a UX ?Researcher for example??Key words that a recruiter would search for in CVs & profiles, could be things like “design”, “research”, “creative”, “analytical”, “market research”, so write your headline with these words in mind.?

Creative with a passion for all things design, enjoy researching what attracts users.

Industry & Location – two of the easiest sections to complete.?What industry do you want to work in and where are you located or where are you willing to relocate to.?Recruiters often search for job candidates on LinkedIn, using industry and location filters, if you leave this information blank, then you will not appear on their search results.

Experience – important to list your current position and past 2 positions (if applicable).?You can list more if you wish.?Information here should be achievement based and targeted towards the type of role you are seeking, similar to your CV.?If you are seeking a job as a developer but do not have any previous experience as a developer, then you can manipulate your profile to include personal software development projects you have worked on.?

EG March-May 2020 – developed weather information app, using C#.

Even though you will complete the education section of your profile, you could also include education in your experience section, to hit those 2 past positions.?You do not need to include any detail of the courses or subjects here – save it for Education!

Sept 2015-June 2020 – Student, London Secondary School

July 2020 – student, online course in Java

Education – particularly important if you are seeking a graduate position, but also allows you to connect with fellow alumni.?Recruiters looking to fill graduate positions will typically search for the current year of graduation or 1 year in advance and may also filter by subject studied or school attended.

Skills – Include at least 5 skills, be smart about what skills you choose.?Yes, you want to pick what you are good at but also what keywords will recruiters be looking for.?You are seeking a role as an analyst, so you will want to show your skills like Excel or SQL.?Use the job description to pick out some of the top skills and even search for other similar roles online to see what key skills appear.

Summary – this should be an overview of your relevant experience and impressive skills, also do not be afraid to detail some of your achievements – did you win any awards in college or perhaps you scored highest in the class on your last assessment for example.?Don’t forget to include the type of opportunity you are looking for.

Connections – All Star profiles need a minimum of 50 connections, so connect with your classmates, your professors, your manager during your summer internship, the members of the project team you worked with for your final university project…

Once you have a super or All Star LinkedIn profile, you can use LinkedIn to network with likeminded people and hiring decision makers within the industry.

LinkedIn also acts as a job board, so you can search for roles of interest, and can often apply via your LinkedIn profile.?Also you can sign up to receive notifications of new jobs which are relevant to you.

Networking

More & more events are revoking back to in person.?Sign up to Meetup or Eventbrite to stay in the loop of what is happening near you.

These events are great ways to connect with others in your preferred industry and making the right contacts could make all the difference when it comes to getting your foot onto the ladder.?Go prepared to these events, have printed copies of your CV which you can give to potential employers or have an electronic copy on your phone, which you can email to them during the event.

Don’t be afraid to gather information on your mobile – contact details of any recruitment reps you meet, snap job opportunities, pictures of company displays, even connect with those you meet there, on LinkedIn.

Showcase your work on GitHub

Taking on some small projects is a fantastic way to help you gain practical IT skills.?You can find mini projects online, which you can complete in your spare time and allows you to build your experience, develop your knowledge, and also is a good grounding for your portfolio, which many employers like to see as part of the recruitment process.

GitHub is an internet hosting provider for software development, which also uses Git for version control.?It is a highly collaborative environment for developers, where you can learn from others and seek advice on your code.?Not only that but it’s a handy place to store all your code.

Upskilling

Never overlook an opportunity to learn.?Take time to expand your knowledge of an extra coding language, subscribe to some tech blogs, build your own personal website, (and don’t forget to include the link to it on your CV and LinkedIn profile), participate in some pair programming, coding workshops or coding challenges.?If you are serious about entering a career in tech, why not check out the Tech Skilling careers page.