Original article written by Jeremy Schifeling on Break Into Tech
So you want to break into tech? But every tech job description says you need experience before you can apply.
Total Catch-22, right?
Well, here’s the way to break this stalemate: Get tech experience without needing to get a tech job first.
And here’s a step-by-step guide to doing exactly that.
Step 1: Know Your Role
Tech companies don’t just want any old random experience. Instead, they crave specific experience in your desired field.
For instance, if you want a Product Management job, can you demonstrate that you have product management experience?
So before you invest time and energy in gaining experience, check out 12 different tech roles that are open to anyone – even if you’re not a coder. And then focus on the specific role that fits you best.
Step 2: Find Micro-Experiences
Let’s say that you’ve decided that Product Marketing is perfect for you – you love understanding how other people think, influencing their decisions, and making a big impact out there in the world. So how do you get product marketing experience?
Well, as mentioned, it’s probably going to be tough to get a Product Marketing job right away without at least a little experience. And it’s also probably going to be tough to convince a recruiter that the five blogs you read on the topic make you a product marketer.
But what if there were learning opportunities somewhere between passive reading and getting a full-blown job? There are: Micro-Experiences.
A micro-experience is a project that requires exactly what tech recruiters want (real-world work with concrete outcomes) and what you can reasonably attain (a small, time-limited opportunity that doesn’t require someone to invest heavily in you).
Here are three sources of these micro-experiences:
- Upwork – The web’s largest database of freelance projects currently features over 10K requests for marketing help
- Catchafire – Instead of supporting small businesses, help a nonprofit with everything from SEO to PR
- Fiverr – If you want to focus on developing a particular skill, list it here to snag a bunch of micro-experiences quickly
Regardless of which site you choose, a typical micro-experience for Product Marketing might look like this: “Help us use Facebook to drive more of our audience to purchase a product on our site.” Which is the exact kind of project you can crush and use to demonstrate your success to future employers!
…
