Advice for Anyone Who Wants to Break Into the Tech Industry

Without knowing how to code

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As someone who has worked in tech for over a decade, I can’t stress enough how much it can change your life.

If you’re patient, you can find higher salaries, create larger positive impact, and take advantage of more opportunities to learn.

Unfortunately, when it comes to advice for making the leap, the best we can usually do is:

“Learn how to code!”

Sure, for those who are fortunate enough to grow up with technology or are naturally gifted with left-brained, logic-based thinking, learning how to code can create endless opportunities for finding or piecing together a job in tech.

But what about everyone else?

How do we help those who don’t already come from a technical background and might not be able to invest time, money, and energy into learning how to code?

In other words, how do we help non-technical people, many of whom identify as “creatives,” get into tech?

As someone who falls squarely into this category myself, I tend to have a soft spot for these types of people. My transition into tech was much more haphazard than I would have liked, so I these days, I try to help others make the leap in a much more intentional way.

After exploring the trifecta of tech careers (freelancing, founding a company, and full-time consulting), here is some of the best advice I can give for getting into tech without a technical background:

Pick up a book

Like with any hot topic, there are countless books out there that break things down from different angles. As a designer, one of the books that helped me transition into UX design was Sprint by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz. It’s a high-level look at the different steps of design thinking most tech companies use in some way, shape, or form and it was my Bible for designing my own ideas. Eventually, I felt confident enough to use this process to help others. Once you identify a potential job, skillset, or area of interest, start looking for established books that speak directly to the thing you want to learn.