A Practical Guide to Breaking into the Tech Industry

Title description, Dec 7, 2017

List of The Fortune 500 is mainly dominated by tech companies in the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia. This clearly shows the impact of technology in the last couple of years. If you are planning to get into business, starting a company that offers technology solutions is one of the safest bets because almost every individual or organization needs some kind of tech-related solution to do their day-to-day tasks.

It is also much safer to acquire technology-related skills due to the massive increase in demand for these kinds of skills. Almost every company out there needs people with skills in technology fields such as web development, cyber security, cloud computing, AI, product design, and more.
In this article, we will share how you can break into the tech industry either as an employee or an entrepreneur. Lets get started!

How to break through in the tech industry as an entrepreneur

Have a clear idea of the problem you intend to solve

All the successful tech companies in Silicon Valley and the rest of the world have achieved their success by solving a problem that individuals or organizations face on a day-to-day basis. Start by identifying the problem you intend to solve and gather as much information as possible about it.

Even if you intend to hire people to do the technical work for you, it is important to clearly understand the problem your business wants to solve. As a leader, you need to know what each of your teams is doing towards achieving the objectives of the company, and this is only possible if you know clearly understand the problem your company is solving.

Before starting Nest,Tony Fadel took a couple of years researching the Thermostat (Nest’s first product) and how it could be used to automate HVAC systems in homes and offices. Doing this research helped him learn about the problem he wanted Nest to solve.

Know your competitive advantage

When getting into the tech industry, be ready to face competition either from your fellow startups or the already existing companies that have big teams and resources. The only way you will manage to break through is by knowing what you can do better than anyone in the business.

It can be something as small as having a well-streamlined and efficient marketing strategy or deep knowledge about a particular problem that none of the competition has. You and your team need to identify your competitive advantage and think of how you can utilize it to beat your competition.

If you cannot identify any competitive advantage, it is time to go back to the drawing board and refine your idea. It is almost impossible to break through in any competitive industry if your company doesn’t have something unique it is bringing to the market.

Find the right people to work with

Building a company that uses technology to disrupt the status quo requires you to have a great team. This team may include partners, employees, and even mentors. The people you work with significantly impact your chances of breaking through in the tech industry. Partnering with someone is a great idea, especially if the two of you agree on the vision for the company.

It is important to know the background of the people you intend to partner with to avoid choosing a partner who could slow down the company’s progress due to conflicting values. Your partners should at least have skills that complement yours as far as building the company is concerned.

Apple was started by Steve Wozniak, who was very good at electronics and Steve Jobs, a naturally gifted product designer and smart businessman. So, you don’t necessarily need to have the same skills to form a great business partnership. The most important thing is agreeing on the vision of the company.

Data vs. intuition

There are certain decisions that you will have to take based on the available data. For instance, if you are trying to choose which social media platforms you need to prioritize when marketing, it would be best to consider platforms that your target customers use the most. Such data is available, so take advantage of it.

However, there are certain situations when the available data is insufficient and cannot be relied on to make decisions. In such scenarios, you will have to follow your intuition as a leader. For example, if you are building new software, you will likely not know the features your customers will use the most because there is no data to guide you. In such cases, you have to use your gut feeling.

Breaking into the tech industry as an employee

Acquire the relevant skills

No one will give you a job if you don’t have the knowledge and skills to do it. The very first thing you need to do is acquire a couple of tech-related skills that most companies need. Some of the in-demand tech skills you could start with include web development, data science, product design, networking and system administration, ethical hacking, and more.

The question you might have at this point is whether to teach yourself or attend a mainstream college to acquire these skills. We will use an example of programming to help you make the choice, but the same reasoning applies to every tech-related skill.

Self-taught programmers vs. getting a computer science or related degree

You can use either of these paths to acquire programming skills, but which of the two is better? Self-taught programmers usually learn to code because they want to work on specific projects. So, they tend to focus on the principles and knowledge required for that specific project, which drastically shortens the time needed to learn how to code.

On the hand, programmers who go to college usually start with the fundamentals. Knowing the fundamentals makes it much easier to learn the different ways to solve any given problem with code. This is the main advantage of getting a college degree in a computer science-related course

So, each of the above methods is okay, depending on your current situation. If you are someone in your 20s or 30s and your dream is getting into tech, learning code by yourself is the way to go. You will learn much faster without spending significant money on your education.

For those of you still in high school or college, I recommend doing a computer science degree. However, you will have to teach some useful computer programming concepts that won’t be covered in class. You should also consider working on personal projects to sharpen your skills.

Applying for jobs

After acquiring the necessary skills, the next step is looking for the company that needs them. If you are new in the industry, it is always best to look for jobs at small startups and freelance platforms. These smaller jobs will help you gain the experience usually required at big companies.

When writing your CV, job application, or answering questions in an interview, it is always best to show your potential employer that you understand what the job requires and are willing to learn whenever the need arises.

Get a mentor

Almost every very successful executive or entrepreneur in technology has a mentor. You need that person you can always run to whenever you need advice on handling certain challenges in your career. Ideally, the best mentor is someone that has already gone through the path you intend to take.

Final thoughts

Breaking into the highly competitive tech industry, whether as an entrepreneur or employee, is not straightforward. However, it will be much easier to succeed in the tech industry if you take the proper steps. I hope you can use the key steps I have shared in this guide to start your journey. The most important thing is to start. You can always learn along the way and use those lessons to gradually improve yourself or your company.