Tuesday Sep 07, 2021

How to land your dream job in tech with no prior industry experience

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Sydney Magana, a professional that recently took the leap and made the successful career pivot from higher education into tech. We discussed the various job search strategies she utilized in order to make the successful pivot, from tailoring her resume and LinkedIn profile to utilizing networking to generate conversations that moved the needle, including one conversation that led her to being referred for an opportunity that matched her skill set, resulting in going through the interview process for that opportunity and getting the job.

QUOTES

“I focused on networking, starting with folks that were in my own network, my friends and my family asking them if they knew anyone who potentially worked in tech who would be open to having a coffee chat or informational interview and from those conversations, I think I just gathered really tangible action items and just kind of sat down and put in the time and effort and work into trying to figure out what a career pivot really means.” - Sydney Magana [15:16]
“[When it comes to informational interviews it’s about] understanding how they got there because everyone’s career trajectory is not linear, you always can learn something from someone else’s experience.” - Sydney Magana [32:14]
“I did not find that they kind of looked down on me for not having tech experience, they were very optimistic. I definitely practiced how I was going to communicate my skill set and my experience and how it translates to that specific role I was interviewing for.” - Sydney Magana [41:45]

TIMESTAMPS

[1:12] Meet Sydney
[5:25] Discussing Sydney’s start in her professional career in higher education
[8:56] Reaction to higher education shutting down due to the pandemic and how Sydney handled it
[10:52] How the idea of moving away from higher education came about
[11:34] Worries of layoffs due to the pandemic
[12:08] Deciding what industry Sydney wanted to pivot into
[13:45] What challenges Sydney knew going into trying to pivot to a new industry
[15:47] Identifying transferable skills from higher education that would be valuable in the tech space and how Sydney was able to communicate this effectively on her resume
[23:02] Tailoring Sydney’s LinkedIn profile for tech
[26:07] How to continue networking after you landed your job
[28:14] Sydney’s results in cold outreach on LinkedIn
[29:47] Sydney’s strategy on utilizing her warm network to get into tech
[31:05] Walking through how to conduct an informational interview with a professional
[34:08] Researching what role in tech to target that fit Sydney’s experience level and skill set
[37:07] How long it took for Sydney to successfully pivot into the tech field
[39:53] How an informational interview led to Sydney getting an interview for the Business Operations Program Manager position she currently has
[40:22] How to maintain business relationships with professionals you talked with after the first conversation is over
[41:23] Discussing whether the hiring team had any qualms of Sydney’s lack of experience in tech
[43:15] Types of questions that were asked in the interview and time between final interview and job offer
[46:01] Sydney’s game plan when it came to onboarding effectively in her new role in tech
[47:22] Similarities and differences between working at Microsoft and working in higher education
[50:26] Sydney’s future career plans
[51:31] A major career roadblock that Sydney had faced and what she did to overcome it to move her career forward
[53:43] Contacting Sydney
[54:42] Outro

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

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