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Do You Need a Degree to Get a Tech Job?

admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 10:30:10 +0000

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book David and Goliath, famously touted the idea of being a big fish in a little pond when it comes to choosing a college. He suggests never study at an elite college, but rather choose one where you can be at the top of your class.

But is it even necessary to have a degree to get a good tech job? Jessie Pressman discusses How to Land a Job in the Tech Industry Without a Tech Degree on the Brazen Careerist blog.

The biggest secret of the tech world is that a huge percentage of people who work in the tech industry started out knowing nothing. They didn’t go to MIT, they didn’t get a degree in computer science and they still don’t know how to code.

That’s because the high tech industry needs people to help their business run, not just create their product or service offering.

Even New York State Comptroller, Thomas D. Napoli, stated this in his April report on New York City’s growing high tech industry:

Like other industries, the high-tech industry employs work in a wide range of job titles, including non-tech-related positions such as accountants, administrative assistants, managers and sales representatives. The growth of the high-tech industry offers employment opportunities to works with a broad range of skills, not just those with technical backgrounds.

The report also goes on to say that “The average annual salary for workers in the high-tech industry was $118,600 in 2012, compared to an average of $79,500 for all other jobs in New York City ($65,400 excluding the securities industry).” And you know that number has only gone up in the past two years.

If you have a liberal arts degree in history or art or political science or sociology or English, don’t pass that hot sounding tech company by. Having a degree in tech isn’t necessary to land a job in the tech sector. They need you!

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Look in the right place

While many may push you towards established firms because they seem less risky, startups are a great place. Not only will you be part of a team where you can add value right away, but you’ll also be exposed to different areas of the business on a daily basis.

Established firms often have compartmentalized their business units and departments, so once you’re on a track, that’s where you’ll likely stay. Working for a startup, on the other hand, means you’re going to wear many hats — which means more exposure to new experiences more quickly.

That said, you don’t have to go for the fledgling startups. Look for ones that already have venture capital funding or have demonstrated success for a few years. Five to 10 years old can still mean startup mentality, but may also have a more robust infrastructure for you to rely on, like better benefits and workspace.

2. Find the right fit

If you want startup culture, look for startups in areas you’re interested in. Like fashion? Find a fashion startup like ManRepeller or NastyGal. Interested in healthcare issues? Healthcare startups are doing everything from making apps that help doctors with billing to building machines that allow doctors to do virtual surgery to tech that helps kids keep tabs on their aging parents.

Politics major? Look for startups invested in political change. The startup world is huge. And while much of it revolves around tech, that tech needs to do something useful to be a worthwhile business. Figure out what you’re interested in and find a company based on their mission.

3. Find a role for yourself

Once you’ve figured out the area of tech you’re interested in and passionate about (tip: startups love passion) find their site, look for their opportunities page and see what they’re hiring for.

Skip over the overtly tech roles like programmer, developer or architect and go for the positions that make the business run: sales, accounts, business development, marketing, HR, recruiting, payroll, operations.

Or if you’re interested in learning a little more about the tech concepts themselves, try a hybrid role (known in the tech field as “techno-functional” and usually in high demand): project manager, business analyst, consultant.

When looking at these roles, think about what you bring to the table — are you a people person who’s super competitive? Sales might be right for you. Are you OCD when it comes to details? Project manager could be a good fit.

4. Make a role for yourself

This may be a little more difficult at established business or if this is your first job out of college, butfiguring out your strengths and pitching them to a startup is how many people today get hired. (Click here to tweet this advice.) Depending on the size of the startup, they may not even know what they need yet.

If you’re willing to roll your sleeves up and pitch in, you’re bound to be scooped up quick. Even better, figure out what they’re having problems with and pitch a solution. Make yourself necessary. Solve a problem to create a need for your specific skills.

5. Learn the concepts

Many people who work in tech don’t know how to code. They’re the big thinkers and the strategists; they’re the people who make the everyday operations of a business run. You don’t need to be a developer to work in tech, but it’s a big leg up if you understand the concepts behind what a business is doing.

If you want to work in the marketing department, dive into PPC, SEO and UX. If you want to work in sales, figure out what their product is and learn the concepts behind it. If they’re an e-commerce site, understanding what business intelligence and big data are will be useful and help you stand out.

If the company builds applications, learn how they’re built. By understanding the difference between the user interface and user experience, you’ll be light years ahead of the competition.

6. Be willing to work

Say “yes” a lot. Employers have a negative stereotype about GenY: They think you’re lazy. Show them you’re not. Put all the activities you were involved in during college on your resume — President of the sky diving club? Put it in! Active in student government? Put it in! Sang in an acappella group…yep.

Anything and everything you had a serious commitment to will help prove your commitment to work. Plus, it has the added benefit of being a great conversation starter. Odds are that at least one person who interviews you will have something in common with your extra-curriculars.

Want to work in tech but don’t have any background? Don’t sweat it! Go for it.

Jessie Pressman is the CEO & Founder of Bite Size Learning, which produces five minute e-learning videos that teach tech concepts and sales acumen. Prior to her entrepreneurial endeavor, she was a record breaking sales rep, manager and executive in the Tech Staffing space, where she also created and ran both sales mentoring and tech training for their nationwide team.

Brazen powers real-time, online events for leading organizations around the world. Our lifestyle and career blog, Brazen Life, offers fun and edgy ideas for ambitious professionals navigating the changing world of work.

2015 Workplace Trends

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 05:49:44 +0000

Dan Schawbel is the the founder of Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y research and management consulting firm. He also wrote the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future, now in 13 languages.

He has some interesting predictions for workplace trends in 2015 in Forbes.com:

Every year I give my top ten workplace trend predictions for the upcoming year. You can read my predictions from 2013 and 2014 if you missed them. My objective is to capture all the research and insights that I have tracked through hundreds of studies released by my company and third parties each year, pulling the most significant trends from everything. The highest level trends are the skills gap, workers dropping out of the corporate system, the use of automation and outsourcing and the pressure for companies to get more lean. All of these factors have created a system where everyone is always under pressure to stay relevant, choose degrees that turn into jobs and constantly reinvent themselves. While there are a lot of obstacles to the 2015 workplace, there are also a lot of major opportunities with millions of boomers retiring and more remote working. Below are my top ten predictions for the workplace for 2015.

2015-workplace-trends

1. Companies hiring Generation Z for internships.

While many companies are still trying to understand and connect with Gen Y (or millennials), some companies are going to be heavily invested in the upcoming generation, Gen Z. Gen Z’s, born between 1994 and 2010, will become a major target for companies looking to recruit interns next year. The oldest Gen Z will be a senior in college in 2015. In addition, more companies are going to be recruiting high school students for their internship programs, including Deloitte, Microsoft, Rackspace and Lockheed Martin. In a study earlier this year, we found that half of employers are either currently accepting applications from high school students for internships or plan to this year. Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn and VMware are already paying high school students thousands of dollars to be interns and next year more companies will jump on board. This is happening for two major reasons: 1) companies are trying to close the skills gap (STEM) 2) companies are desperately trying to compete for the very best talent so they have to build brand awareness early and that means high school.

2. More millennials are taking leadership roles.

A few years ago, PayScale.com and my company found that nearly 13% of all millennials in America were managers already. That number is expected to grow in 2015 as millennials become the largest percentage of the workforce for the very first time. In a new study between my company and Elance oDesk, we found that 27% of millennials are already managers, 5% are senior management and 2% are executives. In 10 years, 47% want to be managers or senior managers, 7% want to be executives and 15% want to be business owners. Ernst & Young has also helped identify this trend by reviewing their own workforce composition and finding that 59% of their managers are already millennials and 18% are senior managers. 90% of all millennials who are managers took their role in the past five years. In another study by CareerBuilder, they found that 38% of the workforce is already managed by millennials and that’s already caused a few problems including favoritism towards other millennials and them thinking they know more than older workers. The problem these new managers are having is that they are unprepared for the positions. They were never trained on how to be good managers and are being pushed into these roles out of necessity – companies are losing older workers and positions are opening up fast.

3. Honesty becomes a revered leadership trait.

Companies are going to start embracing transparency more next year as younger generations are demanding it. Leaders won’t just have to be good at inspiring and educating, they will have to be able to instill trust through honesty. In a recent study, we found that 52% of Gen Z’s and Gen Y’s state that honesty is the most important quality for being a good leader. One companies that has exhibited the art of transparency is Whole Foods. Their company policy is that all employees can easily look up salary or bonus data from the previous year. It’s only natural that people would want to work under leaders who are open about what the company is doing, where it’s heading in the future and give honest feedback regularly. Social media is continuing to push companies to be more open and for leaders to share more of their activities on a daily basis.

4. The skills gap continues to widen.
If you ask any HR executive what their biggest challenges are, the skills gap is typically unanimously noted. I’ve been paying close attention to this trend over the past few years and the gap is actually widening instead of closing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were 4.7 million job openings in June and more than half of employers say that they can’t find qualified candidates. This issue will progress until the college curriculum aligns with the current job marketplace. This year, we found that only 2% of companies are recruiting liberal arts majors but schools still offer those degrees. Companies need to start working with colleges so that students get the necessary skills to fill the gap. Read More

Top Medical Jobs for Career Growth and High Pay

admin — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 10:32:01 +0000

With the continuously expanding and aging population, and the advent of the Affordable Care Act, there has never been a greater demand for healthcare professional. While the need for pretty much every health job is estimated to increase in the next few years, there are some jobs that are in more demand than others.

Andrea Santiago writes in this About.com Careers article about the top medical jobs for career growth and high pay.

Top Medical Jobs – Career Growth and High Pay for Top Medical Jobs

By Andrea Santiago

Health Careers Expert

There are hundreds, if not thousands of different types of medical jobs. Healthcare is the largest industry, showing the highest amount of growth of any other field, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employing 14 million people in 2006, the healthcare industry is projected to add about three million more jobs by 2016, according to the BLS.

Below are a few top medical jobs based on projected percentage of job growth, as well as number of jobs, compensation, and quality of life. The medical jobs on this list offer the highest degree of one of these factors, or a strong balance of several factors. All the included medical jobs are in very high demand and experiencing significant growth, due to the aging population, and advancements in health care.

Medical Assistant

Jobs Jobs

Nursing Jobs Available

Home Health Aide Jobs

Non CDL Driver Jobs

Nurse:

Nursing makes up the largest portion of the medical workforce, at over 15%, with over 2.5 million nurses nationwide working in healthcare. Registered nursing is projected to grow by 25% for the ten year period ending in 2016.

There are so many different types of nurses, and so many different places that nurses can work, making it a very hot medical job. There are nursing jobs for high school graduates, college graduates, and those with advanced degrees, each offering varying levels of responsibility and compensation.

Top Nursing Jobs

Nursing Career Profile

Physician:

Despite experiencing a bit of a financial squeeze caused by managed care and insurance companies, doctors still continue to have the highest earning potential by far over all other health care professionals. In some areas, doctors have to work harder and see more patients to earn the highest pay, but they still are able to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Surgeons and specialists earn the most money, sometimes well over half a million dollars. The number of physicians is projected to grow by 17% by the year 2016, according to the BLS.

Physician career profile

Surgeon career profile

Allied Health – Medical Technicians, Technologists and Assistants:

Many allied health careers are well-paid, and in high demand. Therefore, if you have an associate’s degree, or a four-year college degree, you can choose from a wide variety of nearly 100 allied health careers.

Medical Assistants are projected to see a whopping 36.1% growth by the year 2016, according to the BLS. This extremly high growth, plus the flexibility and versatility of the medical assistant role makes it a great option for many. Additionally, medical assisting requires minimal educational prerequisites, making it a top allied profession.

Allied health career profile

Medical assistants career profile

Medical Office Administrative and Support Jobs:

As a whole, medical support roles and administrative roles make up a whopping 18% of all jobs in the healthcare industry, which is why these jobs are amongst the top medical jobs. Also, most of these jobs require little to no college coursework which is a big perk. Therefore, they don’t pay as high, but they are in great demand and many jobs continue to be available.

Medical transcriptionists are not the fastest growing of all the support roles, yet they are slated to experience a 10.5% growth, which is still very strong. Due to the great flexibility of medical transcription jobs, the work-from-home capabilities, and the relatively short training requirements, medical transcription is a hot administrative role.

Medical transcription career profile

Medical Receptionists are another top support job, with growth of over 22% projected by the BLS.

Home Health and Hospice Care:

Home health, including in-home hospice care and home health aides for the elderly and disabled, are set to experience a whopping 50+% growth! According to the BLS, this is the single most rapidly growing segment of the healthcare industry, earning Home Health a spot amongst the top medical jobs.

Home Health Care

What is hospice care?

Hospice Jobs