Table of contents
Introduction
This article is a blog post equivalent to David's Twitter thread on landing your first tech role as a newbie. Even though the title seems to suggest that it speaks only to tech newbies, experienced folks have and can apply this approach to get jobs too. The thread was made on 21 February 2023 and there has been some great news so far from those that tried it including UI/UX Designers, Mobile Developers, Web Developers, Software Testers, Data Analysts and Product Designers.
Landing The Jobs
In this article, we'll be discussing (with proof) how to land your first role in tech as a newbie! It’s a trick I’ve tested myself and found to be very effective. There’s a small caveat, but if getting your foot in the door is your goal, you won’t consider it a caveat. Let's get started.
First, I’m neither a tech influencer nor do I claim to know it all. This is something I’ve tried personally that has landed me 2 roles, and seen work for a few friends. There are two sides to this:
Newbies struggling to get their first roles in tech is often due to high competition.
The second most important reason is due to lack of experience. Most companies don’t want to invest time, money and resources into training them, only to lose them once they’ve gained some experience.
So they opt for someone that is already market-ready, instead of risking it with a newbie. This creates an experience paradox where you need the experience to land a job, but need a job to gain the said experience. The solution I came up with was very simple yet effective. I already knew the psychology behind these companies not accepting newbies. So I made a decision.
For this to work, I started looking for start-ups and companies that have less than 20 or 50 employees. You can push it to 100 or more if you’re willing to risk it (I’ll explain why in a minute). I would then look for the CTOs, CEOs, or Hiring Managers/Recruiters.
That's what I did mostly on LinkedIn because it’s easier to find the right info about a company, including the number of employees and the individual roles at the company. Once I found a target company, I would do one of two things, regardless of their hiring status:
I would either send a connection request to those listed above with a certain message attached. But sometimes it takes a while to get feedback, plus there’s a character limit. So I opted for the LinkedIn Premium trial where I get 5 - 10 InMail credits to message anyone on the platform.
The email would contain a very convincing message about myself and my current skillset (I’d also add my resume or CV). Then I would pitch myself to the company, explaining my current experience predicament.
I’d specifically tell them that if their budget did not allow for new hires, I’d be willing to work for free. My only goal was to gain real-world experience (this is the hook that grabs their attention). It’s rare to find someone who is so desperate for work experience that they’d be willing to work for free. This is something most companies won’t turn a blind eye to. Why? Because at this point they have nothing to lose. They’ll be getting an extra hand, and they don’t have to pay for it or so they’d think.
The idea behind picking a startup or company with less number of employees is that they are very flexible when it comes to decision-making. There’s no long hierarchical decision-making process like with bigger companies (which would typically dissuade that contact). The CTO/HR can simply speak to the CEO and a decision is quickly made. Hence, the smaller the more flexible.
Here is a snippet of an actual message I sent and the response I got. As you can see, it works! Why? Because you’ve removed the psychological barrier stopping the company from accepting most newbies… “I’m willing to work for free”. But obviously we all want to get paid right?
Once you have your foot in the door, this is a golden opportunity for you. The trick to getting paid is in proving your worth by making valuable contributions to the company. Whatever you do, go the extra mile to show that you’re worth keeping.
The psychology here is most companies value effort, and appreciate contributions. It is very unlikely that at the end of the month when they’re making payments to employees they’ll overlook someone who has actively been adding value to the company.
If you don’t get compensated after making these contributions after in the first month or two, feel free to quit and go for another company. Either way, you won. You’ve gained valuable experience working in a team and that can never leave you, which you can add to your resume.
Don’t just copy my message snippet, use that as a reference to come up with a better pitch that is well-optimized for your particular situation.
Success Stories
Here are a few proofs of success from different roles in the tech space:
- Software Testing:
- Web Development:
- UI/UX Design:
That's it. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading.
I hope that this article is helpful and you learned something from it. Being a technical writer and content creator I am passionate about sharing my knowledge (including tips and advice) and helping other people achieve their goals, especially those just starting out in tech. You can connect with me on my social media profiles and blogs here.