Curious about switching to a career in tech? Here’s how I did it!

Editor’s note: The following post was written by SharePoint MVP Paul Olenick. Thanks Paul!

Over the years I've had many conversations with folks who were curious about pursuing a career in technology but lamented the fact that they did not have a technical background or degree. These people are typically asking me for advice because I've been there. That was my story. Having no training or background in technology, I've built a successful career in a relatively short amount of time. In fact, in some very real ways, the fact that I don't have a tech background has actually been a valuable advantage. I'd like to share my story and some of the insights I've gained along the way, including key traits and activities that have contributed to my success.

I have a degree in jazz trombone (ok, you can stop laughing now) from the Manhattan School of Music. Both before, during and after college I played music as my primary source of income. And I was not technical - not even as a hobby. These days, if you do a search for me on Amazon you’ll find jazz CDs and SharePoint books!

My introduction to tech came from an unexpected source. As many musicians in New York City do, I would sometimes take temp jobs to smooth out the ebbs and flows of a musician's income. At one point my temp gig was working as a Desktop Publisher for a large investment bank. I was basically responsible for creating presentation materials for bankers and I became an expert in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and I learned to type very fast (all skills that continue to serve me well every day!). The files I worked with included many macros (automated steps) that would allow you to, for example, click a button and build a chart in the standard format and size for the bank. One day I became curious how the macros worked and via a book (VBA for Dummies if I recall) and the internet, taught myself how to create my own macros. For me, the first time I created a little "hello world" program, I was hooked! I became the guy that people turned to when they needed to troubleshoot our macros. I soon made friends with the folks who created the macros and finally asked to be transferred into their department (which I was). So just like that I became a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) developer. I still knew literally almost nothing, but in my late twenties I had started my path toward a career in technology despite having no credentials and no training.

I want to pause for a moment here to share 10 key traits and activities that I believe are for important for embarking on a tech career, especially when you don't have the background.

1. Trial by fire is your friend - Don't be afraid of learning new things on the job. In this great video (at 33:30), Liz Wiseman (leadership teacher and researcher) says to "spend zero time in jobs that you are qualified for". I cannot tell you how many times I've signed on for things that I'm completely unqualified for but managed to deliver in the end. Most of us humans are highly motivated not to fail, so I encourage you (within reason) to commit yourself to things that sound out of your reach. I bet you'll rise to the challenge!

2. Be your own teacher - There are books, blogs, videos, whitepapers and more on just about anything that you're likely to try for the first time. Go out and try them. Don't wait for someone to offer you training. Don't feel like you have to attend an expensive course just to learn something. I've seen so many people fall into this trap and they remain stagnant. Or worse, they go and get the expensive training and still don't feel confident. Just motivate to learn on your own.

3. Don't be afraid to ask for help - This may sound contradictory to the previous bullet, but it's not. Don't expect others to teach you things, but for sure you should lean on friends, colleagues, people you meet at user groups, discussion boards, etc. to give you short cuts, point you to articles, provide sample code, tools and tricks. I don't think I've ever met a developer that would turn down a beer if I offered it to them in exchange for picking their brain!

4. You have to care - It may sound obvious, but you have to care. When I let my team down or am late on a deliverable, it really gets to me. I can't sleep and I won't rest until it's fixed. Operating from this space drives you to do your best and people will take notice. If you don't care, find something else that you do care about and do that.

5. Communicate well - This is the most important piece of advice I would give to anyone entering the professional world, regardless of the industry. It's just absolutely crucial to be able to express yourself clearly and confidently. If you can't present your work, provide solid documentation or perform any of the other countless activities that require strong communication skills in the tech industry, at best you'll be a "behind-the-scenes" resource because you can't be trusted to talk to clients or senior resources. The coolest thing about this is that just by being a strong communicator you'll be a huge asset to any team even if you're a rookie on the technical side.

6. Be curious -If youstruggle to get something working, don't be satisfied just to get it functioning. Push yourself to understand the "whys". It will make you very valuable in future projects. I promise.

7. Show up on time - Again, not unique to technology but as someone coming to the profession late, you need every advantage. Show up early and don't leave until you're done. You'll quickly learn that in tech, any day can become an all-nighter. All it takes is a production system failing unexpectedly. Do it with a smile on your face. Staying cool in those situations will earn you a well-deserved good reputation.

8. Seize every opportunity - Especially in the beginning, say yes to anything that comes your way. Go to user groups and volunteer to help run them or speak at them. Take on side projects. Be the technical editor of an article. You're getting a late start, so density of experience is important!

9. Share with the world - As you embark on learning about technology, start a blog and share your experiences. First, it's a great way to help you remember things you've figured out. Your blog acts as your personal tech diary. Second, it's a fun and easy way to build your reputation. Lastly, you'll end up helping a lot of people who are also trying to learn. Don't feel that just because you're not an expert or genius yet that you can't post content. Your blogs don't have to be groundbreaking. You may help someone simply by explaining something covered elsewhere, but in a new way.

10. Engage in continuous study - Recognize that in technology things are moving very fast. You'll need to stay ahead of the technology curve if you want to remain relevant and employable. This is one of the reasons that you must have a passion for technology, because you must be driven to learn continuously for the rest of your career!

I think as you continue to read about my experiences, you'll find that I applied many of these 10 attributes and activities which ended up being critical to my successes.

Getting back to my story, one of the music agencies that I performed with knew that I did something with computers and asked if I could create a program for them to organize all their musicians, gigs, customers and contracts. Again, I accepted before I even knew what I was getting myself into. I did some requirements gathering (as well as I knew how to anyways) and called a couple of friends for advice, and they all thought an Access database was the way to go. This worked out because Access allows you to program in VBA which I already knew how to do from my macros. But I had never done anything on this scale. It was very challenging, but I bought a few books and relied on Microsoft documentation, blogs and articles on the internet. I learned so much on this project. Designing usable forms, database design, database queries, code organization, writing documentation and more. I was the one man show, so I got exposure to every aspect of the process. Funny enough, I just heard from the customer last week and he was talking about how great the database was still running. That thing is over twelve years old, written by a complete novice, but it just works and they're completely thrilled with it!

Next is where my story starts to heat up. As I was wrapping up the music database project, a friend of mine told me I should learn something called SharePoint. He said it was the next big thing and that if I learned it he could probably help me get some good paying projects. He gave me a book to borrow that day which was an intro to SharePoint. The following day I read the first two chapters. He called me the day after that and asked if I would take a gig as a SharePoint developer. Of course, I said yes. For this one, I had to make it through a tech interview which was incredibly nerve wracking. I was shaking in my boots, but I had crammed really hard and eked my way through the interview. As a developer I was responsible for writing custom SharePoint web parts mostly. My first day on the job was the first time I had opened Visual Studio. I knew how to write some code from my VBA experience, but I literally didn’t know where to type the code on my first day. I spent the next few weeks absolutely sweating through my shirt, working long, hard hours during the day and staying up all night reading SharePoint and C# books. I also had a few friends with more experience on speed dial for when I really got stuck. Talk about a learning curve! Ultimately I got the web parts created successfully and learned more than you can imagine during the process.

After that experience, I felt I really had the background in tech to navigate more confidently going forward. By taking advantage of opportunities and manufacturing my own experience, prospective employers no longer questioned whether I had a computer science degree or not. I had developed real world experience and a proven track record. I went on to take an in-house job running SharePoint for a large law firm. I then went on to do a lot of SharePoint consulting and became passionate about sharing my experiences through contributing to books, writing blogs, speaking at events and eventually was surprised and honored to find out I had been nominated for the Microsoft MVP award for SharePoint. Receiving that award was, and continues to be, incredibly meaningful and validating for me. Through sweat and hard-earned experience I'm now at a place in my career where I find people looking to me for guidance. I've had the opportunity to speak at conferences world-wide, write articles and books for publishers that I used to read when I was just getting started and more. I'm now the Director of Product Innovation for a thriving software company - a role that I couldn't be more excited about. Not bad for a trombonist!

I've met many others out there who have had unusual paths that led them to careers in technology. I certainly don't mean to imply that I'm unique in that regard. But I've met even more who assume that they can't get into the industry just because they don't have experience today. Or people who think they need to go back to school and go into debt but I’m here to tell you that this just isn’t the case. When I look back at my path from knowing almost nothing to today it's gone by in a flash (though it's actually been over 10 years). In closing, I want to share some observations that I've made while navigating my personal path in technology.

1. It has been an advantage not having a background in technology. The biggest way that this manifests itself is that it allows me to be audacious in my technology career. This is because I still identify as a musician first. So, subconsciously, I think that I know if I fail at something in technology I'll be able to brush it off because I'm really “just a musician”. Whereas if I failed on something related to music I'd probably be devastated. This has proved to be a neat and very valuable “trick”!

2. In my experience, technology is more of a meritocracy than with some other professions. For example, I can't just be good at arguing law. I need to have a law degree to be a lawyer. With technology, that's not the case. Yes, you need experience but that's easy enough to come by if you're motivated. Volunteer to build someone's website or build out a small company's network for cheap. Do an internship, etc. In my experience, no one cares if you have the degree as long as you can deliver.

3. There are many in tech who don't have great people skills (stereotypical, but I think true too). Allow great "soft skills" to be your differentiator. If you can build rapport, communicate effectively and come off as a pretty together person, you're going to do well in most interviews, build trust with customers and generally succeed. You can always cram for the technical stuff!

4. Not everything in tech is technical! There is business analyst work, technical writing, project management, product management and a lot more. If you feel a calling to the industry, but are daunted by the technical side, look into these less technical roles.

I hope that my story may give courage to someone contemplating a career change. It's a wonderfully vibrant industry with a great sense of community that always seems to make room for passionate and sincere people. I would also encourage you to read Melissa Travers inspiring and, at times harrowing story about how she changed careers and landed in technology!

 

Paul Olenick (SharePoint MVP, V-TSP) is Director of Product Innovation for AvePoint Client Services with more than 13 years of IT experience in areas such as development, administration, architecture, and solution design in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2013. He is a recognized Microsoft expert, having been named a Microsoft SharePoint Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2012, 2013 and 2014, a Microsoft Virtual Technical Solutions Professional (V-TSP), and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCT). Paul has been dedicated exclusively to SharePoint since 2006 and has a special interest and deep expertise in Enterprise Search. Paul has helped clients worldwide solve business problems by leveraging SharePoint and Enterprise Search, and shares his experiences with the greater SharePoint community by contributing to books, blogging at https://olenicksharepoint.com, and speaking at industry events. Paul is a seasoned speaker and presenter, having led sessions at two SharePoint Conferences (2012 & 2014) as well as local events such as SharePoint Saturdays, and numerous user groups.  Follow him on Twitter @olenickSP