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Ask HN: Stories of breaking into tech without a tech background?

7 points by marginalcodex ↗ HN
Has anyone on here transitioned into working in the tech/start up world without a tech background (specifically, for a non-tech role)?

I'd love to hear stories about the transition.

2 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 14.1 ms ] thread
itamarst
Austin Gunter wrote a great book about how to do exactly that, "The Liberal Arts Techie: How to Break into your First Startup Job" ( https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Arts-Techie-Break-Startup-ebo...) based on his personal experiences.

More about Austin: http://www.austingunter.com/

He's a coworker, full disclosure, but it's a good book that I paid for with my own money.

austingunter
Hey Itamar, thanks for sharing this.

I definitely started with zero tech experience (and perhaps some ambivalence towards the industry), and build a career out of not much. - Graduated with a writing degree at the height of the 2008-2009 recession - Very minimal business experience - No clue about tech, startups, or entrepreneurship

What I ended up doing was writing job descriptions at startup companies, selling my ability to do content marketing and community marketing until one hired me. Then I did it again 2 years later, got hired again, and then moved to San Francisco to help open a satellite office.

The rest is history.

I wrote more about how other people can create tech jobs from nothing in the book Itamar mentions, and if you want a high level look, the following blog post will be useful:

http://www.austingunter.com/2016/09/biggest-business-lesson-...

Thanks for reading, and I hope all of the above is useful!