Welcome to this short session on landing your first job in tech as a mid career transition. Uh There are three things I'd like to walk you through today and they usually fall in the category of threats.Um But, but a series of interviews that I ran recently with some successful career transitioners revealed some um strategies. So some tactics really that they used to not just turn, turn them around these threads, but also to tame them and ultimately to convert them into opportunities that they leveraged in order to land their first job in tech. Now in our 20 minutes together under the sun, I'd like to share with you these three threads and then the uh tried and true approach is that the people I spoke with used in order to bypass them and to get their foot in the door. Now, very quickly, my name is Jana. I'm the founder of transition into tech.com of platform designed to uh help mid career professionals transition to a tech role. Explore a role in tech. I work to serve mostly people in their thirties, forties and even beyond um who are out of a job or about to lose theirs.

Uh Either because of technology or more recently because of the pandemic and, or, or we simply just need to, uh, uh, we need to do over in their career for whatever reason. Now, since we have very little time and a whole lot to talk about, I suggest we skip the formalities and get started straight away and I'd like to get started with this number here. This is the number that represents the percentage of jobs that never get that literally do not see the light of day, the hidden job mark market, the, the the the main threat to mid career transitioners as they attempt to land their first job. These are jobs that are filled through informal um informal hiring and what I I can almost hear you say what now and what this means, the informal hiring means that recruiters sometimes often prefer to recruit either via word of mouth via internal hiring or unsolicited spontaneous applications.

So basically the word of mouth uh is when um recruiters tap into their uh networks for referrals for their positions, for the openings, internal hiring when the company reaches out to current employees trying to get them to bring on board, friends and family. And they sometimes they don't, they don't only encourage them verbally, they encourage them financially as well. And also by accepting, by accepting unsolicited and spontaneous applications for the roles uh that bef before they even publish the roles. Now I want to take, um, I want you to take this in and, and, uh, uh, really remember these because there in like, uh, lies the, the opportunity. Um, but I'll come back to that to that in a second for now. We'll move on to the second thread. Which is this, the, um, African tracking system, the dreaded African tracking system? This is, um, when, when employers publish a vacancy, chances are that as a mid career transition, you, you will never even be considered because you, you, you'll have trouble getting through.

Um, this, this is a piece of software that basically scans applications and um, um, filters out all the ones that it thinks uh to be irrelevant based on criteria that the employers set out uh as they were configuring the, the system for a specific position. Now, you have to be find that this elimination is both permanent and automatic. Uh meaning that your application, if it's not optimized to, to be able to be uh to, to, to come up in these searches, um, you'll never reach the uh desk or in our case in these days, the screen of a, of a recruiter. So basically, you really don't stand a chance as in zero. And this is because it's, it's a story of percentages when they configure their uh positions in the applicant tracking system, they give a number of criteria. And if your application does not meet a certain percentage, you know, does not match a certain percentage of those uh c of the, of that, of those criteria. Uh Basically yours will be uh purged from the system and will never be seen. Thirdly. Oops. Oops. Yeah. Uh thirdly, uh and I only mention this briefly because we are up to here, you know, hearing about it and thinking about it and you guess I'm talking about COVID and I'm so done with it. In fact that I didn't even prepare a slide for this.

But it is important to note however, that um it, it's worth mentioning because it's already changed the workplace in more ways than one. And we're likely, we, we likely haven't even seen the end of that. And what certain already that is that it's a changed um recruitment forever because we're seeing these statistics that say, uh good, good part of the workforce is really willing to leave their jobs to, to quit their jobs if they don't get to work remotely, if they're asked to come back to the office full time.

And so that what that means down the road is that as we've seen happen with the low skilled jobs this far that move from one part of the world to another, which was good news for some and bad news for others. Uh This is likely to happen to hire uh skilled uh positions including tech roles and uh again, bad news for some and good news for others. But the important thing is that in order to be able to, to stay afloat, uh, whichever end of the equation we stand on, we need to stay informed and to be able to adjust at the minute notice. Really? Now is all of that cool. Uh, we could, uh, roll our eyes and go. That's not fair. And, you know, we throw a rant, I mean, France. So we know about rants here. Uh, but trust me, those won't get us, um, that those won't get you very far. What would get you very far is, um, if you could turn this around and think of it as an opportunity to think of these three threats as actual, uh, actually your, your tickets out of, uh, jobs, not out of job search, but uh, your boarding tickets for landing your uh dream job.

And that's because the 80% I mean, if we think of the hidden jobs when you look at a list of jobs and you don't find your ideal position there, that just means that it's not, it's not that it not there. It's just that maybe it's not published. So it's there, there's a glimmer of hope for you. And if we look at the applicant tracking system, um, the expression that you need to remember is that if you cannot get, uh in through the door, try and get in through the window because with just a few tweaks in your approach, you can game the system more since we're at a tech conference, you can hack the system.

Now, finally, uh, so with CO ID, the opportunity really is that, um, you no longer need to justify a change, uh, everybody's lives and careers have been upended. So now you have the perfect opportunity to go for your dream position and to just to just do what you want really. But more importantly, if you look at, if you choose to look at this as opportunity rather than um a threat, um If you follow the tips that I'll give you in a second, uh chances are you'll, you'll be able to make the most of um what's out there for you because not everybody is aware of the reality as I've um highlighted it to you now.

And of those who are not everybody uh acts upon it and of those who do not everybody uh does it well. So that means that if, if you see what I'm, where I'm going, um basically, you're already ahead of the game. So without further ado, let's move into the first uh tip that I've collected from the interviews that I've run. Um The first one is, don't wait until you're ready because you're never, you never are. And if you are, you never know. And plus it's not really your job to know if you're ready. Uh This one comes from Sy who transitioned from uh English teacher to web developer in just uh eight months, eight months in, he saw an ad, he liked the company, he liked the uh road. And he, even though it was a, uh an, an ad for a senior web developer, he figured, why don't I just write an email and explain my situation which he did. And uh fast forward a few days he got invited to an interview. And eventually he uh his um employer, he now employers told him that they just want to meet the person who, uh, basically said, I don't do any of the things that you want me to, but please give me the job anyway. Um, they did hire him and he's there three years in and, uh, he's still growing and it turns out that the, the fit was as good as, uh, he thought it would be, uh, by the way, you can find Sykes story on transition to tech.com as you can other, uh, stories that I have published and I will publish in the coming months and weeks.

Um, now don't get me wrong. I don't mean for you to, I, I don't mean to say that you should, uh, start applying as soon as you see. Hello, World printed on your screen for the first time. Um, I, I definitely don't mean for that. What I mean is, um, don't aim for perfection because that will never happen. And if it does, it certainly won't be while you sit at home waiting for it to come, it'll be, I if you advance, it'll be because you've got a job and started to actually use those skills and uh build on them. Um In Sykes case, that meant understanding, you know, having a good, good understanding of HTML and CS S a decent uh grasp on javascript and uh javascript uh framework and uh some projects on his github. And remember this transitioning, it's a whole lot more than just uh the skills. It's um it's the interacting with the employers that will really shape your path. And um so apply early, apply a lot and keep detailed notes on the, on everything that you learn with each experience because you'll find that they're looking for this, a specific piece of tech that you weren't aware of and you didn't know it was important on the job market.

And so when you go back home, you can start working on it or you can find out about the industry, which will put you in a better position when you see your next uh um interviewer. And just, you know, uh bottom line is that it will just make you more comfortable in the um interviewee seat. So that when you do get to the point where you are there to interview for the position for you, you're ready for it. Um a word to the wise, however, um do go with at, at first go in without um expectations, you know, the low expectations, low uh disappointment thing because uh chances are you will not land your first job with your first application. The important thing is to participate and to take a moment to reflect on your experience and then extract the lessons that you can learn uh in order to have a better second interview and so on. Now, the uh um this is where you can find uh the two stories so far and where the other ones will appear down the road. Now, the second thing, um I'm not gonna um uh spend a lot of time here because the internet abounds on advice from much more qualified people than me on how to uh how important it is to build stuff and how, you know how to go about doing it.

But what I'd like to say that if you're working to become a web dev, for instance, as soon as you know, your basics put them to use small projects, bigger projects, um don't get stuck in tutorial limbo because um however useful tutorials are, it's really they, they, they just give you an illusion of progress and of growth and of competence and the operative word there being illusion, right?

Um They don't even, I mean, the the the project that you built, you don't even have to be fancy. They can just, they just need to show that you're learning and you're continuously improving and um give, give recruiters a sense of your uh mental processes or, or how your mind works because that is what they're after. So, whichever way you go, whether you decide to build a project uh to fix a problem that you observed in the world or if you just go for the all these. But gold is uh kind of strategy where you recreate existing pro uh projects like, you know, a basic tactile or uh uh I don't know body mass index calculator or a currency converter, whichever way you go, the trick is to start early and start small using the skills that you have already mastered.

But and this is important uh allow or even force yourself to think be on that, think of, of features that you can possibly, you could possibly, you could hopefully do tomorrow or next week or next month, next year. So that because this will guide you your, your learning and then you can come back, you, you go out and learn what's needed for that new feature and then you come back and um improve your project. And hopefully, if you, if you host your project, if you, if you uh have it on gith hub, not only will you implicitly or get really good at managing versions and understanding how github works. But it also um it also give you uh a really important raw materials to discuss to, to go over with potential employers during interviews. Another way is to put your skills to use in um real life situations is to volunteer your time uh to contribute to open source and get in the involved in hackathons. And I've detailed these in uh some articles that you're welcome to check out uh after the session if you have time. Now, the next thing that you need to uh do and this is my favorite.

Uh my, my, my, if there's one thing that I'd like you to take away at the end of this is to document your journey to properly document, um your journey can bring countless and for the most part unique uh benefits. This is really helpful because it makes others like recruiters find you more easily and it makes them think that you're competent and likable. And on the other hand, when you encounter the imposter syndrome down the road, which we've heard so much about uh over these days, it will be so helpful to you to be able to go through your notes and feel. Yes. Uh There is progress and look how far I've come. How do you do that? Well, you, you like sy, did he put some time aside and started writing articles reflecting on his journey. Um He uh uh actively and publicly uh participated in communities and I couldn't encourage you more to, to get involved in uh relevant communities, um you know, for beginning co and so on and um then uh really, you, you know, use a lot of hashtags and just, just make sure that whenever people search for um something related to the specific tech, you're, you, you're working on uh for the specific path that you are, what you want to embark on that your name comes up.

Um Right. So what else? Uh again, an article that details that further and then the, the other thing is to network uh a lot. Well, maybe uh that's not the most appropriate, maybe that or even that, uh either way the point is not to start attending uh events uh galore and uh give out your business cards like this. It's more about, um and, and this is an extension on a previous point, attend events that are heavily anchored in the field you're interested in and um write about the experience both on a professional and on a personal level. Go for small scale events uh that for the most part like meetups and developer groups where you get to interact with people for real. And um uh my, my favorite illustration of this comes from David whose story you can also find on the, on on the site. He, he saw an ad uh uh uh uh an article, a piece of news from uh in the newspaper saying that the company that he, he liked had a uh a private event in a hotel. So he uh put on his jeans and his t-shirt and had it on.

And, um, you know, he was asked why he's there and he said, I just care so much about your company and I would like to, to know more, um, turns out that the person who was talking to him was the founder. Uh, and, uh, fast forward a week, um, he was on the job, he had been offered a place uh, on the spot. Um, now, does that mean start crashing events like that? Hm. Possibly not, but just to find your way and, and make the most of what you are and what, who, what you can do and then lastly, uh, leverage the whole U and, uh, that really means, um, that while you might not be the youngest or the most skilled candidate, you have a lot of experience.

And I would just like to point you to this to, um, reading about the company and not stopping there, read about the comp the competitors and about the product and, uh, about what sets them apart, what their strengths are and try to pick the, um, employer apart before you see them, read about the industry, about their vertical and understand the stakes where the, is the industry going and so on?

Are, um, w what's their situation as a, you know, as regards the future of work? Is, are they going to be ok? Um What, what's the story there? And finally think about your role, how can you bring value to them as a business? Not just uh in your little role, but how can your life experience, your stack of um soft skills. How can all of that really um go towards placing you, giving you a seat at the table? Um And really, hm, we, we see this all the time the companies prefer uh to bring the soft skills on board because the, the tech you can teach now, I think we're running out of time. I just wanted to say, join me on my linkedin and on the site. And also I have uh away for three tickets uh for a sprint sprints are my coaching program that I'd love to share with you to access that just um um join me and re reply to these questions. Have hope you had a good time. I look forward to being in touch and talk to you soon. Bye.