“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs
People ask me all the time about the best ways to get a job in SEO, and the tech industry in general. I don’t pretend to have a perfect “how-to” guide for landing your dream role, but my experience working for tech companies in three different countries – Ireland, Argentina and Brazil – has allowed me to gain some insights into this process. In this article I’ve compiled the advice which I’ve picked up along the way about how to find the right job for you in today’s tech industry.
Firstly, let’s make a distinction between: a) someone who is just starting out in their career, and is looking for an entry-level position; b) someone who is already active in the tech sector, and is looking to leverage this experience; and c) someone with professional experience in one or more other sectors, who is looking to enter the tech sector for the first time.
This article is aimed mainly at people whose careers are just getting started. But those of you who fall into categories b) and c) should take note too. As we enter a singularity in which the speed of innovation becomes exponential and nigh-on unstoppable, we are all “lifetime learners” now. Regardless of age or experience, we need to brush up on our existing skills and learn new ones all the time. In fact, in my opinion this is the most important skill anyone can have, no matter what role you end up with. Things are changing so quickly – in tech and elsewhere – that we need to keep learning at all times just to break even. It’s a daunting prospect, but I believe that the day when you tell yourself that your learning is complete is the day when you stop growing and progressing.
When your career is just beginning, everything is worthwhile. Literally any job can have its benefits. My first job, at the age of 14, was on my aunt’s luggage ship. I learned valuable lessons there about how to deal with the public, which I still use to this day.
One of the most common mistakes I see these days among people starting out in the job market is the urge to go very specific, very early on. In my opinion, real experience comes from immersing yourself in all sorts of different disciplines and ways of working. Ideally, later in life you’ll be able to translate all this experience into specific, highly valuable skills. But at the start of one’s career, I’d recommend looking for roles or companies which will give you plenty of opportunities for learning, and senior management figures who are happy to assist in this process. This can often mean placing learning and the accumulation of experience – the more the better – above concerns like salary or status, at least at first.
There are four major skills which I consider to be “universal”, but which are all too often overlooked. These skills are crucial no matter what profession you want to work in and, sadly, they are not taught in formal places of learning, at least not officially. The four “universal skills” which are required in any sphere, and particularly in my line of work, are: Sales, Communication, Tech and Analytics:
- We all work in Sales. Or, to put it another way: we all strive to get our ideas in front of the right audience, and convince them of our point of view, at some point during our professional lives, and particularly when getting started. Anyone who has ever taken part in a job interview will know the feeling! This does not mean that you need to hoodwink others in order to get the job you want: as Dan Pink, author of “To Sell is Human” and one of the finest sales minds I know, puts it: “To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources – not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.”
- As for Communication, these are skills – from speaking in public to writing emails – which are vital in nearly every role, and will be used every single day. So it makes sense to start building these skills up as early as possible.
- We also work in a world that is governed by Tech. Any specialised skills which you can acquire in your own time are bound to come in handy and help you develop a greater understanding of technology as a whole, which will in turn boost your prospects of employment. One of the best investments I ever made was in a 16-hour HTML course, ten years ago. Experts say HTML is the alphabet of the internet, and this one simple course taught me the basics of code, which have served me well ever since.
- Finally, by Analysis I mean the ability to understand numbers, and tell a story using pure data. Focus on the importance of numbers in order to avoid the HiPPO effect, where evidence-based decision-making is discarded in favour of the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (or “HiPPO”).
Acquiring a balanced blend of these four skills will get you in the running for just about any job in the tech sector. I am not suggesting that you drop everything and learn Java or Python from scratch, although of course these skills are useful to have. What I would suggest is to start by focusing on building a foundation that is based on these four universal skills – bearing in mind that specific technical skills, acquired at a later date, will enable you to thrive in the digital industry 30 years from now, when tech will be no doubt be markedly different than it is now.
So for me, the key for people starting out in the tech sector is to focus on acquiring learning. As for where exactly to start – in my opinion, the optimal place is on the borderline of two universal skills. I think of SEO as being at the intersection between Communication and Technology, for example.
One question which I’m frequently asked by jobseekers is: how do I get a job if I need experience, and the only way to gain experience is by getting a job? It’s a well-known conundrum, but it can be solved using patience and a little lateral thinking.
These days, the informal job market and the gig economy provide a great alternative to their more formal equivalent. Sites like Fiverr offer the chance to build up experience working for real clients on small jobs, without the need for a stacked CV or professional references. While I value formal qualifications, and believe they definitely have a place in learning, I favour real life experience every time. The informal job market is a great place to pick up real “game time” as you start to plan your career.
I am an SEO guy, and the discipline is very close to my heart. And as I see it, the only way to learn SEO is by trial and error. Depending on the relationships which you develop with your clients, and under the right supervision, this can occur in an agency or in-house. But my tip for those just starting out is to set up your own WordPress site, install Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and just try things out. This is how I learnt SEO, and all the best SEO professionals I know still use this technique to test sites and experiment.
As you can see, I’m not advocating a university degree in digital marketing, or a BA or MA (although, full disclosure: I have a Masters in Marketing Science). What I would recommend is going in search of real experience. Unfortunately, a lot of companies in the tech sector still use university degrees and other formal qualifications as filtering mechanisms during interviews. In my opinion, this is an old-fashioned approach, and I hope that with time this will change. We only need to look at today’s big tech billionaires and founders to see how university degrees are not necessarily a byword for success in this dynamic and ever-changing industry. As Mark Twain once said, “whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Credentials and degrees will only ever get your foot in the door, anyway. It is real-life experience and attitude that will get you all the way through, and ultimately determine your future success.
As for how you should approach the job search itself, in my experience it’s all about the “Double D’s”: Definition and Deliverables.
Before you even get started, you should seek to define exactly what sort of job you want. What are your goals, and what are your “deal-breakers”? This can cover everything from vacation policy, to job location, to attitudes towards working from home. Define what you want and focus on that. This strategy requires you to assess both your specific skill set, and your precise objectives at that moment.
Secondly, it’s no secret that looking for a job can be a long and dispiriting ordeal, often with very little light at the end of the tunnel. From personal experience, the best way to get over this hump is to focus on deliverables. These should give you a clear idea of the progress that you are making in your search. Deliverables can be things like “emailing X people this week”, or “completing Y applications today”. Setting specific goals and milestones like these turns your job search into an active process, rather than a passive one, making it more manageable and therefore more likely to pay off.
Finally, if you reach one dead end too many, you should consider changing the way you carry out a job search altogether. Focus more on your network, and less on unsolicited emails to faceless HR departments. As bestselling journalist Malcolm Gladwell pointed out – in reference to Mark Granovetter’s classic 1974 study “Getting a Job” – most people get their job thanks to a personal connection, notwithstanding their particular skill set and qualifications. So leverage your connections and your network. And make sure you have a killer LinkedIn profile, as this is the online networking tool of choice today.
Job-seeking in the tech world can be frustrating, and there is no perfect formula for landing your dream job. But there are several steps you can take right now which experience has shown to be worthwhile, no matter what industry you end up working in. Hopefully this advice will be useful to those of you who are just getting started… and those of you who are a little further down the path as well!