Tips: Shifting to Tech Company
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
I still remember how hard it was to keep my eyes open in front of my new Ubuntu laptop while trying to figure out something (meaningful) to do. First, it was my first day at my new office, one of the leading tech based hospitality company in Indonesia. And second, it is Ubuntu! For God sake, I suddenly realised that I had taken - installing a software in Windows - for granted all this time, if you know what I mean.
I was the alien at that time, holding a degree in environmental engineering and working experience as environment engineer in one of oil and gas company in Indonesia, but has successfully landed in a land of technology where economy (recently) takes side on. I’m forever grateful for the chance to join as Quality Assurance, the position that I applied for in a company where I’m currently working.
I observe that this cross-field career is not only appear on my CV but also some people that I know. Some of them are trying the new “stream” as they are completed their postgrad study abroad and some other are still struggling to get a chance to jump in.
Up until today, I have more than one friend of mine asking me a question about how do I did it, jump out of my comfort zone and strive to create a new one. So if by any chance you have similar situation with mine, unrelated background with strong interest to work in tech company, here I’m writing you about what to consider before open up your parachute.
Find a strong reason
Getting out of comfort zone is not an easy things to do. In fact, the decision to switch into a totally different industry/position should be based on a solid background. Say it passion, trend analysis, deep curiosity or anything else. Without this, your plan will remain a plan.
Figure out the role that you are willing to apply
Some position or role might be specifically available only on tech based company and some might sounds familiar to you but actually has quite different job description. Quality Assurance for instance, some might misunderstood the job of Quality Assurance here as quality checker for the hotel. Read the job description carefully, get familiar about every function, you can find the organisation pattern along the way of researching.
Seek for the opportunity
As tech business is blooming, you can easily find job opportunities related to it. Find as much opportunity as you can while also take your passion into account when choosing which door of opportunity to knock. Finance, travel, hospitality, commerce, education, etc, there are so many of it!
Look into yourself, not your CV
We should be agree that sometimes our potentials or soft skill is not reflected in our CV perfectly either because of career stagnancy or because we’ve been so deep in explaining our job that it lose its intriguing factor. Sometimes it is not what we do that is interesting but how we do the things does. Redefine who you are, put emphasise on how you coordinate with people with different background, how would you learn about something that you barely know, how to talk with coworkers with high generation gap, and so on.
Set a reasonable target
Working in a Unicorn start-up is probably come in most fresh graduates mind who have more related background than ours. Start-up is not only the Unicorn, in fact there are many opportunities that available in a promising start-up as they offer a fundamental solution for particular market segment. Take the opportunity with a spirit to learn.
Be confident
Keep in mind that we are more than our academic degree. Any other thing that we don’t know is only a matter of time to be known through learning.
Find the suitable company
I must say that I was in luck when I got interview call from Airy. This is probably one of not so many tech based company which generously give opportunity to people with extraordinary background to show their guts and join the team.
To end this writing, I would like to remind you that sometimes the best person in their field is not even the one who hold related academic degree. Our academic degree is a set of certified skill that we obtain after graduation in college, but do we stop learning afterwards? We are much beyond it. Now, open up your parachute!
