How These Women Got Into Tech Without Coding Knowledge
You can get into tech regardless of your background.
Building and sustaining a company requires the collaboration of dozens of people specializing in different areas. A healthy organization is like an ecosystem where every member has an important role to play; everyone comes together to offer their unique talents and skills for a common objective.
There are many career options available to get into the tech industry which do not require the ability to code, and in this article, we would be sharing a few of them, as well as the stories of four women who occupy positions in such roles.
Design
According to Upwork, the word “design” is a broad term that can apply to everything from fashion, tech, manufacturing, and even architecture. However, understanding the types of designers that operate in today’s workforce and what their roles entail will make it easier to find the right designer for a project.
From logos to billboards to packaging for products, graphic designers bring concepts, ideas, and stories to life using typography, shapes, color, and images.
Motion graphics designers, on the other hand, bring movement to static images, text, and illustrations, while Interactive Designers turn designs into online experiences, however, this role may require a little bit of basic coding knowledge.
Deborah Bashorun, the Creative Director at Suane.co tells us that she started out her career in the tech industry as a Graphics Designer and has always wanted to learn more.
“I took up UI and UX design on Udemy. I knew I needed to get better and I started freelancing (basically creating interfaces), thereby building a portfolio.”
Her job as a UX Designer daily entails using data to create useful interfaces.
We also had a chat with Mitchelle Chibundu, a Product Designer at Flutterwave who has a background in Marine Biology and had always wanted to work at an oil servicing company but eventually got into the tech space.
She found her way into tech when she got a job as a design intern in a tech company, and learning something completely different has been fun and exciting, but, it has also been a journey of intense learning.
Customer Support
Customer Support is the provision of assistance to customers, and it goes beyond being courteous to customers.
According to Agbaje Tomisin, a Customer Support Personnel at Softcom Nigeria, it involves making calls, receiving calls, receiving and replying emails. While this is a major part of what I do, this is not all. It is important to be a problem solver and an expert thinker.
When asked if she ever felt like learning how to code, she said
“I started learning how to code. It was that serious. Apart from the intimidation, I was curious and fascinated. I wanted to understand how codes worked and how it was written. But one thing I have learnt about programming/coding is that if you need to learn it, you have to dedicate a large chunk of your time to it.”
Customer Support is a big deal, and a quick fun fact about Tomisin is that in 2018, she was awarded Customer Hero of The Year at Softcom. This simply shows that you can excel in any field.
Multimedia Storytelling
Storytelling challenges one’s creativity. It centers around conveying the purpose of a business in order to stand out and capture the hearts of consumers.
Multimedia storytelling involves communicating with different channels through different formats. It could be either text, image, or videos.
If you are good with words and know how to describe things concisely career options like UX writing, Public Relations, Content Writing…is for you. Design and Dev teams most times do not usually have the time to write out product details, so this is where the role of a content writer comes in.
If you have an eye for capturing still images or telling stories through videos, photography or video production could be a path to look into.
All of these positions simply require in-depth knowledge of the products and the processes of an organization or business, and no coding skills.
Mohini Ufeli, a Multimedia Storyteller who worked at Andela for four years, and recently joined Fintech giant, Paystack has always had a knack for Journalism. Her experience in tech has been good so far, however, there were times when men were surprised to find a woman doing what she did.
So often, I’d be the only woman at a conference with a clear majority of male attendees, and I stood out even more doing what I was doing. But otherwise, I think people largely respected me, largely because the work speaks for itself.
Her advice to anyone seeking options in tech is to
“Find the company you want to work in, look up their open roles, and if you see a slot where you could fit in, even if it’s not listed, reach out and make your case. Code isn’t the only way into this growing industry.”
Sales, Marketing, Business Development
Every business wants to generate revenue, and this happens when they are able to sell their products or services.
Marketing involves getting the attention of buyers, while the technique for sales is based on what it takes to ‘close the deal’, which is crucial to any business.
As for Business Development has to do with building partnerships with other companies and businesses. According to Hubspot, it can be described as activities designed to expand an organization’s reach into a new market.
Business development sometimes requires a mix of skills and experiences from marketing and sales, however, to truly succeed in any of these roles, having a solid understanding of the products being sold by the company is super important.
Product Management
Product Managers manage products ranging from hardware/physical products to software. They work closely with the development team and Project Managers to give direction and meaning to their work by determining a product’s vision, roadmap, features, and user needs, in order to ensure the proper thing is being built.
According to benjamindada.com, a good Product Manager does not have to have software development skills, but, he or she is advised to be conversant with software-related terminologies and conventions.
Project Management
A Project Manager’s position comes with plenty of responsibilities. Project Management simply is ensuring successful completion of projects. This role in companies exists when planning, coordination, and execution between different groups or units working on a specific project is needed.
How can you get started as a Project Manager? Take hold of available Project Management courses online or offline and obtain a recognized Project Management Professional Certification, and gain relevant work experience and implement all you have learned so as not to get left behind and be able to think on your feet while you make decisions that affect all the parts of a project.
These are just a few of the career options available to get into the tech industry. But yes, it is possible to have a code-free career while working in the tech industry, and there is no need feeling intimidated by your inability to code. What you do matters just as much.
Are you a woman in tech who doesn’t code? Tell us your story in the comments 😁
