115 - Tech job no experience

Here's the formula to discover remote work you love - fast

November 15, 2022

The Connection |  2022.11.15 | Issue 115

In this newsletter, you'll learn the sure-fire formula to land a remote work job you love.

There are countless social media posts about the benefits of remote work, e.g:

  • Improved work-life balance

  • Increased productivity

  • More time

But there's little of substance out there on how to land your first high-quality remote job. 

The simplest shortcut to high-quality roles? Instead of applying for remote jobs, apply for tech jobs that are fully remote. 

Here's the 3-step formula anyone can follow:

  1. Target non-technical roles

  2. Build your honeypot

  3. Go direct to bypass gatekeepers

Let's dig in:

1/ Target non-technical roles

The biggest misconception I hear about applying for jobs in tech is: “I have to learn to code first.” 

The truth: In an analysis of over 500,000 roles in technology companies, 30% were technical roles. The rest? Non-technical roles like marketing, business development, sales, etc. (source)

Of course, technology chops help. If you want to be successful, you should have curiosity about the 1’s and 0’s behind the curtain. But it’s not a rule.

The truth is, I could barely open MS Excel when I got started. There are dozens of roles that don’t require coding at all.

Here are 10 non-technical I’d recommend you target, along with average salaries, per Payscale: 

  • Social Media Coordinator or Manager - $52,724/year

  • Technical Recruiter - $61,234/year

  • Seo Specialist - $47,484/year

  • Customer Support Representative - $40,000/year

  • Customer Success Manager - $70,278/year

  • Graphic Designer - $47,032/year 

  • Content Marketer - $48,533/year

  • Community Manager - $52,622/year

  • Project Manager - $58,054/year

  • Digital Marketing Manager - $69,046/year

From this list, choose 2-3 to explore more deeply. When you uncover that’ll be a good fit, you’re ready for the next step. 

2/ Build your honeypot 

LinkedIn is the best place to get noticed by recruiters and hiring managers. 

95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find prospects, using tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Talent Hub to manage their search (source). These platforms use keywords (“web developer”, “graphic designer”, etc.) to find potential candidates.

Most advice tells you to focus on vanity metrics:

  • Go get a professional headshot

  • Fill in your profile 100%

  • Get at least 100 connections

These details are helpful, but 80% of the battle is showing up when recruiters search for you. That means getting your keywords right, then capturing the reader’s attention with the right details. 

That’s why we call this “building your honeypot.” 

Use keywords in the following sections:

  • Experience

  • Summary

  • Headline

Experience. A concise, bullet-pointed description of what you did at your previous companies, how you did it, and what results you produced. 

To quantify your results, you can talk about: 

  • Ways the company grew

  • Outcomes of projects

  • Number of customers helped

  • Revenue generated

Even if you’re applying for a tech job where you don’t have experience, this section is about showing you drive results, regardless of the role.

Summary. Your summary is a distillation of your experience. With your experience fleshed out, the summary is much easier. 

Include your: 

  • Current or last role

  • 3-5 specific skills

  • Nuances about your background or what you’re looking for

  • How people can reach you

Headline. The headline ties together your experience and your summary. It’s easiest to write this last.

If your goal is a tech job buyout don’t have that experience yet, write “Aspiring name of role”. For example, “Aspiring Customer Success Manager” or “Aspiring digital marketing manager.”

Experience. Summary. Headline. That’s 80% of the battle. Once you’ve perfected those, here’s a checklist of items to tackle next:

  • Profile picture. You don’t need a professional headshot, but it should be a picture of you, with as much of your face as possible.

  • Location. Geography is a filter for recruiters. Set the location for where you are or where you want to be.

  • Connections. The more 1st degree connections to a specific company, the more you’ll show up in search results. Don’t overthink this too much. Use the Recommended Connections or Import Contacts feature.

  • Open for job opportunities. Turn this setting on. Click Me > View Profile > Add profile section > Intro > Looking for job opportunities

3/ Go direct to bypass gatekeepers

Your honeypot is set, but tech roles are competitive. You’re competing with dozens, if not hundreds of other applicants, many of whom do have the experience you lack.

Most people spend 80% of their time skimming job boards and 20% of their time building their network. 

You’ll stand out by reversing these ratios, and using two different types of outreach to build your network: 

  • Warm outreach

  • Cold outreach

Warm outreach. You’ll reach out to people you know who work at companies or industries you’re interested in.

Build a list of at least 10 people you can reach out to. These can be 1st degree LinkedIn contacts, family, friends, former colleagues, or alumni.

Next, before you send any emails, do some research on these people: 

  • What’s their role? 

  • How long have they been at their current company? 

  • Are they working remotely? 

  • What are 1-2 interests of theirs outside of work? 

(How to find this information? Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, etc.)

Now we’re ready to email them. Here’s an example email you can use.

(To see scripts, click Display Images above)

For situations where you don’t want to be as familiar? Use this script. This is written for a LinkedIn direct message but you can adapt it for email, too:

Cold outreach. You’ll reach out to people you haven’t met before. Cold outreach is scary at first. One of the biggest fears is, “I don’t want to be annoying.”

Remember: if you are genuinely a good fit for their company, you are doing them a huge favor. 

You’ll reach out to recruiters and hiring managers. Their job is to literally find people who are good fits for the role and company. They want to do this as fast as possible, then move on. They don’t want to spend days, weeks, or (heaven forbid) months trying to fill a role.

In other words, they want to fill this role more than you do!

Here’s an example script you can use in LinkedIn messages:

Notice a few things:

  • Show you did (a little) research on them

  • Be direct. Tell them exactly why you’re emailing

  • Have a clear call to action (CTA). This CTA works because it’s unambiguous what the next step could be

Once you're connecting with folks, you can inquire about roles you're interested in. Impress them, and more than likely they'll refer you. I've found a referral is 10x more likely to lead to an interview and the BEST path to land your remote work role.

Tl;dr to land your first, high-quality remote job, focus on tech roles where a high percentage of roles are remote anyway. 

You’ll do this by: 

  1. Target non-technical roles

  2. Build your honeypot

  3. Go direct to bypass gatekeepers

Hope this helps you land a remote work job you love.

See you in 2 weeks. 

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