Joining Tech with the WRONG Background (Pt 1)
By: Kasey Fu
Tags: Productivity, Education, Technology, Business, Motivation

Part 1: Why do students choose the wrong university program and realize they want to move to tech?

My name is Kasey. I am the primary writer of this Medium series. If you are a current college student or recent graduate and you want to transition into tech (or are in the middle of transitioning) from your unrelated background, this series will be for you. I’m a student studying a combination of life sciences and business at the University of Waterloo. I’ve interned at tech companies in some fairly technical positions for my background. But don’t worry — your primary program as of this moment won’t matter (until later) in finding a tech job (so please read on!). That’s the main mindset I hope to introduce to you. Before I dive deep into the contents of this series, I would like to take some steps to inform you, as a reader of this Medium series, why I am starting this and my goal for you as a reader to gain new knowledge on my selected topic. Before you begin reading, please note that all views are 100% my own — what’s cool about Medium is that folks can express thoughts freely and share opinions, whether things overlap or not.

During my transition into tech, I competed in hackathons!

Here is some sample background inspiration behind the idea for this: there have been SO MANY instances where I have been told that I had to stick with the job prospects that my degree or my current educational skill set provided me as a current student in college. From that perspective, I should rethink my educational background and enroll in something different than what I am currently enrolled in to go down a career path that otherwise prefers engineers, math or computer science students. These educational requirements have become increasingly demanding over the past decade as technology and artificial intelligence continues to bring impact and structure into our daily lives. As we enter the dawn of the 2020’s, we have to starting asking around: “who wouldn’t want to work in tech? It’s the biggest shit right now!” I’m definitely not talking about moving to Silicon Valley and doing a gig there. I’m talking about anywhere — cities across the globe are going to slowly but surely embrace new technology that makes life easier, convenient and faster for them. My Medium series is going to bring up a particular problem and spend the next round of chapters digging into the issue and attempt to help people solve it.

There’s a term I’d like to come up with myself called the “immature college decision” — which basically describes the act of “immaturely” deciding on one’s college program enrolment before truly deciding what educational and career path you desire to partake in (which honestly could happen ANYTIME during your lifetime…). I see this as a problem because while there exists many families where parents/guardians play a large or decent factor in making your college program enrolment decision, many graduating high school students still make the final decision themselves and do not see the light completely. What follows is perhaps an educational path that doesn’t truly align with a path students actually want to thrive in, and students either:

a) Decide to continue their primary education of choice with some form of regret, or

b) Change educational programs and lose tuition value, as well as time.

Ultimately, time or money (or both) could be sacrificial pieces that end up as the main concern if students ever hit this roadblock in their university career.

Here’s the kicker. There’s an option c): A third choice — an obvious one that most students who have suffered the “immature college decision” have probably gone down by accident or have decided to partake in. This choice is to minimize your currently enrolled program’s (the result of the immature decision) educational learning and to begin dedicating time to learning more about the career path you prefer yourself in the near future during your enrollment. This could be in the form of taking a minor, carefully selecting electives to tailor your program more towards a field of interest, taking programs or courses outside of your primary school, or pursuing this education on the job — which would be the hardest one if you do not have any work experience in the field you prefer. This third choice may sound common and easy to figure out to you. By no means have people probably dubbed this experience in something in their own words, since pursuing a field in tech that’s outside of their background is quite common. Arts major working in tech? Normal. Biology major working in tech? Normal. So what makes this series interesting (and hopefully unique)? Because I feel there should still be plenty more support and resources to help students guide their way into the tech field. There’s honestly no proper set of instructions — it usually turns out to be a series of zig zags (and obviously hard work) until someone makes it.

Chances are, there still may be a fellow student or peer you know who’s thinking about transitioning into tech but may feel either intimidated or frustrated on where to start. Do you start learning how to code? What language should I learn? Take a CS course? Read about machine learning? Take 100 online quizzes that determine which CS field is right for you? Let’s lay down the ground and foundation for how someone should begin.

And this so called third choice is the main focus behind this mini Medium series. It’s not going to be about tech opportunities based on your background or personality, or how you should only pursue roles that fit you (like those “What job is perfect for you” online quizzes). Obviously, I will take background into heavy consideration, but do so while letting you know that any tech job is reachable. I will take an optimistic outlook and provide an in-depth analysis and dive into how one can pursue a career in technology they desire, and what steps to take in order to come closer to it despite not starting out in the same direction as others (for example, engineering/math backgrounds). This outlook does not have to be viewed negatively or in a pessimistic way by anyone , whether you’re in tech or you’re not— there are hundreds of initiatives one can take to make themselves more tech-savvy, skillful and knowledgeable enough for a company to hire them in that person’s dream position.

I hope both Part 1 and Part 2 of this series ultimately brings great value to your professional life and that you can follow me on Medium for all future writings and works which will bring additional value to many career-related endeavours you explore. Happy reading and have an awesome day!