From being prompted “Tell me about yourself” in an interview/phone screen, to listing your technical skills on your resume. How often, if at all, is your past non-tech related work history brought up? For me, most of the time it’s only brought up if I’m the one who brings it up.
These skills attained, especially for those who’ve made a career pivot from another industry into tech, or from a job you worked while learning to program, are highly transferable to your job as a developer.
For instance, I received my college degree in Kinesiology (movement science) and worked in the fitness industry for a few years. I also worked in the food and retail industries during my college years. From each of those jobs, I learned to communicate well with customers/clients and coworkers, as well as strategize in different ways.
In retail and working in a gym, sales are imperative to keep the business going up. I gained sales tactics, one of which is that before selling the product, it’s important to “sell yourself.” I take this into any calls I have with other devs or recruiters. Establish that trust and likeness with whoever you’re speaking with.
Another thing was planning. When talking to clients about personal training, it was important to fully understand their goals. Want to lose weight? How much weight? Get stronger? How much do you want to lift in a specific lift? Getting the most specific answers led to planning out the best programs for each individual, similar to understanding consumer needs and planning out your steps to put it into code. Or even solving a DSA problem and using pseudo code before writing any actual code.
I spoke with another dev today, who was a former educator turned software engineer. He currently works as an engineer for an organization that provides tutoring and coaching to first-generation college students. With his background in teaching and technical experience, he filled the employer’s checklist (and then some). Just another great example of how our past roles and skills can transfer over to jobs as developers!
Don’t shy away from mentioning anything about your past work experience, because there’s always something valuable that can be taken from one job to another.
Top comments (0)