Engineers, journalists, magicians, pub landlords – they may already have just what it takes to transfer into a career in digital.
For those who feel a sense of Groundhog Day-style dread each time they head to work, now could be the time to consider shifting all those valuable skills into the digital world.
Just as your current post might be leaving you feeling undervalued and under-motivated, your skills could be hugely appreciated, and paid for more handsomely, in another company.
Transferable skills
If you’re currently working in a creative industry, you may be someone that’s curious, interested in pushing boundaries, good at collaborating and capable of using trial and error to find the best solution to the problem.
In other words, as we’ve previously discussed, creatives make good coders.
Or maybe you’re in a marketing role at the moment, your job involves dealing with communications, you work well as part of a team, and you’re responsible for creating enthusiasm for projects.
Guess what?
These are all skills that will also stand you in good stead in a tech job.
Celebrating diverse backgrounds
“I’ve found that people who are persistent, despite finding it challenging, do amazing things,” says Rick Henry, another of our instructors. “If you’re surfing the web and constantly thinking, ‘How are these sites and applications put together?’, then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy programming.”
In terms of former students, Rick has been amazed by their diverse backgrounds. “We’ve had some really excellent individuals who, before the course were engineers, magicians, pub landlords, journalists, poker players and loads more.”
According to Rick, our employer partners such as Adobe, Edge Testing Solutions and RBS love the fact someone has committed a lot to change career.
“It also has the added benefit of developers coming from different work experiences and adding to the mix of talent in their development teams.”
Grant Whiteside, founder of Ambergreen, an Edinburgh-based digital marketing agency and one of our employer partners, confirms that they are looking for staff from a range of professional backgrounds.
“It doesn’t matter what your interests are, the digital sector needs a wide range of skill sets to provide the services and solutions needed to fulfil the client’s needs,” says Grant.
“From analysts and programmers, to digital artists and content creators, understanding code helps people apply themselves to their role in today’s workplace.”
With this reassuring news that you don’t actually need to be a hacker, a maths whizz or a computer geek in order to find work in the digital world, maybe now’s the time to start browsing training courses and making the first steps into a new career.
Come along to an information session or try your hand at one of our taster sessions.
