Getting your First Job in Tech

My Background

• Normandale Alumni with AAS in Business who went on to a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Metrostate University.

• Have worked as a software engineer at such companies as Target Corporate, PeopleNet, and Field Nation.

• Currently building a tech startup, Logistik Technologies.

• Have hired, mentored and trained many entry-level information technology employees.

Agenda

• Overview of Minneapolis/St Paul IT Industry

• Where to Land Your First Job

• Structure of a Typical Technology Organization

• Typical Career Progressions

• Q&A

Overview of Minneapolis/St Paul Tech Industry

Some Big Players

• Target Corporation• Best Buy• 3M Company• US Bancorp (US Bank)• General Mills• Wells Fargo• Carlson Companies (Country Inn & Suites)• Regis

• Land o Lakes• Amazon• General Dynamics• Major Consulting Firms in Town: TATA /

Unisys / Oracle / Accenture / etc• Stratasys• Ameriprise Financial• Buffalo Wild Wings

Healthcare / Non Profit

• United Health Group• Mayo Clinic• Medtronic• State of Minnesota (and county and

local offices as well)• Ecolab• Allina Health

Tech

• Jamf Software• Digital River• Calabrio• Infor• Field Nation• People Net / Trimble• When I Work• SPS Commerce

• Reeher• Leadpages• HighJump• Code42• Dell• Ceridian• HelpSystems• ChargeOver

Numerous Small Companies

• Almost uncountable number of small to medium sized businesses (SMB) with under 500 employees

Needing such things as…• Web Developers• Software Developers• Technical Support• Business Analyst/Product Owner/Project Manager• Data Analyst• Network/Server Administrators

Where to Land your First Job

If Graduating with 4-Year Degree from Major University

• Job Fairs: Fortune 1000 companies and medium-sized companies (50-500 employees) oftentimes recruit for talent at job fairs. Check into those that are organized by your school. Oftentimes these entry-level roles are never advertised anywhere, so job fairs can be a great way to meet employers.

• Internships: Oftentimes companies will try to hire you after completing a summer internship.

• Apply Directly Online: You can apply directly for entry-level jobs that you see on job boards and in newspapers. Sometimes you can apply to mid-level roles (a lot of companies cannot find mid-level and senior-level people) even though you are entry-level and just provide a cover letter saying you are entry level but would love the opportunity to work for them. Especially for mid-sized companies and smaller companies, they may interview and hire you anyways if the salary expectations are lower and they are having trouble finding people with experience.

If not Graduating with 4-Year Degree from Major University

• Job Fairs: Many job fairs are available to you and many companies are recruiting. Attending job fairs is like speed dating.

• Be Realistic with Salary and Job Expectations: You may have to start out working for a small company or startup doing web development, technical support, or account management as a way to break into the industry. Consider your first couple years of work getting paid to learn!

• Meetups can be great ways to get to know local hiring managers.

Landing a Better Job after you have Experience

• Stay Employed: You have the most negotiating power after you already have a job in tech. • LinkedIn: Create a professional looking LinkedIn profile and highlight every technology

you have worked with. Recruiters will find and contact you while doing keyword searches for very specific skillsets which you may have.

• Research Going Rates for your Skillset on sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com. • Build Non-Technical Skills: The more senior level you get, the more that interpersonal

skills, time management skills and negotiating skills become critical. • Consider Benefits Package: Oftentimes healthcare/nonprofit, bank, and education

organizations have lower base salaries but wonderful benefit packages. Additionally, working in education, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors can be extremely rewarding.

Structure of Typical Technology Organizations

Typical Makeup of Software Teams

• Technical Support

• Operations/Infrastructure Teams

• Small Software Development Team

• Larger Development Teams

Technical Support Teams

• Technical support teams support technology of all kinds

• Typically someone starts as an entry-level person taking phone calls and learning how to support the company’s various products

• Over time they grow into management or more senior-level technical support roles

• Over time, oftentimes support representatives advance and become systems administrators/engineers

Operations Manager

Level 1 Technical Support

Level 1 Technical Support

Level 1 Technical Support

Network Administrator(s)

Systems Administrator(s)

Level 2 Technical Support

Level 2 Technical Support

Operations/Infrastructure Teams

• Infrastructure teams support physical hardware such as servers and networks.

• Sometimes they also support software on the servers, but other times they just provide infrastructure for software teams to use.

• Most people start in technical support roles running cabling and doing less exciting things like provisioning accounts. Over time they grow into true systems administrators.

Operations Manager

Associate Network Engineer

IT Support Specialist

Associate System

Administrator

Senior Systems Administrator

Network Architect

Small Software Development Teams

• Small teams build out software to support typically a single business unit or a small to medium sized business.

• Smaller teams require more versatile engineers who are capable of working on more things, but sometimes not as strong on any particular technology.

Software Engineering

Manager

Associate Software Engineer

Associate Software Engineer

Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer

Product Owner / Business

Analyst

Large Software Development Teams

• On larger teams, there are a lot more different roles – typically technologists specialize in one particular skillset

• Larger technology organizations may be made of many technology teams.

• Product owners/business analysts/project managers coordinate with other teams to prioritize work and make sure that dependencies between teams are met

• Software Architects and Principle Engineers may determine a technology vision for multiple different teams

Software Engineering

Manager

Full-Stack Developer(s)

Backend Developer(s)

Frontend Developer(s)

Lead EngineerProduct Owner

/ Business Analyst

Software Architect

Systems Administrator(s)

Mobile Developer(s) Designer(s)

Typical Career Progressions

Kinds of Software Development Roles

• Back-End Developer: Writes software that interacts with databases and performs integrations between software systems. Provides ways for front end applications to access data in a reliable, secure, and scalable way.

• Front-End Developer: Writes applications (oftentimes for the web) that users interact with. Typically much more skilled than a web developer and uses frameworks like Angular, React, VueJS, or others to write sophisticated and interactive applications.

• Full-Stack Developers: Can do the work of both a back-end and front-end developer. • Mobile Developer: Can write mobile apps for iOS, Android, or embedded platforms. • DevOps Developer: Automates builds, tests and deployments of software onto servers. • Software Engineer and Test: Writes automated tests the validate software works reliably. • Database Administrator: Tunes databases to make sure they are fast and reliable. Makes sure they are well

designed to be extensible in the future as well as makes sure the data in them is accurate.

Developer Career Paths pt 1

Web Developer Associate Front End/Mobile

Front-End Engineer

Full-Stack Engineer

Senior Front-End Engineer

Associate Mobile Dev Mobile Dev

Full-Stack Engineer

Senior Mobile Dev Principal Mobile Dev

QA TesterAssociate Software Engineer and Test

(SET)SET

Front-End Engineer

Backend Engineer

Senior SET

Developer Career Paths pt 2

Associate Engineer

Full-Stack Engineer

Senior Full-Stack Engineer

Principal Engineer

Software Architect

Senior DB Admin

Software Architect

DB Admin Senior DB Admin

Back-End Engineer

Full-Stack Engineer

DevOps

Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Software Architect

Senior Back-End Engineer

Software Architect

Server/Network Administration

Technical Support

Network Engineer Systems Administrator

Product Owner / Business Analyst

Senior Technical Support (Level 2)

Manager

QA Tester

Systems Administrator

Senior Systems Administrator

Site Reliability Engineer

Systems Architect

Sales Engineer Senior Sales Engineer / Solutions Architect Solutions Architect

Business Analyst / Product Owner

Account Manager / Technical Support

Associate Product Owner / Business Analyst PO / BA

Project Manager

Sr PO / BA

Product Manager / Portfolio Manager

Principal PO/BA

Questions?