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Diving into world of tech as non-technical person

When I first joined Exove year 2015, I was hired to do content input for one client project that was supposed to last only for a few weeks. I wasn’t very familiar with any content management systems, and I knew basically nothing about web development business or design but I had something else that helped me on my way.

One of my superpowers is that I am very fast at writing with computer, which, I guess, turned out very well for me. Since I managed to finish my part of the content input project early, HR was ‘forced’ to find other tasks for me. That’s how I ended up in Team Assistant’s role at Exove. I guess I should thank my father, who encouraged me to learn touch typing when I was younger. Later, my role was changed to Office Manager and it was my first promotion ever. Since then, I have acted as a substitute for a finance coordinator and contributed to marketing too. A year ago, I started as a Sales Coordinator.  

Dealing with tricky topics and tips to survive

The change from administrative tasks to sales meant naturally that I had to learn new things. As a Sales Coordinator, I have to understand the client’s needs and the more important, how we can respond to those. It’s crucial to know what we can offer in business, design and technology-wise. Especially technology can be a tricky topic for a layperson like me. I can totally identify with the feeling of being overwhelmed when conversation turns to technologies, CMS’s and complex integrations. And I am not alone here. These are things entrepreneurs or people working with marketing might have to deal with in their daily work, without having any technical background. But thankfully, we are not alone. Just like the marketing managers of the world, I have plenty of expertise all around me.

“Share Candies. Everyone loves candy in tech companies.“

Hanging around for few years has taught me a few tips of how to survive in a tech company.

• 1

  Be proactive and ask. Developers are busy, so it’s awfully hard to hire some tech dude to translate the conversation to human language. If you wish to survive through the conversations, you need to ask when there’s something you don’t get.

• 2

  Treat others well. Working in a tech company is no solo work. You need your colleagues for almost everything and you are going to spend lot of time with them, so be nice.

• 3

  Share Candies. Everyone loves candy in tech companies.

Endless possibilities

As my journey at Exove has proved, there can be multiple career opportunities in a tech company for a non-technical person if you are just up for it. My roles have been quite traditional, but while technology industry is growing and changing constantly, different competences are needed – which makes the career possibilities endless. Even though one wouldn’t care for the coding stuff, working in a tech company as non-technical person can be quite interesting. People truly are experts of their own field and the atmosphere as its best is inspiring and innovative.

“Do you know why Peter Pan never became a Drupal developer? He wasn’t particularly fond of Hooks.”

I never dreamed about working in a tech company, but now it’s a very weird thought not to. I find it pretty awesome, that besides constantly learning new things, we do get to try out some pretty cool stuff, like a virtual reality tour inside a cell or experiments related to artificial intelligence. When it comes to tech talk, even though I am not as confused than couple of years ago, one thing I still don’t get and probably never will, are the tech jokes. And trust me, if you ever start working in a tech company, you’ll hear a lot of those. So my last tip for surviving in tech company as non-tech person is to smile and laugh when you hear one.