
Ask HN: Stories of breaking into tech without a tech background? - marginalcodex
Has anyone on here transitioned into working in the tech&#x2F;start up world without a tech background (specifically, for a non-tech role)?<p>I&#x27;d love to hear stories about the transition.
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itamarst
Austin Gunter wrote a great book about how to do exactly that, "The Liberal
Arts Techie: How to Break into your First Startup Job" (
[https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Arts-Techie-Break-Startup-
ebo...](https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Arts-Techie-Break-Startup-
ebook/dp/B01IB3OD0A/)) based on his personal experiences.

More about Austin:
[http://www.austingunter.com/](http://www.austingunter.com/)

He's a coworker, full disclosure, but it's a good book that I paid for with my
own money.

~~~
austingunter
Hey Itamar, thanks for sharing this.

I definitely started with zero tech experience (and perhaps some ambivalence
towards the industry), and build a career out of not much. \- Graduated with a
writing degree at the height of the 2008-2009 recession \- Very minimal
business experience \- No clue about tech, startups, or entrepreneurship

What I ended up doing was writing job descriptions at startup companies,
selling my ability to do content marketing and community marketing until one
hired me. Then I did it again 2 years later, got hired again, and then moved
to San Francisco to help open a satellite office.

The rest is history.

I wrote more about how other people can create tech jobs from nothing in the
book Itamar mentions, and if you want a high level look, the following blog
post will be useful:

[http://www.austingunter.com/2016/09/biggest-business-
lesson-...](http://www.austingunter.com/2016/09/biggest-business-lesson-can-
create-job-nothing/)

Thanks for reading, and I hope all of the above is useful!

