Let’s set the scene for my story.
Back in 2019, I started a BCOMM degree at UNSW, intent on working in investment banking.
Shortly after starting my finance major, I realised I was terrible at maths and wouldn’t enjoy a role where I was staring at a computer all day with no human interaction.
But as a first year uni kid, I was completely lost on what role to choose, let alone the industry.
I just knew that I wanted to do well in my career.
So where did I turn to?
Consulting at the Big Four.
It was all I’d seen since year 12 and thought it was the only path to a successful career with a Marketing degree.
However, when I delved deeper into the world of consulting, it didn’t appeal to me.
From the formality of the workplace to the slow pace of work - I just couldn’t get around it.
I felt lost again, and decided to take a gap year to try out new roles and industries.
Fortunately for me, one of my first year camp leaders was working at a startup and told me about an internship opportunity in marketing at a Legal Tech company.
I jumped at the chance in late 2019 not knowing how impactful that decision was for my life and career.
Fast forward to 2024, working in tech has allowed me to accelerate my career progression and access high salary bands by the age of 23.
All with just a marketing degree.
Although I stumbled into the industry, I wish someone could’ve told me earlier in first year.
So that’s the purpose of this quick 5 in read. Now, I’ll rip into a bit more info on how the tech industry can do the same thing for you, as it did for me.
Today, I’ll cover:
After 5 years of working in tech, I’ve realised that there are two reasons as to why the industry is so lucrative.
Below is a graph of the 10 most valuable companies on the S&P 500 index from 2000 to 2022.
I’ll let you take a look for yourself - 2000 on the left, 2022 on the right:
Summarising my key takeaway:
Amazing stuff.
But despite the S&P 500 measuring just American businesses the shift has been global.
As the saying goes; “a rising tide lifts all boats”, Australia included.
The Tech Council of Australia announced in 2023 that headcount in the last 10 years has grown twice as fast in tech as any other industry in Australia
The rapid growth of tech companies has led to a hiring boom for non-technical roles to acquire and retain new customers - creating a supply and demand mismatch.
What this means for you distilled in this simple equation:
Some entry level compensation packages in these non-technical roles can now tally up to $95K+ per year.
Another advantage of working in tech is the myriad of industries you can work across with your skillset.
Generally speaking, every traditional sector has a tech equivalent or counterpart.
For example, health has HealthTech, finance has FinTech and education has EdTech.
By working at a tech company you can choose to work at either a horizontal enterprise tool and gain exposure to a broad range of industries, or a vertical industry based tool that aligns with your interest areas.
The best part?
Unlike a traditional professional services role, you can choose the industry you work in and develop deep expertise for career progression later on.
If you’re looking to get into the tech industry, the two most important things to consider are:
Diving deeper into roles, the best part about tech is that you can break into the startups & scaleups space without a degree that’s related to the role.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Who: The people person who loves working towards a goal
Starting Comp: $96,000+ per year (base salary + commission)*
* Sourced from our 120+ graduates salary data
Working in business development at a software company is unlike the traditional Wolf of Wall Street sales stereotype.
This is for one reason… you’re selling to other businesses.
For instance, Canva wouldn’t be purchased by the Commonwealth Bank CEO through an e-commerce style transaction.
The reason being is that purchasing the licence would cost millions of dollars, it requires a business case and stakeholder approval.
It’s your job as a business development representative to think creatively and strategically about how you can position your product as the best option to solve their problem.
Think less tugging at heartstrings with sleazy sales tactics and discounts. Think more developing better business literacy to distil a complex product in simple terms to C-Suite executives.
P.S. We run a free 30 minute Zoom webinar every Monday on an Intro To Software Sales Careers - sign up for our next one if you’d like to learn more about software sales as a career.
Who: The Artist-meets-Scientist
In this role, you’ll focus on rapid experimentation through online channels, backed by data analysis, to find marketing approaches that optimise customer acquisition, retention and referrals.
You must be comfortable picking up technical skills in analytics, SEO and SEM. It’s important to note that there are many sub-specialities in marketing!
Who: The Relationship Builder
A customer-oriented role focused on helping existing product or service users, whether it be onboarding, support, renewal and upgrades.
You’ll need to be highly organised and comfortable working with diverse stakeholders and especially as the business grows, you’ll need to stay on top of many accounts and relationships in increasing volumes.
Who: The dealmaker
You’ll be focused on developing solid relationships in this role with other companies/stakeholders that are mutually beneficial.
Who: The Data Operator
Work with the sales and marketing teams to collate and visualise data that can be used to improve future performance and target forecasting.
If you’re someone who enjoys getting into the numbers whilst also maintaining a feel for the customer then this role is for you.
When it comes to company size, I have some pretty hot takes.
I’ve worked across all 4 of these categories in the last 4 years and my perspective is that your first role should be at a local scaleup or foreign scaleup.
Why?
In your first role, the most important variable in building your skills and having a great experience is your manager and the level of autonomy you have.
Startups often index poorly as a first role because your manager (often a co-founder) won’t have the time to give you the feedback you need to improve quickly.
Conversely, big tech companies aren’t great because whilst you may have a great manager, your role is confined to a small part of the business, often with limited impact. So you’ll never really know if your ideas are responsible for the results or if it’s just the company.
Local scaleups and foreign scaleups are the sweet spot for a first timer, with headcount anywhere from 15 to 800 employees.
The best part is that because no one knows about these companies as they often don’t have the resources to invest in grad programs or campus recruitment teams. Meaning, that you can get in easily and go from there.
I started a local legal tech scaleup, Lawpath, back in 2019 and stayed there for 18 months.
It was the perfect first role with a great manager and fast growing company that went from 10 to 50 employees in that time.
Here’s more information on each of the company stages:
The high risk, high reward option. You will be offered loads of stock options and the exciting opportunity of being “one of the first”. Effectively, you’re trading in high short term earnings to accelerate your career progression, with the hope that the skills you’ll learn allow for fast progression into higher salary bands.
My personal observation is that the majority of C-Suite execs (or at least the good ones) at tech companies come from a startup or founder background because of the genuine business acumen you learn from working with founders.
Example: Earlywork, BuildPass, Humanitix
A local scaleup has an established business strategy, which allows it to pursue more ambitious targets, such as expanding into other industries or new markets. This is the point at which the team begins to expand, and recruitment begins - but since the local office is still small, you get the structure of a big company, and the autonomy of a startup. Promotions come quick and fast, so there’s still room to craft your own progression pathway.
Examples: Shippit, SafetyCulture
A startup’s product or service will meet strong market demand in another region and look to rapidly expand in APAC. You’ll be enticed with above-market compensation and a clear structure and programs within these companies. Hit these guys up after a big funding round, as they will be armed with cash to splash.
Examples: Yotpo, Attentive, Podium
Big tech turns more into corporate, strapped with cash and a well-established business model. This kind of company isn’t a startup or scaleup anymore. Having established itself as a market leader, exponential growth is not a priority (for most big tech companies) and they’re more focused on maintaining market position > innovating. This kind of company usually offers better pay but be warned, career progression is often slow and limited.
Examples: Atlassian, Canva, Amazon, Microsoft
A bit more about Earlywork, we run Australia’s first tech sales school.
Since 2022, we’ve helped 100+ uni grads start their career in tech business development.
In terms of next steps into tech, the easiest way to split it into two intents, follow the one that’s most applicable to you:
If you’re actively looking for non-technical roles, join one of our free weekly 30 minute webinars on Software Sales Careers.
It’ll help you learn more about the career progression and compensation involved in software sales as well as more info on how we can help.
Held every Monday from 5:30pm to 6pm Sydney time.
Join our free tech & startup jobs community for young people, the Earlywork Village.
We already have 6000+ members there already!
Fun Fact; I landed my previous startup gig before Earlywork through the community, so obviously would recommend 🧡
