How I Got Into Tech: Senior Security Engineer Jen Burns
On our careers site, we encourage candidates to tell imposter syndrome to take the day off — in other words, don't let a confidence gap, or a lack of ...
On our careers site, we encourage candidates to tell imposter syndrome to take the day off — in other words, don't let a confidence gap, or a lack of a traditional tech resume, get in the way of applying to HubSpot. (Ready to take the leap right now? Check out our open positions.)
One of the best ways to reinforce this idea is to tell the stories of how current HubSpotters got into tech, especially if it was through an unexpected or nontraditional path.
Here, Product Manager Ryan DiPetta (he/him) shares his story. (Full transcript of Ryan's response below.)
Transcript:
"Hi, my name is Ryan DiPetta, and I'm a product manager at HubSpot. This is how I got into tech.
I was in a gap year between finishing up my master's degree in gender politics and applying for PhD programs for English lit and comp.
I'd been working for about a year in residential construction. I just liked building stuff, putting things together. It was very different from what I did in grad school.
I saw a posting on HubSpot from a friend who had worked at HubSpot at that point for five years, in tech support.
And I applied. And I got the job. And I framed my application in this way of saying, I already build stuff for a living. I put things together. Tech support and troubleshooting are just figuring out how things are built and put together and how to make them work differently.
And in my MA I had learned research, and writing, and communication skills, which helped me get a job in tech support, as well, because I had to do all those things. And those two things combined, I think, to make me pretty good at tech support and pretty good at my job now.
And I think that that really goes to show that anyone can do this kind of work. It's very gratifying work to do if you have those muscles. And a lot of people do, from non-traditional backgrounds. You just don't think about it all the time."
Want to work for a team that tells imposter syndrome to take the day off (every day)? Check out our open positions and apply.