How I Got Into Tech: Technical Lead Ania Pietras

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, Technical Lead Ania Pietras shares her story. (Full transcript below.)

Transcript:

"Hello, my name is Ania Pietras, and I'm a Technical Lead on the Buying Experience Platform Backend team at HubSpot.

IT wasn't my original career path. I used to study chemistry, technology of production engineering, and management. My first professional experience was in the marketing department of a small software house. So another career branch not really related to IT, but that's how I learned that building software could be something interesting for me. So I decided to try and I started learning programming myself.

I got some help from a mentor who mostly helped me with filtering the knowledge I really needed and highlighting the fundamentals. After six months of learning programming, I built my first working web app and applied for my first job. And I got an internship as a software engineer.

If I were to give advice for someone who is changing their career branch, I would recommend you documenting your learnings. I believe having a portfolio or GitHub account with your code can really help you to show that you have the skills your employer would need. If you like, you can also write a blog and that can be a great way of learning as well, because once you explain a topic, that could be a great way to truly understand that, as well.

What's also important is to highlight your non-technical experiences, skills. Those are important, no matter what the department, what the domain, and they can transfer from one career to another.

So if you have some experience with problem solving, team management, prioritization, and you can also highlight that you can learn fast, those are the features a future employer could like, and the features which could help you get your first technical job."

Want to work for a team that tells imposter syndrome to take the day off? Check out our open positions and apply.