A question that we hear frequently at indePenn is – “I worked in an IT Services company before my career break. I want to go back to the industry, but I don’t want to be a programmer. What can I do?” So we thought we would pull together a list of non-coding jobs in the IT Services and Technology business. Every month, we will delve into one career track in the technology world that has virtually no coding required. We hope one of these will appeal to you and set you on the journey back to work.
A caveat though – to work in the technology world, you need to be comfortable with logic and computer programming languages. You may not write code, but you must be able to read it and discuss it with your colleagues.
Discover Non-Coding Jobs in IT and Technology
Some of the non-coding tech jobs are in product management, technical recruiting, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), website and app testing, and digital marketing. In all these jobs, soft skills, like creativity, meticulousness, attention to detail, written and verbal communication and bringing people together are critical to success.
This post will delve into Content Writing – one aspect of Digital Marketing. Next month, we will delve into another area. Before we get Into Content Marketing, here’s a very brief, high-level overview of Digital Marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
All marketing efforts that use digital media to reach customers and promote brands, products, and services is called Digital Marketing. Some of the channels used to do this include websites, social media, search engines, email, text messages, etc.
As this is a vast area, there are many roles that go into the digital marketing function of a company. Role availability also depends on the industry, the marketing budget of the company, how mature the company’s digital marketing function is, etc.
Understanding Non-Coding Roles in IT Services and Technology
At the entry level, some of the roles are –
1. Graphic Designer
- Conceptualize visuals based on requirements
- Prepare rough drafts and present ideas
- Develop illustrations, logos and other designs using software
- Use the appropriate colours and layouts for graphics
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Test, analyze, and change the content on a website – to optimised for search engines
3. Social Media Coordinator
- Manage social media content calendar
- Schedule posts
- Create & post engaging content
- Reply to messages & comments
- Manage social ad accounts, etc.
4. Content Writer
- Educate and inform, e.g., blog posts, articles, press releases
Content Writing: A Non-Coding Career in Digital Marketing
In this post, we share some tips on building a career in Content Writing.
As a content writer, your job is to ensure that your words help the organisation achieve its goals.
To do this, you must know the domain – for example, the company (for which you’re writing content) is in edtech and provides cutting-edge, in-depth technology courses. While you don’t need to know to code, you must understand the challenges learners face, so that you can position the courses appropriately. Are they concerned about being able to figure out the logic, write a program and actually run it? You must be able to relate to that challenge, so that your words reassure learners that your company ‘gets them’ and already has a solution for their issue.
How can you do this if you’re not a programmer yourself? This is where Stanford University Professor Carol Dweck’s ‘Growth Mindset’ plays a big role. The premise of the theory is that if you believe you can gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed, every challenge becomes a learning opportunity.
Often content writers come from a liberal arts background and assume that they will not understand technology and tune out the conversation the moment tech terms are mentioned. When you have a growth mindset, you can overcome that tendency, listen to the techies talk their own language, and filter out the jargon, to explain it in simple, understandable language.
And now you have learnt! You can do what very few people can – you have become the bridge between the people who speak Java and the rest of the world!
Key Skills for Success in Content Writing
Now, to write the content, you need to –
Understand the customer – what are her objectives? What challenges does she have (learning hours, broadband access, pace of learning, prerequisites)? What fears stop her from signing up for the course?
Understand the product – how do the company and product address the customer’s needs? To do this, diligent research is needed. If you have access to customers, talk to them to get their point of view. Talk to the product designers, course administrators, sales executives, faculty – basically, talk to as many people in the company as you can!
You may wonder “how many hours will all this take?” Remember though that this is not for just one blog post or one article. This is building expertise in the subject, the product and the customer community. This will make creating the next blog post and the next article, the next poster a breeze.
Expertise leads to better presentation and better explanations. Agree? Your thinking will flow smoothly and your content will be crisp and clear. The post will be original. Run it through Grammarly and you can be sure that there will be no awkward phrasing.
Edit your post – make it concise. Remove redundant sentences. If you find the same work being used in many paragraphs, find synonyms. For instance, when you read content that has the word “great” in every paragraph, the word loses impact. Find another word or phrase.
Recommended Courses to Kickstart Your Content Writing Career
All set to become a content writer? Here are some courses that can accelerate your journey:
- Udemy – The Content Writing Course – Next Level Content Writing: Topic Selection, Research, Outlining, Writing, Editing & Publishing Assisted by AI Apps
- Content Writing Online Course (Henry Harvin)– Mentored by Chetan Bhagat
- Coursera – UC Davis – The Strategy of Content Marketing
Happy Learning!
Tell us the challenges that you are concerned about in changing tracks, upskilling and returning to work, in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
If you’re already a reader of our blog or follow us on social media, you know that indePenn coaches and prepares women on a career break to rebegin their professional journey and build a second career.
We bring women back to work!
Visit us at indePenn.com and Sign Up – we’ll handhold you through the process of returning to work.
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