T H E U LT I M AT E G U I D E T O N O N - T E C H N I C A L T E C H J O B S

B R E A K I N T O T E C H

S O Y O U W A N T T O W O R K I N T E C H ?

B U T Y O U D O N ’ T H AV E T E C H N I C A L S K I L L S ?

N O P R O B L E M .

T E C H C O M PA N I E S H AV E 3 X A S M A N Y N O N - T E C H N I C A L W O R K E R S A S T E C H I E S

I T T U R N S O U T T H A T

T E C H N I C A L R O L E S #

I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y

6 4 , 2 6 4

E N G I N E E R I N G 3 9 , 3 7 8

A R T S A N D D E S I G N

2 6 , 4 8 7

Q U A L I T Y A S S U R A N C E

5 , 2 0 5

T O TA L 1 3 5 , 3 3 4

N O N - T E C H N I C A L R O L E S #

E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P 9 0 , 3 3 7

S A L E S 4 4 , 3 1 2

M A R K E T I N G 3 7 , 9 7 8

O P E R AT I O N S 3 3 , 7 6 6

M E D I A A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N 2 6 , 0 8 7

S U P P O R T 2 2 , 9 2 9

C O N S U LT I N G 2 0 , 4 8 3

B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T 1 4 , 4 4 7

P R O D U C T M A N A G E M E N T 1 4 , 1 4 1

P R O G R A M A N D P R O J E C T M A N A G E M E N T

1 2 , 1 7 2

A D M I N I S T R AT I V E 1 1 , 4 8 1

F I N A N C E 1 0 , 4 6 4

E D U C AT I O N 9 , 3 6 1

R E S E A R C H 8 , 9 9 4

H U M A N R E S O U R C E S 8 , 3 5 3

C O M M U N I T Y A N D S O C I A L S E R V I C E S

7 , 2 7 2

H E A LT H C A R E S E R V I C E S 5 , 2 0 4

A C C O U N T I N G 4 , 7 6 5

L E G A L 3 , 6 0 0

R E A L E S TAT E 2 , 2 0 4

M I L I TA R Y A N D P R O T E C T I V E S E R V I C E S

1 , 3 7 6

P U R C H A S I N G 1 , 2 0 8

T O TA L 3 9 0 , 9 3 4

Source: LinkedIn, US Internet Workers

B U T W H E R E D O Y O U F I T I N ?

N O N - T E C H N I C A L T E C H R O L E SW E L C O M E T O A T O U R O F

B E F O R E W E B E G I N , 3 K E Y P O I N T S

1. What’s covered?

2. Who reports to whom?

3. How do the roles work together?

W H AT ’ S C O V E R E D ?

• Because this report is designed for people without formal technical experience, we’ll only cover roles that don’t require:

• A specific degree (e.g., computer science, law)

• Or specialized computer skills (e.g., SQL, Photoshop)

W H O R E P O R T S T O W H O M ?

• Most tech companies are organized around product teams (e.g., Apple’s iPhone or LinkedIn’s tablet app), comprised of many different functional roles (e.g., product manager, marketer). This means that a hypothetical marketer on these teams will typically spend more time with her product teammates than her fellow marketers.

• But because these organizations are “matrixed,” the individual functions still report up to their own functional teams. Thus, the marketer reports to the VP of Marketing, not the leadership of the product team.

CEO$

VP$of$Product$

Product$Manager$

VP$of$Marke4ng$

Marke4ng$Manager$

VP$of$Opera4ons$

Opera4ons$Manager$

P R O D U C T T E A M

FUN

CTIO

NA

L TEAM

H O W D O T H E R O L E S W O R K T O G E T H E R ?

• While functions contribute throughout the product team experience (e.g., HR both hires new team members and helps to retain them), each role shines at a different point.

• For example, if Apple wanted to build a new TV, here’s how they would approach it:

Team%Forma)on%

• Business'Opera,ons%explores%opportunity%

• HR%%hires%team%

• Corporate'Development%acquires%team%

Product%Development%

• Research%%analyzes%customers%

• Product'Management''sets%vision%

• Project'Management'oversees%development%

• Opera,ons%%builds%systems/supply%chain%

Distribu)on%

• Marke,ng%%creates%awareness%

• Sales%%closes%deals%

• Business'Development''inks%partnerships%

• Customer'Service'handles%support%

• Finance/Accoun,ng''tracks%performance%

C L I C K A R O L E F O R

M O R E D E TA I L

O K , L E T ’ S D I G I N T O E A C H R O L E

B U S I N E S S O P E R AT I O N S

• AKA: BizOps

• Overview: Think of BizOps as a company’s internal consulting agency. Whenever there are big, meaty questions to unpack, BizOps folks are brought in to crack the case.

• Example project: How profitable would a new Apple TV be in the first five years after launch?

• What you do all day: Research questions, gather data, analyze data, make recommendations to stakeholders

• Roles: Business Operations Analyst (more junior), Business Operations Manager (more senior)

• What they look for: Former bankers and consultants with strong spreadsheet and presentation skills

H U M A N R E S O U R C E S

• AKA: HR

• Overview: HR is responsible for hiring and retaining talent, so they cover everything from recruiting to managing benefits.

• Example project: Hire five hardware engineers with experience in TV design.

• What you do all day: Find talent, develop great programs/benefits for existing talent

• Roles: Sourcer (finds candidates), Recruiter (leads candidates through hiring process), Learning and Development/Training (trains existing hires), HR Business Partner (liaises with specific teams to handle all HR needs from recruiting to exit interviews), Operations (handles all of the HR systems)

• What they look for: People with strong social skills (to represent the company well) and organizational abilities (to manage complex HR processes)

C O R P O R AT E D E V E L O P M E N T

• AKA: CorpDev

• Overview: CorpDev is all about M&A. In other words, the acquisition of smaller companies that you’re constantly reading about in the headlines: Facebook gobbles up Instagram, Google buys Nest, Apple acquires Beats.

• Example project: Lead the acquisition of a startup with a TV show recommendation app.

• What you do all day: Analyze opportunities, build relationships, negotiate deals

• Roles: Corporate Development Analyst/Associate (more junior), Corporate Development Manager (more senior)

• What they look for: Former financial types with M&A experience (investment banks, private equity)

R E S E A R C H

• AKA: Market Research, UX Research

• Overview: Understanding users from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

• Example project: Discover the three biggest pain points TV users have today.

• What you do all day: Plan studies, conduct research (both digitally and in-person), analyze results, make recommendations

• Roles: UX Research (analyzing how customers use products), Market Research (analyzing how customers think and buy)

• What they look for: People with psychology, design, or statistics backgrounds

P R O D U C T M A N A G E M E N T

• AKA: PM

• Overview: Product Management leads the development of new products. Given that tech companies are often organized around products (what would Facebook be without, well, Facebook?), this is often the most important role within the company.

• Example project: Lead the design and development of the new Apple TV.

• What you do all day: Learn about your audience, develop new concepts, create product blueprints, manage a cross-functional team to bring the product to life, review metrics

• Roles: Associate Product Manager (more junior), Product Manager (more senior)

• What they look for: People with technical backgrounds (since you’ll work so closely with engineers) and leaderships skills (since you’ll be responsible for coordinating a cross-functional team)

P R O J E C T M A N A G E M E N T

• AKA: Program Management

• Overview: Oversee both short-term projects and long-term programs, making sure they run on-time and within budget.

• Example project: Manage the progress of the Apple TV engineering team against launch deadlines.

• What you do all day: Plan projects, set-up tracking systems, hold regular check-ins with all stakeholders to review progress, provide updates

• Roles: Project Manager (manages short-term projects), Program Manager (manages a portfolio of ongoing projects)

• What they look for: People with exceptional organizational skills - including project management technology (e.g., Gantt charts, Scrum)

O P E R AT I O N S

• AKA: Supply Chain

• Overview: Operations makes sure that critical business processes can operate smoothly - in both the digital and physical worlds.

• Example project: Secure sufficient factory capacity to deliver 1MM Apple TVs at launch.

• What you do all day: Make forecasts, design systems, troubleshoot problems, engage with partners and suppliers

• Roles: Operations (setting-up and maintaining systems - from ad servers to marketplaces), Supply Chain (for hardware businesses, these folks make sure that all of the physical parts come together to form the finished product)

• What they look for: Candidates with experience designing systems/dashboards and strong negotiation skills

M A R K E T I N G

• AKA: Product Marketing Management (PMM)

• Overview: Marketing solves the Field of Dreams problem: Wrongly assuming that if we just build it, they will come. By bringing the product directly to the market, marketers make sure that customers are actually aware of the latest and greatest.

• Example project: Develop a go-to-market campaign to launch the new Apple TV.

• What you do all day: Research your audience, plan campaigns, execute campaigns, measure results

• Roles: Product Marketing Manager (manages how a product is brought to market), Copywriter/Voice + Tone (generates copy for marketing campaign), Marketing Operations (executes marketing campaigns via email and advertising), PR/Communications (engages press to get the word out)

• What they look for: Candidates with a mix of creative and analytical skills

S A L E S

• Overview: For complex, expensive products, a Sales team can close deals that wouldn’t be feasible online. This includes both B2B (e.g., Salesforce sells a $10MM package to IBM) and B2C businesses (e.g., Facebook sells a seven-figure ad deal to Ford).

• Example project: Sell $20MM of Apple TVs to corporate clients by the end of Q4.

• What you do all day: Research opportunities, talk with prospects or customers, give demos, and close deals

• Roles: Sales Development/Inside Sales (generating new opportunities by emailing and calling), Account Executive/Field Sales (closing deals, often at the customer’s site), Account Manager/Customer Success (supporting and upselling existing clients)

• What they look for: Candidates with a track record of results and incredible powers of persuasion

B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T

• AKA: BD, BizDev

• Overview: BD is like sales without money. You work with other companies to form partnerships - but instead of closing a paid deal, the companies barter something valuable to each of them. For instance, early in Google’s existence, it did a BD deal with Yahoo! that made it the default search engine. In exchange for getting access to Yahoo’s millions of users, Google made Yahoo more effective for its customers.

• Example project: Partner with HBO to make sure that its original programming is available on the Apple TV at launch.

• What you do all day: Explore opportunities, build relationships, propose/close deals

• Roles: Business Development Manager/Representative

• What they look for: Candidates with strong interpersonal and negotiation skills

C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E

• AKA: CS, Customer Success

• Overview: Customer Service is sometimes maligned as the least sexy part of an organization. However, as churn rate has become a critical metric for judging tech firms both large and small, it’s now also one of the most essential parts. In fact, Customer Service is often rebranded as Customer Success to point out that this team is increasingly becoming critical to the success of the whole organization. 

• Example project: Develop user guides for the new Apple TV.

• What you do all day: Create support content, respond to support requests, reach out to current customers

• Roles: Customer Service Representative (providing front-line support to incoming customer requests), Customer Success Manager (responsible for the success of a portfolio of customers - from onboarding to upgrading)

• What they look for: Candidates with deep empathy for customers and who are also good at juggling many tasks

F I N A N C E /A C C O U N T I N G

• Overview: Keep tabs on the current functioning of the business and provide forecasting

• Example project: Project expected sales for Apple TV in 2017.

• What you do all day: Design financial reporting systems, produce reports, analyze results, provide recommendations

• Roles: Accounting (manage and analyze the books), Financial Analyst (provide reports and forecasts on key metrics)

• What they look for: Candidates with strong spreadsheet and presentation skills

Y O U R F I R S T T E C H R O L E I S J U S T T H E B E G I N N I N G

O N E L A S T P O I N T:

P L E N T Y O F P E O P L E H O P F R O M O N E R O L E T O A N O T H E R

• Salespeople go into Business Development

• Marketers become Product Managers

• And tons of people launch their careers in Customer Service before moving on

J U S T L E T M E K N O WI F Y O U W A N T H E L P F I N D I N G T H E P E R F E C T F I T

I ’ V E D O N E O R W O R K E D W I T H E V E R Y R O L E H E R E - F R O M A P P L E + L I N K E D I N T O S TA R T U P S

E M A I L M E AT

J E R E M Y @ B R E A K I N T O . T E C H

F R E E I N S I D E R S E C R E T SA N D G E T M O R E

S U B S C R I B E T O T H E N E W S L E T T E RDon’t miss any new reports!

G E T I TG E T I T

PAY I T F O R W A R DA L L I A S K I S T H A T Y O U

As a former teacher, I believe in sharing everything I’ve learned.

So, in that spirit, please share!

CLICK TO SHARE