The Best Strategies for Women Pivoting into Tech

If you’re a woman interested in tech, you may have been daunted by the stats. According to WomenTech Network’s 2024 statistics, women held just 35% of tech jobs in the US at the end of 2023, and they were in the minority at major tech companies.

But TripleTen career coach Sharahn McClung offers a mindset shift: “So how does that apply to you? Is that information that actually is going to affect the next step that you take?”

Sharahn works one-on-one with students in TripleTen’s Career Acceleration Program to help them identify skills, create stellar job applications, and prepare for interviews. We spoke to Sharahn about the strategies she recommends to bootcamp students making the switch into tech, especially those identifying as women. Her common sense approach will inspire you to pursue your path into tech on your own terms.

A frank look at tech

Even though women make up only a third of the tech workforce, this is a significant improvement from the early 2000s, when women only made up 9%. Sharahn sees something similar in the bootcamp student population: in her 5 years of coaching at TripleTen, she has seen very male-dominated cohorts become more evenly gender balanced. In TripleTen’s 2023 cohort, 36% of students identified as female or non-binary.

The great news is that bootcamp grads, of any gender, are getting hired. Our 2023 Outcomes Report shows that 87% of grads landed jobs within 6 months of finishing the program (and 50% were hired while still completing coursework!) Meanwhile, our Breaking into Tech report found that 79% of decision makers are currently hiring candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. 

You need a job search strategy

So how to start? Sharahn’s number one piece of advice for women: have a strategy. You have to be clear on the roles you want and what specific skills and strengths_{The Most In-Demand Tech Skills That Will Get You Hired} set you apart. Without a clear strategy, it’s too easy to be swayed by other people’s well-meaning advice, or less well-meaning labels. But when you are secure in knowing your skills and your goals, you can go into networking conversations and interviews with a clear objective in mind. It helps you speak from a place of strength and with real, not faked, confidence. 

So how do you come up with a job search strategy?

Step 1: Identify your strengths

Identifying your unique strengths is the first step in any strategy. Sharahn defines this as, “The thing that when you show up and do what you do, people look around and go, ‘Oh, we're so glad she's here.’ The key is that you enjoy doing those things.” For true strengths, you’ll have multiple examples of using that skill throughout your life – in your work, but also your personal projects, volunteer projects or hobbies. Ask friends, mentors, or trusted colleagues to help you identify your strengths if you feel stuck.

If you’re worried about competing with other candidates with a similar skill set, Sharahn reminds students that “we can all have similar strengths, but none of us have them at the same time, and with the same characteristics.” Once you can articulate your unique story, you’ll be much more memorable to recruiters.

Step 2: Follow your curiosity

“If you're excited about and interested in something, you’ll automatically want to ask questions, you’ll be motivated to meet people, and have an easier time putting yourself out there,” Sharahn says. When you lead with a sense of internal purpose and curiosity, it will become much more clear who is worth talking to and what conversations will be productive. (Check out this blog post for some helpful networking tips_{How to Network (and Stay Sane)}). 

It also helps to find like-minded communities, whether through professional organizations, local meetups, or getting inspired by listening to podcasts hosted by women who broke into tech_{6 Podcasts for Women Starting Careers in IT}.

Step 3: Align your job search materials

Finally, make sure your job search materials – resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile_{5 Social Media Strategies to Power Up Your Job Search} – align with your strategy. As Sharahn puts it, the materials should already tell a story before you get to any interview: “Here are my strengths as they show up in my career history. Here is what you're looking for in this role, and here's how that makes sense with my background.”

A commonly repeated belief is that men tend to apply to roles even if they don’t meet every requirement, while women choose roles that are a more exact fit. You can look at this in two ways: one, in which women are socialized in western cultures to be perfect, so they hesitate to take a shot where they might fail. Another way to look at it? Perhaps you’re just being strategic, and not spending precious time applying to roles that don’t match your goals.

Sharahn says, “I think there's a little truth in both, and what's in our control is that strategy. Ask yourself, ‘What is actually true for me? And how does that truth shape my decisions about how to get what I want?’” 

One aspect that Sharahn tends to spend more time on with female job seekers? Language and word choice. Especially when you’re new to an industry, there is a tendency to present yourself as a “learner and a novice, as opposed to someone in transition who has brand new tools to offer.” Sharahn emphasizes that words do matter: “There’s a big difference between saying ‘I’m open to learning’ vs. ‘I’m a voracious, lifelong learner, and here’s an example of that.’” The first answer can sound apologetic, while the second conveys confidence.

Talking about caregiving or career breaks

For a long time, women were advised to avoid mentioning kids (or any competing family obligations) when interviewing. Things have changed: LinkedIn even offers a custom field under “Experience” to formally add a career break due to caregiving, a layoff, health issues, or other reasons.

In interviews, “the thing that you thought you shouldn't say may actually be the thing you need to lead with,” Sharahn says. As always, she emphasizes that your unique perspective is a result of all your life experiences, and you can tell a story about your whole self when looking for a job.

Like any life experience, caregiving – whether a child or an aging relative – gives you skills and perspective. Whether it was soft skills_{The Soft Skills Software Engineers Need and Why}, technical skills, or volunteer experience, these may be worth mentioning in your cover letters and interviews. Sharahn especially urges job seekers to think about their volunteer work: “If you were volunteering, you had to be fired up to do what you were doing,” and that energy will come through when talking about it during your job search.

How to pick the right company

Workplace culture is not universal across all tech companies. It’s critical to do your research on companies not only to prepare for interviews, but to see if it aligns with your values. Do they have women in leadership roles? Do they talk about DEI or inclusivity? Do they offer generous parental leave?

To find out, visit the company website, take a look at the mission and core values, then see if it matches up with what they post on their social channels. Be sure to check Glassdoor employee reviews as well. Better yet, try to get introduced to someone at the company who can give you frank feedback about the culture.

If you are speaking to a recruiter, Sharahn recommends a slightly different approach. They are representing the company, so they won’t give you an unvarnished answer to a question like, “Do you like your job?” But, Sharahn says, you can ask, “I saw the core values on the website, which one do you like the most and do you see show up in your daily routine?” Their answers and body language will tell you a lot.

Keep in mind that Silicon Valley is not the only place to get a job in tech. Tech workers are needed across all sectors and industries. With that much range, you have options to find a workplace that suits your preferences.

Negotiating salary

As with everything in job searching, the salary conversation succeeds when you do your research and know your worth. Sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com can help you narrow down a realistic salary range, and with salary transparency laws in effect in multiple states, you can often find the salary band up front in the job listing. As Sharahn puts it, all of that information should set you up to understand “exactly where reality aligns with possibility.”

Sharahn once again comes back to her core point, about knowing your strength and your goals: “Negotiation is not the thing at the end. It’s the first words out of your mouth: ‘I'm fired up about this, and I have a pattern of success doing this.’” To Sharahn, that puts you in the power position from the start for the whole process, from interview to negotiation:

If we lead with our strengths, if we know our strengths, that's our introduction. We have embedded from the jump what our value is. Sharahn McClung, TripleTen career coach

Yes, you can land a job in tech. 

Discover how other women made the pivot: check out our student stories!