The One Question I Refuse To Answer

I made many mistakes when trying to find my way into tech as a non-technical person.

On of those mistakes is that I spent several weeks roaming around aimlessly in Trailhead (Salesforce certification land) because I thought that was the only way to get a tech job.

Any tech job.

Someone said, “Get a Salesforce certification for email marketing,” so I guess that’s what I was going to do.

Sure, that sounds good.

Nevermind the fact that the job that cert preps you for was absolutely not a match for me or my skillset.

I just thought it was the only way in.

I wanted a foot in the door. Any literal door that would open and let me step through it.

Fast forward nearly 8 years in tech with most of that time in customer success and L&D and supporting other career changers, it’s wild how often I see the exact same pattern.

I get this exact DM all the time. And it’s the one question I refuse to answer:

“What certification should I get to break into tech?”

And I know I disappoint people every time I answer their question with a question and respond with,

“Depends. What do you want to do in tech?”

I’m not about that gatekeeping life (obvi), I just want you to see that the question itself signals that your research wasn’t done in the right order.

And no shade. I know this because I did the same thing.

I’ve asked the same question people ask me all the time.

But here the truth I wish someone had told me back then:

You don’t start with a certification. You start with you.

You look inward first.

• What skills do I already have?
• What industries and customers do I understand?
• What kind of work do I want to do next

Then you look outward.

• What roles align with that?
• What responsibilities match my strengths?
• What problems do these jobs actually solve? And am I down with that?

Once you find that alignment, THEN you check the skill gap.

That’s when you ask: What would I actually need to learn to do this job successfully? And be competitive in today’s market?

THAT answer determines whether a certification is worth your time, your money, or your energy - and if so, which one(s).

Not a stranger on the internet who a completely different set of circumstances than you do. And certainly not a career influencer with an affiliate kickback pushing the latest bootcamp or academy.

I share my story because I’d hate to see you:

A. Spending money on something you don’t even need to land the role you want.

OR

B. Spending time training for a job you don’t actually want to do.

So yeah.

Career change is already hard. Let’s not make it harder by chasing someone else’s roadmap.

Make your own path based on where you are starting and where you want to go.

If you don’t know those things, start with that.

Do the research. Understand your value. Pick the lane that aligns with your skills and your career goals. The rest will reveal itself to you.

And then you can, based on evidence, decide where upskilling or certifications are part of the equation.

The Bottom Line 

If you’re trying to pivot into tech, the sequence matters.

And if you want to know what to do and what order to do it in, I broke it all down in my P.I.V.O.T. Framework. You can learn more about it here.