In the sprawling tech industry, a cutting-edge idea is essential for companies to remain at the forefront of innovation. Without new perspectives and fresh integrations, products and technologies can grow stale.
And similar to influential figures like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a lack of experience in a particular area can mean that a job seeker’s perspective holds additional value.
That’s why for many leaders in tech, thinking outside the box sometimes means thinking outside the industry — and discovering unique talent brimming with untapped ideas.
“We always welcome fresh perspectives on how we could be operating more effectively,” said Sohela Lalvani, chief accounting officer at career opportunity platform Guild Education. “We need diversity in background, thought and experience to make us an even better functioning team, improve our output and stay nimble.”
At Guild Education, that means going beyond simply including more women and minorities in the room: It requires fostering an environment that supports transparency, inclusion and continuous development. In fact, as many tech organizations continue to embrace DEI initiatives heading into 2023, employment in the information technology field is projected to grow much faster than the average across all occupations from 2021 to 2031, according to a study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s often said that transferable skills are the culmination of your life experiences,” Lalvani added. “I think our team can only grow positively with a new way of thinking and doing by fostering a culture of openness and inclusivity.”
Built In Colorado connected with Lalvani and two additional people leaders at Melio and Verblio to learn why newcomers to the tech industry should always be given a seat at the table. Their experience might be exactly what your team is looking for.
The best part? All three companies are hiring now.
Melio is an accounts payable and receivable solution for small businesses.
Describe the current makeup of your team. What kind of unique experiences are represented there?
My team is made up of individuals from a range of diverse educational, socioeconomical, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Many of them are earlier on in their careers and have experience within the service, retail and banking industries.
In your experience, what are the steepest learning curves for new hires who come from outside your industry?
For those joining my team from non-traditional tech roles, one of the steepest learning curves is the ability to juggle live conversations while providing timely and accurate information to customers.
How does Melio onboard and support new hires who come from outside your industry?
Currently we partner with organizations such as Kindwork to bring on talent who have undergone a six-week intensive customer experience fellowship. Through this intensive program, they learn professional skills, job-specific technical training and job shadowing opportunities to prepare them for traditional CX roles.
Once they join our team, they embark on an eight-week onboarding session and learn about the company and its mission, their specific line of business, and shadow team members who are currently support agents at the company. After they’ve mastered those skills, they work weekly with their managers to ensure they are retaining the information and settling into their roles by checking for learning gaps and opportunities.
Guild Education is a career opportunity platform with a focus on unlocking opportunities for American workers.
Describe the current makeup of your team. What kind of unique experiences are represented there?
We are a department full of intelligent, innovative and self-motivated people working to account for all business activities and build the company’s financial statements. We are proud to be a team that represents gender parity, with about half of our department identifying as women.
True diversity should mean more than gender and race, but a diversity of fresh ideas and thoughts to foster a collaborative team culture where people feel included. As we expand, we are committed to being a team with diverse voices and experiences where employees feel a sense of belonging.
In your experience, what are the steepest learning curves for new hires who come from outside your industry?
Guild is working to unlock opportunities for workers across the country through education, skilling and career pathways. We are scaling quickly to meet the needs of America’s workforce, and the accounting team must work efficiently to be able to accurately account for all business activities. I firmly believe transferable skills don’t have to be acquired on the job. They can be skills learned through internships and volunteer work — even hobbies.
True diversity should mean more than gender and race, but a diversity of fresh ideas and thoughts.”
How does Guild Education onboard and support new hires who come from outside your industry?
In a role that is specialized like accounting, fundamentals for the role are required. But I am increasingly becoming more aware that the employee we hire isn't just executing on a role: There is a cross-pollination impact here. I want to invest in someone with the desire to learn more than someone proficient in their craft who has lost the motivation to excel. There is no doubt there will be a learning curve, but with an enthusiastic mind, I’m a firm believer that technical proficiency is the easy part.
As a leader of a large team, a big opportunity is learning to stay attuned to easily spot where extra levels of time investment are required from me which could yield huge dividends. Conversely, I also need to know when to pivot to support members of my team who may have different aspirations or where their energies are better directed.
I am a fierce advocate of internal and external mobility. I credit my mentors and advocates for helping steer me in the direction my natural proclivity was taking me. I hope to be able to do the same for my own employees, so we can collectively benefit from shepherding talent where it’s best suited to thrive.
Verblio is a content creation platform for marketing organizations.
Describe the current makeup of your team. What kind of unique experiences are represented there?
Zero people on our marketing team studied marketing in school. We have folks who studied music, film, economics, history and more liberal arts subjects. As a hiring manager, expressing curiosity and showing me that you are fascinated by digital marketing matter far more than your academic or professional background.
In your experience, what are the steepest learning curves for new hires who come from outside your industry?
Digital marketing is ever-evolving, and involves a dizzying array of channels and a complex set of tools. Plus, it requires the ability to combine logical thinking and analysis with creativity. No one can have a deep enough knowledge to be an expert in everything, which is why we do so much collaboration across the team, pairing team members to work on projects together. In my experience, if you’re truly fascinated by this stuff, the learning will come naturally. We look for people who want to become marketing nerds like us — the rest will take care of itself.
Expressing curiosity and showing me that you are fascinated by digital marketing matter far more than your academic or professional background.”
How does Verblio onboard and support new hires who come from outside your industry?
There’s a world-class education about modern marketing available for free on the internet if you know where to look. We do, and we point new hires to those places so they can drink from the digital firehose. There are also a few books everyone on the team reads because they’re fundamental to how we think about marketing and what we market. Two of my favorites are Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina and Alchemy by Rory Sutherland.
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