Tech Jobs that DON'T require a Computer Science degree

How do I break into tech? A question that people of all backgrounds ask on a consistent basis. This should come as no surprise, as widespread need for technology professionals drove the average salary for tech careers in the U.S. to a record high of $104,566 in 2021 alone. The almost guaranteed 6-figure pay has left many wondering—"can I land a tech job without a degree in computer science?"

The answer is a resounding YES. Keep reading to learn about some jobs in tech that don't necessarily require a computer science degree.

Business Development

In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives, and activities that help make a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions.

“Business Development Executive,” “Manager of Business Development,” and “VP, Business Development” are all impressive job titles often heard in business organizations. Sales, strategic initiatives, business partnerships, market development, and business expansion—all of these fields are involved in business development but are often mixed up and mistakenly viewed as the sole function of business development. Most importantly, a vast majority of BD executives have college degree and skills outside of technology focused areas—many major in Business, Economics, or Finance, and come from backgrounds in investment banking or consulting.

Marketing

Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to attract an audience to the company's product or services through high-quality messaging. Marketing aims to deliver standalone value for prospects and consumers through content, with the long-term goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty, and ultimately increasing sales.

Obviously, there are analytical ways to go about marketing—many forms of online marketing such as SEO (search engine optimization)—rely heavily on data. However, it is not at all necessary to have any experience with programming or a degree in computer science. Most of what makes a good marketer is their ability to storytelling effectively, and understand what users seek to gain out of using their product. A CS degree is far from mandatory here.

Data Science

U.C. Berkeley's blog does a great job of explaining this field: Data science continues to evolve as one of the most promising and in-demand career paths for skilled professionals. Today, successful data professionals understand that they must advance past the traditional skills of analyzing large amounts of data, data mining, and programming skills. In order to uncover useful intelligence for their organizations, data scientists must master the full spectrum of the data science life cycle—Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), statistical and mathematical skills, storytelling and data visualization, Hadoop, SQL, machine learning.

While all of these skills may seem inherently technical (which the are) and perhaps a little bit scary, they can easily be learned through self-study using online courses or bootcamps.

Operations

Operations analysts are often referred to as operations research analysts, which describes the job quite effectively. In this role, you’ll research company operations to help management make decisions, reformulate policies, adjust logistics, and make changes to streamline operations. This is a highly data-driven field emphasizing mathematics, simulation models, data validation, and analytics, all for the purpose of identifying and correcting problems.

Because they work in a technical field, analysts in today’s fast-paced environments are always building their skill sets and learning about industry trends and new technology. The role, while analytical, is inherently non-technical, and a college degree in almost any subject can set you up for a successful career in Operations so long as you remain curious!

Product Management

Product management is an organizational function that guides every step of a product’s lifecycle — from development to positioning and pricing — by focusing on the product and its customers first and foremost. To build the best possible product, product managers advocate for customers within the organization and make sure the voice of the market is heard and heeded.

Thanks to this focus on the customer, product teams routinely ship better-designed and higher-performing products. In tech, where entrenched products are quickly uprooted by newer and better solutions, there is more need than ever for an intimate understanding of customers and the ability to create tailored solutions for them. That’s where product management comes in.

If it isn't becoming obvious, the makings of a good PM include analytical abilities, an ability to understand technology (not necessarily program), and an ability to distill information into actionable insights.

...and hundreds more!

In the spirit of keeping this readable, we listed 5 of the most popular non-technical roles in tech. However, it is important to remember that there are many more roles where a degree in computer science (or a lack thereof), should affect your prospects of landing the role.