A few weeks back, a reporter asked me to share how I get started in tech for a career-advice-related article. So in case you have the same question, here’s some insight into my technology career path.
I'm a digital transformation go-to-market content strategist for mid-market and enterprise IaaS, SaaS, and FinTech, and co-founder of SP Home Run. And I am certified by HubSpot Academy, including in Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital Advertising, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Sales Enablement.
I’m a former Microsoft Corporation content provider for and an advisor to the Small Business Server (SBS) product teams and small business channel partner teams in Redmond, Washington. I’ve led marketing for a venture-based B2B SaaS company applying AI in accounting and enterprise finance.
With a deep specialization in the SaaS, cloud services, data center, and hosting industries, I’ve presented educational sessions at MSP EXPO/IT EXPO, HostingCon, Data Center World, and DatacenterDynamics.
How I got started in tech
I began my career marketing and selling higher education PC hardware and software solutions for IBM Academic Information Systems (ACIS) and supported high-leverage co-marketing campaigns.
I was 17 at the time, during my freshman year at Rutgers. IBM/Manpower was looking for an engineering or computer science major that was at least a sophomore. I was an economics major and the youngest of four students hired.
Before that, starting around age 10, because my mom was in education and my dad was in accounting/finance, we had various PCs at home.
In the 1980s, Radio Shack and Texas Instruments invested in community outreach on the heels of more rapid advances in Apple’s and IBM's personal computer/microcomputer business.
I remember visiting the local Radio Shack computer classroom multiple times on class trips.
My mom and dad sometimes had loaner computers at home from their workplaces.
And we had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, which hooked up to the TV and stored data on cassette tapes. Then we had an Apple II-compatible computer, which proved to be a lemon.
My first introduction to line-of-business office productivity software
By the time I was in high school, we had got an IBM PC/XT compatible system with a hard drive, green monitor, and dot matrix printer. This is when I first learned word processing and spreadsheets -- and it was the key to jump-starting my interest in the commercial side of IT.
In high school, I worked at a collection agency with a mainframe and one PC from the company that eventually became known as Dell.
During my freshman year at Rutgers, our Economics 101 professor taught us Lotus 1-2-3, which led to a great summer job at a large insurance company. (That was the summer I figured out I didn’t want to be an accountant.)
First, significant steps forward as an author, copywriting, and content strategist for IT-managed services, software, and infrastructure
Fast-forward to the late 1990s:
As a former Microsoft content provider for and advisor to the Small Business Server (SBS) product and channel partner teams in Redmond, I wrote the groundbreaking book Building Profitable Solutions with Microsoft Small Business Server and bi-weekly VAP Voice online columns that helped shape Microsoft’s partner and product marketing strategy, and ultimately the managed services business model. Much of the content I created was also localized and translated into over a dozen languages for a global audience of over 500,000.
Nearly every career opportunity that I've had was one degree of separation away from my early exposure to technology.
How did you get started in your technology career? Let me know in the comments below.
If you're part of a B2B SaaS, FinTech, or IaaS startup, you can learn go-to-market strategy from Joshua Feinberg when you enroll in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.
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