Strong language skills, but no computer science background? These jobs are your entry ticket into software development

Software development is ever-evolving and a great place to (re-)start your career

Photo by Daniel Korpai on Unsplash

Software development is not just about 1s and 0s. While coding is a big part of digital products, it takes various roles to make a software product successful.

Several of these roles benefit from strong language skills, which make them ideal candidates for lateral entrants coming from language-oriented professions.

Jobs like translators or content creators are exciting in their own right. However, enriching your skill portfolio with technical aspects will make you irresistible to recruiters, which is vital in today’s competitive job market.

While people are panicking over hundreds and thousands of layoffs, diversifying your skillset is indispensable. And while the software industry is undergoing similar turmoil as the rest of the global labor market, it still offers one of the most fruitful soil to develop an outstanding career in a lucrative field.

So if you are a translator, linguist, teacher, content creator, or another language artist who is looking for a permanent position in tech, read on.

I will break down the most suitable jobs to get started in the field and share details on why your language skills make you an appropriate candidate for a junior position.

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Before we dive into the specifics, let me tell you how you can get the most out of this article. I structured every section according to the following pattern:

1. What is the job? (marked with the green bar)

2. Why is it a good match for language specialists?

3. Is there potential to transition into other roles in software development?

4. What is the job perspective?

My recommendation: Start with the opening paragraphs of each section to see if the job sounds interesting to you. If not, proceed with the next one. This way you don’t waste your precious time reading about a job that is not for you.

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Technical Writer

Technical writing was my way into tech. For the past 12 years, I have worked in various technical writing roles. I started out as a technical writer. Later, I transitioned into a senior project manager, product owner, and scrum master for a talented team of technical writers.

Technical writers write technical documentation, for the most part, documents that inform the users on how to use a product efficiently and safely. What makes this job so fun is its versatility.

Writing instructions and descriptions are only one part of the job. Learning about the specificities of the product, establishing clear writing rules, managing translations and terminology, improving UI text, or analyzing the target groups.

The list of tasks is long. It has a lot to do with languages, which makes it my number one pick for transitioning from language-oriented languages. Many, if not most technical writers I know come from fields like translation, linguistics, or education. You would be in good company as a non-computer scientist.

Depending on your position, you might be even more invested in the technical side of things, e.g. maintaining the content management system, designing an information model, and automating tasks.

These tasks add technical skills to your portfolio and enable you to get in touch with tasks that might seem more typical for developers than for writers. Along with the strong focus on user needs, their skills open up countless options to transition into other roles, like:

• Software engineer

• Product owner

• Product manager

The job market generally is fantastic, despite the current economic uncertainty. Great technical writers are rare, few people are aware of the job and how great it truly is - which results in more open positions than suitable candidates. The salaries are just as great, as they lean on salaries of software engineers, which is respectable.

UX writer

The job title says it already. You write - mainly user-facing text, e.g. on the user interface. It has quite a few similarities with the job of a technical writer. In fact, there are companies, in which technical writers take care of optimizing the UI texts, which I don’t consider optimal.

The main difference is that technical writers specialize in highly functional text. The main priority is to bring the message across as efficiently and comprehensible as possible.

UX writers, on the other hand, use a wider range of tone of voice. It isn’t just about efficiently getting a message across. It is also about writing compelling text that excites the users and binds them to your product.

You could have guessed it: Having a specialty in languages is a great starting point for a career in UX writing. A strong command of a language is mandatory to make it in this field.

A job in UX writing is also a great stepping stone into other software-related jobs: You can transition into the related UX fields like:

• UX designer

• UI designer

• UX researcher

• Usability engineer

• Product manager

• Product owner

If you work on your programming skills and your social network within the company, I am sure you can also go down a more technical path, like a software engineer.

The demand for UX writers remains decent. Companies realize its potential of significantly reducing support efforts and increasing sales. A study by Airbnb unveiled a staggering 30% increase in bookings when UI texts were improved!

The best part is that there aren’t many trained and experienced UX writers on the job market. Combine that with the decent demand and you have yourself a great chance of snatching an opening as a lateral entrant.

Requirements Engineer

Requirements engineers are brokers between the technical and business worlds. They “translate” the user’s needs into precise work items for the development team. To do so, they interview stakeholders, write clear documentation, and ensure that the built features are testable.

This role is a great match for language specialists because it relies heavily on communication skills. Writing clear, concise, and precise requirements is critical to ensure that all parties are on the same page.

Requirements engineers often need to simplify technical jargon into understandable terms for non-technical stakeholders and ensure the final product meets the user's expectations.

There is potential for transitioning into other roles within software development. With experience in gathering and documenting requirements, you will gain insight into the development process, which opens the door to roles like product owner, business analyst, or project manager.

If you want to delve deeper into the technical side, this experience can also be a stepping stone to roles like a software engineer or quality assurance (QA) specialist, as you'll have a deep understanding of how the software should function.

The job perspective for requirements engineers is positive. Businesses continue to invest in tech and software development and the need for clear communication between business and technical teams is growing.

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In conclusion, I’d like to add one point that is true for all three mentioned jobs:

With the rise of AI, the coding of software seems to be more and more taken care of by machines. However, AI struggles to create great software from poor and unspecific prompts. A funny quote I once read comes to mind:

To replace programmers with AI, clients will have to accurately describe what they want.

We’re safe.

If that is the case for programmers, this applies even more to the people who excel in understanding the client’s needs to produce great products.

AI will only increase the importance of clearly understanding the user’s needs.

So how do I get a job?

In the next weeks, I will provide concrete insights on how to get into the jobs mentioned above. I will share personal advice on valuable courses you can attend, how to write appealing applications, and how to prepare for respective interviews.

I will start with the job that you consider the most attractive.

For this purpose, I’d like your opinion: