Luke Jarych: Łukasz, you are one of the people who participated in my individual workshop “Career Pivot on LinkedIn” (LINK) (Luke’s workshop). You demonstrated great proactivity and perfectly planned your transition process from a marketing specialist to a no-code/low-code developer. You managed to switch to the IT industry within 15 months. Sincere congratulations! Today, we would like to discuss your insights and reflections on the career change as well as your current role.
Łukasz Jędrasiak: Yes, though we need to treat those 15 months as somewhat symbolic, because if we consider my first “Hello World” program as the starting point, it actually took me 30 years to find a job in IT! My first experience with programming was back when I was a child—it was Basic on DOS.
However, 15 months ago, I consciously made the decision to choose my specialization (front-end) and really dove into learning. The real change, though, began a bit later—8 months ago—after completing your workshop. That’s when the first job offers started coming in. At the beginning, I turned them all down because I didn’t yet have a CV or a portfolio.
Luke Jarych: Łukasz, before joining the workshop, you were hesitant about how to communicate your previous experiences — how has that changed since then?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: For the last several years, I worked in marketing as a one-man army. I can design a flyer, write an article, launch a campaign, send a newsletter, create 3D visualizations, and even operate a milling machine. You could say I know a little bit about everything but am not an expert in any one area. So, I highlighted in my experience the elements that would be useful in a front-end developer role: including knowledge of SEO principles, basic UX/UI, and graphic design.
Luke Jarych: Why did you decide to switch careers, and why did you choose IT? Initially, you aimed to become a Front-End Developer using Jamstack (a technology for building websites), but you ended up as a no-code/low-code developer instead.
Łukasz Jędrasiak: You could say I finally corrected the mistakes of my youth 🙂 I’ve been interested in programming since I was a child, but life took me in different directions, and I ended up making a living in advertising. In the end, it didn’t turn out too badly because, thanks to my experience in marketing, I can create a website or app that not only works but also looks decent and can generate income.
The shift from front-end to no-code/low-code happened quite naturally. I discovered the Jamstack approach when I was searching for an alternative to WordPress that would help my clients rank higher on Google. Websites built on Jamstack are essentially static sites written in pure HTML and CSS, which connect to the backend via APIs using JavaScript.
After launching Jamstack websites for my employers at the time, the need arose to create backend functions that couldn’t be handled by publicly available APIs. I didn’t have much time to learn, so I turned to no-code/low-code solutions, which drastically shorten and simplify the development process.
Over time, it turned out that these quickly implemented backend solutions, not the polished front-end, were providing the most value to my employers. So, I made another career shift and decided to focus on this path.
Luke Jarych: If you had to name the three things that helped you the most in your career transition, what would they be?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: First—I stopped seeing myself as a junior with no experience looking for an employer to hire me, and I started treating my name as a brand offering specific value to clients. This change in perspective automatically required two things: adapting my offer to the real needs of the market and promoting it within the community.
Second—my portfolio. From my point of view, one large project, polished from A to Z, is much better than several smaller ones like the typical “to-do list” examples. It’s important to have a side project (side-hustle) that not only stands out in your portfolio but also serves as a testing ground for your ideas.
Third—community engagement. After your workshop, I became actively involved on LinkedIn: expanding my network, posting content, and commenting on others’ publications. In short, I stayed current with the topics that interested me.
Luke Jarych: During the workshop, we worked holistically on your career change. We revamped your entire LinkedIn profile, and you practically received inquiries from recruiters immediately after. Then, we delved into the hidden job market and how to reach decision-makers in the IT industry, and we concluded our journey by crafting a roadmap to a masterful CV. What brought you the most value from this experience? What surprised you? 🙂
Łukasz Jędrasiak: The biggest surprise was that recruiters started inviting me to participate in recruitment processes on their own. Such a model doesn’t exist in marketing, at least not for entry-level positions. Although there was a slowdown in early 2023 and the number of invitations drastically decreased, the way of communication is still a huge plus. Even if your CV gets rejected, you are informed about it. You feel like a partner in the conversations rather than just a client at a window.
Luke Jarych: Career transition is a process that requires consistency and proper time management. Can you share how you planned your strategy for publishing and managing your newsletter on LinkedIn? What were the results?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: Indeed, right after your workshop, I launched a newsletter on LinkedIn where I shared what I learned about front-end development. I’ve been a bit neglectful of it lately, but I’m returning in September—I’ll be writing about how to build your own side project that can serve as a gateway into the IT or digital marketing industries. Taking this opportunity, I invite everyone to get in touch! 🙂
This newsletter and my overall presence on LinkedIn directly contributed to my finding a job as a developer. By publishing my own content and commenting on other users’ posts, I met many new colleagues in the industry. Most of them impressed me with their passion for discussing their work.
One such person was Kamil, who regularly published podcasts about no-code and low-code. I watched almost all the episodes and occasionally asked him questions about anything that was unclear to me. After a while, he posted a job advertisement on his profile. From the job description, it seemed that I met most of the requirements, so I decided to participate in the recruitment process. I went through two stages, one of which involved a fairly extensive homework task, and since August, I can officially call myself a developer! 🙂
Without my prior activity on LinkedIn, I probably would never have met Kamil, let alone found out that his company was even looking for developers.
Luke Jarych: In a career transition, it’s crucial to recognize that we don’t start with a blank slate in a new industry. We’re not students starting from scratch; we have experience, and in your case, it was many years of work in marketing, including your own business. How did you communicate your previous experience and turn it into an asset?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: I was fortunate that, while working in marketing, I also handled the creation and management of websites for my employers. This allowed me to showcase three strong projects in my portfolio right from the start.
However, I believe that any aspiring developer has the opportunity to create a portfolio, even if their current job responsibilities don’t allow for it. Look around you, identify a problem, and solve it through programming. Maybe your child’s sports club has a terrible website? Perhaps your colleagues are still using Excel to manage orders instead of a CRM? Or you might have a fantastic hobby that could serve as the basis for a blog, an online store, or a platform for online courses?
Luke Jarych: Your CV surprised both me and Klaudia—it’s the essence of what we always emphasize: stand out among 1,000 other candidates. You created a CV that looked like code from a website—WOW! And what’s more, it didn’t require much work on our part. Where did that idea come from, and how did it translate into responses from recruiters?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: It’s hard to say where that idea came from. I guess I simply spent too much time looking at a code editor that I liked so much that I decided to replicate its layout! 🙂
I’m not sure what percentage of interview invitations relative to sent applications would be considered a good outcome. In my case, it was around 9%. Considering that one of those resulted in complete success, I think it’s safe to say that the unconventional CV passed the test.
Luke Jarych: Did the methods for accessing the hidden job market, along with the tools and strategies, result in invitations for job interviews for you?
Łukasz Jędrasiak: Absolutely, because if they hadn’t worked, we wouldn’t be talking today about my new role! 🙂 However, I must admit that at first, I was skeptical about some of them. As the saying goes, I don’t want to become a developer just to have to talk to people. The need to step out into the world and, for example, invite complete strangers to my network can be difficult, especially if you’re an introvert. The fear of criticism and impostor syndrome only make it harder.
Fortunately, the hardest part is just getting started when your LinkedIn profile is still empty. It’s worth creating a detailed activity plan during that time, such as: on Monday, review the profiles of your dream employers; on Tuesday, check out online events and sign up for one; on Wednesday, publish a post; on Thursday, search for and add a few new people with similar interests to your network; and on Friday, write a longer comment on someone’s post.
Over time, as your network grows and LinkedIn’s algorithm learns what interests you, it will start suggesting interesting topics and connection proposals on your feed. For me, the key is that I’m genuinely interested in front-end and no-code/low-code, which is why I don’t view my activity on LinkedIn as an unpleasant obligation. It’s simply part of my passion.
Luke Jarych: The golden advice from Łukasz Jędrasiak for those considering a career transition is…
Łukasz Jędrasiak: I’ll quote a classic—Luke Jarych—and say this: “Be afraid and do it anyway.”