Rethinking Pathways Into Tech

Katja Fischer, a Senior Consultant at UBDS Digital, didn't study computer science. She joined a tech startup's HR team with a Psychology and Business Management degree, and within two months had pivoted into a Business Analyst role, a move she credits partly to a Richard Branson line about seizing opportunities you're not fully qualified for yet rather than waiting until you feel ready.

The data backs up why that pathway matters: women make up only around 21% of UK IT specialists, according to BCS's Women in Technology Report, despite a much smaller gap between men and women actually studying computing and engineering degrees in the first place. That gap between who studies the subject and who ends up working in the sector is where a lot of the real loss happens, not at the entry point but somewhere in the transition from qualification to career.

Fischer's argument is that the roles most likely to close that gap aren't the classic engineering ones. Business analysts, product owners and transformation leads all need genuine technical literacy, but the job is fundamentally about translating between technical capability and business need, a combination of skills that a non-computing degree can build just as well as a computing one, arguably better in some cases.

She backs this with research on why women in particular hesitate to make these moves: Harvard Business School research finds women are more likely to self-doubt and opt out of stretch opportunities before even applying, and McKinsey's Women in the Workplace report finds women have fewer workplace sponsors than men, a sponsorship gap that directly correlates with slower career advancement. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, meanwhile, ranks analytical thinking, problem-solving, adaptability and active learning among the most critical workforce skills going forward, none of which are unique to a computer science curriculum.

Fischer also writes about her mother's return to work after roughly 20 years away, now leading a payroll transformation programme, as a reminder that a career break doesn't erase capability, even if it dents confidence temporarily. Her four practical tips are worth taking at face value rather than as generic career advice: take stretch opportunities even with an obvious qualification gap, keep learning through whatever route is actually available to you (bootcamps and online credentials included, not just formal degrees), actively seek out mentorship and sponsorship rather than waiting to be noticed, and lead with transferable skills like communication and problem-solving rather than downplaying them as "just soft skills" next to a technical CV line.