Earlywork #16: The No-Bullshit Guide to Junior Job Titles in Tech
Featuring roles from Canva, Mindset Health, TechLend & more + an interview with Gaby Rosenberg (Co-Founder @ Blossom)
Hey gang!
It’s ya boi Dan and we’re up to Earlywork #16, a (usually) weekly newsletter that gives you:
A shortlist of the best roles for students & recent graduates across tech & startups in Australia (+ remote roles).
Free career resources for young people looking to break into tech & startups.
Interviews with young startup founders & employees.
If you’re not already part of the crew, subscribe now to keep a pulse on our latest stories and conversations:
Jono, Marina and I recently launched our Career & Interview Coaching program page on our website here, and are currently having a ton of fun building out content & sessions for our beta cohort.
If you’re a final year student or recent graduate actively looking to land a full-time tech/startup role, head on over to find out about the services we offer, and to land a free intro session!
💡 Weekly Cheeky Tip:
The No-Bullshit Guide to Junior Job Titles in Tech
Ever had the experience of applying to a role with a juicy job description, only to find out in the interview that the actual day-to-day duties are completely different?
Or worse, accepting a job offer only to discover the job isn’t what they’d promised at all?
We get you. Job titles get stretched and misused to the point where two jobs can have the same title but totally different responsibilities.
And in the buzzword-heavy world of tech & startups, this is even more prevalent.
For those new to the workforce, it’s hard to tell what all these fancy titles even mean.
That’s why we decided to make a no-bullshit guide to junior job titles in tech, along with some real-world examples in the Australian market of cool companies that hire for this type of role.
Account Executive
What is it? A sales role focused on acquiring new customers and/or managing existing clients.
Tell me more: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/what-is-an-account-executive
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Uber, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services
Account Strategist
What is it? An account management role focused on helping answer client questions and increasing their expenditure on company products.
Tell me more: https://www.googblogs.com/my-path-to-google-reza-khan-associate-account-strategist/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Google
Associate Product Manager
What is it? A junior role at the intersection of tech, business and design, involving customer research, data analysis, defining product requirements, helping build product/feature strategies, and coordinating the development of new features with stakeholders.
Tell me more: https://productmanagerhq.com/ultimate-associate-product-manager-guide/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Atlassian, Deputy, Finder, Zip, Freelancer
Backend Engineer/Developer
What is it? A software development role focused on programming the underlying systems and logic behind software & web app, connected to servers, databases and APIs.
Tell me more: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/front-end-developer-vs-back-end-developer-definition-and-meaning-in-practice/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Google, Amazon Web Services, Atlassian, Canva
Business Analyst
What is it? A broad term used to describe a range of all-rounder, business-focused roles, typically with a mix of project management, stakeholder management, operational improvement and data analysis. Some roles with this title may be more specifically focused on the data analysis element, with SQL/Excel being key skills.
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Amazon, MYOB, HubSpot
Business Development Associate/Manager
What is it? An externally-focused role that may either be focused on acquiring new customers (sales) or helping build relationships with other companies/stakeholders (partnerships).
Tell me more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottpollack/2012/03/21/what-exactly-is-business-development/?sh=2ff2099a7fdb
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Salesforce, Groupon, Amazon Web Services, Deliveroo
Community Associate/Manager
What is it? An all-round customer-facing role covering tasks like social media management, advertising, PR, customer support and content creation.
Tell me more: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/great-community-management-tips
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Asana, Canva, Cloudflare
Content Marketing Associate
What is it? A marketing role focused on creating customer and partner-facing content, such as blogs, newsletters, videos, and promotional materials.
Tell me more: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-does-a-content-marketer-do
Examples of companies who hire for this role: TRIBE, Finder, Canva
Content Designer
What is it? A role at the intersection of writing and design, focused on creating written content and instructions within products to improve user experience.
Tell me more: https://www.dta.gov.au/blogs/what-does-content-designer-do
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Atlassian
Customer Experience Associate
What is it? A customer-focused role that may vary in responsibilities between customer onboarding, customer support and account management. Similar to Customer Success.
Tell me more: https://www.groovehq.com/blog/customer-experience-specialist
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Zip, Monday, Brighte
Customer Success Associate
What is it? A customer-oriented role focused on helping existing users of a product or service, whether it be onboarding, support, renewal, upgrades, etc.
Tell me more:https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-success-manager/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Adobe, Slack, UpGuard, SafetyCulture
Data Analyst
What is it? A technical role focused on data inspection, cleaning, transformation and modelling, and communicating the result of the analysed data with tech and business teams.
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@lchandratejareddy/a-data-analyst-vs-a-data-scientist-vs-a-data-engineer-91b1f46d5995
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Deputy, Eucalyptus, Domain, Brighte
Data Engineer
What is it? A technical role focused on building and optimising a platform that ensures accurate data for data scientists and analysts to work with.
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@lchandratejareddy/a-data-analyst-vs-a-data-scientist-vs-a-data-engineer-91b1f46d5995
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Rokt, Rezdy, Practice Ignition, MYOB
Data Scientist
What is it? A technical role focused on analysing data using machine learning algorithms to gain future insights that may help business decisions.
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@lchandratejareddy/a-data-analyst-vs-a-data-scientist-vs-a-data-engineer-91b1f46d5995
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Uber, Atlassian, Amazon, Rokt
Digital Marketing Associate
What is it? A marketing role responsible for managing digital channels to generate leads and build brand awareness, including the company website, social media, online ads, etc.
Tell me more: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-does-a-digital-marketer-do
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Amazon, Adobe, Deputy
Field Marketing Associate
What is it? A marketing role typically seen in B2C products, with a focus on physical marketing initiatives such as promotions, emos and direct sales.
Tell me more: https://www.repsly.com/blog/consumer-goods/what-is-field-marketing
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Freshservices, Monday, Secureworks
Frontend Engineer/Developer
What is it? A software engineering role focused on development of the user interface components of a website or app.
Tell me more: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/front-end-developer-vs-back-end-developer-definition-and-meaning-in-practice/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Google, Amazon Web Services, Atlassian, Canva
Full-Stack Engineer/Developer
What is it? A software engineering role that combines the user-interface work of frontend developers with the underlying system logic and data connections of backend developers.
Tell me more:https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/front-end-developer-vs-back-end-developer-definition-and-meaning-in-practice/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Google, Amazon Web Services, Atlassian, Canva
Growth Associate
What is it? A marketing role with a specific focus on rapid experimentation through online channels, backed by data analysis, to find marketing approaches that optimise customer acquisition, retention and referrals.
Tell me more:https://www.adroll.com/blog/growth-marketing/growth-marketing
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Envato, Simply Wall St, Go1, HelloFresh
Inbound Sales Representative/Inside Sales Representative
What is it? A sales role focused on handling inquiries from and acquiring new customers who have already expressed some interest in the product or related services.
Tell me more:https://www.ringdna.com/blog/what-is-inbound-sales-and-how-is-it-changing
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Uber, Github, HubSpot, Segment
Machine Learning Engineer
What is it? A technical role focused on training a system to make it learn and predict the trend or outputs if the dataset is given.
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@lchandratejareddy/a-data-analyst-vs-a-data-scientist-vs-a-data-engineer-91b1f46d5995
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Canva, HelloFresh, Nearmap
Operations Associate
What is it? An all-round business-oriented role focused on creating and improving processes and projects across the company, often with some data analysis skills involved.
Tell me more:https://www.jobhero.com/job-description/examples/administrative/operations-associate
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Uber, Zoomo, Stake, SiteMinder, Deliveroo
Partnerships Associate
What is it? An externally-facing role focused on developing commercial and strategic relationships that align with the company’s objectives.
Tell me more: https://www.talentlyft.com/en/resources/outreach-and-partnerships-manager-job-description
Examples of companies who hire for this role: :Different, Shopback, Klarna
Product Analyst
What is it? A technical role that sits somewhere between product management and data analytics, depending on the company, involving analysis of both industry data and product data.
Tell me more: https://www.jobhero.com/career-guides/interviews/prep/what-is-a-product-analyst
Examples of companies who hire for this role: HelloFresh, Envato, Culture Amp, Atlassian
Product Designer / UX Designer
What is it? A design role focused on crafting the user’s experience within an app or website. This usually means taking concepts from product teams and creating product sketches all the way to high-fidelity designs ready for build.
Tell me more: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-designer/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Zip Co, Canva, Eucalyptus, HelloFresh, Airwallex
Product Marketing Associate
What is it? A strategic marketing role focused on the whole customer and product lifecycle, blending skills such as market research, user research, content creation, digital marketing, and marketing analytics.
Tell me more:https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-product-marketing
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Hatch, Superhero
Program Manager
What is it? A high-level operational role where the key responsibility is to coordinate projects across different areas of the business, monitor their progress and boost team performance.
Tell me more:https://www.productplan.com/glossary/program-manager
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Rokt, Atlassian, Finder
Sales Development Representative
What is it? A sales role focused on lead generation - introducing prospective clients to a company.
Tell me more: https://www.saleshacker.com/day-life-sales-development-rep/
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Templafy, Deputy, Snowflake, Typo Payments, Groupon, monday.com
Sales Engineer
What is it? A blend between a sales and technical role. Sales engineers are usually required to pitch, run technical demos and then sell high-tech products.
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@alex_45702/what-is-a-sales-engineer-740087eeddc5
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Salesforce, Datadog, Tableau
Sales Operations Associate
What is it? A sales role focused on implementing a company’s sales strategy and ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales process.
Tell me more:https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/what-is-an-account-executive
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Canva, Tiktok, CrowdStrike
Solutions Architect
What is it? A semi-technical role focused on designing the customised system of processes in which a product operates for a client. They evaluate the business objectives, technical requirements and customer needs, develop the “solutions”, and map out the steps that will take the project to full implementation.
Tell me more: https://dltlabs.medium.com/what-is-solution-architecture-eb14b81c240d
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Volt Bank, Amazon Web Services, Snowflake, Stripe
Solutions Engineer
What is it? This role often means “Sales Engineer” and/or “Solutions Architecture” (see above!)
Tell me more: https://medium.com/@safonand/what-is-a-technical-solutions-engineer-e3d4324efec
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Airwallex, Salesforce, Datadog, Tableau
UX Researcher
What is it? UX researchers examine customer attitudes and behaviour by running experiments and gathering insights. This will help the team transform insights into product design.
Tell me more: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ux-research
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Employment Hero, Afterpay, Hotjar, OFX
Visual Designer
What is it? A role that is largely oriented around digital design and focuses on what users see on the screen. They may work with a broad range of media including websites, games, videos and so on.
Tell me more: https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/hot-job-visual-designer
Examples of companies who hire for this role: Order Up!, deferit, Nimble Activewear, Raisely
1️⃣ 🕐 💪 One Minute Hustle
We are back once again with One Minute Hustle, a bite-sized interview with an emerging Australian young startup founder or operator. Today, let’s get inside the noggin of a young founder helping Aussies save money and help the planet along the way…
Gaby Rosenberg, Co-Founder @ Blossom
What are you working on? I’m the co-founder of Blossom, the new app where your savings go to grow. We’re targeting a 3% return p.a. so you can reach your savings goals faster. We don’t think you should have to choose between targeting higher returns and quick & easy access to your savings. So, we’ve brought it all to you! There are no minimums, no sign-up fees, no transfer or withdrawal fees.
Our mission is to leave your savings and the environment better than we found them. So, when you fund your account for the first time, we’ll commit to planting a tree in an Australian bushfire-affected region.How'd you get started? I come from a family who live and breathe finance. We are constantly discussing the markets and new ventures around the dinner table. As I grew up and became more serious about my savings, I often explored opportunities that were lower in risk. I found that the most compelling offers weren’t available to me because I wasn’t an institution or a high net worth individual. All the downtime during COVID got me thinking about how I could open up some of these opportunities for myself, my colleagues and the everyday Australian. After a few successful brainstorming sessions, an idea was born. Let’s bring fixed income investing to average Aussies and help them achieve their savings goals faster!
Why do you do what you do? I get a huge kick out of being able to democratise the fixed income market. The markets are volatile, it’s getting harder and harder to invest your money and often, people don’t know where to start. Having a financial safety net is so important and often without it, we see people struggle with their health, their wellbeing, their work and their relationships. The idea of helping everyday Aussies build healthy savings habits to work towards financial freedom is something that gets me out of bed in the morning.
You can find out more about Blossom or reach out to Gaby using the details below:
www.blossomapp.com
gaby@blossomapp.com
⛅ Intern & Part-Time Roles
🛠️ Technical
🎨 Creative
💪 Business
Sales and Finance Analyst, TechLend (send CV and cover letter to hello@techlend.com.au)
🌞 Graduate & Full-Time Roles
🛠️ Technical
🎨 Creative
💪 Business
🌏 = remote role
If you’re a zesty student careers fanatic, come join the Earlywork Gang on Slack to:
Be the first to gain access to new resources and initiatives being launched through Earlywork.
Have your suggestions and preferences on content and services incorporated into future Earlywork newsletters & associated offerings.
Ask and get answers to any of your own questions on jobseeking, applications, interviews, and all that jazz, for early-career roles in tech & startups.
Ciao for now,
Team Earlywork (Dan, Jono & Marina)
Email| LinkedIn
