Career in IT: How to Find a Job and Become Top 1 in Sales

Daniyar Erdenov started his education at a regular school in Petropavlovsk, studied in Canada and Denmark, and today manages sales at an internationally scaled IT startup. In an interview with The Tech, he shared how to build a career in startups, find a job without experience, and turn client rejections into opportunities.

Daniyar Erdenov, city — Almaty, Enterprise Sales & GTM, LinkedIn

About Me

I studied at regular secondary school No. 1 in Petropavlovsk, graduating with a red diploma (honors). After that, I had the opportunity to continue my education in Canada — I went to Vancouver to study at the University of British Columbia, where I completed my bachelor’s degree.

About my first job in IT

All my work has been related to IT. I specialize in sales within this field and have progressed from SMB sales with deal sizes ranging from $2 to $10,000 to enterprise sales with deals ranging from $200,000 to over a million. Currently, I work as Head of Go-to-Market at the startup Alma, which was founded by women from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. I lead the team and focus on business scaling.

After studying in Canada, I went to Denmark for a one-year exchange program and lived in Copenhagen. At that time, I was interested in the IT industry and startups in general. At an educational expo, I met a small startup called 23 — a video marketing platform. I was intrigued by their vision and invited the CEO for an additional interview. That marked the beginning of my first official job — for six months, I worked as an inbound sales development representative: processing inbound leads, scheduling meetings, conducting demos, and nurturing deals.

Returning to Canada, I joined the corporation Xerox as an Original Account Manager and spent my first two years there. This role was less tech-forward: I primarily sold printing equipment for various companies — from schools to agencies and large corporations. My task was straightforward: increase sales in my assigned territory — two cities near Manhattan. I traveled to meetings, presented products, and worked with both small and large clients.

I joined a startup internship at 19. Startups do not have a formal interview process; each approach is unique. The most important skill is the ability to combine business understanding with product knowledge. I proactively reached out to interesting companies, met with CEOs, made introductions through engineers, and was interviewed on the spot. Usually, the process consists of three stages:

1. Behavioral interview — you talk about yourself, your experience, and your understanding of the industry. You analyze how the startup operates, who its clients are, and where the money comes from. Thorough preparation is crucial.
   
2. Discovery / case dive — analyzing the product, current strategies, and completing test tasks: creating a go-to-market strategy, demonstrating sales scripts for phone or email, or conducting a product demo. It is important to understand the business, the client, and the startup’s market.
   
3. Culture fit and in-depth interview — meeting with the team, assessing teamwork skills, and cross-functional interaction. Sales in startups require collaboration with marketing, sales engineering, and product teams. The ability to work as part of a team, rather than alone, is critically important.

Sometimes additional stages are added, such as legal checks or demonstrating technical knowledge. The three main aspects startups look for when hiring salespeople are: the ability to tell your story, the ability to sell and understand clients, and negotiation skills.

Education is important, but not so much for its theoretical value as for the skill of learning. The ability to critically evaluate information, apply new skills in practice, and remain relevant is especially important in startups, where everything changes quickly: products, sales techniques, and business processes.

Personal qualities are also critical. In sales, 99% of clients say “no.” This can be due to price, timing, or the product itself. The key is to not take rejection personally, view it as a learning experience, extract lessons, and move forward. Making mistakes is necessary, especially in sales, and it is important to adapt to new conditions.

These qualities — the ability to learn, not give up, learn from mistakes, and work in a team — greatly helped me build my career.

Challenges

Currently, there are two main challenges in IT. The first is trends in the economy and industry: it has become much easier to get a job, but simultaneously harder to stand out. For example, a junior programmer now competes not just with people, but with those who can write 10 times more code using available AI tools. Companies notice this, as labor costs are the largest expense item.

The second challenge is the lack of experience. IT is a vast field, and there is a misconception that you need to know everything at once. In reality, just like in sales, success comes when you solve one problem better than anyone else — focus is more important than the volume of knowledge.

When looking for a job, it is important to view yourself as a project you are selling: your experience and skills. You need to be able to compensate for trends and lack of experience. I myself faced rejections. When looking for my first job, I sent resumes to all companies using a single template and received many rejections. In the first stage, I tried to get into any company, and it did not work — many employers simply disappeared or rejected me.

Later, I changed my strategy: I made a list of 20 companies that genuinely interested me and became more proactive. I set up LinkedIn, found employees one level above my target position, invited them for coffee, and asked about their work and experience. Most people are willing to help, especially in North America. After a couple of such meetings, I received two or three referrals, and when I came to an open house day, the employees already knew me. The conversation with the manager became much easier, and the interview went successfully.

It is important to choose a specialization area. Each city has a limited number of companies in specific expertise, and you need to leverage your strengths. Do not be afraid to show yourself — rejection is not the end of the world. Many colleagues dreamed of joining Google but did not pass the first time. The second, third, fourth time — once they gained experience — everything worked out. Rejections are normal; they are learning experiences.

It is also important to understand that sometimes a manager or company may simply not be a good fit for you. If negotiations and interviews do not feel comfortable, it is a signal that the company culture is not right for you. It is important to look at things realistically, take care of mental health, and accept rejections as a normal part of professional life.

3 tips to help you find a job in IT

1. Do not assume that education automatically guarantees a job. Many believe that a bachelor’s or master’s degree already provides the skills needed for work. In reality, skills only develop through practice. Therefore, it is important to start building a portfolio and gaining experience even while in school — through internships, personal projects, and participation in hackathons. People notice extraordinary abilities, and you can only prove them through real results. The technical side has become much more accessible now — there are tools like Replit, Lovable, and others that allow you to create projects independently.

It is important to show that you can solve problems, build projects, and create products. A portfolio with real cases, internships, and paid projects are what employers value today. Additionally, you need to develop your network. Ultimately, it is not only about what you know, but also about who you know. I have not been looking for a job for the last five years — it finds me through connections and past projects. It is important for young specialists to provide value to people without expecting immediate returns. This builds social capital, which opens doors in the market.

2. Become a specialized expert. Today, companies are looking for professionals in specific areas, not generalists. This could be Bitbon, Ruby on Rails, AI/ML, or something else. You need to dive deep into the field that inspires you and become the top 1% in it. Then, finding a job will not be a problem.

The hiring process has become much more complex over the last two years: screening and technical interviews have become stricter. Social capital helps open doors, but professionalism determines what happens next. The top 1% and top 10% of the market are never without work.

3. Dream, be patient, and be determined — opportunities will always be found. 

Kazakhstan is currently in an interesting period: success stories are emerging, the first Unicorn has appeared, and more. My advice is to think globally. The world is becoming competitive and interconnected.

Today, you do not need to be in America to sell a product to the American or European market. Technical capabilities allow you to create and implement products from anywhere. You need to develop business skills and commercial thinking.