This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Seeking Guidance for Transitioning from Travel to Tech 🌍💻

Hi Elpha community,

I’m reaching out anonymously for some advice and guidance. I have over five years of experience in the travel industry, with a focus on operations, customer service, and managing complex bookings. I’ve loved working in travel, but I’m ready for a new challenge and would like to transition into the tech world, where I can still leverage my travel-related skills.

However, being based in South Africa , I’ve found it quite challenging to land opportunities at remote-first companies. If anyone has any tips, resources, or knows of companies open to hiring internationally, I’d greatly appreciate the guidance.

Thank you so much for any help! 💙

Iynna·Oct 29

Hi op! That’s exciting! So many avenues you can go toFirst is to stay within travel and marry it with tech (might be the easiest way to make the transition) - so check out roles that are still within travel (or even hospitality) tech anywhere from a company like airbnb to fetcherr that does dynamic airline pricing or bilt rewards which is really a fintech but has overlap with the travel space.The challenge will be to know what role / function to go after which is where strategy 2 comes into play. What roles have you had previously? Sounds like you’ve done a wide range of tasks from ops, to admin, to being client facing. So you could stay within customer success and management or go more into the BD function with sales or account mgmt. As you can see the world is your oyster so i’d suggest structuring your approach by identifying the subset within tech and the best fit of a role for you, and then go from there! What an exciting time to be in!

Iynna·Oct 29

I forgot to say re your last point being in South Africa. All the recs provided, apply them to the south africa and broadly africa and even middle east market to find remote opportunities or companies with presence in south africa, if you find that local companies are harder to identify.The other thing is be open to remote opportunities or companies especially if you want a more support or admin role to start.

Willa224·Oct 30

Hi!Thank you so much for responding – I honestly didn’t expect a reply! I’m new to Elpha and just stumbled across it one afternoon amidst my job search. It’s inspiring to be part of a community of such intelligent and supportive women.I’ve been doing a deep dive, trying to find travel/hospitality online software companies like Airbnb, Hostify, and Lodgify, to name a few. While there are plenty of roles available, unfortunately, most of them seem to be open only to candidates from LATAM, India, Israel, or the U.S. Even the job board here on Elpha seems to be focused on U.S.-based roles.But I truly appreciate the guidance you’ve shared, and it’s given me some valuable direction. Thank you again for taking the time to help!

Iynna·Oct 30

Why not focusing on the south african market then? By doing a simple and rapid search i already saw over 100 companies in cape town alone … if i put more time looking, i bet i can find more. https://tracxn.com/d/explore/travel-and-hospitality-tech-startups-in-cape-town-south-africa/__gZsK-JkFcY5zG2XXJH_VzmcyqHh33aMSqxaBcCwnHxE/companies

joanmichelson·Oct 30

Iyanna's comments are great advice! I agree that leveraging your travel industry experience to transition into tech is the easiest and most likely path. Maybe eco-tourism companies? What other interests do you have? Leverage those. Your knowledge of the African market may also be valuable to tech companies, especially in tourism and fintech and ag tech. Do some informational interviews with management or HR in the industries/companies you're interested in and ask their advice too. Good luck!

Iynna·Oct 30

Iynna * 🥲

debporter·Oct 30

Have you looked at the FlexJobs webite? It is a paid service, but it does help with search to keep to ONLY remote.You also might have a look at the podcast, Tips for the Transition https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tips-for-the-transition-the-career-roadmap/id1588970685...see if what you're looking for might be here.International hire might be a stretch--but keep believing it's possible, and soon it will be yours. Best of luck finding a good fit!

Meagan171·Oct 31

Hi there! As a former travel industry leader who is now interviewing in tech....I would recommend looking for global 'travel management companies' that have operations in SA. The best ones will either license travel booking platform technology OR have a proprietary tool. You can also look at travel booking platforms like Deem, Serko, SAP Concur, Egencia. Good luck!

superlui04·Nov 01

What role are you eyeing?I think it boils down to your transferable skills. If remote first companies are harder to come by. maybe try doing onsite work for your first job. Its getting your foot at the door. If you really want to get some real world experience. That's what I would advice

Willa224·Nov 01

Having spent the past four years working for international companies, I'm keen to explore customer service and operational roles. However, due to the significant salary disparity between entry-level positions in South Africa and those in the US and EU, I'm facing a challenge. To maintain my current income level, I'd need to immediately secure a managerial role, which isn't realistic given my new career path

superlui04·Nov 02

These are realities you have to face. Its quite difficult to transition to tech in the first place. that's why you really have to be sure that's really what you want. Secondary would be, what are you willing to give up for it.If you have a strong why. giving up those other stuff will be easier. Can you live below your means? do you support your family/ extended family. these realities are challenges that really make things harder. In the end, its up to you to work around it. Choose, do you want to maintain your income or shift to tech?

wendyp·Nov 01

What an exciting transition! I'm also working on a transition into travel tech, and wanted to share a few places that I check for opportunities:* https://jobs.traveltechessentialist.com/jobs* https://www.travelmassive.com/classifiedsI also follow what feels like every travel startup on earth on LinkedIn (many fully remote), and there have been lots of posts directly from the founders about roles they're hiring for. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendypochop/I'm happy to help you with your search, however I can!