Starting a career in IT

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:55

After being out of medicine for almost a year (through illness, I'm completely recovered now though), I have been thinking about a career change.

I have always done IT related stuff as a hobby and I'm thinking of starting a new course at university (either here in Liverpool, or somewhere else).

I was thinking of applying to a computer science's course. Can anybody give me advice about what I should be looking for in relevant university's guide?

I don't have math's A-level, I did bio chem and physics (old style, not new) all at grade B level. Will this be a problem?

Any help/advice given would be gratefully received.

Rhys · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:57

Look at job applications requirements. MCSE is quite a common requirement.

blighter · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:57

What part of IT?
Programming, Hardware Support.... etc?

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:59

I'm still at the beginning stages of researching this option. But hoping not to sound daft, what is the spectrum of jobs out there. What (in your opinions) should be avoided? What's very good to work at and is fairly secure?

Is contracting better?

scorza · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:02

Consider a course with a strong business emphasis. The way things are going, there are fewer and fewer programming jobs these days. The big IT consultancies are less bothered about programming skills (though still important) than they are about your ability to understand business processes.

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:03

scorza said:
Consider a course with a strong business emphasis. The way things are going, there are fewer and fewer programming jobs these days. The big IT consultancies are less bothered about programming skills (though still important) than they are about your ability to understand business processes.

Is that related to the big shift of jobs going to e.g. India?

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:04

blighter said:
What part of IT?
Programming, Hardware Support.... etc?

Hmm...I have done websites before (I know that's possibly the baby end of programming but hehe), and I understand fairly well how to build/maintain a machine. I'm always the first person my other medic friends call when their machines/laptops break (that's probably not saying much)..

scorza · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:10

Greenlizard0 said:
What's very good to work at and is fairly secure?

Heh, not much these days

A lot of guys at our place have ended up doing service delivery work, managing teams of programmers/DBAs in India remotely. I work in a public sector division, where there's still a lot of technical work going on in the UK. I realise however that its only a matter of time before there's some public spending cuts or they find a way of getting round security restrictions which currently prevent the work I do being off-shored.

Greenlizard0 said:
Is contracting better?

Maybe, but I don't really hear about many people going contracting straight out of university. We do get a lot of grads however who stay for a year then bugger off contracting to city banks, where all the serious money still is - though for how much longer?

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:14

scorza said:
Maybe, but I don't really hear about many people going contracting straight out of university. We do get a lot of grads however who stay for a year then bugger off contracting to city banks, where all the serious money still is - though for how much longer?

That's what's truely worrying me, spending 3/4 years at university - only to find that the qualifications I receive are no longer valid for jobs present in the UK

NathanE · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:16

Contracting isn't really an option until you've been in the industry for at least a few years.

"IT" is such a broad term and is mostly useless. Define IT? Hardware, software? Support? Development? Web development? Software development? Exchange or Notes? The list is almost endless.

You really need to decide which direction you want to go in. I dare say it's quite possibly too late in your life to go into the 'higher rungs' of IT such as software engineering as these are skills you can only properly learn when young.

I wouldn't go into support as it's flooded and the pay is crap. Also before you know it you'll be working evenings and weekends and for some reason it won't feel "wrong" to you anymore that you aren't getting paid for it.

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:23

Hmm..thanks for your help, that was a worry to me too, I am 24, not fresh out of school i.e. 18/19.

I'm looking through Ucas atm, and I see lots of computer sciences degrees (and their variations e.g. with business, games etc..

ArmyofHarmony · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:23

www.fdmacademy.com

im on this, not sure whether to continue with it thouhg as they may send you ANYWHERE and you have to work for 2 years as part of the deal.

scorza · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:24

Greenlizard0 said:
That's what's truely worrying me, spending 3/4 years at university - only to find that the qualifications I receive are no longer valid for jobs present in the UK

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about that. A degree isn't really a qualification, more a measure of your ability to learn and therefore of your potential. Every employer should know that a graduate isn't going to have any specific skills that are of use to them, but they will expect you to learn quick. Why not go down to your university careers service, and take a look at the graduate recruitment schemes run by the big IT consultancies if you're concerned about it.

When you contract, you're selling your specific skill-set (which will be incredibly small when you graduate) - the employer doesn't care about your potential, it just wants you to do the job and then bugger off.

penski · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:25

Don't bother. It's gash, the pay is average and it will complete DEMOLISH any interest you have in computers/computing.

*n

stealthgeek · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:27

NathanE said:
You really need to decide which direction you want to go in. I dare say it's quite possibly too late in your life to go into the 'higher rungs' of IT such as software engineering as these are skills you can only properly learn when young.

Hmmm I wouldnt agree with that - hes 25, not 55.

Having been through this myself, I would recommend looking at the areas of software development, networking, systems admin and support. Those are the really big areas that always have jobs, with the higher tiers paying high salaries. Try to stay away from the small areas such as web design, systems analysis etc, they are very difficult to start a career in

I would find a generic 'computing' degree, like I did - they usually have tonnes of modules that cover a broad spectrum, so you can focus on the ones that suit you. My degree course (at Leeds Met) covered all topics including software design, networking, web design, networking, systems engineering, business processes, systems analysis etc... Eventually, I decided to go the networking/systems support and have been working in IT for over 5 years. You will most likely start out at the bottom of the ladder, even if you manage a good degree, due to the over-saturation of the IT market. But, if you are good and you persevere, you have a good chance of making a good living out of it.

Also worth looking at would be the inclusion of a sandwich year with a year out working in industry - this gives you some hands on exposure and is gold dust when you finally graduate and realise 99% of companies require at least 1 years experience!

Best of luck

Jono · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:28

penski said:
Don't bother. It's gash, the pay is average and it will complete DEMOLISH any interest you have in computers/computing.

*n

I don't often reply to 'ski's posts, let alone even remotely agree with most of what he has to say, but just this once I feel compelled to admit I 100% agree.

Adz · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:31

Is the illness stopping you continuing with your medical degree or are there other factors?

I have to say, I can't imagine why you would want to choose IT over medicine as a career.

Frankly, IT is boring as hell. As Penski said, it will destroy your interest in computing. If you're good at it, you'll be bored and unfulfilled if you're bad at it you'll be constantly chasing the faults in whatever system you've set up.

I'd think long and hard before giving up a potential career as a doctor to work with computers.

stealthgeek · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:33

oh and your q about maths a level - there was some a level maths on my course, but it was the easier, standard deviation stuff and statistical analysis. All my coursemates without an a level in maths coped fine with it

If you've managed A levels in sciences, and Im assuming a medicine related degree, then you have nothing to worry about.

Greenlizard0 · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:37

Adz said:
Is the illness stopping you continuing with your medical degree or are there other factors?

That's essentially it, I got ill two Christmas' ago and have had over 7 months off and ended up failing an exam as a result, though there's a lot more to it than that..

It's why I initially thought of doing a degree in pharmacy instead of computing, it's something that can't be e.g. outsourced, and well, we all need pharmacists. Though a strong reason to not do it is to break away from medicine as far as possible..

Adz · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:53

Greenlizard0 said:
That's essentially it, I got ill two Christmas' ago and have had over 7 months off and ended up failing an exam as a result, though there's a lot more to it than that..

It's why I initially thought of doing a degree in pharmacy instead of computing, it's something that can't be e.g. outsourced, and well, we all need pharmacists. Though a strong reason to not do it is to break away from medicine as far as possible..

I'm only concerned (without wanting to sound like a patronising git

) that you might be viewing IT as some sort of easy option as it's something you currently enjoy and find easy whereas your medical degree, especially after your recent setbacks, seems stressful to the point where you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you're smart enough to study medicine and already have an interest in computing then finding some sort of career in IT which pays as a reasonable wage will be a breeze but will you still be happy you made the choice 5, 10 years down the line or would you be thinking to youself... "I could have been an SHO by now and instead here I am writing ASP .NET 5 for £20k/year"?

I'm not saying you won't be happy in IT but if I were you, I'd strongly question why you're making the decision before doing anything drastic.