Advice on starting an I.T career

harryc05

harryc05

harryc05

Associate
Joined
4 Jan 2009
Posts
107
Location
southeast london
Hi guys, i can't find the answers i'm looking for and i was wondering how i would go about starting an I.T career. and i know you guys are full of wisdom, plus there maybe a few I.T experts in here as well :)

i really enjoy working with computers and would like to make a career out of it and become a technician and higher.

i'm currently in sixth form at my school and i am studying Applied business studies, applied ICT and also a course called IPRO. the IPRO course is basically 3 quarters of an CCNA qualification (there are 4 discovery courses to a CCNA qualification and IPRO will let me gain 3 of those discovery courses).

but recently i have heard of a I.T academy called Zenos and they offer a 5 month course to give you qualifications to start your I.T career, such as compTIA and Microsoft certifications.

i'm very confused on whats course i should do, should i carry on getting my CCNA qualification after sixth form or should i go to the zenos academy, and get the qualifications they offer there.

also am i missing anything are there better academies or qualifications i should look out for?

i'm sorry this is probably very confusing, but it shows my confusion in all of this because i do want a career in I.T, but with it growing rapidly day by day, new qualifications out date others and i don't know if i'm on the completely wrong track.
 
firstly don't.

Secondly if you are serious about certs buy the books, none of the low level ones are rocket science and can be done quickly. Getting a basic helpdesk job while doing these is the best way in imho. Then after a year you should have at least 1yrs experiance, CCNA and a few MCPs.
 
If there's one way to kill your IT enthusiam. It's getting a job working with computers. It will grind you down until you wished you followed another vocation path.

Unfortunately - even the suggestion of getting a trade (Plumber/Joiner/Spark etc) is not really much better these days (as there are very little vacancies and regular pay isn't what it used to be)

I had your dream about 15 years ago - and lived to regret it. Luckily I managed to switch trades altogether but still manage to love tinkering with PC related stuff.
 
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Go to university - have fun get a degree in something like computing, business computing or computer science. Do a course with a sandwich year and get the 1 year of experience from that then go from there.
 
Sone said:
firstly don't.

Secondly if you are serious about certs buy the books, none of the low level ones are rocket science and can be done quickly. Getting a basic helpdesk job while doing these is the best way in imho. Then after a year you should have at least 1yrs experiance, CCNA and a few MCPs.
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Great advice Sone.


PASONIX said:
If there's one way to kill your IT enthusiam. It's getting a job working with computers. It will grind you down until you wished you followed another vocation path.

Unfortunately - even the suggestion of getting a trade (Plumber/Joiner/Spark etc) is not really much better these days (as there are very little vacancies and regular pay isn't what it used to be)

I had your dream about 15 years ago - and lived to regret it. Luckily I managed to switch trades altogether but still manage to love tinkering with PC related stuff.
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Awful advice - you could say that about absolutely any career that anyone picks, do you honestly think that IT is any different from any other career in that some people get into it then have second thoughts? I don't think it's particularly special, there are tons of thankless jobs out there, this is just one of them! ;)

I've been in IT for over 10 years, still love it. The only thing I don't like is the members of IT who constantly bitch and whinge about IT yet never do anything to better themselves or their prospects, or even better change career and **** off! :D
 
PASONIX said:
If there's one way to kill your IT enthusiam. It's getting a job working with computers. It will grind you down until you wished you followed another vocation path.
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Well it completely depends on the company you work for. My new job is as a systems admin with another systems admin who is older than me. My daily routine is no longer filled with oodles of phone calls to take, instead I take maybe 3 the whole day, the remainder of the day involves looking after the network and troubleshooting issues as they roll in and they're not major issues either, epsecially in today's world of Googling and other resources to build up knowledge in missing areas :p

Apart from one or two people in my age group or younger in other departments, everyone I work with is a lot older and in a management position of some sort so you'd think I'd get tired and bored easily but they've actually turned out to be an interesting bunch of people and are genuinely fun to be around. Working with older people the past few months has made me feel like I'm actually important within the company as I'm often asked to give insight into projects and the last one I helped save tens of thousands of £ which was great :D

Not all companies are like this though and having worked in IT contracting for 2 years and before that with an IT outsourcing company on 1st then 2nd line support for 2.5 I can confirm what others have said about wanting to hit your head on the desk multiple times an hour.
 
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PASONIX said:
If there's one way to kill your IT enthusiam. It's getting a job working with computers. It will grind you down until you wished you followed another vocation path.

Unfortunately - even the suggestion of getting a trade (Plumber/Joiner/Spark etc) is not really much better these days (as there are very little vacancies and regular pay isn't what it used to be)

I had your dream about 15 years ago - and lived to regret it. Luckily I managed to switch trades altogether but still manage to love tinkering with PC related stuff.
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The difference is that most people working happily longterm in IT aren't 'tinkering with PC related stuff' at work anymore. I can imagine changing toner cartridges after 10 or 15 years isn't very stimulating but IT as a whole is a massive sector and most people working for that long normally start to specialise in something a bit more interesting.
 
Kraven said:
Go to Uni.
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Guest2 said:
Go to university - have fun get a degree in something like computing, business computing or computer science. Do a course with a sandwich year and get the 1 year of experience from that then go from there.
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This is bad advice imo.

If your actually serious about getting into IT, then a Uni course will not help you in the least. If you want to get into computer sciences, yes, development, yes, but IT as in admin stuff, not a chance. A waste of time, effort and money thats better spent on MCPs, CCNAs, VCPs and the like, along with real world experiance.
 
My advice would be to try and think ahead if you can as to what kind of thing you want to be doing in IT and push towards that.

Far too many people get into IT then just end up doing 1st line support for way too long, killing any enthusiasm they had for the field very very quickly.

Halfmad said:
I've been in IT for over 10 years, still love it. The only thing I don't like is the members of IT who constantly bitch and whinge about IT yet never do anything to better themselves or their prospects, or even better change career and **** off! :D
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This, I'm still loving it after 8 years or so.

It tends to be people who are 'stuck' in a lower level support role who moan like this.

Part of the trick to IT is don't sit still doing something you don't enjoy for too long. It won't get any better so move, specialise, anything :)

Personally I would go to uni if you fancy it, it's an experience and does bring something else to the table when going for roles. Plus depending on what and how you do it can open up a lot of doors, and should help you later in life when wanting to move out of support roles (assuming you start in one :) ).
 
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BoomAM said:
If your actually serious about getting into IT, then a Uni course will not help you in the least. If you want to get into computer sciences, yes, development, yes, but IT as in admin stuff, not a chance. A waste of time, effort and money thats better spent on MCPs, CCNAs, VCPs and the like, along with real world experiance.
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I think there's a better career to be had as a developer (I am one). If the OP wants to be a tech/admin, then no, uni isn't the right path. If the OP isn't sure what the right path is, uni gives him more options. I get the impression the OP perhaps isn't strong academically, and has already decided aghainst Uni, which is why he's not doing A-Levels.

To put it into context. Your first 2 years experience are about equal in value to all your previous knowledge/qualifications - if not more. So there's no point stressing over which qualification is better :)
 
BoomAM said:
This is bad advice imo.

If your actually serious about getting into IT, then a Uni course will not help you in the least. If you want to get into computer sciences, yes, development, yes, but IT as in admin stuff, not a chance. A waste of time, effort and money thats better spent on MCPs, CCNAs, VCPs and the like, along with real world experiance.
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I actually think this is bad advice. A degree is far more important than MCP or CCNA etc. It's not all about just learning enough to do a job, studying computer science, maths or other scientific degree will develop your thought process and improve your analytical skills. Not to mention the benefit of the social experience with a diverse group of people (ie. not just hanging around IT admins for your entire life).
 
gambitt said:
I actually think this is bad advice. A degree is far more important than MCP or CCNA etc. It's not all about just learning enough to do a job, studying computer science, maths or other scientific degree will develop your thought process and improve your analytical skills. Not to mention the benefit of the social experience with a diverse group of people (ie. not just hanging around IT admins for your entire life).
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I tend to agree with those points.

Would not have got my first job without a degree.
 
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gambitt said:
I actually think this is bad advice. A degree is far more important than MCP or CCNA etc. It's not all about just learning enough to do a job, studying computer science, maths or other scientific degree will develop your thought process and improve your analytical skills. Not to mention the benefit of the social experience with a diverse group of people (ie. not just hanging around IT admins for your entire life).
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Ill agree with that. Ive just finished a degree in comp sci and have to say its been a right challenge, but it does change your state of mind in some areas of thinking.
 
The only reason I feel so strongly about a non-IT path is that everyone that went to HND college and Uni with me - are now either working in a completely different field (non-IT) or unemployed (due to their jobs moved overseas). And yes - I do understand this was 15 years ago..... but has it really changed that much in 15 years ??? Some even earned £1000's during the months leading up to the Y2K bug fiasco and now haven't been employed for the last 2 or 3 years.

So it's nothing to do with being in 1st level support or anything to do with working for bad employers.
 
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Also you must remember working in IT does not mean you need an IT degree!! As odd as that sounds, unless you're going straight into an area like development you don't have to do an IT degree, a lot of people working in IT don't have IT degrees. Mine's in Engineering, an old colleague of mine had his in ocean science.

It's not just the content with the degree as well, it's the fact you've done it, worked (or not :p) for 3 years, shows some responsibility etc. More soft skills rather than factual knowledge.

The latter can be taught in a job very quickly, with the right person.

I've always thought of it, and have had this proved to me many times funnily enough, like this. However this is only my personal experience with a few people I've worked with who didn't have degrees and by no means a reflection on everyone.

The people without the degree can follow processes and procedures very well. But as soon as they had to work something out, cater for something a little different to the black and white infront of them, they became unstuck. Unable to think things through, unable to know why they were doing what they were doing rather than just following instructions.

Again I know this is by no means everyone, however this has shown itself to be true with people I've worked with. And it tended to be the older the person the more they had to assert how good they were without a degree.
 
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