I'd like a job as a System builder, advice!

GCSE's mean nothing. Experience will be your first stepping stone. Starting out system building could certainly be a stepping stone in your career path though.

Is there no charity computer companies around your area? Most areas have some sort of chairty computer refurb place.
 
Sure mate - to give you an idea I work for company in London and my responsibilities are these (just to give you an idea of my role, I am sure there are guys on here with some seriously cool jobs but this is just mine and what I do // have done in this role):

1. VMware vSphere 4.1
2. XenServer 5.5 (5.6 has performance issues, so we have avoided it)
3. XenApp 5 (deployed 6 on Windows 2008 R2 but had nothing but problems with it, that said, this was a while ago now)
4. XenDesktop 4
5. SQL Server 2008 // 2005 // 2000
6. Windows Server (all of them including Cluster)
7. SAN's including hardware mirroring (NetApp FAS and the old SUN arrays)
8. iSCSI (MD3000i // NetApp // VMware)
9. Linux // Solaris // basic AIX
10. Avaya

Thats pretty much what I have to do in a week, I know the hardware side but we have support contracts for that so any hardware faults we try to fix on site, if we cant we call Dell // HP // NetApp etc etc and most of the time they know that down time is critical, so they usually just replace everything in one hit, that includes procs and raid controllers, nobody really builds anything now as it is all mass produced

If I were to start again going by the market today (this is just my own opinion not necessarily the right one) I would go for a CCNA and the Microsoft Certififcations, also grab yourself a nice 6 core system from OcUK, build it and stick VMware ESXi on it (and XenServer), play around with it, I would especially go down the Citrix route because many of the citrix certifications don't require you to go on a course, this is a huge advantage over vmware because for the vcp you have to go on the course and it is over £1k, you dont need to do this for a cca (citrix xenserver) just study the admin guides online and pay £80 for the course, then your certified!

technology id play around with if i were you:

xenapp (30 day trial)
xendesktop (Really really cool, desktop virtualisation, google xendesktop express, its free for 10 desktops!)
vmware esxi
mono (run .net apps in linux)
centos (basically red hat but free)
windows certifications (subscribe to msdn its cheap and you can play with all the new tech)
ccna (this is what im doing now as i have never bothered with cisco // networking but wish i had)
development (.net and java)

aim for the certifications you can get without having to attend a course like the ccna, cca (citrix) etc

forget system building // hardware

just my opinion, not necessarily the right one :-)

EDIT: I forgot to add, use jobserve.co.uk, its a great tool to tell you what pays well and what that job expects, so search for system builder, SAN, vmware, vcp, ccna, ccnp, mcse etc in role section, check the pay for your area, gives you an idea whats in right now, at the end of the day the market defines what you should know
 
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Maybe something like an IT Technician might be better to aim for? The Microsoft cert's will be great to help you learn the in's and out's of Windows, you seem to know enough hardware wise to happily build a system so I'd imagine you could use that to start to diagnose a hardware issue (though as has been said, majority of PC hardware issues will just be replaced under warranty with no messing) and for when you get really stuck, there's OcUK :p lol

I know it's "old tech" now but the Microsoft MCDST might be a good place to start as it takes you through pretty much all aspects of Windows XP and general apps/Office running on XP. Majority of these skills can then be transferred to Vista and W7, at the very least it gives you a solid understanding of how things like TCP/IP and permissions works. I think this can be had reasonably cheaply as a learn at home style thing, so you just pay for the material and go through it at you're own pace. There are hundreds of mock exams out there for these things too so it'll help you prepare, if i recall the exams are £88 each but Microsoft offer a free resit if you fail (Google Microsoft second shot)

A job in a 1st line IT support role (helpdesk style) or maybe as a trainee technician in a school would probably be a good place to start and work your way up
 
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In that case you could do a few GCSEs in a matter of weeks, it's honestly worth just getting them out of the way since almost every employer will ask for them (unless you have something to supercede them).

The only IT jobs out there for beginners are on help desks answering phones. If you want to build computers you're looking at assembly line work in a factory.
 
I wanted to do this when I was younger too but it isn't a career choice at all. Very niche market for what does exist already with custom builds.

As others have said have at look at CCNA and all that jazz. Get it sorted while you're young!
 
gambitt said:
You're a total beginner with no education and no experience but you think you can jump straight into what ThorpedoUK has described above? You're dreaming.
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It's not hard. I'm self taught, did an apprenticeship and now I'm a NOC Engineer at an ISP in central London and on decent money considering I have barely any qualifications to my name. Some people just pick things up better hands on, don't put a downer on the kid.
 
Janesy B said:
It's not hard. I'm self taught, did an apprenticeship and now I'm a NOC Engineer at an ISP in central London and on decent money considering I have barely any qualifications to my name. Some people just pick things up better hands on, don't put a downer on the kid.
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I'd wager that:

1. You didn't jump straight into a job, I reckon it took you a few years before you got there (believe I know, I'm a Citrix consultant/TDA)

2. You have GCSEs.

Am I right?
 
I did the MCSE/MCSA in my spare time many moons ago. As above, didn't do classes, just lots of self motivation and booked the tests. Failed both first time round :) looking back over my old Mcrosoft text books, jeez it's all easy to me now. While good certs I never got a job off the back of having them tbh. Self employed now so it doesn't matter a jot what is on my CV, I'd never work for someone else again!

I think you've set your sights on something without much experiance of anything else. Get a job, do some traveling, study something that interests you, volunteer. Eventually you'll find the right path for you.
 
gambitt said:
I'd wager that:

1. You didn't jump straight into a job, I reckon it took you a few years before you got there (believe I know, I'm a Citrix consultant/TDA)

2. You have GCSEs.

Am I right?
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Started off as a low paid apprentice and I've got 10 GCES and a City & Guilds L2 qualification in Electronics :p

Academically I'm useless but give me a lab or bit of kit to play with and I'm away :)
 
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Janesy B said:
Started off as a low paid apprentice and I've got 10 GCES and a City & Guilds L2 qualification in Electronics :p
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That's why I advised that he get some GCSEs first. If he want to go down a similar path, wouldn't you agree that the first priority would be to get some A-C GCSEs under his belt? They may appear pointless but it's like anything else - just a key to get to the next stage.
 
In my day no I'd say doesn't matter (I am living proof of that)

..........but today and the climate, yes absolutely, jobs are under greater competition, so extremely important.
 
gambitt said:
You're a total beginner with no education and no experience but you think you can jump straight into what ThorpedoUK has described above? You're dreaming.
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Yeah, but it gives him something to aim for. Yes, he's obviously naive, but there's no need to be so negative. Besides which, I didn't know Citrix had released an express version of XenDesktop :D
 
slylittlefox said:
Yeah, but it gives him something to aim for. Yes, he's obviously naive, but there's no need to be so negative.
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Something to aim for is great! But it appears he's trying to run before he can walk. He could lock himself in his bedroom for a year learning all the technical things about Citrix/VMWare etc in between his WoW sessions. But when it comes to finding a job, do you think they will hire a Citrix engineer with 6 years experience or someone who's never had a job, no qualifications and no education to speak of? Sure you can say you're self taught but without experience (and thus no real world proof of your skills) that counts for nothing.

I'm sure most of us started at the bottom or thereabouts. As Janesy said he did an apprenticeship, I started as a cable monkey/desktop support. In order to get that first job we got GCSEs and/or A-levels (or some kind of formal education).

There's a reason why they don't pull kids out of school at 14 and start teaching them Citrix.
 
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