career change / training advice

mattdunnapoo

mattdunnapoo

mattdunnapoo

Associate
Joined
7 Jul 2013
Posts
263
Location
harlow
Hi

So for last year or so i have been thinking of changing jobs and getting back into i.t / pc repair , i did a course in college back in 2004 but the college got shut down due to funds so never finished my nvq and accquired a qualification called ncfe , which was as good as toilet paper lol, so after that shut down i went off to work to pay bills.

I have been a cable technician (running rj45 , fiber optics , terminating ends, etc ) but the driving across country was pain and the money was not great .

I dont have much intreast in networking, find it boring.

So suppose im intreasted in building / fixing pcs and giving advice so somthing like.


1st line support / helpdesk - general support
QA / testing
hardware / client services

just wondering what qualifications would be right for these roles ? , is it worth switching to a career like this ? are there jobs out there for it ?

i currently make medicine and take i guess about 24k a year but this is with abit of o/t i dont mind taking abit of a paycut

thank you for any advice
matt
 
If you could prove an understanding of windows and office you would easily get a 1st line role I would have thought. I would have to guess as you are London ish maybe about 18K?

E: faiing that use the money you are on and get a course or two under your belt and go for 2nd 3rd line roles. I can see you read one of the previous threads about this so have a look at where you would like to go in IT and look for courses in those areas
 
Last edited:
Firstly, 1st line support roles are in the region of £16k-£18k, so it would be a big pay cut. How old are you, and what experience do you have with PCs and PC support (i.e. Windows, MAC, Linux, Printers).

The IT market is saturated with people looking for first line support roles, you need to specialise to be able to stand out.
 
ok i see guys, i dont really have a lot of experience in the i.t field, so that will hold me back i guess.

im 26 i dont really wont to drop less then 18k i guess

my only experiences are

two weeks of work experience back in 2002 in a school it/admin assitant (long time ago)

1 year working at maplin which helped customers choose parts,advice and fixing pcs/laptops or any old electric stuff ( some times built them out of bordom / for money :) )

1 year as cable layer this include running data cables,installing data cables rj45,rj45 sockets, panels, fiber optics , pluging in cisco switchs ,cisco wireless ports , somtimes doing basic config of these too .

building around 10 or so pcs for myself, friends ,family, friends of friends

as for course should i be looking at these:

M.T.A (Microsoft Technology Associate)
M.C.S.A (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) win7 or win 8?
Comptia A+ (already have the book for this)


many thanks guys
 
Last edited:
mattdunnapoo said:
ok i see guys, i dont really have a lot of experience in the i.t field, so that will hold me back i guess.

im 26 i dont really wont to drop less then 18k i guess

my only experiences are

two weeks of work experience back in 2002 in a school it/admin assitant (long time ago)

1 year working at maplin which helped customers choose parts,advice and fixing pcs/laptops or any old electric stuff ( some times built them out of bordom / for money :) )

1 year as cable layer this include running data cables,installing data cables rj45,rj45 sockets, panels, fiber optics , pluging in cisco switchs ,cisco wireless ports , somtimes doing basic config of these too .

building around 10 or so pcs for myself, friends ,family, friends of friends

as for course should i be looking at these:

M.T.A (Microsoft Technology Associate)
M.C.S.A (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) win7 or win 8?
Comptia A+ (already have the book for this)


many thanks guys
Click to expand...

Set up some VM's and do the Comptia exam first then do Windows 7 MS exam to get a deeper understanding. You have very little worthwhile experience for anything more than 1st line/call logging/password resets looking at your past experience.

Try and get a 1st line job somewhere and work your way up. You'll have to take a paycut though as employers are now favoring hiring apprentices who are much cheaper!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom