Advice on breaking into IT with poor work/education history

[AnthraxDog]

Hi everyone

Without getting too into it, I've suffered from pretty severe mental health problems all my life and it's wrought havoc on my education and work life. I graduated with a computer science degree in 2017, but my academic performance was awful enough that I had no faith in myself actually being able to work a software development job like I'd intended and I ended up drifting through a series of temporary office admin jobs with bouts of unemployment in between.

Recently I've gotten my mental health under control and I've decided to try and break into IT with a longterm view towards becoming a Linux sysadmin. I know the normal first step here would be to get a job doing tech support, but I'm having a hard time actually finding that sort of work and I suspect recruiters have no idea what to make of my CV - between my borderline-failed degree from 7 years ago and lack of professional IT experience since then I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

In the face of all that, are there any tangible steps I should take to make myself a more viable candidate? I looked into certs but it didn't seem clear that they'd make much of a difference applying for an entry-level role with no prior experience.

 

[AnthraxDog]

Thanks for the advice everyone - I asked this same question elsewhere and based on everyone's responses it seems like self-studying for certs is the way forward. I've decided on the AZ-900 and LFCS as a starting point, alongside continuing to apply for first-line tech support roles.

Since people are asking more about my situation - I'm 30 and currently the main "work" I've been doing is volunteer work for DIY arts venues and historical archival projects, alongside some amateur web design & video editing stuff on the side. Up till now I've been trying to get another office admin job, but even though I'm getting interviews and I'm told I come off very well in interviews, I'm struggling to actually land a job in a way I hadn't been previously.

I should also probably stress I'm way less of a dedicated "techie" than I think most of the people on this forum are. I don't have deep enthusiasm for Linux or IT, and outside of what I learned on the comp sci degree my experience is limited to building a gaming PC and installing Ubuntu on a laptop so I could **** around with it (for what it's worth I did really enjoy doing that). I'm hoping to get into it because I want a stable career in something after so long of not thinking I'd be capable of anything and I believe I've got the right temprament & personal skills for it (good eye for detail, generally IT literate, good at troubleshooting, good at explaining complex concepts to laymen).

 

[AnthraxDog]

I see your point and I sometimes worry about that myself. However, for a lot of reasons I've decided that making my actual "dream" into a main source of income just wouldn't be viable, at least for now, which is why I feel the need to get into a more potentially lucrative career and IT just happens to fit the bill.

Re: Linux specifically, I wanted to go down that road because I understood it was a potentially quite lucrative niche and I do enjoy installing and using it. Plus, just on a moral level I really respect the ideals behind open source software like that, especially compared to how Microsoft and Apple seem to be treating their respective OSes these days.

To me, that all sounds like as good a reason as any to pursue it as a career when it's already my "get a day job" option, but if you're saying I need to be somebody who really eats sleeps and breathes Linux to get anywhere in the field then yeah that might be a problem actually. I'm still for sure studying for the MS-900 (decided against the AZ-900 at Josh's reccomendation, it really does seem like it covers a lot of the same stuff anyway) and going for tech support jobs but I'll hold off on committing to Linux until I know more about what working with it professionally would entail.

Once again, thanks for the advice everybody. You've all been a massive help.