Career change back into IT role, but what?

Energize

Energize

Energize

Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
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29,951
Location
England
In my past life (I'm 34) I used to work as a freelance android developer for a mate and then an IT support technician which was alright but got a bit boring sometimes due to the lack of challenge, and future career prospects didn't seem good, but during this time I did independently obtain a CCENT. After I was made redundant I ended up working for the council for 6 years working in an administrative/technical support role, but not technically IT, I stayed for so long because I was just coasting really, the pay was ok and decent benefits.


Now I've lost that job I want to switch career back to IT, but not totally sure what, I enjoy networking (hence the CCENT), but also programming, data science, and security so maybe cyber security would be a good area to focus on?

I'm not sure where to start studying or what certifications are worthwhile? I have 300 credits of a computer science degree that I never completed due to mental health issues at the time, which I believe is equivalent to a bachelors degree without honours.
 
IT PM? Sounds like you have enough technical knowledge to call out BS, but have focused on the less technical aspects for a fair while?
 
You could maybe transfer the credits from your old degree to the OU then pick some modules by them and get some sort of CS degree or Open degree. I think you need to do a complete third year with them and credit transfer would only apply to 1st and 2nd year, you might want to do some 2nd-year courses too though if they're useful to some career objective.

IIRC they used to teach some CISCO CCNA I think as a second-year module, you could basically count it for half a second year but now it looks like it's split across 2nd and 3rd year.

Essentially you could get a degree in a year with credit transfer if you were to forego your social life or just split it over 2 or 3 years, complete set of third-year modules plus maybe some second-year stuff perhaps?

I guess if you end up doing some sort of Open degree you could probably include micro credentials too to make up the credits - these seem fairly practical:
www.open.ac.uk

Microcredentials | The Open University

Futureproof your career and gain professional skills, knowledge, and academic credit with a microcredential from The Open University.
www.open.ac.uk www.open.ac.uk
 
That's along the lines I was thinking, programming/devops, networking, data analysis, cyber security, but there are a few different providers offering different courses and while some e.g. CISCO networking certifications are highly respected, I don't know if their cyber security ones are, and I don't know about CompTia et al.
 
I would definitely focus more on cyber security with whatever path you end up taking. From what I understand, there are a ton of roles and if you know what you’re talking about it can be very well paid due to the lack of talent, and therefore competition, in the area.
 
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