Choosing a career in IT. Where do I start?

JBod said:
FYI, my sister is 5 years older than, more intelligent than I am and has a Degree 2:1. She did Lotus Notes consulting a while back and continued on that path and is now a project manager at a very large company.. I earn more than her.

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(difficult to find a non-douche sysadmin unfortunately) .
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I went from Sys admin to Lotus notes support. :o
 
Thanks for this thread.

I am also looking for a job in IT and appreciate the advice that has been given. I have just graduated with a 2.1 in Multimedia Technology and Design and have been applying for IT Support jobs with no luck at the moment.
 
billysielu said:
I know from experience the computer science route is how you unlock the 40k+ jobs
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Like Ev0 I know quite a few people earning over £40k in IT who don't have a CS degree, although most are graduates. Managers, Architects, DBAs, PMs, Business Analysts/Consultants, even some Developers in fact.

I'm not suggesting that a CS degree is the wrong way to go about it, but equally the idea that you can't be 'successful' without one just isn't the case.

If the OP was 17 and plotting a career in IT, then yes a CS (or similar) degree would seem to be a wise choice. But he's not, he's a graduate who turns 26 in April. If he were to embark on a 3 year CS degree, he'd be 29 by the time he graduates. A CS degree may be better than a Sociology degree in terms of working in IT, but a degree plus 3 years in industry will likely see him in just as good stead (especially considering during that 3 years he could probably earn around £60k total rather than shelling out a fortune in tuition fees - second degrees can be expensive). He could even top that up with some additional study (postgraduate distance learning, specialist MS/Cisco/ISEB/whatever courses etc) if necessary.
 
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As some others have said, taking your age and the fact that you'd have to pay quite a large sum to get a CS degree, I'd suggest looking for alternative routes. You could try to get some less academic qualifications to help you start your career in IT, have a fiddle with as many different aspects of computing as you can to find what suits you best. I advise you to try to get a job in the industry which suits you and that has some form of progression which you think you can achieve. Self study or even visit a local college to see if they have anything suitable.

I was jobless from the start of this year until September, when I managed to get a part-time (non IT-related) job, and I decided to try an IT course with a range of subjects in a nearby college to see how I'd enjoy it. It's very easy for me, yet enjoyable all the same. I'm now going to do the CCENT/CCNA and hopefully move onto the CCNP after that to pursue a career in networking. :) If you find an area/subject which appeals to you, and really apply yourself to it, then you'll succeed. :)
 
Yeah see what evening classes are out there, for instance things like the CompTIA courses which if you're totally fresh to the subject aren't a bad way to start things off.

Thing like the A+ are entry level certifications, no idea how up to date they are as last time I looked at some sample questions they seemed very out of date but that was a while ago now.

And I'll say it again, whilst it's early days and you might have no idea try to think about what area of IT you want to be working in.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, you've been immensely helpful. I think I have a basic plan forming, so I guess I just need to decide which direction to head in. My brother is in network design (having progressed from the warehouse of a value-added distributor with no degree) so I'm tempted to go the same route to draw on his experience, but I'm going to have to do some research first.

There's been some great advice in here so I'll be furiously googling job requirements etc tonight.

With so many areas in I.T. to get into, if you were to bullet point 5 main disciplines and their starting "get your foot in the door" jobs, that would give me some starting points to go from. Thanks!
 
I'm an Infrastructure Support Technician.

I started with an HNC in Computing then progressed into 1st line support (helpdesk). From there I went into Desktop Support, Server Support and now Infrastructure Support. This is generally the path that you'll find for network/hardware support.

Just get your foot in the door with any first line support job. You'll more than likely get training and then you can pick up certain Microsoft / Cisco / whatever training courses to help further your career.

my first job gave you two choices after the helpdesk - Application Support or Desktop Support and thankfully I picked the latter, which has put me on the path that I'm on just now...
 
Will be a long time before you see any decent pay from a career in IT unless you turn out tobe awsome at it and ace every exam going?
If your going down the support/Networking route anyway

hammer the Microsoft, Cisco, HP & Dell Exams then you can get a job almost anywhere.
My advise is dont do support i'd go down the development route, programming etc more money on a complex route tho
 
MuttsNutts said:
Will be a long time before you see any decent pay from a career in IT unless you turn out tobe awsome at it and ace every exam going?
If your going down the support/Networking route anyway

hammer the Microsoft, Cisco, HP & Dell Exams then you can get a job almost anywhere.
My advise is dont do support i'd go down the development route, programming etc more money on a complex route tho
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I agree this is probably true.

Programming isn't for everyone though. I've tried it and I absolutely hated it. I just get no satisfaction from it in the slightest. I like support. I really like my job :)

I'd try to experience both paths to decide what you really want to do as they are completely different, research and spend some time programming to see if you enjoy it, maybe take a small night class in both fields to figure out what you enjoy the most. At the end of the day, it's not always about what brings in the big bucks. It's about what you enjoy and can imagine doing for a career spanning 40+ years!
 
Good advice, I'm currently messing around with some online courses on python to see if programming is something I'd be good at or enjoy. I don't know much about network building/support so will have to read up on that. Thanks again to all who replied :)
 
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