Experiences of going it alone- Residential IT support?

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 08:53

Morning all,

I've got a likely redundancy hanging over me at the moment as some of you will know as I've mentioned it previously. I'm applying for jobs in a range of areas but I'm getting absolutely nowhere. I've recently signed up to a distance learning course with Train2Game in Games Development (in b4 scam, I've done my research) but obviously with that taking a couple of years I still need something before I try and crack the games industry.

Something I've always considered doing is setting up as self employed and doing residential IT support. I always get asked to do work by colleagues at the moment but don't always find time.

Whats the likelihood of me being able to turn a full time living from doing this? Any of you doing this currently as your sole job? Anyone recently done this or considering it?

I know a couple of local small firms who offer services, including a friend of mine, but I feel I've got the technical and people skills to be great at it, it's just a huge risk at the same time.

I recently applied for a local school doing entry level IT support and couldn't even get an interview, which considering the pay is 6k less than what I'm on now, is quite painful.

WobblerJW · 15 Feb 2011 at 09:50

DailyGeek said:
Morning all,

I've recently signed up to a distance learning course with Train2Game in Games Development (in b4 scam, I've done my research) but obviously with that taking a couple of years I still need something before I try and crack the games industry.

hope u don't mind me askling but thought of that place too for a while and how much is the course?

and on the it thing do a little advertising u never know u might get a few jobs.

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 10:04

WobblerJW said:
hope u don't mind me askling but thought of that place too for a while and how much is the course?

and on the it thing do a little advertising u never know u might get a few jobs.

It's not cheap, £4960. Monthly £135 at 0%. Much cheaper than Uni which is how I justified it really. There's a lot of negativity on the web from people who know nothing other than having read negativity elsewhere. I spent weeks researching it and approaching games companies and it seems legitimate as long as you don't expect to waltz into a job at the end of it. It's focused on training you and providing you with a portfolio you can show prospective employers. I've always wanted to learn C++ so it's good for me.

WobblerJW · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:06

yeah i requested info from them a month ago but still waiting on word back and tbh 5 grandish isn't that bad now considering uni can cost more than that for a 3 year course

edscdk · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:16

DailyGeek said:
Something I've always considered doing is setting up as self employed and doing residential IT support. I always get asked to do work by colleagues at the moment but don't always find time.

Whats the likelihood of me being able to turn a full time living from doing this? Any of you doing this currently as your sole job? Anyone recently done this or considering it?

depends on how good / friendly you are,

I get so many referals however I have been in IT for 17 years and I like meeting / chatting to poeple

for me easy money and im in a low population density area,

forget about the competition the chances are they are crap (most 1 man band IT people know jack all from my experience anyway)

assuming you do not overlap my area contact me via trust if you decide to do this and I'll give you all the advice you need...

edscdk · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:21

DailyGeek said:
I recently applied for a local school doing entry level IT support and couldn't even get an interview, which considering the pay is 6k less than what I'm on now, is quite painful.

its not necessarly that you were not good enough..

1) maybe they got 400 aplicants and simply binned half the CV's
2) maybe you had a crappy looking CV and it got binned without being looked at
3) maybe your covering letter was not up to spec and due to volume of applicants they jsut binned the CV
4) did you ring to confirm they even got the CV? (also shows you are actually interested in the job)
5) maybe there never was a job, some times they HAVE TO advertise a position even if they have someone lined up for it

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:28

edscdk said:
its not necessarly that you were not good enough..

1) maybe they got 400 aplicants and simply binned half the CV's
2) maybe you had a crappy looking CV and it got binned without being looked at
3) maybe your covering letter was not up to spec and due to volume of applicants they jsut binned the CV
4) did you ring to confirm they even got the CV? (also shows you are actually interested in the job)
5) maybe there never was a job, some times they HAVE TO advertise a position even if they have someone lined up for it

Absolutely, I work in Careers myself so know how it is. My CV is fine for what's on it, it looks great actually - but the content is what it is. I called the school to check they were happy to recieve it by email and they confirmed within 10 minutes that it had come through.

It's just about the 10th job in a row that I should be a shoe-in for, at least for interview, but get nothing. I spend half the week with teenagers with one E grade GCSE on their 'CV' and understand why they struggle, but I'm having a 'mare!

Have emailed you regarding your kind offer above too.

a1ex2001 · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:34

DailyGeek said:
It's just about the 10th job in a row that I should be a shoe-in for, at least for interview, but get nothing. I spend half the week with teenagers with one E grade GCSE on their 'CV' and understand why they struggle, but I'm having a 'mare!

Be carefull applying for jobs like this and expecting to get an interview, you are clearly over qualified and your CV will read that way. I wouldn't interview someone with lots of qualifications and higher level experience for an entry level job as the chances are they are looking for a stop gap and I'd only be back interviewing again in 6 months when the left fo something better. Recruitment is an expensive hastle so getting the right person for a role long term is the most important factor and this often isn't the over qualified over expereinced guy

Sp00n · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:36

"Residential I.T Support" = fixing malware/virus'

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:39

a1ex2001 said:
Be carefull applying for jobs like this and expecting to get an interview, you are clearly over qualified and your CV will read that way. I wouldn't interview someone with lots of qualifications and higher level experience for an entry level job as the chances are they are looking for a stop gap and I'd only be back interviewing again in 6 months when the left fo something better. Recruitment is an expensive hastle so getting the right person for a role long term is the most important factor and this often isn't the over qualified over expereinced guy

I'm far from over qualified.

The last thing I have on my CV qualification wise is a Advanced GNVQ in IT from 10 years ago. Most of my career has been in retail until the last few years where I've been a Connexions adviser. Now at risk of redundancy.

I've a nice section regarding my IT skills and pointed out where I've used IT in my other roles. My CV basically highlights people skills, organisational skills and IT ability. I've never worked in IT per se which is why I'm struggling, i'd imagine.

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:40

Sp00n said:
"Residential I.T Support" = fixing malware/virus'

Fine with me, if it pays the bills

Sp00n · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:44

Fair enough, I'd personally get very bored, very quickly.

edscdk · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:45

Sp00n said:
"Residential I.T Support" = fixing malware/virus'

virus' are good, because they keep comming back... repeat custom!

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:47

edscdk said:
virus' are good, because they keep comming back... repeat custom!

Ha, surely people get the hump if they keep reoccuring?

Sp00n said:
Fair enough, I'd personally get very bored, very quickly.

I don't mind mudane, as long as it's not all I do, all the time. The relationship with customers is the interesting bit. Plus I have this course, and running my comedy night/performing to keep me busy too.

TheMeekon · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:54

DailyGeek said:
It's not cheap, £4960. Monthly £135 at 0%. Much cheaper than Uni which is how I justified it really. There's a lot of negativity on the web from people who know nothing other than having read negativity elsewhere. I spent weeks researching it and approaching games companies and it seems legitimate as long as you don't expect to waltz into a job at the end of it. It's focused on training you and providing you with a portfolio you can show prospective employers. I've always wanted to learn C++ so it's good for me.

All I can say is that it does not cost you anything to produce your own portfolio to get a job in the industry. I know from experience that qualifications mean nothing when it comes to the games industry and I am not sure how much weight TIGA certified qualifications actually carry in the industry. Its all about the portfolio and your character. Most of the resources they will give you can get for free and your not having any 1 on 1 tutoring or interaction with other students/colleagues (working as a team).

I am an artist so not sure about C++ courses but for 5k you could get some serious materials, 1 on 1 tutoring.

If you spend 5k and your code is poor your going to be at a major loss.

Sp00n · 15 Feb 2011 at 11:58

DailyGeek said:
I don't mind mudane, as long as it's not all I do, all the time. The relationship with customers is the interesting bit. Plus I have this course, and running my comedy night/performing to keep me busy too.

The thing is, unless you take on business users then there isn't much else out there. Once the PC is set up that's it.

My previous job gave me exposure to the consumer market and literally all I did was install printers, setup new machines and clean off virus' (reinstall).

It gets very samey.

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 12:05

bAz^uk said:
All I can say is that it does not cost you anything to produce your own portfolio to get a job in the industry. I know from experience that qualifications mean nothing when it comes to the games industry and I am not sure how much weight TIGA certified qualifications actually carry in the industry. Its all about the portfolio and your character. Most of the resources they will give you can get for free and your not having any 1 on 1 tutoring or interaction with other students/colleagues (working as a team).

I am an artist so not sure about C++ courses but for 5k you could get some serious materials, 1 on 1 tutoring.

If you spend 5k and your code is poor your going to be at a major loss.

It's kind of O/T so I'd appreciate if the thread didn't derail too much from the title, however.

The 'weight' of the TIGA diploma is an unknown quantity, however some HR departments from games studios have told me that they would be fine with it and wouldn't write off a candidate for having it. Also some seem curious to see what the quality of the candidates look like. Not entirely negative.

I'm not doing it for the qualification. I'm doing it to learn and to build a portfolio. The delivery of the course suits me and, to me, is likely to be worth the money as I'll be going from no programming, right through 2D and 3D games programming and creating a portfolio of several working games. Plus I don't have a 5k lump sitting around, I'm paying monthly.

Most of the resources aren't free. The intro using gamemaker is free. The rest of the course (the other 99% of the content basically) is developed internally by DR Studios and and others, including a Prof from Uni of Beford and Rebellion devs.

I've got as much 1-to-1 telephone and webmail support from tutors as I can shake a stick at. More accessible I dare say, than some uni tutors on campus?

They also encourage building dev teams through the forums and are holding a 48 hour Game Jam at the Uni of Bedfordhsire at the end of March. They are also looking at integrating the best students into work placements with studios.

It's all very well having that opinion of it, but it's misinformed.

edscdk · 15 Feb 2011 at 12:38

DailyGeek said:
the money as I'll be going from no programming, right through 2D and 3D games programming and creating a portfolio of several working games. Plus I don't have a 5k lump sitting around, I'm paying monthly.

game design is a total utter waste of your time and money unless you aer either very creative or a superb artist...

there are only about 30,000 jobs in the games industry in the UK as well, and over half of those are manager and sales types...

DailyGeek · 15 Feb 2011 at 12:40

edscdk said:
game design is a total utter waste of your time and money unless you aer either very creative or a superb artist...

there are only about 30,000 jobs in the games industry in the UK as well, and over half of those are manager and sales types...

Well, i'm doing software development rather than design, it just happens to be game slanted C++

TheMeekon · 15 Feb 2011 at 13:23

DailyGeek said:
It's kind of O/T so I'd appreciate if the thread didn't derail too much from the title, however.

The 'weight' of the TIGA diploma is an unknown quantity, however some HR departments from games studios have told me that they would be fine with it and wouldn't write off a candidate for having it. Also some seem curious to see what the quality of the candidates look like. Not entirely negative.

I'm not doing it for the qualification. I'm doing it to learn and to build a portfolio. The delivery of the course suits me and, to me, is likely to be worth the money as I'll be going from no programming, right through 2D and 3D games programming and creating a portfolio of several working games. Plus I don't have a 5k lump sitting around, I'm paying monthly.

Most of the resources aren't free. The intro using gamemaker is free. The rest of the course (the other 99% of the content basically) is developed internally by DR Studios and and others, including a Prof from Uni of Beford and Rebellion devs.

I've got as much 1-to-1 telephone and webmail support from tutors as I can shake a stick at. More accessible I dare say, than some uni tutors on campus?

They also encourage building dev teams through the forums and are holding a 48 hour Game Jam at the Uni of Bedfordhsire at the end of March. They are also looking at integrating the best students into work placements with studios.

It's all very well having that opinion of it, but it's misinformed.

It my opinion so how can it be misinformed? Your basically slapping someone in the face who was offering advice from working in the industry (over 5 years)

Which ever way you put it, its 5k which could be spent more wisely. You can teach yourself most of the stuff they are offering. You can join most leading game forums and work on a collective mod/project for free.

And yes most of it is free in the sense of picking up a £20 book or visiting forums. What they are packaging is not free.

I done this whole merry go round before with Escape studio that do courses for 8k for Maya training and game dev.

I was never asked once about my qualification in several interviews, all about portfolio, presentation and your character.