IT Courses

Ev0 · 17 Mar 2013 at 13:02

It varies massively depending on area and company.

I know service desk positions which pay not much more than minimum wage, up to mid 20s and beyond.

Spangles · 17 Mar 2013 at 13:20

I think I am going to look at studying from home on some of these while I am still in full time work, so can just do it in my spare time.

Could do with a change of direction, as I have probably moaned about a bit recently on here!

Worked in an office environment previously and enjoyed it, but was young and stupid, didn't show up for work enough and got the sack. Will be looking into this, work up from the basic courses to something more advanced. Happy days.

Mr-White · 17 Mar 2013 at 15:51

Danzal said:
one last thing, working on a service desk what is the average wage for the position?

Depends where you live and the company but usually around £12-16k

MW

dowie · 17 Mar 2013 at 15:55

Beerbaron said:
Most certs you can self study for. The A+ included. Buy the textbook from Amazon and then you can study in your own time and then just pay to take the test. Its far cheaper than doing a course.

this really

Some people need to be spoonfed so will happily pay for overpriced courses via training companies. You can quite easily cover most of these things simply by buying the required book - its not rocket science its a fairly basic vocational IT course.

glenimp617 · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:31

People tend to turn their noses up at A+ qualification but I think it's really great.

I'd much rather interview someone who has A+ and a keen interest in IT than someone who has an MCP just because he wants the qualification.

Also there is a growing trend amongst IT workers to skip 1st and 2nd line and head straight to 3rd. These CVs end up in the bin.

I suppose I'm old school but I like people who have started off and the bottom and worked up. Don't spend too long on 1st line though. Two years is about right.

Trifid · 17 Mar 2013 at 17:11

glen8 said:
Also there is a growing trend amongst IT workers to skip 1st and 2nd line and head straight to 3rd. These CVs end up in the bin.

I suppose I'm old school but I like people who have started off and the bottom and worked up. Don't spend too long on 1st line though. Two years is about right.

So you would throw my C.V. in the bin with 5 years of IT experience because I skipped 1st and 2nd line work?

glenimp617 · 18 Mar 2013 at 09:13

Trifid said:
So you would throw my C.V. in the bin with 5 years of IT experience because I skipped 1st and 2nd line work?

No because you have 5 years experience

I suppose I should have made myself a little easier to understand. What I was trying to say is that I have seen a growing number of people do MS exams and then try to go straight into a third line role.

Mr-White · 18 Mar 2013 at 12:47

Trifid said:
So you would throw my C.V. in the bin with 5 years of IT experience because I skipped 1st and 2nd line work?

Yes, you're cheating :mad:

Seriously though there are people I know who worked in 1st line support for ISPs that required basic scripted answers who then moved onto "3rd line" where they just tested equipment. That 3rd line is not comparable to most IT environments.

MW

Ev0 · 18 Mar 2013 at 13:26

Whilst I appreciate it's handy to give a rough idea of what people do, I've never been a fan of the whole 1st/2nd line pigeon holing when describing a role.

My first role was as a desktop analyst splitting time between help desk (where there was not a script to read from or go through in sight), general fault fixing, project work, server work, infrastructure design etc.

I'm much more interested in what someone actually does

Danzal · 23 Mar 2013 at 15:23

Well i have just recieved the comptia book and its huge!! i can now start to work my way through it all

Mr-White · 23 Mar 2013 at 15:28

Get your self a kindle, will save you time and money in the long run not having to pay for the physical books

MW

Beerbaron · 23 Mar 2013 at 15:34

Danzal said:
Well i have just recieved the comptia book and its huge!! i can now start to work my way through it all

Where necessary build up a home lab as this is a great hands on way to get experience plus employers love people who have a passion and play with tech

Mr-White said:
Get your self a kindle, will save you time and money in the long run not having to pay for the physical books

MW

Most new textbooks you can sell back to Amazon

I prefer textbooks to kindle/on screen reading.

Mr-White · 23 Mar 2013 at 15:45

Beerbaron said:
Most new textbooks you can sell back to Amazon

I prefer textbooks to kindle/on screen reading.

If you look online you may not even have to pay for the books

** obviously talking about Amazon prime

Reading large amounts of text on a monitor is painful, the Kindle is much better

MW