IT Jobs - The best?!

Seeing those jobs is one thing... Getting them is quite another.

Good luck... you will need it.
 
Bes said:
Fox: Calling all people who are given the title Consultant (We don't choose it) "lame and pathetic" is akin to calling all BMW drivers "****ers", and I'm sure you're not one of them, are you? :)

Some of us work our butts off and actually don't produce cowboy-ish results.
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Unless you sell mobile phones for a living or earn £14k telling people which direction to move the mouse I wasn't reffering to you :)
 
[TW]Fox;10894872 said:
Proper consultant: Expert in their field, usually attained through many years of experience in addition to high levels of qualifications. Command high wages becuase quite simply, they know best in most given situations.

Lame pathetic consultant: Half the job titles out there today. It's becoming a very meaningless term - I walked into a local Phones4u the other day and was approached by a 17 year old sales 'Consultant'. Yea, whatever. Consultant is a more posh sounding name than 'IT Helpdesk operative' so it's being given to people with otherwise pretty low end jobs to make them feel better.

I have nothing but respect for the former but virtually none for the latter.
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Couldn't have said it better myself :) Consultant is a word that is bandied around a lot, and as a result it's use has become rather diluted!
 
In general there seems to be two types of consultants from what I have seen.

Firstly there are graduate consultants, i.e. people who have left university and joined a company and are given "consultant" as a job title. Not to knock anyone who has posted in this thread, (as I haven't worked with you), but in my experience these people tend to be pretty poor. They may be able to put something together which may work on paper but quite often little things which can affect the ongoing support or recoverability of the system have not been taken into account ... (note my cousin is one of these :( )

The second type of consultants are the traditional "have been working in the industry for quite a while" type. The ones of these I have come across have even been really good and know their stuff or have been really poor and tried to bluff their way along, (bit like contractors).

At the end of the day we tend to not like consultants as they normally cause more problems than they solve ...
 
When you're looking for a job in IT, do something you enjoy. Don't pick something just because of big money.

High paid jobs in IT are HARD, and if you don't find it enjoyable or find it difficult to do, you're unlikely to last long in the job.
 
I was always told that IT was a limited career (by connexions..:rolleyes:) whereas the opposite is true.

Although the job market is saturated with IT professionals - there is a very good living to be made.

I like to think that I exploit IT in my job - but in truth I know very little in comparison to ppl on here.

But I think 46k is probably a bit overambitious.... unless you were talkin about average salaries down the line...

Good luck anyhoo!

Tom*
 
intellix said:
Hey, im currently a student studying a HND in IT and will progress onto the degree for Software

What are the best jobs in IT, what do you work as in IT and how much do you get paid etc...

At the moment im looking into IT Consultancy which pays about £46k a year, seems good, any other IT consultants that know what this job requires, is like?
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Aww bless the kid thinks that because he will have an IT degree in 2 years time he will be earning Mega bucks ;)

Sorry mate just because there are jobs being advertised as such does not mean you will get them or even an interview tbh.

IMO the IT recruitment industry is throwing to many grandeur titles around that its really devaluing the value of that title. To be a consultant you need to have a vast amount of industry experience, usually 10+ years.

Hate to break it to you kid but the IT industry is saturated at the moment, jobs don't take long to fill and the value of jobs outside of London seems to be dropping.

By all means complete your degree, and look for a good graduate program to get on and start gaining that experience. But don't expect to get a top flight, top paying job straight away, cause if that's what you expect you are likely to be sorely disappointed. I'd say aim for a programming job paying between 18-24k outside London 22-28K inside London, gain some experience then move on between 18-24months for a significant pay rise.
 
you could say the same for the business field also - loads of people in the field but its how you apply your knowledge.

Dont just think inside the box by thinking working for a company is the only way to earn good money :) although it is pretty awesome :)
 
As odd as it sounds there is a decent amount to be nade in high end hardware work ( enterprise level not Intel stuff ) , a decent Unix / SAN hardware engineer doing break/fix and installs can make anything from £40-70k though you would need to be prepared for standby and some unsociable hours to earn those figures
 
a lot of companies have been hit hard by highly qualified but inexperienced people joining the game, that said theres plenty of money to be earnt if you put the time in and accept that you'll start on a pretty ordinary wage for a few years, after a few years and you've become an expert in an area you'll start getting some cash..
You don't walk into £46k a year unless you're very very lucky indeed..
 
Kronologic said:
By all means complete your degree, and look for a good graduate program to get on and start gaining that experience. But don't expect to get a top flight, top paying job straight away, cause if that's what you expect you are likely to be sorely disappointed. I'd say aim for a programming job paying between 18-24k outside London 22-28K inside London, gain some experience then move on between 18-24months for a significant pay rise.
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Good advice there. Pretty much what I'm planning to do when I finish uni next year.
 
Thanks for all the input guys, even if the majority of it is negative :D

From what i've read, a lot of people are assuming that im one of those guys who decides to take a career in IT because they know how to install their grandmas ipod and setup her skybox.

The majority of people on my course have absolutely no experience using computers and think they'll get a job through knowing the theoretical side of their assignments.

Most of this thread has been spent bashing one idea :D what else is available? web design, development, graphics designer? any of those about?
 
I'm in QA (Quality Assurance, aka Software Testing), and that is a good area that covers technical and business processes. I'd recommend that.

Generally though, you have 2 paths. Go high, lose technical, go specialist/contracting stay technical.

The first will basically make you a manager of people. The second and your career will basically be over, but if you like technical work you can make lots of money contracting (and still do quite well if you're permie). Very few people can keep the technicality and yet progress up the company heirarchy, although it is possible to a point.

I'd agree with changing jobs, 2-4 years and then move on for a bigger salary. Depending on the market you could double your salary (gross mind, not take home!) in 5-7 years. Then if you find you're not getting sick, and having trouble using up your annual leave, go contracting and double up again :)
 
Knowing a lot in a specific field depending on what it is/training doesn't have to take many years..

We've just implemented a Trend AV into our business and I helped design the processes for it and use it on a daily basis. I don't claim to know it inside out but managed to give the Auditor a detailed description on how we implemented the daily process and the archetecture behind the system.. this is after 3 months. The Auditor was chuffed and we were previously told he was hard to please.

Now does this mean a business could 'consult' on this type of Anti-Virus solution as compared to competitors or does it mean I can just offer advice?

What's the difference?
 
You'll be lucky to land £20k doing any IT job outside London with an HND and 0 years relevant commercial IT experience. Within 2-3 years you might hope to get £30k, after 5years you might get £40-50k if you have a good CV and your skills are in demand. I'm a developer and TBH uni doesn’t teach you much apart from gaining aptitude. The learning process really starts when you find your first job, and doesn’t stop until you retire. Consultancy is a good job and it’s something I'd like to move into as I gain experience. All the consultants in my office are late 30s plus.
 
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TBH trend AV is pretty simple compared to a multi- tier, fully geogrphically redundant system designed to support and bill for millions of transactions per day.

No offence but what you described sounds like tech support.
 
Stretch said:
You'll be lucky to land £20k doing any IT job outside London with an HND and 0 years relevant commercial IT experience. Within 2-3 years you might hope to get £30k, after 5years you might get £40-50k if you have a good CV and are good at your job. I'm a developer and TBH uni doesn’t teach you much apart from gaining aptitude. The learning process really starts when you find your first job, and doesn’t stop until you retire.
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I agree. I would love to leave the City but i'm locked into a decent pay.

I also agree that whilst uni and/or college teach you to code, it doesn't make you a programmer. This only comes with time and experience.
 
Rotty said:
As odd as it sounds there is a decent amount to be nade in high end hardware work ( enterprise level not Intel stuff ) , a decent Unix / SAN hardware engineer doing break/fix and installs can make anything from £40-70k though you would need to be prepared for standby and some unsociable hours to earn those figures
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That's where I'm aiming...by age 35.

*n
 
Bes said:
TBH trend AV is pretty simple compared to a multi- tier, fully geogrphically redundant system designed to support and bill for millions of transactions per day.

No offence but what you described sounds like tech support.
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That would be true apart from tech support don't design processes, contingency/continuity plans (don't fully design these) and have no say in SLAs with it's customer.. Also they have nothing to do with back end architecture.
 
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