Jobs in IT

G J · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:21

Can anyone offer any advice on how to get out of the no experience, no job vicious circle? I can't get the experience without getting a job.

I finished my HNC in Computing last september and tbh it's got me nowhere. I was thinking of doing the degree but at the end of it I'm still going to be in the same situation and 3k+ in debt.

dowie · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:29

Nightstalker said:
I looked into CCNA and came to the conclusion that there are too many ppl for not enough jobs so the experienced workers get priority and id be no better off.

I'm thinking possibly to start somewhere small so I end up trying my hand at many things and then I can find what I like and get qualifications to help me climb the ladder!
Cheers for the help so far!

ref: CCNA etc.. you might well be correct - I'm farly sure that for the general IT bod/printer monkey in an office type person that to work up that food chain you tend to need to go for cisco/microsoft certs etc...

perhaps you could try looking at other things - software companies which have tech support teams for their products for example. might well require sql and unix knowledge, start as a 1st line techie then learn about whatever proprietary stuff you support and if it is something used at a few places then go work for one of the clients as a technical consultant/contractor after gaining a few years experience. You may or may not fall into the right sort of role for this but it is certainly an area where someone with perhpas only A-levels or a vocational type IT degree from a poor university can end up in a 6 figure role.

Xenoxide · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:31

Doing a degree opened a lot of doors for me. While the degree itself isn't 100% necessary these days, I got quite a lot of contract work from the uni while I was there, and for quite a while afterwards. It gave me loads of experience and got my name out, which didn't hurt when I did decide to apply for a full time job.

rhysduck · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:48

Experience is the best way to get into it. Voluntary experience (it doesn't have to be paid, you have to start somewhere!)

Find someone, somewhere, that can offer you a few weeks Experience (paid is a bonus) and see where it gets you.
A lot of the time it's jut a case of being in the right place at the right time.

Do you know ANYONE in the ICT industry?

nick1988 · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:56

1st line support anywhere would be a good place to start. MCP in windows 7 or something like that would probably help aswell as it seems a lot of companies are starting the transistion over from XP.

If you want to get into the networking side of things obviously a CCNA would be a good place to start but it has already been said they are not cheap if you get a support role and work your way up a little bit you might be able to get the company to pay for you to do a CCNA / other Qualifications.

Start at the bottom and work your way up!

LordSplodge · 1 Sep 2011 at 23:01

Xenoxide said:
Doing a degree opened a lot of doors for me. While the degree itself isn't 100% necessary these days, I got quite a lot of contract work from the uni while I was there, and for quite a while afterwards. It gave me loads of experience and got my name out, which didn't hurt when I did decide to apply for a full time job.

The value of a degree has been diluted so much nowadays it has lost a hell of a lot of its value.

Having interviewed a few younger people with degrees I think i'd take a person with no degree and more experience every time.

That's what the OP needs. Why not be an entrepreneur OP? That's what the world needs - more people with some get up and go. Start your own business. Screw working for "the man"

Xenoxide · 1 Sep 2011 at 23:05

LordSplodge said:
The value of a degree has been diluted so much nowadays it has lost a hell of a lot of its value.

Having interviewed a few younger people with degrees I think i'd take a person with no degree and more experience every time.

That's what the OP needs. Why not be an entrepreneur OP? That's what the world needs - more people with some get up and go. Start your own business. Screw working for "the man"

That's pretty much what I said. The degree helped in getting a full time job, but the contracts I got at uni were what gave me the experience.

LordSplodge · 1 Sep 2011 at 23:14

Xenoxide said:
That's pretty much what I said. The degree helped in getting a full time job, but the contracts I got at uni were what gave me the experience.

Yeah I get what your saying. I meant to say that the quality of people coming out University even with some experience seems to be very poor. Or at least all the people I have been involved with.

It could be that I've been given candidates from the shallower end of the gene pool. Or, as I suspect, that it is more difficult to sport the truly gifted and when they are spotted they go to better companies.