Starting a career in I.T without a degree?

Brumboy · 4 Apr 2016 at 03:26

Hi there,

I'm interested in a career in I.T. I've been doing some research but everyone has a different opinion and various other articles and posts are old so I want to get some current information from people directly in the field.

I don't have a degree but I am highly capable and passionate about starting a career in I.T.

I have read quite a bit about DBA's and how that can be a good path to go down. It does look interesting and that could definitely be something I would want to pursue.

I know I'm asking broad questions but basically:

1. Does having no degree make my chances slim to none in getting a career in I.T?

2. Will I need to go to university or can I learn enough skills and knowledge through college courses, online learning and qualifications?

3. Are there any particular I.T jobs that are good for people wanting to start out in the industry and get their foot in the door? I assume some companies take on complete beginners with potential and train them up?

4. I am currently in Thailand for the next 6-8 months so I have a lot of spare time and I thought this would be the perfect way to study languages such as SQL, is this a good idea?

5. Apart from SQL which other computer languages are good to learn to get my CV looked at by any I.T companies or recruitment agencies?

I've read a few threads in this section and you guys seem to be very helpful and understanding so I hope I can get some valuable information and get an idea of where to start in this industry!

Kind regards

Ross

Mr-White · 4 Apr 2016 at 12:18

You don't need a degree, it helps, but definitely by no means mandatory. When starting at the bottom you can do well to show interest and a willingness to learn by studying off your own back.

opethdisciple · 4 Apr 2016 at 12:22

You don't need a degree but it does help.

At the beginning it can get doors opened for you, or get employers to look at your CV.

Sometimes a prerequisite for a job might be a degree, but even then with the right skills and experience they may be willing to over look. Even if you find in the future you cant apply for jobs that have this prerequisite there are still loads and loads out there.

What area of IT are you interested in?

Do you want to do web development, programming, databases, infrastructure, networking etc etc....

Craig321 · 4 Apr 2016 at 12:22

As above.

Also, go enjoy Thailand, make the most of it while you're there.

If you wanted to get straight in to programming for example, then a specific course would help, but if you're happy to start at the bottom on support or as an apprentice or whatever, then you can do that as well.

Quartz · 4 Apr 2016 at 12:45

Certifications count for far more than a degree.

Burnsy2023 · 4 Apr 2016 at 12:46

Quartz said:
Certifications count for far more than a degree.

That highly depends on what area of IT you are interested in.

dowie · 5 Apr 2016 at 00:25

Rossuk89 said:
1. Does having no degree make my chances slim to none in getting a career in I.T?

no

2. Will I need to go to university or can I learn enough skills and knowledge through college courses, online learning and qualifications?

you don't *need* to in most areas but it can be useful to have a degree in quite a few areas

3. Are there any particular I.T jobs that are good for people wanting to start out in the industry and get their foot in the door? I assume some companies take on complete beginners with potential and train them up?

as a non-grad with no experience then the obvious area to point at would be support

alternatively if you were to learn to program and started making your own apps etc.. then maybe you could land a junior dev role at some small firm

4. I am currently in Thailand for the next 6-8 months so I have a lot of spare time and I thought this would be the perfect way to study languages such as SQL, is this a good idea?

having lots of spare time is perhaps good if you want to learn stuff, is being in Thailand 'perfect'? Dunno - depends how well you learn and what distractions there might be. Take a look at udacity and their nanodegrees perhaps. www.udacity.com

5. Apart from SQL which other computer languages are good to learn to get my CV looked at by any I.T companies or recruitment agencies?

SQL is more of a special purpose language, as for what languages are good to get your CV looked at - most general ones are if you're good! Tis probably a good idea to know at least one of C#/Java/Python/C++ it can also be nice to have some exposure to a functional language.

Brumboy · 5 Apr 2016 at 02:11

Mr-White said:
You don't need a degree, it helps, but definitely by no means mandatory. When starting at the bottom you can do well to show interest and a willingness to learn by studying off your own back.

That's good to know. I don't mind starting at the bottom as long as there is a chance I can progress through the ranks so to speak. It would be a challenge!

Brumboy · 5 Apr 2016 at 02:25

opethdisciple said:
You don't need a degree but it does help.

At the beginning it can get doors opened for you, or get employers to look at your CV.

Sometimes a prerequisite for a job might be a degree, but even then with the right skills and experience they may be willing to over look. Even if you find in the future you cant apply for jobs that have this prerequisite there are still loads and loads out there.

What area of IT are you interested in?

Do you want to do web development, programming, databases, infrastructure, networking etc etc....

Yeah I had a quick scan on Reed (don't know how good that is for I.T jobs though) and most require a degree so that will be an obstacle in the future.

That's good to know that there are loads of jobs I can still apply for without a degree, it's the one thing that made me a bit worried about starting a career in I.T.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure, I think I'm quite analytical and I would say that I am a perfectionist, I enjoy working with numbers and making sure everything is correct. As far as what I've looked at, DBA would be an option and possibly networking.

Which area of I.T would be a good one to go down? including wage, rate of progression, amount of jobs available etc

Brumboy · 5 Apr 2016 at 02:28

Craig321 said:
As above.

Also, go enjoy Thailand, make the most of it while you're there.

If you wanted to get straight in to programming for example, then a specific course would help, but if you're happy to start at the bottom on support or as an apprentice or whatever, then you can do that as well.

Yeah I am, I'm just starting to prepare for when I go back

I don't mind starting in I.T support, but just to be sure they don't require a degree or any previous experience?

I have worked in a school where I was technically their I.T technician as in I fixed most I.T problems that came up and they rarely had to call in outside help. I was a teaching assistant back then though and just offered my help, nothing official.

Brumboy · 5 Apr 2016 at 02:33

dowie said:
no

you don't *need* to in most areas but it can be useful to have a degree in quite a few areas

as a non-grad with no experience then the obvious area to point at would be support

alternatively if you were to learn to program and started making your own apps etc.. then maybe you could land a junior dev role at some small firm

having lots of spare time is perhaps good if you want to learn stuff, is being in Thailand 'perfect'? Dunno - depends how well you learn and what distractions there might be. Take a look at udacity and their nanodegrees perhaps. www.udacity.com

SQL is more of a special purpose language, as for what languages are good to get your CV looked at - most general ones are if you're good! Tis probably a good idea to know at least one of C#/Java/Python/C++ it can also be nice to have some exposure to a functional language.

Yeah everyone says support is a good place to start. Which job websites are good to go through for I.T jobs and do you have any tips to tailor my CV towards a I.T support job?

Basically my girlfriend and I are going to be living in Thailand for at least 6 months, she's teaching English and I'm training Muay Thai. So I have spare time in the afternoon and since I have no job to go back to in England I thought it would be a good idea to make use of the spare time I have and prepare myself for a job when I go back.

I have a basic laptop but can buy a desktop computer if needed.

What online materials are useful to start learning SQL? As that's the language I keep reading in articles and I assume DBA is a good path to go down?

I've checked out Udemy and Codeacademy and they seem good, I'll check out udacity, thanks!

randomshenans · 5 Apr 2016 at 09:12

If that was me, I'd just be enjoying my surroundings and taking everything I could out of that experience and time, it's not going to happen everyday.

You don't need a degree in IT, I don't have one. Some certs can help, completely job dependent. Skills help.

tom_e · 5 Apr 2016 at 09:17

The major problem these days is that a lot of places use degrees as the first filter to get rid of CVs due to the shear amount of people that apply for some jobs.
I've not used a single thing I learnt on my degree since I started in IT 4 years ago but without it my first boss would have binned my CV straight away.

radderfire · 5 Apr 2016 at 10:12

Rossuk89 said:
I know I'm asking broad questions but basically:

1. Does having no degree make my chances slim to none in getting a career in I.T?

Not at all. If you can develop expertise, people are desperate for good people.

2. Will I need to go to university or can I learn enough skills and knowledge through college courses, online learning and qualifications?

It's possible to teach yourself no problem, providing you are reasonably clever, disciplined and keen.

3. Are there any particular I.T jobs that are good for people wanting to start out in the industry and get their foot in the door? I assume some companies take on complete beginners with potential and train them up?

Personally I wouldn't think of foot in the door jobs. This would be for a person who hasn't chosen their specialism, and therefore tend to be general IT support jobs, which aren't that fun IMO.

4. I am currently in Thailand for the next 6-8 months so I have a lot of spare time and I thought this would be the perfect way to study languages such as SQL, is this a good idea?

Yes, particularly SQL. You could even get yourself a remote job!!

5. Apart from SQL which other computer languages are good to learn to get my CV looked at by any I.T companies or recruitment agencies?

SQL is a good specialism. As you say, you could be a DBA, or get a job in Big Data, data analytics specialist, reporting etc. Decide whether you want to go for more of a server maintenance (DBA) role, or analytics role, or perhaps programming specialist.

Just read lots of job descriptions and you'll soon get an idea of what's required.

Learning how to code PHP with MySQL, or a Microsoft language like C#.net or VB.net with Microsoft SQL would also be a good skill.

Ev0 · 5 Apr 2016 at 14:34

Generalising massively here, you can do just fine in IT without a degree as experience often will be more valuable.

However you need to build up that experience and start off somewhere, and a degree may well be a requirement for an entry level position so it ends up as a bit of a catch 22 situation.

I'm sure there are plenty of routes into an IT entry level role without a degree, it may involve a role that's not directly what you are aiming for but will be a step to get you there.

dowie · 5 Apr 2016 at 21:42

Rossuk89 said:
Yeah everyone says support is a good place to start. Which job websites are good to go through for I.T jobs and do you have any tips to tailor my CV towards a I.T support job?

I wouldn't yet - I'd figure out what you want to do first as you're also talking about learning SQL, learning to program, becoming a DBA etc..

Having said that familiarity with SQL + some basic knowledge of networking and being familiar with unix/linux (basic command line stuff) is all you really need for a lot of first line application support roles. Familiarity with Excel and a little bit of VBA is also useful for functional support issues where numerical data is involved.

Lots of the work in that field essentially involves searching log files and/or querying databases in order to conduct some initial analysis of the issue before either providing a brief workaround or explanation of why there isn't an issue with the software or documenting and raising a change request for development(or raising a ticket with the vendor if you're at a client rather than a vendor). Essentially you're the first point of contact, you pick up the phone and speak to the client(or the user if you're in an internal support team) and you do the initial analysis and deal with most issues, in some cases there might be a 'second line' person or some specialist in a particular area for more complicated tickets in other cases it might just be the developer who wrote that bit of code or the product manager responsible for that area. (Or it might just be the vendor's support team if you're employed by a client.) Things to emphasize aside from SQL, unix, general technical literacy (maybe demonstrated with a few certs if you've got no experience) are general customer facing skills. Any examples where you've had to work under pressure, deal with people, handle multiple tasks etc.. basically you want to show you're analytical, well organised and can deal with people.

There are of course other support roles that could involve anything from supporting desktop PCs or phone systems or servers and network infrastructure etc.. they all have different requirements.

In terms of jobs linked in, contacting recruiters on there (via groups or otherwise) is probably worth a shot these days, though maybe better as something to keep up to date with once you've got your first job. For a first entry level role the big jobsites are probably worth looking at monster, indeed, jobsite, cwjobs.. and the big recruiters reed, hays, michael page etc..

What online materials are useful to start learning SQL? As that's the language I keep reading in articles and I assume DBA is a good path to go down?

well more than just SQL you ought to understand databases - for a start there are these:

https://www.coursera.org/course/db

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-relational-databases--ud197

there are plenty of online guides etc.. a reference book might be useful too (O'Reilly tend to be OK for this sort of thing)

maybe this free course for an intro to linux too:

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-linux-linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-0

then again if you were to go for a desktop support role instead of application support then perhaps you'd want to study for something like the comptia A+ and Network+ quals (actually network+ is probably useful for support in general) and then some Microsoft or Cisco certs

http://www.professormesser.com/free...ssers-free-220-70x-comptia-a-training-course/

http://www.professormesser.com/netw...omptia-network-certification-training-course/

Brumboy · 6 Apr 2016 at 02:58

randomshenans said:
If that was me, I'd just be enjoying my surroundings and taking everything I could out of that experience and time, it's not going to happen everyday.

You don't need a degree in IT, I don't have one. Some certs can help, completely job dependent. Skills help.

What certs do you recommend?

tom_e said:
The major problem these days is that a lot of places use degrees as the first filter to get rid of CVs due to the shear amount of people that apply for some jobs.
I've not used a single thing I learnt on my degree since I started in IT 4 years ago but without it my first boss would have binned my CV straight away.

Yeah that is still my worry but it is still possible right?

Do you have any tips?

Brumboy · 6 Apr 2016 at 03:04

@ Radderfire

Awesome!

I've read a few articles regarding SQL and how the language is always in demand and needed so I thought that would be a good path to go down.

But since I have no degree or experience in I.T, I wouldn't have a clue where to start to become a DBA.

Is it a case of learning SQL to a good standard, then somehow proving my capabilities, gaining some certs and then applying for DBA jobs? Or is there another route to take to become one?

I know what you mean about foot in the door jobs but having no degree or experience am I left with any other option when starting out?

Brumboy · 6 Apr 2016 at 03:07

Ev0 said:
Generalising massively here, you can do just fine in IT without a degree as experience often will be more valuable.

However you need to build up that experience and start off somewhere, and a degree may well be a requirement for an entry level position so it ends up as a bit of a catch 22 situation.

I'm sure there are plenty of routes into an IT entry level role without a degree, it may involve a role that's not directly what you are aiming for but will be a step to get you there.

Again that's something my mind keeps going over but if I can avoid 3 years of uni then I will do everything I can to avoid that! I would much rather work an entry level job and gain experience and contacts while self studying in my own time.

I hope that is a realistic plan, what do you say?

Brumboy · 6 Apr 2016 at 03:20

dowie said:
I wouldn't yet - I'd figure out what you want to do first as you're also talking about learning SQL, learning to program, becoming a DBA etc..

Having said that familiarity with SQL + some basic knowledge of networking and being familiar with unix/linux (basic command line stuff) is all you really need for a lot of first line application support roles. Familiarity with Excel and a little bit of VBA is also useful for functional support issues where numerical data is involved.

Lots of the work in that field essentially involves searching log files and/or querying databases in order to conduct some initial analysis of the issue before either providing a brief workaround or explanation of why there isn't an issue with the software or documenting and raising a change request for development(or raising a ticket with the vendor if you're at a client rather than a vendor). Essentially you're the first point of contact, you pick up the phone and speak to the client(or the user if you're in an internal support team) and you do the initial analysis and deal with most issues, in some cases there might be a 'second line' person or some specialist in a particular area for more complicated tickets in other cases it might just be the developer who wrote that bit of code or the product manager responsible for that area. (Or it might just be the vendor's support team if you're employed by a client.) Things to emphasize aside from SQL, unix, general technical literacy (maybe demonstrated with a few certs if you've got no experience) are general customer facing skills. Any examples where you've had to work under pressure, deal with people, handle multiple tasks etc.. basically you want to show you're analytical, well organised and can deal with people.

There are of course other support roles that could involve anything from supporting desktop PCs or phone systems or servers and network infrastructure etc.. they all have different requirements.

In terms of jobs linked in, contacting recruiters on there (via groups or otherwise) is probably worth a shot these days, though maybe better as something to keep up to date with once you've got your first job. For a first entry level role the big jobsites are probably worth looking at monster, indeed, jobsite, cwjobs.. and the big recruiters reed, hays, michael page etc..

well more than just SQL you ought to understand databases - for a start there are these:

https://www.coursera.org/course/db

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-relational-databases--ud197

there are plenty of online guides etc.. a reference book might be useful too (O'Reilly tend to be OK for this sort of thing)

maybe this free course for an intro to linux too:

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-linux-linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-0

then again if you were to go for a desktop support role instead of application support then perhaps you'd want to study for something like the comptia A+ and Network+ quals (actually network+ is probably useful for support in general) and then some Microsoft or Cisco certs

http://www.professormesser.com/free...ssers-free-220-70x-comptia-a-training-course/

http://www.professormesser.com/netw...omptia-network-certification-training-course/

There are so many different areas of I.T that it is a bit hard to choose one path right now. Although I do keep mentioning SQL, only because of what I've read.

But as I said in my post above - I don't know exactly how to become one.

If I could get a clear picture of the steps to take in order to become one that would be great.

For example:

1. Learn SQL to a good standard
2. Learn how to show that to employers
3. Gain some official certs (Comptia A+?)
4. Apply for 1st line support jobs
5. Work there while still learning SQL and gaining certs
6. Hopefully get promoted to 2nd line support or have enough SQL knowledge and certs to apply for DBA jobs

Is that a sensible plan to become a DBA? This is just what I've gathered from different threads

Your job description of 1st line support is very detailed and helpful. I could definitely do that as a stepping stone if it is definitely required. I have had plenty of jobs that involve customer support and working under pressure so that won't be a problem.

Thanks for the links I'll check them out!

You've all been a great help so far, I am amazed at the information you're giving,it's super helpful