Starting out in I.T??

I'm prety much in the same boat here, I rather foolishly left college just before starting a HND as I wanted a car and money over being poor and having nothing (or so I thought) and am now looking at escaping from retail work as the job prospects are pretty carp. I think I'm probably gonna look at the obvious system admin positions (as most of my friends in the industry are doing admin jobs and it sounds fairly interesting) but I have no idea what sort of qualifications to pick up before hand.
 
Stay in education as long as possible. :)

Currently half way through my first year at university and am starting to find it boring, yet not very tough. However, I do hate group work.
 
I'd also suggest not moving into IT. A lot of jobs are being offshored to India and other countries, and there are a lot of consultancies bringing staff over here too. You're ok with a lot of experience but with little it will be tough.

However, you said you wanted to do it so good on you. My advice would be to look at something most people are not doing: Everyone is doing Java/J2EE (me included) and C#/.NET. Loads of people are doing general IT support. But one thing I have seen which is in quite short supply seems to be Unix administrators. Now that is also going to be hard to get experience in. But, I am also seeing the rise of Linux (very similar to Unix).

So my advice would be to start off with something like Java or .NET and also start training yourself in Linux. The aim would be to take something in the Java/.NET world to get you started, but with a view to moving into Unix or Linux administration later.
 
I am currently doing a BSc in Computer Science - Network Communications. I will however be changing to straight Computer Science which will have more Unix/Linux elements in its course.
 
triggerthat said:
I am currently doing a BSc in Computer Science - Network Communications. I will however be changing to straight Computer Science which will have more Unix/Linux elements in its course.
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Nice move. We have a team of Unix admins. It's typically staffed with a group of contractors and one or two permanent staff members. Every single permie has used the position to train themselves up and then go off on a contract for loads more money :)

I've come to the conclusion that application development (which is what I do) can be offshored too easily. Infrastructure and systems support (networking and Unix/Windows admin, etc) can also be offshored but is less likely to be imho.
 
Well the main reason why I changed is because if I decided with Network Comms, I'll narrow my career. Whereas a Computer Science degree gives you that extra flexability.
 
The problem with IT is, there is a lot of people in IT, but not a lot of IT people, if you catch my meaning, Work hard, stand out, and throw yourself at it 100% and you'll do aswell as in any other job.

There is so many people applying for It jobs, its the ones with total stand out attitudes that get first imo, not totally about what you know but about what your willing to learn. If you go for an interview, make it clear you want it bad, and your willing to learn. Potential employers are saturated by applicants who have the required certs, courses etc.
 
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