Employment!

[huggybeer]

Hi guys, Im just looking for tips on how best to get into the this wild and wonderfull industry (IT) I have preetty good knowledge of programs and have made many of my own PCs and am often helping ppl with theirs. Dont get me wrong Im no 'guru' but am keen to learn and want to persue a career in an job im interested in.
Where shall i start? I have qualifications in design and tech along wqith mussic tech but nothing IT as yet, is computeach a good idea? Im in uk btw.

Any comments good or bad will be taken onboard.

cheers

[PrntRhd]

Should be in Certification, Technical Careers and Study programs.

[Erik]

I would think it would be hard to get into IT without any experience, degrees, or certifications. I am working toward a BS in computer science, and planning to take the CCNA soon after I graduate. Most job listings for IT that I have looked at require certification, a degree, and experience in the field. Making things even harder for someone in your position would be many people having degrees in IT fields, and various certifications (at least in the US). Employers have a choice in who to hire, and will choose the most overly qualified person for the job.

There is another post about how it is sort of a catch 22 to get into the field, as just about everyone wants experience.

[Dangerous]

Hi Huggy,

If you are prepared to start at the bottom then you shouldn't have a problem finding a job. I don't personally know about the computeach certification, but I should think any kind of industry certification would put you in good stead.

Your first job when trying to break into IT is going to be helpdesk. There are many companies that have helpdesks with positions for people to simply field the calls to the correct helpdesk person. This gets you "in" and then you will very soon be assisting some of those calls if you have the knowledge (most jobs like this would actually require you to start taking calls after a month or so). This is not mere postulation, I have a friend who worked at the company I work at, he was call centre rep, taking sales calls... he know works in the city doing 1st line helpdesk support and fielding calls he can't deal with to the relevant person - he had absolutely NO experience and actually didn't really know anything about IT. You just need to convince the interviewers!

Of course you aren't going to get a superb IT job, and nobody is going to pay you £50k from the start, but if you truly want to break in and don't mind earning pretty bad money to begin with, there ARE always options.

DDdd!!!

(Of course, I'm assuming from your post you are talking about systems support and analysis as a starting point, rather than application development or something similar!?)