Any IT Guys Here? Trying to Get Into the IT World - Advice / Suggestions / Stories?

[97BlackAckCL]

Best advice that I can give you in this day and age is that experience goes way farther than certifications. Certs are always changing, and are never that impressive to hiring managers. I have been working full time in IT since I was in HS and have a dual bachelors, but my experience is what has gotten me every job and countless 20K+ pay jumps every time I switched jobs. Employers like to see experience and knowledge applicable to their environments.

 

[4Surfin]

My advise.... screw IT get into IA. I did IT for 15 yers after the Marine Corps and made the leap to the security side 2 years ago... best decision ever! no more whiney ass users, I get to bust pedos! and it pays WAAAAY more!

with that said a solid foundation in IT is needed for IA. Screw MS certs get the Comptia fruit salad. A+ NET+ SEC+ and then crack open the Shon Harris bible and get your CISSP.... that should get you started

 

[junaitari]

Mainly just being sarcastic. IT has definitely taken years off my life, I won't lie about that. Like others said, be prepared to sacrifice nights and weekends for the betterment of the company. Overall I do enjoy my career path, however, computers used to be my passion and hobby, and that has long since gone by the wayside. I have spent so many countless nights and weekends working on computers that I no longer enjoy it. I do like my career, and I have been extremely successful and make way more than any of my friends, however if I could find a job that paid as well or better and didn't involve IT, I would definitely think about jumping to it, it's a tough business.

I'm right there with you. Don't forget vacations! I can't even take a vacation without being bothered. I would love to change my career path.

 

[jonesmw10]

Mainly just being sarcastic. IT has definitely taken years off my life, I won't lie about that. Like others said, be prepared to sacrifice nights and weekends for the betterment of the company. Overall I do enjoy my career path, however, computers used to be my passion and hobby, and that has long since gone by the wayside. I have spent so many countless nights and weekends working on computers that I no longer enjoy it. I do like my career, and I have been extremely successful and make way more than any of my friends, however if I could find a job that paid as well or better and didn't involve IT, I would definitely think about jumping to it, it's a tough business.

This x3. There is nothing worse than getting home and the girlfriend asking me something about her computer.

"I just dealt with idiots for 8 hours.. really?"

But in all seriousness, it's a great field to get into if you have the motivation. Motivation is key because if you aren't willing to learn, you aren't going anywhere. But, it seems you certainly do have the motivation.

 

[DannyLlama]

[MENTION=106787]Koko4[/MENTION] IT is a broad field, it's like someone saying should i get into finance.
I realize that you have certification in mind and a set path, but I would explore different parts of IT, project management, training, application support are very hot right now and with your back ground a lot of that is up your alley.

Creative writing can be a big plus if you are helping write training material/train. Also helpful with project management.

Health care is on of the largest fields that vastly utilizes IT resources, from security/networks to project management and application support. I know this because I work at a hospital and I do Application support and Project management and work very closely with the infrastructure team (Servers, network, security) Etc..

You have to think growth and what do you want to do 10 years from now. If you like fixing and fiddling with computers, you might end up being a manager or a supervisor. If computers are not really you big thing and you are just looking for a profitable career, think health care IT.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records) is huge right now, and while it's not as hot as it was 5 years ago, it's still in large demand.
The good: There isn't formal training or prerequisites to support an EMR.
The bad: You have to find a place that will hire you without formal training.

Application support and EMR support in most hospital can consist of teams up 200 people, where as a network team consists of 5-10. So you would have more opportunity there. However, usually they prefer to hire people that have had previous clinical experience, though you still stand a chance.

If you would like to have a more detailed conversation about the EMR and Health Care field, PM me your number and we can ask more questions.

Just remember, don't limit yourself to pure technical paths, there's a lot that goes into bringing up networks and servers than just techs and analysts.

For kicks, go on monster and look up job keywords like "Epic trainer" "epic support" "allscripts trainer" "allscripts support" "cerner trainier" "cerner support" There's a ton of those jobs out there, you just have to be willing to travel for some.

Good luck!

 

[li_runner]

I figure I will add more pointed advice, vs war stories. Everyone who works in IT has a deep bag to choose from in that regard. You are going to have to prove yourself to a hiring manager because you have no technogy background. Personally I choose those to hire that I don't have to spend my limited free time training so you will need to be able to explain your skills well in an interview. You will need get across that you want to hit the ground running because you really want to get into the field.

With this like said Comp Tia fruit salad. The tests are cheap and you can get past all of them quickly. The key thing is get into something in technology. Take any job that leads to where you want to go, it is expected that you will move around IT guys jump jobs and it is normal.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

I'm right there with you. Don't forget vacations! I can't even take a vacation without being bothered. I would love to change my career path.

At my last job, a coworker/friend of mine got married, and our manager told him that he was expected to take his cell phone and laptop on his honeymoon in case he was needed. My friend responded, I'm going to be on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, and the manager's response was "they have cell service and wifi on those ships now." My buddy just laughed at him, and left his phone/laptop at home powered off in a drawer. But sadly that is the expectation. I can't remember a day off where I didn't at least glance at my work phone to check emails

 

[BrianSD_42]

My advice ... Get a job working for a technology vendor.

First you will likely have to work on the customer side but after a few years, 5 max try to switch over to a technology vendor (pretty much any company that sells IT technology or services).

I say this because at a vendor you are in IT, you learn the technology, you have customers instead of being the customer and on top of that the hours are generally better since you are not responsible for keeping up the actual equipment.

 

[broncosi]

But sadly that is the expectation.

This is true. One of my bosses is taking two weeks to hike with his wife and he told our particular team (smaller than all of IT) that he was turning his email off (secretly).

 

[junaitari]

At my last job, a coworker/friend of mine got married, and our manager told him that he was expected to take his cell phone and laptop on his honeymoon in case he was needed. My friend responded, I'm going to be on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, and the manager's response was "they have cell service and wifi on those ships now." My buddy just laughed at him, and left his phone/laptop at home powered off in a drawer. But sadly that is the expectation. I can't remember a day off where I didn't at least glance at my work phone to check emails

Sounds about right. Even though our office is closed on holidays, my employer called me on Thanksgiving day for support with his personal computer. I spent half the day working on his problem.

In fact, I am changing my advice. Run away, OP, run away!

 

[BrianSD_42]

Wouldn't it be nice if people in IT got overtime?

Well maybe now you will.....

Obama to Expand Overtime Pay to Nearly 5 Million Workers - NBC News

 

[Net4n6]

Wouldn't it be nice if people in IT got overtime?

I would be a millionaire and retired by now.

 

[DannyLlama]

Wouldn't it be nice if people in IT got overtime?

Well maybe now you will.....

Obama to Expand Overtime Pay to Nearly 5 Million Workers - NBC News

Interesting, my on call alone would be so much more tolerable if my company adopted this change.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

I would be a millionaire and retired by now.

:iagree:

 

[Koko4]

Definitely lots of great responses here. You've got me questioning my reasoning, here. My motivations for this path would be: it is a stable career path, many opportunities for growth; it's in-demand and I could get a job basically anywhere; and the pay is good. I don't have a burning desire to be around computers all day.

I actually prefer working with my hands, although I have quickly come to realize that in the more blue-collar professions, it's easy to either: become location dependent (making awesome money, but stuck living in Louisiana, for example), top out quickly (make good money, but stuck doing the exact same thing with no real vertical or horizontal movement).

I don't know. I'm at a rut in my life, since I feel like I should have it all figured out by now. I'm 27, and sort of fell into the job I currently have about two years ago. It's not horrible (by any means), BUT it requires that I travel two weeks out of every month, which has grown old.

I'm not sure why I majored in what I did (creative writing and Spanish). I think the idea at the time was that I didn't want to get pigeon-holed into one specific path for the rest of my life (I wanted to be flexible). I think it actually had the opposite effect, so-to-speak.

I don't want to have to be on call 24/7. THAT would irritate the crap out of me. I want to leave work at work, and be able to spend family time with family, and take vacations without even pondering the slightest bit about work.

I wish we Americans shared the European model of vacation-time and basically had the entire month of September to frolic around Europe! Am I just pipe-dreaming here?

I've kind of fallen off of the studying bandwagon, as of late. After a day of work, the LAST thing I want to do is continue studying my A+ certs, especially when the topic I've been stuck in the middle of for the past weeks is "partitioning hard drives". :sleepy:

I just wonder if I'm going down this path for all of the wrong reasons, and if there really is something out there that I could wake up every day, jump out of bed, and be super-excited to start doing.

FWIW, I spend WAY too much time reading about Toyotas / Hondas / Jeeps, and fiddling with them, than I do doing much else.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Well for one thing you should probably think of an A+ as like 05% of 100% IT knowledge. I'm not trying to be insulting but many high school kids who are computer geeks have A+ level knowledge without ever taking the cert.

IT is a giant stack of knowledge and A+ is only the beginning. Frankly I kind of sympathize with you because that entry level stuff would be boring. I think once you get past it you will find things more exciting.

You will have to study though ... Even I am studying and I'm in the middle of a career.

One bit if advice I would say is STAY AWAY from for profit IT schools. Do you know the diff between FOR-PROFIT (Kaplan, Phoenix, ITT Tech, Devry) and NON-profit Harvard, USC and public non profit such as Community college and state college?

Public non-profits are usually NOT a scam and unlike the for-profit schools they DON'T pay recruiters a COMMISSION for recruiting you. Don't go to a for-profit IT school. They often lie. Even if you meet a nice recruiter who seems legit, remember he is being PAID to recruit you. These schools target those who are lost and looking for a path, those who need to hear their dreams will be answered if they just enroll in this one (very expensive) program.

Many people don't know that these local public schools, even at the community level offer IT classes.

Have you considered project management? Maybe you just aren't meant to be technical.

 

[PhdNPrerunners]

Im really glad I found this thread. I too am looking to get into the IT industry. One of my friends told me that I should start getting Cisco certifications like the CCNA right away that way I can get a decent paying job, would you guys agree with his advice? Also degree field would you recommend, Computer Science or Computer Information Systems?

 

[Koko4]

Well for one thing you should probably think of an A+ as like 05% of 100% IT knowledge. I'm not trying to be insulting but many high school kids who are computer geeks have A+ level knowledge without ever taking the cert.

IT is a giant stack of knowledge and A+ is only the beginning. Frankly I kind of sympathize with you because that entry level stuff would be boring. I think once you get past it you will find things more exciting.

I sympathize with you there - the thing is that I don't have MUCH of an IT background, per-se, so I wanted to get the core, foundational knowledge and I figured it would help me understand the more complex subjects when they arise.

I wasn't planning on going back to school, moreso getting the A+ degree, trying to get a low-paying (beginner) job, and work my way up from there.

Or I am still toying with the idea of getting something more hands-on, per the multiple multiple good suggestions on my other "Career Choices" thread that I made.

I don't know if I should give up or follow the old notion of "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life".

 

[DirtDobber]

I've been in IT for about 17 years now. I started in network and server administration. Then went into legacy phone systems and then VOIP telephony. Drove a new luxury car with a higher payment and thought that was cool. I found that I was at work all the time making updates and changes after business hours and was then also there for support during business hours. Sure money was great, but had no time to spend it or be with my family. Then I decided to become a PC Tech 10 years ago. I've been with the same company since. Get there at 8 leave at 5 mon-fri. Eat dinner with my wife and kids every night, help with homework etc. yeah I took a paycut so I don't drive a new luxury car now, which was actually in the shop more than I got to drive it. During this last 10 year I have read and practiced Dave Ramsey and we are actually much better off now than when I was making more in IT admin jobs. However, before I ever got into IT I was working on cars and to this day I do still miss doing that, but I use my skills to do my own auto maint.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Im really glad I found this thread. I too am looking to get into the IT industry. One of my friends told me that I should start getting Cisco certifications like the CCNA right away that way I can get a decent paying job, would you guys agree with his advice? Also degree field would you recommend, Computer Science or Computer Information Systems?

CCNA's are only good if you're looking to get into the networking/security side of things, otherwise they're useless.

I majored in Information Technology and Business Administration (double major) Honestly, Comp Science is more math, and is rather outdated these days. An IT or CIS degree is more current with the times honestly.