Change of career (yes another 1)

DCFC79

How on earth does 1 find a career they like doing or want to do, i like to do many things but they all require qualifications which i dont have or do anything requires money. Id like to do many jobs, went to college to do a btec diploma in IT as i thought it would be interesting, once i finished the course i sent my cv off to a local firm and i thought sounds good maybe he would give me a chance. Went along to the interview/chat and he said "do you have experience of windows server 2003" i replied no as we hadnt really covered it or not in practical terms(was being honest as didnt want to end up in deep water) and the guy never got back to me and i think it was because i didnt have any experience of server 2003, the job was just fixing computers, removing viruses etc, selling computer parts in the shop etc so something i could do as id got experience of dealing with customers. Realised now that with no experience if i was to do another qualification eg microsoft it would be worth squat plus i would have wasted at least 1K.

Id thought of working for majestic as a driver but they have no vacancies at the minute. The thing is ive no idea what takes my fancy, for all i know i could start something and spend 2 years in it and be bored and want to do something else. Never knew what i wanted to do at school but i went on to do electronics and realised that was boring and i should have changed and done gnvq in IT.

teabelly

You've fallen into the experience/qualifications trap. Once you have the qualifications employers demand the experience. If you have the experience they often want the qualifications instead!

Try contacting other local firms in similar fields. Ask if you can do unpaid work experience in your spare time? Are there any voluntary organizations locally that do computer repair etc? If you can find any experience through friends or relatives you can at least say you did it.

Can you download a trial version of windows server 2003 from anywhere? You can then legitimately claim experience of it. Also check out vps web servers running on windows. If you get one of those (usually £30 a month ish) then again you can play with windows server and do things with it albeit within just a web server environment.

IT support can be boring unfortunately as quite often you'll be tackling the same issues over and over again (email doesn't work, word has crashed etc). Development might be more suitable as you are problem solving and generally you'll be writing something to do a particular thing and each project will have a different problem to solve.

If you are the kind of person that gets bored once they feel they have mastered a job then you need something in a rapidly changing environment to keep you happy.

purplerose

Well it's a case of looking at what's available to you and weighing up your likes/dislikes and the things that are important to you.

By the sound of things it doesn't seem like you pursued IT very far. Other than that one interview did you apply for any other jobs? The fact you got an interview at all was a good sign that your application was good.

A lot of people I know who work in IT might be qualified in various software packages but they also have to do a lot of learning by the book. When you were asked about Windows Server 2003 you could say "well we touched it a bit on the course but I have no real practical experience. However, I'm fast at picking up things myself. So with a training manual and a couple of days to play around with it I'm certain I could get up to speed". Or say you'd be willing to undergo further training. Don't let one knockback get you down and don't let your inability to do something be a barrier for you, offer the employer solutions as shown above.

There are also other ways to get experience, for example a lot of charities need help with their IT. Some voluntary work on your CV would show you've gone out and tried to get experience in the area and in some cases voluntary work can lead to an offer of employment. Also remember IT is a very competitive area to get into, there are lots of people out there with IT qualifications so to get the job you want you have to put a lot of effort into applying for vacancies. If you get a rejection then contact the employer to find out why that was the case then work on the reasons they give.

If IT isn't for you then as I said at the top it's about taking a load of factors into consideration. I would suggest you research the different jobs that interest you and look at the things like skills, qualities, qualifications and experiences required to get into that job and see if it suits you. There are also a lot of free job matcher programmes on the internet that ask you questions that might help narrow down the types of work that might suit you.

Lots of people don't know what they want to do when they leave school and can end up floating around for several years going from crap job to crap job. Sometimes it's just a case of picking a thing, sticking to it and doing as much as you can to continue with it or else you could end up floating about forever.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing

Oldernotwiser

Next time you're asked this sort of question, say "yes" and then do an intensive course if you're offered the job.

teabelly

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Next time you're asked this sort of question, say "yes" and then do an intensive course if you're offered the job.

And when they ask you specific questions to prove you actually have you're going to look like a right plum! Most people interviewing for IT jobs do actually have an understanding of the right answers so bluffing isn't an option. Many also involve a test of some kind so lying is a short route to the exit.

If you haven't done a certain thing at all then the most you can say is you've touched on it as suggested above but then you stress your transferable skills and how you'd overcome that lack.

DCFC79

purplerose wrote: »

Well it's a case of looking at what's available to you and weighing up your likes/dislikes and the things that are important to you.

By the sound of things it doesn't seem like you pursued IT very far. Other than that one interview did you apply for any other jobs? The fact you got an interview at all was a good sign that your application was good.

Ive had interviews for IT jobs and they could clearly see form my application i had little experience but they still interviewed me, i have built 3 computers and got them working


to teabelly yes i understand that the same questions could get asked again and again and maybe i should give up the search for IT and just concentrate on other jobs

DCFC79

teabelly wrote: »

And when they ask you specific questions to prove you actually have you're going to look like a right plum! Most people interviewing for IT jobs do actually have an understanding of the right answers so bluffing isn't an option. Many also involve a test of some kind so lying is a short route to the exit.

If you haven't done a certain thing at all then the most you can say is you've touched on it as suggested above but then you stress your transferable skills and how you'd overcome that lack.

We had touched on it at college and i explained this to the guy and said ive got limited experience of it, i was prepared to buy server 2003 if i was offered it and then do it in my own time

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Next time you're asked this sort of question, say "yes" and then do an intensive course if you're offered the job.

I wasnt expecting to be asked that question as it wasnt mentioned in the ad, i also would have shot myself in the foot if i had said yes and he asked me some questions about it as i wouldnt be able to answer them