Change of career to IT

inmypocketnottheirs

Jowo wrote: »

Not everyone can be a software engineer! It requires a particular aptitude. I was mad keen to be a programmer but was completely and utterly and abysmally useless at it.

Yes absolutely. Very specific skill set, and still very much in demand.

Only mentioned it as the OP stated he was considering programming.

Nixer

I'm a computer programmer and I got into it by doing what was called at the time, a Masters conversion course - it was a Masters aimed at graduates who had little or no IT experience. If you don't have a degree you could consider a degree or HND (they might not still be called that) in computer science.

One thing you could try out fairly easily is trying to teach yourself HTML and a bit of javascript - it's how I started. You'd just need notepad and a web browser to do that. If you enjoy that then you might find that you'd like programming. There are probably a few tech magazines that you could read that might help you decide if you are interested (I can't tell you any as I can't face reading about tech despite working in it).

I'd say that to do programming you actually need quite a varied skill set but there are niches you can fit into. For example, I do analysis, writing documentation, liaising with customers, the odd bit of project management as well as actual coding and problem solving. Some of my fellow developers are far better at coding than I, but you'd never put them anywhere near a customer and their written communication is too bad to do documentation (most devs hate doing it anyway, I quite like it). I am completely rubbish at testing but some developers are good at it. I think the one thing we're all pretty good at is thinking on our feet though.

shagster330

Firstly thank you for all the replies. Very informative and helpful

Unfortunately I do not have a degree

Jowo - I am currently in financial services, not the best market to be in at the moment.

I think I will try a local college for some evening courses. Hopefully that will give me a flavour for the different types of jobs within the industry and help me pick a career path.

The reason for choosing IT is that it is something I have always been interested in (I wish I had trained up years ago). I also believe it is a secure field to move into as there will always be a demand

I guess my IT skills at teh moment are limited to microspft packages and bespoke software packages. Having said that I would say I have better knowledge of the overall windows systems than most people I have ever worked with

KrazyKeeper

I too am looking to get a job in IT my the only qualifications I have in IT are GNVQ and A level which don't really seem to get me anywhere, I am doing a degree with the open university (
http://www.open.ac.uk) which you can get a grant for depending on your income level etc.. but this will take a long time to complete because its only part-time.

I want to be a programmer too, I actually already see myself as a programmer but nobody pays me for it yet, suppose I'm just a hobbyist then!! agree with Nixer start by doing HTML/JavaScript to see if you like doing it.

http://www.w3schools.com is good for HTML

thriftytracey

If you work in financial services have you thought about trying to get a job as a support analyst on a helpdesk (preferably for a financial services based software house). Our company encourage applications from people with a financial services background and you do not need to have a lot of technical college to start on our Support helpdesk. Once there you can build up your IT knowledge and if it is a good software house there will be opportunities to move into other departments. I started out that route and now I am a QA Analyst working with developers and my employer paid for my ISEB courses and examinations. I got interested in databases and have taught myself SQL and QA jobs can be interesting - although some aspects can be boring like writing test scripts for example! Or other colleagues from the Support desk have moved into in-house tech support.

dispossessed

Have you considered Network Engineering ?

Much software development can be outsourced to countries where labour costs are lower. To an extent the same can be applied to "Help Desks" etc

However, at the end of the day, someone has to attend on site in order to set up / upgrade / reconfigure the network and well as to plug the network cables back in when the cleaner (accidently) pulls them out.

Just a thought.

Trevor