Entry into I.T??

alisonmeyers

well i don't work in a consultancy myself, as i said my own exposure is through my brother - but since he works on the basis that he doesn't hire business graduates in his company, maybe it's something to do with size, client type and location then. his is a small company (18 / 19 employees in total) on the outskirts of london dealing with large national brands i.e. from what he says he has to fight tooth and nail to be considered for their contracts due to size, which is a much tinier scale than an organisation of 7000 - in that case, i hope an org such as yours may have a role for the OP

[Deleted User]

alisonmeyers wrote: »

well i don't work in a consultancy myself, as i said my own exposure is through my brother - but since he works on the basis that he doesn't hire business graduates in his company, maybe it's something to do with size, client type and location then. his is a small company (18 / 19 employees in total) on the outskirts of london dealing with large national brands i.e. from what he says he has to fight tooth and nail to be considered for their contracts due to size, which is a much tinier scale than an organisation of 7000 - in that case, i hope an org such as yours may have a role for the OP

I wouldn't expect a small consultancy to hire grads either

myright

A BIG THANK YOU to ALL that have contributed.

Does anybody know where I can acquire some study material for the ITIL exam. I want to start to study now. anything specific i.e links, books will be GREATLY apreciated.

Thanks again

directdebiter

Do the course yes this will be a massive help - however if you have no real work experience I would suggest
1) doing some voluntary work in an IT environment (even at a college or care home etc) - so you have something on your CV
2) demonstrate that you have an interest at home i.e. you have built a Linux enviornment, you troublehsoot for friends/family etc

This is very important alongside any qualifications

directdebiter

You can look up Google for ITIL courses and info. I havent done it myself.
The following sites are also very relevant for support jobs with a really big selection of relevant 1st line jobs

IT Support Jobs
IT jobs

Hope this helps

myright

Thanks for that mate,

Do you know any specific sites that would be helpful for me? with all the info I need?

I will deffo try to get some experience at some place.

bluesnake

Sorry I disagree with some of the post here.

I doubt very much and ITIL exam with no prior IT exposure is of any value, unless you are the exam company.

ITIL is a non prescriptive, and suggests best practice working methodology. I have a fair idea how a heart works, but you would not want me to be your surgeon, or employ me to operate! Same with ITIL.

You will get more (not by much though) learning word and excel. For a techies noob, a+, or a techie course is they way to go, and ITIL is the second exam you need once you have a good techie grasp.

I also am in the IT business, so know, and work with people 10-20 years in the IT trade currently earning £12 an hour. Others are on £500 a day. The most expensive was on £1000 but only hired for 5 days.

myright, do not be swayed by the high £ from what ringo_24601 and others said. Had some dealings on this board with ringo_24601 over the years and he is a smart, knowledgeable and well qualified person whom also knows quite a bit about databases, plus he worked in a niche market (probably still does) that offered opportunities (skill enhancing), and for a good few years too.

myright, you will probably be employed around the lower end of the market and that area is fairly swamped. Even the top end is crowded at the moment.

Long term, overseas outsourcing and cloud seem the way things are going. Some support companies used by large companies are in India and are cheaper and send staff from there to here for 6 months or a year. Chinese will be cheaper still, but language is currently their problem.

On the brighter side, this is about the best time of year for being a contractor - filling in for staff on a/l and start of the financial year.

[Deleted User]

bluesnake - you forgot 'dashing' also. Saying I'm well qualified is nice, i got a 2:2 which i had to do a MSc to make people forget about. My last IT qualification was GCSE information systems.. I agree, my area is quite niche (however, its got a lot of transferable aspects to it), and it's done me ok. However, my firm does pay below market rates (and its why i start my new job elsewhere in a few weeks). Yes, i could do contracting work but it would kill any idea I have of having a 'career'.

myright - lets start doing this right; what area of the country are you looking for work in, and what degree class did you get? In a way, i'm trying to steer you away from support work - because my main experience with people in support teams is that it's where the people who couldn't get into the 'proper' teams go. Once anyone got good in their job in support in my firm, they quickly tried to move out (since it can be a bit soul destroying).

The sort of jobs i guess i envision you going for are something like this - http://ww2.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Graduate_jobs/Atos_Origin/Graduate_Programme/p!edcaefX?id=SUBONAT-13012011-VACY-26978&filter=sector%2F7876&filter=entry_type%2FAll_vacancies&action=showvacancydetails&2waynocompress=1&keyword=&type=Immediate+vacancy&from=P

Do you have much IT experience already? Ever done any programming? Know how to install an operating system? Ever used a command line?

The best IT training I ever got was how to touch-type at secondary school

raukousshaun

Hi

I work in ITIL for an IT company (Change & Release Management, but have also done Incident, Problem and SLM in the past).

If you're looking at going in at the Service Desk I think understanding what ITIL is, is all you need to know at this stage, it's a desireable but not essential to get the job. However if you did become ITIL certified with no IT experience it would look abit daft! ITIL is a best practise it's not an exact science, it's how you use and implement it in your work which makes ITIL work, so having the experience to back it up is very important.

At this stage if I were you I would get my foot through the door and then take advantage of the company paying for your training, although i don't know anyone from a service desk going down the formal ITIL qualifications route because the job tends to have alot of staff, sometimes high turnover or people move onto other roles quite quickly if they are keen to progress upwards. ITIL is all about process, you don't have to be a techy to get it, there are other courses which are very technical but it all depends on what side of the fence in IT you want to sit on.

Look out for new vacancies and jump up the ladder when you find an opportunity, if you are working on a service desk you will be in constant contact with different ITIL areas across the company it will help you to get to grips with how it all works and open new doors.

ITIL courses are around £1200 a time to do, I did all mine in classes through work.

Although the ITIL Foundation the exam is multiple choice questions you really need to understand the relationships between all the different discaplines in ITIL and I can't see how you can get that from a book, as soon as you move upto practitioner level you specialise, you definately need to be working in the job or a job that works with it, you can't become a specialist in something you don't work in.

Good luck!

LemJell

I wouldn't bother buying a course and would recommend The CompTIA A+ as an entry level cert if you already know a bit of IT- I brought the CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide off Amazon just to brush up on stuff and brought the exam for about £100. Passed that and the Network+ exams without paying a fortune.