Starting career in I.T

vinny_vimto

I have been with my employer over a year and have recently transferred to a new department on 1st line I.T support all basic stuff, walk in and telephone enquiries. After a few months I have realised this is the path I want to persue but more technical and in-depth. Which my company doesn't offer.

Having looked at a few job adverts and speaking to a more senior I.T guy I was looking at doing compTia A+, security+, linux+ and network+ is this a good idea and who are reputable providers, these courses don't seem to be run in colleges etc.

Or would be better off doing vmware, Cisco or a mcse or mcsa type courses?

Any help is truely appreciated, thanks in advance

WobblyDog

Have you considered getting a couple of cheap PCs at home (you'll want more than one if you're studying networking), installing some flavours of Linux, and experimenting with them. Quite often, people with an enthusiasm for technical subjects enjoy tinkering and programming at home, and it's a good way to learn.

Books are also good, and there are loads of Internet resources for learning IT skills these days. Are there any local computer groups, eg. BCS meetings that you could go along to?

If you are particularly interested in networking, you can probably get second-hand commerical-grade switches and routers on eBay to play with.

I'd recommend trying to learn as much as possible at home, because commercial courses can be very expensive.

vinny_vimto

I have and do tinker with upgrading components replacing hard drives, data back ups upgrading graphics cards for friends and setting up home networks etc I was also considering learning java or c++ at home in spare time and setting up gaming pc's to sell and make a little extra income.

Where I am now I only earn 16K p.a and am looking at jobs around 21K p.a in this area and they seem to ask for comptia or other similar qualifications.

Some college courses take twice as long and arent as well respected, the ones with any weight cost an absolute fortune. With possibly 45 years left of my career I dont mind putting in the hard work now for the next few years if it sets me and my family up for the next 40.

Sanne

All Comptia qualifications can be studied for at home, using books and/or and potentially virtual machines.

For Microsoft qualifications, it's much, much more important to have actual practical experience to pass the exams - this can be obtained using VMs as well but will take much more practice.

The most important difference is that the Comptia ones are vendor neutral while the MS ones are... well - quite obviously limited to MS!

Generally, experience is considered more highly than certificates, though they can be important in conjunction with this experience. (Or, the MS ones, for companies who need certified staff to maintain their MS Partner status).

Career-wise, you could try to start at the bottom of an IT Services provider where it's usually possible to gain experience quickly and get promotions within.
Or you could move to a 1st line position in a larger company where it's also possible to move up the chain.

It also really depends what area you want to work in - VMWare courses are useful and good but I wouldn't let anyone without any actual practical (commercial) experience touch my VMWare infrastructure. So I think the key is to get a job where you can develop your skills in addition to learning stuff at home to develop quicker.

szam_

You'll learn a lot more doing things for yourself than reading from books, but by all means, qualifications are a good gateway to the job. (Personally, I don't have any IT qualifications but progressing nicely in the industry).

More importantly, you'll learn more than you ever will on any course or at home when you have to apply your knowledge in the workplace.

PasturesNew

If I were you I'd be a bit more patient and see where the current job goes.... one thing about any courses is that when you do the course you MUST be able to immediately apply the skill in the workplace else you've spent money to learn something you can never use and then it'll be outdated before you know it. Employers don't want people with the bits of paper, they want people that have the bits of paper AND the experience to run/maintain systems that use those technologies etc.

Just take on more responsibility in your current job and privately practice/learn what you can at home around specific skillsets.

e.g. want to learn how to build/repair PCs? Buy/get a couple of old PCs from ebay or charity shops and fiddle.

e.g. want to learn networking - cobble together some PCs and learn/fiddle yourself.

Then you'll stat to use your gained knowledge in your day job and people will start to get you to fix/resolve those problems ... and you will get to be seen as the "able" person. Then something will happen .... and you'll be included in the team that are doing something a little different (e.g. a project to rewire a new building, or strip out equipment/servers at weekends)... you'll start by being mainly manual labour on those jobs, given specific instructions to follow ..... and knowledge/experience/exposure grows until one day you're the one writing the instructions, or you're the one moved to a desk where 2nd fix gets passed to.

googler

If you want to stay with the same employer, you need to find out what skills are in demand there or are expected to be in demand in the future.

If you're doing this with the aim of moving elsewhere, you need to figure out more precisely what you want to do. Programming/coding, web development, network admin/maintenance/optimisation, database admin/development, etc etc

vinny_vimto

Thanks for all your replys

I dont mind having to change employer even though where I currently am have an excellent reputation it's just there is no opportunity for progression in an I.T capacity unless I move to London and the competition level is exceptionally high i.e bare minimum is Masters and cisco/microsoft certs + 5/10 years experience.

I was 'poached' from my previous department and given a 20% pay rise so thought I would be valued and I have broached the subject of expanding our services so I could gain the experience along with the certs but was shot down almost immediately as we tend to outsource and use alot of contractors with the really technical things so think I would have to change employer.

I have little experience and no qualifications in the areas I want to get into I thought if I atleast had the certs and knowledge build on that. Its tough though

Icematikx

vinny_vimto wrote: »

Thanks for all your replys

I dont mind having to change employer even though where I currently am have an excellent reputation it's just there is no opportunity for progression in an I.T capacity unless I move to London and the competition level is exceptionally high i.e bare minimum is Masters and cisco/microsoft certs + 5/10 years experience.

I was 'poached' from my previous department and given a 20% pay rise so thought I would be valued and I have broached the subject of expanding our services so I could gain the experience along with the certs but was shot down almost immediately as we tend to outsource and use alot of contractors with the really technical things so think I would have to change employer.

I have little experience and no qualifications in the areas I want to get into I thought if I atleast had the certs and knowledge build on that. Its tough though

I'm all self-taught. I think if you have a natural passion for IT, you can teach yourself quite easily. The qualifications just provide you with formal acknowledgement that you actually know your stuff.

I'd tinker at home and self-teach yourself using online resources. Perhaps take a part-time open Uni degree to get you the quals you need.

LeafGreen

I agree with the teach-yourself idea, it can even be done at very low cost. You will soon find out whether you have the flair.

Some disciplines will be better suited than others - e.g. web development, you could build your own websites, with e-commerce functionality, maybe back-end databases etc etc.

I got my job as a trainee (no exp. or quals) from an internal advert at a large company, I had been in customer services. Not the kind of thing you can learn at home though, I suspect opportunities like that are rare nowadays.

poet123

Programming is a field that is easy to progress in if you have the passion and aptitude for it. There are quite a lot of jobs out there for good people.