Change of career into IT

tacpot12

Did a degree in Computing with Mathematics at Uni. 
IT jobs in Software Development, IT Support (3rd line), IT Infrastructure, and IT Project Management.
Moved into Business Project Management in Banking/Insurance.

tripled

My route into IT was working part time for free for a local IT firm, making tea, getting the bacon butties, helping with some of the more basic networking and development tasks. I had two other part-time jobs to pay the bills (organic veg box delivery and bar work). After 6 months I got offered a full-time permanent role as a junior web developer on slightly more than minimum wage. 12 months later the company went bust in the credit crunch and resulting recession, and I ended up having to move to Cardiff to get a job with a start-up comparison site fronted by a mustachioed opera singer and started an OU degree in Computing on the side. These days I am a contract developer, and am one of the fortunate ones who have work at the moment.

IT is a growth industry and will be for the forseeable future so there are always opportunities, however, some times are easier that others to get into it. In a recession is not usually one of the easier times, certainly contract availability and rates are down, while there are are still plenty of perm vacancies around, there are also lots of people available to fill the better roles at the moment. I don't know your age but it's worth being aware there are not many permie IT professionals over 40, most end up in management or contracting, although some contractors are trying to get back into perm work at the moment due to the recession and the upcoming tax law changes supressing demand.

Devops is a continuous-improvement culture with a focus on rapid, reliable, software feedback and release cycles supported by automation. A devops engineer is generally used as a trendy term for a release pipeline and infrastructure engineer, and these are particularly in demand. There are two main platforms being used these days - AWS and Microsoft Azure. To go down that route you will want a good understanding of basic networking, some good scripting skills (python and bash, also Powershell if you go the Azure route), to get really familiar with the basic services on one of those two platforms, and learn the basic of automated release pipelines. Docker, Kubernetes (often shortened to K8's) and/or Terraform are also good things to learn. If you fancy some bedtime reading, take a look at The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, which are novels around DevOps culture.

It may take a while, particularly at the moment, but if you keep learning and keep applying for junior roles, you should get a break at some point, just be prepared for the fact that unless you get lucky, it could take a while and you will be knocked back or ignored many times along the way. Some companies still demand degrees, but the majority do not.