IT work (San Antonio, Howe, Anton: house, job market, salary)

[runback22]

How is the market for IT work in San Antonio? I'm looking at a career change and have been working with computers as a hobby for years. I want to get into networking, but I dont have a degree but will be pursuing certifications. I know that with no experience it will be tough and will have to start at the bottom.

Is it feasible to expect to make around 45k after a couple of years experience?

[Penquin927]

You may want to look at USAA and see if there is anything in the Quality Assurance area available. You don't need an IT background but some helps. You would be working with projects and putting together the test cases for validation before the new features get pushed to production. Quality Assurance is a position in the IT area.

Once you are in you can purse your education and of course additional job opportunities within the company.

[majormadmax]

There are a lot of IT opportunities here, but it is also a competitive market. CISSP certification is important, the more you have the better. Experience helps but I think certification is a more important.

Try USAJobs.com for government openings in the SA area as well!

Good luck! M2

[pr57001]

The real question is not, how is the IT market in San Antonio, but how quickly can you learn to love IT to put in the 1,000s of hours (un-paid) that it takes to become proficient and stay current. Do that and you will be successful anywhere.

[bspray]

In addition to IT I would look into Telecom in general. This is a call center heavy city and experience in both computers and phone systems will be a big help when it comes time to find a job. Brush up on VPN and VOIP and starting in the mid 40s shouldn't be any problem at all.

[blizzrd]

I think it's the opposite. You have to have experience. In lieu of that you will have to have certifications.

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by blizzrd

I think it's the opposite. You have to have experience. In lieu of that you will have to have certifications.

Certification usually ensures currency.

Years of experience is not as important in the world of IT since most of it is outdated.

The technology of today is nothing like it was ten years ago...here are some factoids I found: In June 2000, 97 million mobile phone subscribers existed in the US; in June 2010, the number was 293 million. Facebook was the highest trafficked website in 2010, with 116 million subscribers. Ya know how many there were in 2000? Zero. WiFi can be found almost anywhere, I was using it in a laundromat in Minot, ND a few weeks ago. I can see six wireless networks from my house (luckily they are all secure), that wasn't common ten years ago.

Also, in 2008, another study has came to conclusion that IT professionals with CISSP (or other major security certification) tend to have salaries which are $21,000 higher than IT professionals without such certificates according to NetworkWorld.

[doss1]

Originally Posted by majormadmax

Certification usually ensures currency.

Years of experience is not as important in the world of IT since most of it is outdated.

That's a pretty good point.

Still, I would tell the OP to go after the thing that you would do for free. Do you have a dream or goal?

[CyVaquero]

I work in IT (SysAdmin) here in SA, relocated in the last year. I can't speak from first hand experience but I am surrounded by locals who have spent their careers here. They all basically say the same thing - career and competitive salary-wise there are two games in town - one is Rackspace, one of the top 10 places to work in IT. However, with that comes below market value salaries and some organizational growing pains. The other is government work, there are several avenues you can pursue there - but be forewarned, you need experience, a degree, and or certs - preferably a combination.

A couple sources told me that USAA pays below market value for IT and primarily hires military retirees who are already receiving a retirement and medical coverage which offsets the lower pay. Again, secondhand info, so I'll defer to anyone who has firsthand experience.

Personally, I have no certs, but I do have 15 years of experience. I will respectfully disagree with majormadmax on that point. Years of experience do matter - but lacking that, certs are the way to go, even with a degree. With no degree, you WILL need some certs to get your foot in the door. Although, Rackspace is known to hire people with no experience, education, or training - on attitude and aptitude alone, but your pay will definitely reflect that.

The one thing that can make you stand out is be personable - trust me some stereotypes hold true, and a personable IT guy stands out. Also, don't BS, I came out of my interview thinking I messed it up badly because there were a series of really obscure low level Linux questions I couldn't answer, only to find out that the person asking the questions didn't know most of them either before prepping for the interview, they were purely to find out if I would be honest when tasked with something I might not know how to do or if I would fake it.

As far as becoming a Network Admin - make sure it's a field that will hold your interest, besides the pay. Honestly, just the thought of chasing bits is enough to put me to sleep, but that's why I'm a SysAdmin with Dev experience. Nothing against those who love being NetAdmins, it's just not for me.

For a better idea of what the job market and salary levels look like here in SA, check out Glassdoor and Dice.

[JuanValdez]

Originally Posted by CyVaquero

A couple sources told me that USAA pays below market value for IT and primarily hires military retirees who are already receiving a retirement and medical coverage which offsets the lower pay.

This is true about every single job in San Antonio.