Should I go into Tech/IT strictly for the Money? (job interview, paycheck)

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by Robert473

I see

It should be easy right?

They are easy which is why so many people with those certs are working for Geek Squad for $15/hr. Certs that are more meaningful are Linux, especially Red Hat certified, cloud computing certifications, Cisco certs and various other vendor certs for virtual machine technology, database management etc. But those certs are not easy to get and are expensive and classes are expensive if you are going to pay on your own. But those can land close to six figure salaries in some places

You should also learn a few programming and scripting languages if you want a stable, well paying career

Also job security hardly exists in any field these days. The days of loyalty toward employees ended about 20 years ago

[Robert473]

Originally Posted by macroy

It's not what job offers that. It's what can you offer so that an employer will want to keep you around for 40 years?

In most cases - with any job or career, your longevity has more to do with what YOU can offer. And IT is tough simply because the skillsets have a very short lifespan relatively to other jobs. So you need to constantly learn new skills. "Fixing computers and talking to people" may sound easy. But how you "fix" that computer today or what you are fixing changes quickly. How much are you willing to put in to keep up?

I have good soft skills and have good google skills

What ever IT issue I don't know I could google it and learn from experience
I help my brother out at his computer repair shop and resolve basic IT issues for him

It was a fun job I was wondering if I could do something like that maybe for an office or something.

I'm not so sure with keeping up
I usually learn a lot on the job and doing it does that count?

[Robert473]

Originally Posted by haudi

Based on the original post, I welcome OP to the world of the 35k-40k a year Tier 1 Help Desk jobs where your soul will go to die. If you don't have passion for the industry that's all you'll ever be. You have to CONSTANTLY be learning and take the initiative yourself to stay on top of new tech in order to get ahead and make more than the entry level salary.

What about on the job training?

[jnojr]

Originally Posted by CtrlEsc

I would say try a truck driver job (which I enjoyed because of the travel), but I think we're about 20 years from seeing those jobs up and disappear.

I'd be surprised if there were very many drivers ten years from now. Self-driving cars are coming at an astounding rate, and trucking companies will be one of the most eager adopters.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by Robert473

I have good soft skills and have good google skills

What ever IT issue I don't know I could google it and learn from experience
I help my brother out at his computer repair shop and resolve basic IT issues for him

It was a fun job I was wondering if I could do something like that maybe for an office or something.

I'm not so sure with keeping up
I usually learn a lot on the job and doing it does that count?

This works on low level IT work, but there are a lot of sophisticated problems that you can't just "google up."

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by Robert473

What about on the job training?

Don't count on it. I work for a major fortune 500 company that has a huge annual budget for training and most of the IT guys here have not been sent to any classes in several years if ever even though they need it and request it. The fact is that most companies don't want to pay to train and definitely not pay to get certs because they are worried that you will let them pay for training and then leave to go get a higher paying job elsewhere.

[Robert473]

Originally Posted by unixfed

I've done well in the IT field. I'm not concerned about job security, and do continue to grow in my career every couple of years. That being said, I would not have had this success if I were not passionate about what I do.

Which IT path is more easy to do ?

[BigDaveyL]

Originally Posted by Robert473

What about on the job training?

Companies refuse to do "on the job" training like they use too.

[BigDaveyL]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

Don't count on it. I work for a major fortune 500 company that has a huge annual budget for training and most of the IT guys here have not been sent to any classes in several years if ever even though they need it and request it. The fact is that most companies don't want to pay to train and definitely not pay to get certs because they are worried that you will let them pay for training and then leave to go get a higher paying job elsewhere.

This.

There is a lot of not-in-my back-yard type of thinking in IT.

Many F500 (and even smaller orgs) are outsourcing all of their IT work to third party firms if their core products/services are not IT related because it is viewed as a "cost center"

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Robert473

Which IT path is more easy to do ?

Whatever it is, a hundred thousand others have gone there before you. "Demonstrating value add" and "establishing your unique value proposition" are two differentiators to think about. Easy = people with low skills or ambition, usually, thus disposable and commoditized.

I've shifted my value-add in IT a few times over the decades. If it's all going to H1B, do something those halfwits can't (pretty easy to figure out if you pay attention). Let's see if Trump scours the lot of them out of the USA next few years. If it's all being outsourced from F500 to other firms, join one of those other firms (though working for the F500s can be quite lucrative, for however long it lasts).

Better think hard about real and relevant degrees, possible graduate education, and certs that are not ghetto/retarded (in my field, PMP and Certified Scrum Master are great to haves for example. Non trivial to obtain, based on real experience and training). I chose to obtain an MBA as a differentiator and as an eventual entree to executive management, for example.

Friend of mine makes low 200s as a principal developer with 15+ years experience, but he's a one in a thousand genius I suspect. I'm doing quite well with similar experience as a principal program manager (people management, project portfolios $2-10M). I might try general management as next portion of the career, tbd.

It's a tough business. Some do well, others starve. Not sure I know the secret sauce anymore, other than being willing to move into the right market...there are at least a half-dozen or so I can think of. Seattle is one.

Probably won't be spending more than five years at any one company, though there are exceptions there too.

I'm mildly curious how to get into IT with the government, including the university systems (if that is considered government). I have some clients at a local college around here, I might ask them. Those are probably somewhat-secure positions.

Good luck with all that, it's a real research project. No one behind this keyboard is talking trash about managing a McDonald's, either, if that's the honest work you prefer. Hell, I briefly thought of buying a McDonald's as an investment six years ago, they can be gold mines.