Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't recommend IT for new people over age of 35.
Imo, over 15 years of IT experience. I don't think IT career is as good as it used to. The learning curve is too great, too much emphasis on current tech yet majority of underlying tech still depends on legacy or proven tech. Not many people have the knowledge or capacity to learn one area while keeping pace with the fast moving changes.
If you're under 30, you still have a good chance of picking things up slowly and working upwards but you'll be under-compensated due to competition from overseas immigrants, outsourcing shops, consultants, and industry experts.
Many of my former colleagues started IT while in college or out and stayed with the company for over 10-20+ years. It doesn't exist anymore as most companies' IT no longer maintain many full-time positions. Almost 1/2 of jobs are seasonal to as needed gigs.
I met a 28 year old IT worker that has already worked at dozen different places as contract worker and that's norm these days. A full-time job is severely underpaid and hard to find.
I predict in 20 yrs from now, most companies would have less than 0.3% workers that are IT as majority of services are outsourced or automated.
I don't agree. Even if outsourced someone has to be the IT guy that is doing the work. IT is a very broad field and there are always jobs out there.
With automation who do you think programs those systems? who repairs them? who installs them? IT folks
I would suggest to network. I changed from construction management to IT (help desk related) support position in 2012. It helped me get into the IT world or some would say its customer service heavy still. I would have to say it does not pay as much as construction management but its way more reliable and consistent than the former field of work.
Depending on the company, yes help desk can be very stressful. I switched to another company and they have me doing several tasks beside help desk. I'm setting up device modems that talk to the software we are supporting for ie. I'm in Tampa Florida, but I think like some other guy mentioned you will need to be willing to relocate.
Also interesting you mentioned the certs was not helping cause I was looking into that as well. I think in general the work force is complex. Yes Healthcare will always be in demand, but that is not for everyone and can burn you out as well.
Positions like IT systems admin are hard to get as there are too many candidates and not enough positions. You might try actual software development roles, as those are more heavily in demand and pretty much anyone with even basic experience and skills can get a job. I've worked with the hiring process of several companies, and it was essentially impossible to find a qualified candidate willing to work even as a junior level software developer for under $20/hr. Even when we raised the rates, most of the good candidates we interviewed would get snatched up by another company before we could hire them.
I'm trying to make a career change to working in IT and I have some questions about which jobs I would likely be able to get with which certifications without much experience. My goal is eventually at least to work as a systems administrator. I got a Master's degree related to biology and I worked a job sort of at the interface between biology and IT for 4 years, during that time I got some experience scripting and using Excel but it wasn't really a true IT job.
I lost my job four months ago, and since then I got CompTIA A+ and MTA - Server Fundamentals certifications. I started studying for the MCSA Server 2012 and I might be able to get it in 4-6 months provided I don't work during that time.
I applied to many help-desk and some technician jobs but I didn't get a response.
Please feel free to chime in if you have any advice.
Hmm, if you can find work in a company that can make good use of biology degree + software programming, databases, networking... that would make you more indispensable.
A lot of firms today do not even consider help desk part of the IT department anymore, but more like glorified customer service. You can train someone who has basic computer skills to do helpdesk since it is mostly just using the troubleshooting flowcharts.
I must really be the only one on this forum who enjoys IT support as a career.
Ill agree pay is not exactly going to make you rich but its easy money and customers are fun to talk to despite the pissed off users
OP, because, like someone else said, stuff like tech support and help desk are glorified customer service at some places...I started out in those positions without any experience or any certs. It might matter where you live, but I would look for the job ads that are seriously entry level (not entry level but wanting 2 years of experience). There are places that will hire someone with little-to-no experience. You're just probably not going to make much, which I didn't.
It was very stressful, because those 1st two jobs I got threw you into the fire and thought that was the best way to learn...on top of just how difficult it is dealing with some of the customers/clients. I did my time with that and used the experiences to move on to better jobs under the IT umbrella.
Where I live, a lot of IT jobs are filled through staffing agencies, and I got my help desk job that way. I have also had a lot of recruiters contact me for IT jobs. You might want to check some staffing agencies out.
I also want you to understand this (and it's not going to be popular, but here it is anyway)--I have been interested in IT for years, even before I enrolled in grad school in 2005 for something totally different, and I "listened" to a lot of what I read on online forums when I was choosing between my grad program and an IT program. A lot of IT people give bad career advice. Based on my experiences, past and present, I would say be careful about listening to people who try to steer you away from IT in general (not necessarily specific areas of it, but just the entire field) and listening to people who have been in the field a long time. And the reason I say that about the latter is things change, and they don't necessarily have the best sense of what has changed and how when it comes to getting that first job.
I'm not sure why there is a lot of posters saying IT is over saturated. In Atlanta it's not-- not even close. Of course you have to have the right skills but isn't that pretty common in any discipline? Anyway, if you have the right skills move to ATL lots of IT jobs here....
I'm not sure why there is a lot of posters saying IT is over saturated. In Atlanta it's not-- not even close. Of course you have to have the right skills but isn't that pretty common in any discipline? Anyway, if you have the right skills move to ATL lots of IT jobs here....
I think many of the people saying there are no IT jobs are living in small towns or rural places. Today's economy does not favor such areas anymore.
I must really be the only one on this forum who enjoys IT support as a career.
Ill agree pay is not exactly going to make you rich but its easy money and customers are fun to talk to despite the pissed off users
There is nothing wrong with making a career out of help desk of course. But it can be a dead end for those seeking higher technical roles with high pay. Keep in mind many companies have an "up or out" mentality. I would be weary to stay in an entry level position for a long time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
