Entering the IT field (school, graduates, career, healthcare)

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by NeilVA

formercalifornian,



And here I thought I was the only one getting those 0200 pages. Does he scratch his head at 0210 stating " Its in the on-line manual, how hard would it have been for them just to look it up". But I guess since we have it all memorized, we can answer and resolve the problem quicker than it takes for them to look it up and follow the step by step instructions. Also when he does his writings does have to make a special edition just for India in British English (rather than American for everyone else)?

Answers:

#1: More times than he'd like to admit.
#2: No, he presents his assessments in Shakespearean English (i.e., American). Interestingly, though, he spent several years of his childhood living in England, so he can swing either way when required, and, in fact, his primary contact with his biggest client is British.

[Pruzhany]

More times than he'd like to admit.

And when he goes on an overseas flight say "Finally, a quiet nights sleep". Does he read Dilbert and smile? - What people really don't know about being in IT.

Its bad when we get a power outtage, I consider it a good thing.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by NeilVA

Its bad when we get a power outtage, I consider it a good thing.

He would agree, but the repercussions typically last longer than the outage, so be careful what you wish for.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by wanderlust76

I would prefer working with networks, routers, or databases I'm not really interested in software development or sales.

Perhaps look into VOIP as well.... It is a rapidly growing branch of IT and there's a cross-over into telephone communications, obviously, which you can be retro-trained on older systems if need be....

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by wanderlust76

This field has always been a bit of a mystery to me back in the 90's it was common for guys with just a 2 year degree from a technical school and maybe one certification to get a good paying job at some Fortune 500 company. What is the best way to enter the field now though in 2010? It seems like noone has a clear cut answer to this question and you will get a lot of different opinions. The IT field seems more complex than let's say healthcare, in healthcare if you want to become a nurse there is a clear cut career path and it's really obvious. If you want to enter the IT field what is better a technical college or a regular university? How many certifications should you get and are they more important than a regular college degree? What is better technical college and certifications or a 4 year degree from let's say a public 4 year school w/ certifications?

Just a clarification on your ideas about nursing: there are several routes to the RN license; you can get one by taking an AAS course or a BSN course. You can also do direct entry with an MSN under certain circumstances. Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

Originally Posted by wanderlust76

Ahhh thanks for the tips I will consider all that and look into it..I'm in my early 30's so I could swing a 2 year degree and certifications but probably not a 4 year degree and certifications by the time I'm 37. I do have a 2 year CC like 5 minutes from my house that offers a few IT programs so that's a possibility for me. It's a regular school not a technical school.

Make sure you are taking courses that are transferable to a BS program. The advisors at the CC can help you with that; you don't have to know it all.

[KC6ZLV]

There is no correct answer to the OP's question.

I originally landed employment because I was one of those kids who built a crystal radio, then later an FM stereo receiver, generally tinkered with electronics and computers way back in the 80's. By the late 90's there weren't enough of us. I started out with a part-time job answering tech-support questions by email for an ISP in Bakersfield (I was living in Fresno at the time). I then went started doing weekend work installing computers, wiring, whatever needed to be done, in various cities throughout Northern California, and was paid $25-30 an hour to do it. I got tired of all the driving, then worked for a small ISP in Sacramento, then a very large ISP. I didn't have any certifications up til this point and it didn't matter. The ISP outsourced most of their work and fired everyone else locally, then rehired other people to pay people less without benefits. I looked around for about 6 months, no really serious job offers. I got an A+ certification, then the job offers came in, but they weren't that great. I took some temporary work with various rates of pay, some paid good, others not so good. I finally was hired by a company which did computer and printer repair. Pay and benefits were fair, the company was excellent though. Unfortunately, the changing market eliminated my job, and I think it will ultimately force that company to go out of business. It isn't a matter of doing good work anymore. Like many things in this country, it is about doing the absolute minimum to get by. Doing anything more costs a little more, and that isn't how bean-counters think. I added the latter information just to stress how difficult it has become in that field.

But, if you are interested in it, get at least a few certifications, take the crappy jobs upgrading computers in the middle of the night, and eventually you will find your way into something. This will give you the opportunity to meet other people, exchange phone numbers, find other temporary jobs, and if one of these people finds a permanent job where there are several opening they may inform you of it. Just be aware that if you want a good wage that one day you are going to come to the realization that there are a lot of brainless wonders willing to do $20 an hour work for $10 an hour because, well, I guess they live with their parents.

[StinaTado]

My brother got into IT by doing his bachelors in CS. He worked for the schools IT support department all four years and builds his own computers and creates his own games to practice his skills. He's landed a cushy job as a network specialist at a college and keeps working on getting new certifications.

My old roommate was a bit of a tech head and dropped out of college for CS after a year. He got a job in a call center for (I think) Cisco in the UK and kept studying and prepping himself to get the next level of certification and getting promoted internally because of it. He's getting ready to buy a house at 23.

Those are two ways to do it, but both of them require constant learning and getting certified in new areas.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by KC6ZLV

There is no correct answer to the OP's question.

I originally landed employment because I was one of those kids who built a crystal radio, then later an FM stereo receiver, generally tinkered with electronics and computers way back in the 80's. By the late 90's there weren't enough of us. I started out with a part-time job answering tech-support questions by email for an ISP in Bakersfield (I was living in Fresno at the time). I then went started doing weekend work installing computers, wiring, whatever needed to be done, in various cities throughout Northern California, and was paid $25-30 an hour to do it. I got tired of all the driving, then worked for a small ISP in Sacramento, then a very large ISP. I didn't have any certifications up til this point and it didn't matter. The ISP outsourced most of their work and fired everyone else locally, then rehired other people to pay people less without benefits. I looked around for about 6 months, no really serious job offers. I got an A+ certification, then the job offers came in, but they weren't that great. I took some temporary work with various rates of pay, some paid good, others not so good. I finally was hired by a company which did computer and printer repair. Pay and benefits were fair, the company was excellent though. Unfortunately, the changing market eliminated my job, and I think it will ultimately force that company to go out of business. It isn't a matter of doing good work anymore. Like many things in this country, it is about doing the absolute minimum to get by. Doing anything more costs a little more, and that isn't how bean-counters think. I added the latter information just to stress how difficult it has become in that field.

But, if you are interested in it, get at least a few certifications, take the crappy jobs upgrading computers in the middle of the night, and eventually you will find your way into something. This will give you the opportunity to meet other people, exchange phone numbers, find other temporary jobs, and if one of these people finds a permanent job where there are several opening they may inform you of it. Just be aware that if you want a good wage that one day you are going to come to the realization that there are a lot of brainless wonders willing to do $20 an hour work for $10 an hour because, well, I guess they live with their parents.

My story was similar... In 1995 I started by getting a computer sales job. Realized I couldn't really sell computers if I did't know anything about them, so I would hang out in the repair shop in the back during slow times, learned how to fix them and moved back into the shop as my first "computer repair" position....

After a year or two I moved on to contract work for major companies and picked up a LOT of networking and software experience on top of the hardware knowledge....

Eventually got in with a school system's IT department and have done that for the last 11 years....

NEVER any formal schooling for IT... NEVER had any certifications.

This day and age though, that way of backdooring into the industry has pretty much gone the way of the dodo bird I think.... Sure they'd hire you based on experience alone, but you can't get hired to build up professional experience without the certs....

Oh well..

[NYCAnalyst]

I know many people that got into IT. 3 Examples:

First person went to Polytech in Brooklyn NY, graduated in 4 years with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Worked his way up on Wall Street and does IT at a Wall Street investment bank.

Second person studied at NYU, graduated in 4 years, worked as an IT consultant, made a ton of money during the tech boom, and is now retired at 40 and plays golf.

Third person didn't go to college, although he was probably bright enough to. Self-taught A+ and networking during the early 90s at the age of 15. Got hired in high school and worked at Lehman Brothers doing IT (setting up infrastructure, etc) at the age of 18. By the age of 20, made friends with the traders, moved onto the trading desk, made a ton of money during the tech boom, got out before it crashed, and is now retired and a multimillionaire at 32, with a wife 10 years his junior. She's Scandinavian. Lives in a beach house and owns a yacht in the Bahamas. Again, no college degree, but plenty of hustle.

Now, you need a 4-year degree from pretty reputable university for anyone to take you seriously. The tech boom is over, and so the standards for entrance into the industry is higher. Most people from my university are either in IT consulting or work as program managers / software engineers for Microsoft, Google, Firefox, Apple, etc. Quality of life at these Silicon Valley companies is utterly amazing. Free beverages, free lunch, free laundry services, free daycare services, free gym, gaming rooms, tuition reimbursement, etc.

[wanderlust76]

Yes the 90's were the best if you wanted to get into the IT field which is what I was eluding to in my original post. You're correct the field is totally different now and as you said the tech boom is over. Back then companies would hire you with just certifications only, right off of the street. This opened the door for a lot of guys with the desire to work hard, put in overtime, and prove their worth. If they did, companies like Qwest compensated them handsomely. I also know some guys that got into IT back in the tech boom of the 90's and a number of them are doing very very well now. I regret that I missed it all. The IT field now is full of a lot of misinformation with a lot of schools touting their IT program but in the end it's worthless and a waste of time.