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I interview to fill IT positions all the time. I can tell you the last thing I look at on a resume is the College Degree section. It's really not the most important thing for me. I run a team of Consultants for a hardware/software company. The number one question I ask myself when selecting a candidate is "CAN THIS PERSON PRODUCE". can they hit the ground running with little supervision on day one? if not, will they be able to ramp up in a short time frame?
in my opinion, it would be best to pick up the skills in a section of IT that interest you; certifications come along with doing this as well. from there on, someone will give you a shot. just be highly prepared when an opportunity presents itself.
It's also one of the easiest ways to change careers. Get a job at a company (in a different department) that has the type of job you really want. Once you're inside the company, get to know the IT people, network, volunteer for projects, use your tuition reimbursement to take a few classes so you can throw that on your resume and make an internal, lateral move.
Are you currently employed? You can do all of this at your current company.
I have a coworker who did exactly this. he was in the customer support (you know when you call that you forgot password and things like these). Nowhe is doing some other tasks in our group - weare all developers- and he is learning programming.
I have a coworker who did exactly this. he was in the customer support (you know when you call that you forgot password and things like these). Nowhe is doing some other tasks in our group - weare all developers- and he is learning programming.
Same experience. I knew a girl, that was a customer service rep.. She was 100% NON-TECHNICAL, but from taking customer service calls she started to get versed on the technical keywords, understanding pending actions required and processes, etc.
She started sitting in on her lunch break and taking notes on what people were doing. People eventually took note of her and when the opportunity for a junior slot opened up she was moved into a low-level tech team. She was officially entry-level IT, with a BA in Accounting. She progressed from there and now several years later she's like a BOSS DOG tech guru.
The degree may be required to pass an HR barrier and especially for government jobs with hard and fast requirements. In my opinion, prior experience is most heavily weighted.
I do have something to say to those who just say "go get a tech job then your certs and it will all works out." If you don't have experience, certs, or a degree (and oftentimes even with a certs/degree), you will most certainly start out in a call center or desktop support position. If you work in a very small team with a flat structure, the help desk person may get to take on additional non help desk work, and be able to get meaningful experience he/she can put on a resume. However, in a larger company, the help desk agent will be taking calls all day, every day and won't have the opportunity to work with other teams and get more experience. It's also been my experience that if an infrastructure positions opens within a company, that the company will take an experienced outside hire instead of moving the internal help desk candidate up.
Certifications don't seem to help that much. I have a A+, N+, Sec+, CASP, CCENT, CCNA, CCNA-Security, and ITIL v3 foundations and receive nothing but calls for more help desk work. When applying for other positions, I often get interviews, but get rejected at the end of the process because I don't "have the right experience," but a candidate can't get experience if no one will hire them. After spending quite a bit of money self-educating in IT, receiving a degree (though not IT related), and with three years experience, I'm looking for an exit ASAP, but I started off at a call center in rural VA and have bounced around between different call centers in relatively small markets (largest metro I've lived in is about 500,000). If you start off better, your results will likely be better.
If you're in a larger metro, you will have a lot more flexibility in moving because there tend to be better employers and more available jobs. I still think the degree will be helpful for more senior positions or positions where the candidate pool tends to be more educated overall.
I became an accidental IT worker after college. I never studied IT in school, and I'm looking for exit strategy myself. Anyone who is looking into getting into IT should be made aware that the hours are brutal. Work life balance issues are real. You'll be working weekends, holidays, and whenever you're expected to work. I know what you're thinking. You get compensated by getting comp days in exchange. LOL - yea sure....It comes with the job.
I became an accidental IT worker after college. I never studied IT in school, and I'm looking for exit strategy myself. Anyone who is looking into getting into IT should be made aware that the hours are brutal. Work life balance issues are real. You'll be working weekends, holidays, and whenever you're expected to work. I know what you're thinking. You get compensated by getting comp days in exchange. LOL - yea sure....It comes with the job.
Back in my IT years, working overtime, on weekends and holidays was normal. For obvious reasons - big installations, large roll-outs and data/network problems frequently happen during off-hours. There were times when I had to cancel weddings and other important gatherings just to teach a class. The other thing is always having to study a new technology/version and doing it outside of office hours. Indeed something to consider when entering the field. One consolation I can think of is that at least you're not in IT sales.
I became an accidental IT worker after college. I never studied IT in school, and I'm looking for exit strategy myself. Anyone who is looking into getting into IT should be made aware that the hours are brutal. Work life balance issues are real. You'll be working weekends, holidays, and whenever you're expected to work. I know what you're thinking. You get compensated by getting comp days in exchange. LOL - yea sure....It comes with the job.
When you are salaried aka full-time, you might be expected to work off hours as well as standard day hours. This can get excessive with some companies, where you are working 60 hr weeks on a regular basis. Some companies are worse than others.
But if you are a contractor, you are paid hourly. Some companies like to keep you at 40 hrs per week per their budget for paying you for 40 hrs/week., so they often give the extra hours work to their salaried folks. However, if they decide to give after hours work to the contractor, they will be paying you for any extra hours worked.
This is one of the many reasons that I prefer contract work over 'full-time' work.
In my own personal opinion, you don't need an IT or computer science degree to learn and do IT. However, employers may have a different opinion for people they will hire at entry level. At the end of the day, IT is merely a tool used by businesses. It is not a discipline in itself.
The problem is I can't think of any IT company or department in the US nowadays that will hire anyone without programming and/or DBA work experience. And I don't think its worth it to take a BS in computer science only to work in a helpdesk.
My recommendation would be to work for an IBM or HP business partner. Start in a sales job so that it won't require technical work experience. Then take courses, get certified and asked to be transferred to a technical position. After that switch to an IT department of a client. It's a circuitous process but one of the few viable ways.
As far as sales jobs go, which companies do you suggest are the better to apply with if you want to move onto IT with no experience? If you are familiar with the L.A./Southern California then I am specifically speaking of this area.
Look for IBM or HP business partners (ie, distributors) in your region.
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