Looking for someone with an IT background.

Ashdown

I am looking for a career change and am looking for courses within IT to develop a career. I have looked into a number of courses from BTEC level 2 computer engineer followed by BTEC level 3 advanced diploma in network design and admin to Cisco CCNA. I studied sport science at university which finished last year but but as there are limited areas to work within I have been working as a self employed Data Engineer (cabling). I am looking to start off with the basics and build upon them. If anyone can comment on a qualification path to take please do so.

WSS

You're not able to do anything in IT unless you use a recruitment agency. Apparently. ;-)

Good luck - there are plenty of people on here who should be able to help you.

csr_cafc

IF your looking at doing networking deffo start with your CCNA

If your looking at doing support then have a look at Microsoft Qualifications...MSCA, MCSE

I would do one or 2 of the BTECs just so you get a base knowledge of general IT, good luck...there are jobs about but a hell of alot of people after them as well.

Henry Irving

Can't help with the IT but I did help someone on here get a job using their sports science degree.

Inbox me if you're interested (I'm not a recruitment consultant, honest)

man_at_milletts

Ashdown, out of interest where did you do you Sports Science. Was it at Christchurch?

Ashdown

Thanks for the replies, I did in canterbury. Which is scary that you know that unless you went there as well. I will continue looking for the best place to start.

WillmoreTheRed

I'm in the IT sector (technician in a school) I did my apprenticeship and we did CCNA, MSCE and the 2 new ones which I can't for love remember of the top of my head. I'd definitely recommend Cisco Courses and Microsoft cert's as when I completed my apprenticeship all interviewers were impressed I had them and I was offered 2 out of 3 jobs and seemed to pick up interviews alot easier than my friend did without an qualifications.

The recruitment agency thing isn't needed but helps mate.

In terms of path of qualifications its hard to tell you as I don't know your basic knowledge. If your pretty confident throw yourself into Cisco and Microsoft. If not try a BTEC in network management.

if you need anything else mate im happy to help.

man_at_milletts

Ashdown said:

Thanks for the replies, I did in canterbury. Which is scary that you know that unless you went there as well. I will continue looking for the best place to start.

Did you know Dr Dray?

Ashdown

Katie Dray? she was my tutor for my dissertation.

man_at_milletts

That's the one. PM me

PL54

WSS said:

You're not able to do anything in IT unless you use a recruitment agency. Apparently. ;-)

Good luck - there are plenty of people on here who should be able to help you.

Loving it.

Does Yellow Pages still exist ? Try indeed.co.uk - it aggregates daily opportunities from agencies and direct employers.

razil

if you do IT ( I do it now) be prepared for a career of constantly updating your skills particularly in support, being treated poorly by people who don't regard you as important to the company, getting grief when things go wrong your fault or not and little praise if they go right, being outsourced-having to work as outsourced team, both quite demoralising and the latter making you be treated even more poorly, and a OK no longer highly paid career.

csr_cafc

razil said:

if you do IT ( I do it now) be prepared for a career of constantly updating your skills particularly in support, being treated poorly by people who don't regard you as important to the company, getting grief when things go wrong your fault or not and little praise if they go right, being outsourced-having to work as outsourced team, both quite demoralising and the latter making you be treated even more poorly, and a OK no longer highly paid career.

So true!

man_at_milletts

.

Rob

I've noticed you're choosing to go down the engineering/admin path. Have you thought of following the programming/application design path instead. A better paid path I think and you will be treated better (I have found, invariably, experienced developers end up calling the shots).

Ashdown

Rob to be honest with you I haven't really decided on a route. Its open to change I want to build a career for myself spoke to the father in law who works for a network company and he mentioned that I should do the ccna. If you can suggest a good course for programming/ application design I will seriously take it into consideration.

Leroy Ambrose

CCNA won't teach you shit, but all employers want it. Problem with it is, it's a pure networking qualification - and you won't be allowed near switches or routers until you have at least a couple of years' proven experience. I'd suggest looking at the MCDST (or whatever they call it these days) - which is the desktp support cert. Desktop support is what most people do when they start out in IT - but it's a real chicken and egg situation - you can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job

In addition, you'll probably be making twice as much now as a cable puller as you will doing desktop support - so be prepared for a big salary drop!

To be honest, if you're bright enough, I'd also suggest software development as a career path. Be warned - if you haven't got the mindset for it, it's next to impossible. I consider myself reasonably intelligent, and I absolutely scraped through the development aspects of my HND - I found systems and networking a doddle.

Rob

I don't know too much about the specifics of courses as i'm out of touch but, if you've got the aptitude, I would seriously suggest you try to get training on things like Web Applications, GUI interface, Databases, Distributed, Multi-Tier and Client-Server Development, using Active Server Pages, VB Script, JAVA Script, HTML, Pearl, ActiveX, .NET, HTML, Active Server Pages V2.0 (ASP) Front Page Explorer. Things like that. I know there's a lot there but it gives you an idea. Also, on the database side, SQL development in Oracle is a good start and blends nicely with the Web Applications/JAVA scripting side of things.

This is where the money is. Basically, once you're trained and have some experience (you'd have to enter on the ground floor of course) these are the guys who make the big bucks at places like Google etc.

rananegra

For some reason where I work the posts that always need filling are the SQL DBAs, they seem to be most in demand and able to move on for better pay. Oh, and project managers, who outnumber the people who actually do the work. Good luck whatever path you end up taking.

Glovepup

Rob said:

I don't know too much about the specifics of courses as i'm out of touch but, if you've got the aptitude, I would seriously suggest you try to get training on things like Web Applications, GUI interface, Databases, Distributed, Multi-Tier and Client-Server Development, using Active Server Pages, VB Script, JAVA Script, HTML, Pearl, ActiveX, .NET, HTML, Active Server Pages V2.0 (ASP) Front Page Explorer. Things like that. I know there's a lot there but it gives you an idea. Also, on the database side, SQL development in Oracle is a good start and blends nicely with the Web Applications/JAVA scripting side of things.

This is where the money is. Basically, once you're trained and have some experience (you'd have to enter on the ground floor of course) these are the guys who make the big bucks at places like Google etc.

ASP is old now mate, it's all about HTML5.

Leroy Ambrose

rananegra said:

For some reason where I work the posts that always need filling are the SQL DBAs, they seem to be most in demand and able to move on for better pay. Oh, and project managers, who outnumber the people who actually do the work. Good luck whatever path you end up taking.

I was a dba for about 18 months. Dullest thing I've ever done. It's not for everyone!

carly burn

razil said:

being treated poorly by people who don't regard you as important to the company, getting grief when things go wrong your fault or not and little praise if they go right,

Have a feeling this is not solely a trait for jobs in the IT industry?

Leroy Ambrose

carly burn said:

razil said:

being treated poorly by people who don't regard you as important to the company, getting grief when things go wrong your fault or not and little praise if they go right,

Have a feeling this is not solely a trait for jobs in the IT industry?

Certainly true, but with IT, especially amongst senior management who don't 'get' what you do, you're perceived as just a massive money drain. If I do my job properly, you don't notice me -just like with a good ref at football. It's hard to get a high profile in an organisation where your sole aim is to be as invisible as possible

tallboy

Some mainly good advice here. I've been in the IT industry for over 25 years and am currently self-employed in software development (although until recently had a Cisco networking background).

WSS said:

You're not able to do anything in IT unless you use a recruitment agency. Apparently. ;-)
Good luck - there are plenty of people on here who should be able to help you.

I currently get all my work directly i.e. not via agencies. This was a deliberate policy as in my opinion, a large part of the problem of being treated poorly as IT worker is caused by agencies. Many agencies are now just about numbers and do not add any value to you as a prospective IT worker. Because of my previous contacts and experience I was able to not have to seek work via agencies. However, its been a struggle and I may have to turn to them in a few months. You, as a new person entering the industry will almost certainly have to deal with them. However, once qualified don't ignore routes such as LinkedIn and Facebook as possible methods of marketing yourself for work.

WillmoreTheRed said:

I'd definitely recommend Cisco Courses and Microsoft cert's as when I completed my apprenticeship all interviewers were impressed I had them and I was offered 2 out of 3 jobs and seemed to pick up interviews alot easier than my friend did without an qualifications.

I'd agree with this. Although the industry employer issued qualifications (CCNA from Cisco, MCSD from Microsoft etc.) have lost some of their status in recent years (because so many colleges are now putting learners through them) they still carry weight. You do however have to combine the qualifications with some practical experience to earn decent money.

razil said:

if you do IT ( I do it now) be prepared for a career of constantly updating your skills particularly in support, being treated poorly by people who don't regard you as important to the company, getting grief when things go wrong your fault or not and little praise if they go right, being outsourced-having to work as outsourced team, both quite demoralising and the latter making you be treated even more poorly, and a OK no longer highly paid career.

Agreed - I spend approx. 20% of my long working week keeping my skills up to date (bear in mind this is in effect unpaid work). Also, pay rates for many IT support roles are down on previous years ( I earn less now than I did in the IT boom / bubble of the mid late 90's). To not be treated like an idiot you need to find a niche position to work in and this is only normally possible after 2 -3 years work experience.

Rob said:

I've noticed you're choosing to go down the engineering/admin path. Have you thought of following the programming/application design path instead. A better paid path I think and you will be treated better (I have found, invariably, experienced developers end up calling the shots).

Leroy Ambrose said:

In addition, you'll probably be making twice as much now as a cable puller as you will doing desktop support - so be prepared for a big salary drop!

Again both of the above true. I've moved away from IT Cisco networking in the last couple of years because the jobs market was becoming flooded with college graduates with CCNA's driving pay rates down. I've switched to cloud software development. However, being older I could afford to change direction without worrying the mortgage isn't going to get paid. Like Leroy Ambrose states:

Leroy Ambrose said:

To be honest, if you're bright enough, I'd also suggest software development as a career path. Be warned - if you haven't got the mindset for it, it's next to impossible. I consider myself reasonably intelligent, and I absolutely scraped through the development aspects of my HND - I found systems and networking a doddle.

I've really struggled to adapt to the logical and mathematical "mindset" required to software develop (program) but am slowly getting there. (Remember I do support Charlton, so logic is low on my list!)

Glovepup said:

ASP is old now mate, it's all about HTML5.

This is a bit misleading. I suspect the original intention was to mention ASP.NET the successor to ASP. HTML and ASP / ASP.NET play very different roles in software (web technologies) development. HTML5 is going to be important but you need to know both web client technologies like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery along with server side technologies such as ASP.NET or its open source equivalents such as Python.

Finally, don't ignore the online resource like Microsoft Virtual Academy which offer free training resources to self train.

Good Luck.

dabos

Glovepup said:

Rob said:

I don't know too much about the specifics of courses as i'm out of touch but, if you've got the aptitude, I would seriously suggest you try to get training on things like Web Applications, GUI interface, Databases, Distributed, Multi-Tier and Client-Server Development, using Active Server Pages, VB Script, JAVA Script, HTML, Pearl, ActiveX, .NET, HTML, Active Server Pages V2.0 (ASP) Front Page Explorer. Things like that. I know there's a lot there but it gives you an idea. Also, on the database side, SQL development in Oracle is a good start and blends nicely with the Web Applications/JAVA scripting side of things.

This is where the money is. Basically, once you're trained and have some experience (you'd have to enter on the ground floor of course) these are the guys who make the big bucks at places like Google etc.

ASP is old now mate, it's all about HTML5.

Have to agree, I'm not sure that list is the way to go. You certainly shouldn't bother with VB, Perl, ASP or ActiveX nowadays.

If you want to get into web development head over to codecademy.com and see if you enjoy it.

Rob

Rob said:

Web Applications, GUI interface, Databases, Distributed, Multi-Tier and Client-Server Development, using Active Server Pages, VB Script, JAVA Script, HTML, Pearl, ActiveX, .NET, HTML, Active Server Pages V2.0 (ASP) Front Page Explorer.

As others have said, some of this is a bit old but it gives a flavour of what has been used over the past few years in the development world. As has also been said, things change very quickly in the IT world and half the battle is keeping on top of it (especially if you're self employed).

I would definitely recommend the Software Development field (Programming) if you have the aptitude.

Good luck Ashdown.

Loco

Leroy Ambrose said:

CCNA won't teach you shit, but all employers want it. Problem with it is, it's a pure networking qualification - and you won't be allowed near switches or routers until you have at least a couple of years' proven experience. I'd suggest looking at the MCDST (or whatever they call it these days) - which is the desktp support cert. Desktop support is what most people do when they start out in IT - but it's a real chicken and egg situation - you can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job

In addition, you'll probably be making twice as much now as a cable puller as you will doing desktop support - so be prepared for a big salary drop!

To be honest, if you're bright enough, I'd also suggest software development as a career path. Be warned - if you haven't got the mindset for it, it's next to impossible. I consider myself reasonably intelligent, and I absolutely scraped through the development aspects of my HND - I found systems and networking a doddle.

Don't you need that personality removal operation before becoming a coder?

siblers

I'm doing a computing course where we are doing a lot of the CCNA material, I personally can't stand it but you will walk straight into a job if you have a good grasp of it. But if you are good at java or sql or c#/c++ you'll also walk straight into a job. There's crazy demand for programmers out there but they are pretty tough languages to master. Im currently doing java and sql, will be doing c# next year so will have lots of areas covered.

Leroy Ambrose

Not sure. I don't have a personality and I wasn't any good at it. Maybe your point is true - and you need to have a personality and have it removed to be any good...

I've certainly met some strange developers in my time. The guys I work with now are pretty tame compared to some of the absolute oddballs I've come across in the past.

cafcpolo

Leroy Ambrose said:

rananegra said:

For some reason where I work the posts that always need filling are the SQL DBAs, they seem to be most in demand and able to move on for better pay. Oh, and project managers, who outnumber the people who actually do the work. Good luck whatever path you end up taking.

I was a dba for about 18 months. Dullest thing I've ever done. It's not for everyone!

Thats because a personality and a better than reasonable intelligence level is required to enjoy it

Leroy Ambrose

Ouch. Zing!