IT Career Options (Network Support)
Discussion
Hey,
I am after some advice from people who work in IT. I currently am thinking about how to get into IT as a career. I have always been interested in IT and technology but my IT knowledge is some years out of date. Up until 7/8yrs ago I used to enjoy messing about with computers, windows xp, read up about networking and group policies (even setting up networked IT suites at my secondary school). This was when I was 16/17yrs old and wanted a career in network management. Since then I have been up university studying graphic design. I now work in the insurance industry and find myself wanting to get out and pursue a career in Network support/IT support.
I have looked abit into some paths, including Open Uni (BSC) and more specific courses such as Cisco switching courses, MS Certification, etc etc. But I feel i would need a more basic understanding before anything like this esp. when it’s been a while since I have really had a go.
Just wondering if people who worked in IT/network support would have any tips at all? I had thought I could see about if i could arrange to shadow some of the IT people at work (I work in a big call centre for a big car insurance company)
I am after some advice from people who work in IT. I currently am thinking about how to get into IT as a career. I have always been interested in IT and technology but my IT knowledge is some years out of date. Up until 7/8yrs ago I used to enjoy messing about with computers, windows xp, read up about networking and group policies (even setting up networked IT suites at my secondary school). This was when I was 16/17yrs old and wanted a career in network management. Since then I have been up university studying graphic design. I now work in the insurance industry and find myself wanting to get out and pursue a career in Network support/IT support.
I have looked abit into some paths, including Open Uni (BSC) and more specific courses such as Cisco switching courses, MS Certification, etc etc. But I feel i would need a more basic understanding before anything like this esp. when it’s been a while since I have really had a go.
Just wondering if people who worked in IT/network support would have any tips at all? I had thought I could see about if i could arrange to shadow some of the IT people at work (I work in a big call centre for a big car insurance company)
Experience > Microsoft/Cisco Certs > Degrees.
Degrees are useless when it comes to getting into IT and Network support, the Microsoft and Cisco courses are far superior in my opinion as they are job specific and help to back up experience. If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
Degrees are useless when it comes to getting into IT and Network support, the Microsoft and Cisco courses are far superior in my opinion as they are job specific and help to back up experience. If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
Hi. My experience at the moment is that not specialising in one area of support over the last 12 years is paying dividends - I work designing amd administering virtualised environments (VMware) - means I'm looking at NetApp storage, Cisco networking and Active Directory etc on the Microsoft side as well as the virtualisation product itself.
I suspect the problem you'll have is getting a foot in the door experience wise so a career switch within a current employers organisation sounds like a good idea to me. Some of the support job is technical, a big part to my mind is understanding how people and organisations can use/abuse IT systems and processes and how to work within them. Not so easy to get that on a course of study. Big insurance firm IT experience would look good on a cv that passed our desk for consideration. (Much more so than one that only had a recent MCSE pass on it)
Edit to add - i started with Royal Mail's helpdesk - a lot of the first liners moved from jobs as posties, sorters etc. so the transferrable skill was that they knew the users, systems and culture. It may be a selling point when you talk to your IT guys about a secondment or similar.
I suspect the problem you'll have is getting a foot in the door experience wise so a career switch within a current employers organisation sounds like a good idea to me. Some of the support job is technical, a big part to my mind is understanding how people and organisations can use/abuse IT systems and processes and how to work within them. Not so easy to get that on a course of study. Big insurance firm IT experience would look good on a cv that passed our desk for consideration. (Much more so than one that only had a recent MCSE pass on it)
Edit to add - i started with Royal Mail's helpdesk - a lot of the first liners moved from jobs as posties, sorters etc. so the transferrable skill was that they knew the users, systems and culture. It may be a selling point when you talk to your IT guys about a secondment or similar.
Edited by 'Yadi on Friday 7th September 19:04
Really need to consider if it is something you want to get into - study never stops, and the money isn't too great for the work/study involved - plus you have the potential to take a company offline, and are expected to get it back online sharpish even if its not your fault...
If it is something you have recently found a passion for then recommend the following:
Read and understand -> TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). The principles will come in handy throughout your career, also get Doug comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP.
Do ccna and/or jncia- do not pay for courses you see in back of papers/magazines, spend half the amount and get the Lammle books, cisco press/juniper on-line resource, buy a few routers/switches to practice on (CCNA/P ebay lab for about 400-500 quid tops). Exams are about 150 quid.
If you work for a large company having the certs shows you have the aptitude/intelligence and the motivation.
Look at work shadowing the network dept there, and keep eye on openings, while studying for CCNP or equivalent. Also worth boning up on checkpoint/bluecoat/arista/linux etc.
You can apply for networking roles elsewhere, but you'll need to realize few companies (even small-ones), will take on a network analyst without experience, hence most routes into networking are either grown in-house or via a graduate scheme.
Good luck
If it is something you have recently found a passion for then recommend the following:
Read and understand -> TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). The principles will come in handy throughout your career, also get Doug comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP.
Do ccna and/or jncia- do not pay for courses you see in back of papers/magazines, spend half the amount and get the Lammle books, cisco press/juniper on-line resource, buy a few routers/switches to practice on (CCNA/P ebay lab for about 400-500 quid tops). Exams are about 150 quid.
If you work for a large company having the certs shows you have the aptitude/intelligence and the motivation.
Look at work shadowing the network dept there, and keep eye on openings, while studying for CCNP or equivalent. Also worth boning up on checkpoint/bluecoat/arista/linux etc.
You can apply for networking roles elsewhere, but you'll need to realize few companies (even small-ones), will take on a network analyst without experience, hence most routes into networking are either grown in-house or via a graduate scheme.
Good luck
Edited by Brother D on Friday 7th September 21:09
network support is a pretty wide area...
If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Nimbus said:
network support is a pretty wide area...
If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Good point - but are you sure a major telco would take on someone with no experience? If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Brother D said:
Nimbus said:
network support is a pretty wide area...
If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Good point - but are you sure a major telco would take on someone with no experience? If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
The good ones learn quickly, and move out to a slighlty more specialised 1st line support team.
The really good ones, then move into a dedicated 2nd line support team, covering a small amount of kit, but are effectively experts on it.
Most of the guys I work with in a 2nd line team came up this way.. no prior experience, and no relevant qualifications.. just knowledge and experience from on the job training and work.
Nimbus said:
Ahh, no time to reply in full today but.. yes... based on my experience, we employ a lot of people with pretty much no experience / knowledge... start them in the 24 hr centre monitoring / acting on alarms across a massive selection of kit.
The good ones learn quickly, and move out to a slighlty more specialised 1st line support team.
The really good ones, then move into a dedicated 2nd line support team, covering a small amount of kit, but are effectively experts on it.
Most of the guys I work with in a 2nd line team came up this way.. no prior experience, and no relevant qualifications.. just knowledge and experience from on the job training and work.
That's good, I never heard of anyone employing anyone apart from graduates or with previous experience. Credit to the company willing to take a risk on retraining older workers. (My bug-bear is technology companies only employing younger workers)...The good ones learn quickly, and move out to a slighlty more specialised 1st line support team.
The really good ones, then move into a dedicated 2nd line support team, covering a small amount of kit, but are effectively experts on it.
Most of the guys I work with in a 2nd line team came up this way.. no prior experience, and no relevant qualifications.. just knowledge and experience from on the job training and work.
If I were looking at your CV I'd see
- wanted to work in network mgmt. OK, decent enough start perhaps.
- then did a course in graphic design. The desire to do network mgmt must have been strong to do something so materially related.
- then went and worked in the insurance industry (you don't say what you are doing, but I am assuming it's neither graphic design nor network mgmt). The desire to do graphic design must have been strong.
With the market as fierce as it is, to be perfectly honest and being very blunt I think you are going to struggle (to the point I suspect you're wasting your time).
What is it about network mgmt that appeals? The money? Career prospects? Something else?
How long have you been out of uni? It looks like a couple of years using straight maths, possibly up to 4yrs? If it's less than that, maybe you could try a grad programme somewhere (what was the outcome of your uni course?). If not, what opportunities are there for a career move at the company you currently work at?
- wanted to work in network mgmt. OK, decent enough start perhaps.
- then did a course in graphic design. The desire to do network mgmt must have been strong to do something so materially related.
- then went and worked in the insurance industry (you don't say what you are doing, but I am assuming it's neither graphic design nor network mgmt). The desire to do graphic design must have been strong.
With the market as fierce as it is, to be perfectly honest and being very blunt I think you are going to struggle (to the point I suspect you're wasting your time).
What is it about network mgmt that appeals? The money? Career prospects? Something else?
How long have you been out of uni? It looks like a couple of years using straight maths, possibly up to 4yrs? If it's less than that, maybe you could try a grad programme somewhere (what was the outcome of your uni course?). If not, what opportunities are there for a career move at the company you currently work at?
Thanks for all the replies.
IT has always been a big passion, just love messing about with it, problem solving etc. My biggest regret really not to have continued with it at uni. But there is still lots of time!
Regiment said:
Experience > Microsoft/Cisco Certs > Degrees.
If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
Thanks, I will get look at getting some books from amazon and go from there.If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
'Yadi said:
I suspect the problem you'll have is getting a foot in the door experience wise so a career switch within a current employers organisation sounds like a good idea to me. Some of the support job is technical, a big part to my mind is understanding how people and organisations can use/abuse IT systems and processes and how to work within them. Not so easy to get that on a course of study. Big insurance firm IT experience would look good on a cv that passed our desk for consideration. (Much more so than one that only had a recent MCSE pass on it)
I have been talking to my manager at work about getting some time to shadow the IT department and hopefully be able to learn at from them. The experience i feel would be very good, esp since I live in Bristol and theres alot of big insurance offices in the area.Brother D said:
Really need to consider if it is something you want to get into - study never stops, and the money isn't too great for the work/study involved - plus you have the potential to take a company offline, and are expected to get it back online sharpish even if its not your fault...
If it is something you have recently found a passion for then recommend the following:
Read and understand -> TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). The principles will come in handy throughout your career, also get Doug comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP.
Do ccna and/or jncia- do not pay for courses you see in back of papers/magazines, spend half the amount and get the Lammle books, cisco press/juniper on-line resource, buy a few routers/switches to practice on (CCNA/P ebay lab for about 400-500 quid tops). Exams are about 150 quid.
If you work for a large company having the certs shows you have the aptitude/intelligence and the motivation.
Look at work shadowing the network dept there, and keep eye on openings, while studying for CCNP or equivalent. Also worth boning up on checkpoint/bluecoat/arista/linux etc.
You can apply for networking roles elsewhere, but you'll need to realize few companies (even small-ones), will take on a network analyst without experience, hence most routes into networking are either grown in-house or via a graduate scheme.
Thanks, I had a look on ebay for some cisco switches etc to practice on, even thought about a older HP server If it is something you have recently found a passion for then recommend the following:
Read and understand -> TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). The principles will come in handy throughout your career, also get Doug comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP.
Do ccna and/or jncia- do not pay for courses you see in back of papers/magazines, spend half the amount and get the Lammle books, cisco press/juniper on-line resource, buy a few routers/switches to practice on (CCNA/P ebay lab for about 400-500 quid tops). Exams are about 150 quid.
If you work for a large company having the certs shows you have the aptitude/intelligence and the motivation.
Look at work shadowing the network dept there, and keep eye on openings, while studying for CCNP or equivalent. Also worth boning up on checkpoint/bluecoat/arista/linux etc.
You can apply for networking roles elsewhere, but you'll need to realize few companies (even small-ones), will take on a network analyst without experience, hence most routes into networking are either grown in-house or via a graduate scheme.
IT has always been a big passion, just love messing about with it, problem solving etc. My biggest regret really not to have continued with it at uni. But there is still lots of time!Nimbus said:
network support is a pretty wide area...
If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Something to look into, not thought about going into Telco's instead. We have Avaya at work and quiet often see tech people coming to do stuff around it. Perhaps anything route to look at/into.If you fancy something totally different from the typical ccna type route, you could read up on sip/voip, ( or install asterix pbx to teach yourself ), then combine your ccn* 'networking' knowledge with something other than pc/server support... and get a job working for a telco looking after their voice /data network..
Murph7355 said:
If I were looking at your CV I'd see
- wanted to work in network mgmt. OK, decent enough start perhaps.
- then did a course in graphic design. The desire to do network mgmt must have been strong to do something so materially related.
- then went and worked in the insurance industry (you don't say what you are doing, but I am assuming it's neither graphic design nor network mgmt). The desire to do graphic design must have been strong.
With the market as fierce as it is, to be perfectly honest and being very blunt I think you are going to struggle (to the point I suspect you're wasting your time).
What is it about network mgmt that appeals? The money? Career prospects? Something else?
Fair point, at the moment im not obs planning to leave my job without having somewhere else to goto. The main thing that attracts me to the role would be mainly just being about to problem solve, learning all the time, putting lots of work in and knowing that your actually making a difference to a IT network etc. The money isn't a factor, i would happly be paid the same as i am now (15k year). As for the graphic design, I did ok on the courses due to be able to pickup the software quickly and then learning more complex things if im being honest, I would always get people/tutors ask how to do things and i enjoy providing IT support. - wanted to work in network mgmt. OK, decent enough start perhaps.
- then did a course in graphic design. The desire to do network mgmt must have been strong to do something so materially related.
- then went and worked in the insurance industry (you don't say what you are doing, but I am assuming it's neither graphic design nor network mgmt). The desire to do graphic design must have been strong.
With the market as fierce as it is, to be perfectly honest and being very blunt I think you are going to struggle (to the point I suspect you're wasting your time).
What is it about network mgmt that appeals? The money? Career prospects? Something else?
Edited by didjerama on Monday 10th September 10:07
Nimbus said:
forgot to say.. top lurking there !
Ha thanks! Been reading the forums/site for many years. I have nearly really had much to say or knowledge to comment on things. I did however used to play Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360), but i think i had a difference username on the forums for that 
Brother D said:
That's good, I never heard of anyone employing anyone apart from graduates or with previous experience. Credit to the company willing to take a risk on retraining older workers. (My bug-bear is technology companies only employing younger workers)...
Thing is, ( at least in my area, and I'd assume its the same in the other big telcos ), unless you are already working in the business, there is no real way to get the training. Ie there are no courses, its more a case of getting yourself a basic knowledge, and then building it with hands on knowledge.So it works out better to take on someone with no experience, but with aptitude, and then promote existing staff from within to the more senior roles..
Or risk taking on some billy bulls
tter whose bulked out their CV with claimed experience.We seem to have no gradutes, ( although the company has a big graduate scheme, non of them come into the engineer part, its all marketing and finance ), tho we also recruit plenty of young trainess, ( ie 18/19 year olds ), and lots of ex forces, who always seem to have a good attitude to learning.
Regiment said:
Experience > Microsoft/Cisco Certs > Degrees.
Degrees are useless when it comes to getting into IT and Network support, the Microsoft and Cisco courses are far superior in my opinion as they are job specific and help to back up experience. If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
Riiiiight, so I didn't walk from Uni into IT in a top tier investment bank then I guess? And the people with Microsoft/Cisco certs didn't have to fight their way into those positions over the course of 10-15 years...Degrees are useless when it comes to getting into IT and Network support, the Microsoft and Cisco courses are far superior in my opinion as they are job specific and help to back up experience. If you've got a really nice machine at home with plenty of ram, look at sorting out a copy of Hyper V or VMWare and build up a small virtual network. With the experience you already, you should be able to get stuck in quite happily.
The basic networking course to look at would be Comptia's Network+, something you can study at home with a couple of good books from Amazon
Obviously a graduate scheme isn't going to be any good if you're 45 with an art history degree from your 20's, but such sweeping statements are plain incorrect I'm afraid.
BMWBen said:
Riiiiight, so I didn't walk from Uni into IT in a top tier investment bank then I guess? And the people with Microsoft/Cisco certs didn't have to fight their way into those positions over the course of 10-15 years...
Obviously a graduate scheme isn't going to be any good if you're 45 with an art history degree from your 20's, but such sweeping statements are plain incorrect I'm afraid.
I only ever look at their experience and interview based around what they claim they can do on their CV. University education means nothing to me - but then again, I went into IT at 16 and did all my certs and have never looked back in 26 years.Obviously a graduate scheme isn't going to be any good if you're 45 with an art history degree from your 20's, but such sweeping statements are plain incorrect I'm afraid.
University degree as someone on here once put it - just means you know how to learn stuff. Professional IT quals backed up with experience is the same if not better.
BMWBen said:
Riiiiight, so I didn't walk from Uni into IT in a top tier investment bank then I guess? And the people with Microsoft/Cisco certs didn't have to fight their way into those positions over the course of 10-15 years...
Were you just doing IT support though or something further up the food chain?0000 said:
BMWBen said:
Riiiiight, so I didn't walk from Uni into IT in a top tier investment bank then I guess? And the people with Microsoft/Cisco certs didn't have to fight their way into those positions over the course of 10-15 years...
Were you just doing IT support though or something further up the food chain?My point was that sweeping statements like "degrees don't matter in IT" are just plain wrong. I've skipped 10 years ahead in my career because of my degree.
Of course for an experienced hire you care more about what they've done and how they do it, but there's no age limit on these schemes, you just have to have graduated in the last 3 years. So you could quite easily go back to do a degree at 35 and then get onto one.
I took his comment to just mean IT support, where I can quite understand that practical application of relatively public knowledge is important.
If he didn't mean that, quite the inverse is true. Obviously you don't get Microsoft certificates in developing techniques for cracking disk encryption or architecting systems for pattern analysis across multi-terabytes of data/day.
If he didn't mean that, quite the inverse is true. Obviously you don't get Microsoft certificates in developing techniques for cracking disk encryption or architecting systems for pattern analysis across multi-terabytes of data/day.
0000 said:
I took his comment to just mean IT support, where I can quite understand that practical application of relatively public knowledge is important.
If he didn't mean that, quite the inverse is true. Obviously you don't get Microsoft certificates in developing techniques for cracking disk encryption or architecting systems for pattern analysis across multi-terabytes of data/day.
Aye its just helpdesk/support etc really, nothing like Network planning/architecture etc. I wouldn't expect to get into that wihtout years and yrs of experience and a bsc + related qualifications. If he didn't mean that, quite the inverse is true. Obviously you don't get Microsoft certificates in developing techniques for cracking disk encryption or architecting systems for pattern analysis across multi-terabytes of data/day.
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