Transferring into IT
Discussion
Realise it’s a fairly open goal but every time I see an IT post I always think I’d be well suited. Plus the day rates appeal!
However I’m mid 30’s and an accountant (science degree and construction/energy sector accounting if it matters) - so would be starting from the bottom, though I would say being an accountant gives me a good grasp of numbers, excel logic, reporting systems and a general sense within finance and figures (if I may say so) - so a decent starting point.
But where to start and what to focus on?
And would my aptitude mean I could land a say £30k starter role, does such a thing even exist?
I’’d happily take the risk that I could pick things up and learn rapidly - I’d have no other choice (and am not one to fail). I’m already in London & I could stomach a pay cut knowing that it should realign once I learn more and become more experienced.
Any hints/tips welcome
However I’m mid 30’s and an accountant (science degree and construction/energy sector accounting if it matters) - so would be starting from the bottom, though I would say being an accountant gives me a good grasp of numbers, excel logic, reporting systems and a general sense within finance and figures (if I may say so) - so a decent starting point.
But where to start and what to focus on?
And would my aptitude mean I could land a say £30k starter role, does such a thing even exist?
I’’d happily take the risk that I could pick things up and learn rapidly - I’d have no other choice (and am not one to fail). I’m already in London & I could stomach a pay cut knowing that it should realign once I learn more and become more experienced.
Any hints/tips welcome
I guess my first question would be do you have any existing IT skills?
Companies will have their own hiring policies about qualifications but I'm probably of an age where a lot of IT skills especially when looking at entry level can come from being a keen and enthusiastic geek in your personal life so it almost becomes a bit of a paid hobby if you're lucky.
I don't know if it's something you can simply step into overnight the same way I could step into being an accountant (even an entry level one presumably) overnight if that makes sense.
Companies will have their own hiring policies about qualifications but I'm probably of an age where a lot of IT skills especially when looking at entry level can come from being a keen and enthusiastic geek in your personal life so it almost becomes a bit of a paid hobby if you're lucky.
I don't know if it's something you can simply step into overnight the same way I could step into being an accountant (even an entry level one presumably) overnight if that makes sense.
Prepare to be warned off by a bunch of people who think their job is much harder than it actually is 
I started in IT mid to late 20’s, I now work at a football club on an above average wage having moved up the ladder pretty easily and quickly.
There is loads of courses you can do, MCSA, CCNA’s etc, and many jobs will advertise this as requirements, but the main issue is just getting a foot through the door. I now do interviews for the entry IT jobs where I work, it pays above average (25k starting) but the applicants are few and far between. If we get someone who is relatively confident and knows how to Google, how a basic network works, what differs operating systems are and how to talk to people they would get the job.
If it’s something you like doing, go for it, don’t be put off by people telling you it’s an ultra competitive field and you need a million qualifications. It’s the same as most fields of work, if you enjoy it, are a hard worker and good at networking you will move up the ladder very quickly.
I started in IT mid to late 20’s, I now work at a football club on an above average wage having moved up the ladder pretty easily and quickly.
There is loads of courses you can do, MCSA, CCNA’s etc, and many jobs will advertise this as requirements, but the main issue is just getting a foot through the door. I now do interviews for the entry IT jobs where I work, it pays above average (25k starting) but the applicants are few and far between. If we get someone who is relatively confident and knows how to Google, how a basic network works, what differs operating systems are and how to talk to people they would get the job.
If it’s something you like doing, go for it, don’t be put off by people telling you it’s an ultra competitive field and you need a million qualifications. It’s the same as most fields of work, if you enjoy it, are a hard worker and good at networking you will move up the ladder very quickly.
Your best bet might be to do a course at one of the top code schools. Makers Academy is one of the best, and do a 12 week course after which a lot of people go straight into jobs:
https://makers.tech/
https://makers.tech/
You may find the more appealing day rates require a fair amount of hands on experience.
Of course you really need to work out what you mean about working in IT. If you want to do hard technical roles you'll need to get some proper learning behind you and find something entry level where you can start accumulating that experience. There are apprenticeships, development programmes and similar schemes, including in the public sector, although starting at 30k might be optimistic.
There are a lot of non-technical roles "in IT" too. Have a look at something like Business Analysis or something in the analytics space where your existing skills will have the most overlap. Alternatively, one fairly common route in is to get involved in the systems your organisation uses (if that's an option) leverage your business knowledge in something like a product management role.
Of course you really need to work out what you mean about working in IT. If you want to do hard technical roles you'll need to get some proper learning behind you and find something entry level where you can start accumulating that experience. There are apprenticeships, development programmes and similar schemes, including in the public sector, although starting at 30k might be optimistic.
There are a lot of non-technical roles "in IT" too. Have a look at something like Business Analysis or something in the analytics space where your existing skills will have the most overlap. Alternatively, one fairly common route in is to get involved in the systems your organisation uses (if that's an option) leverage your business knowledge in something like a product management role.
Seventyseven7 said:
Prepare to be warned off by a bunch of people who think their job is much harder than it actually is
I started in IT mid to late 20’s, I now work at a football club on an above average wage having moved up the ladder pretty easily and quickly.
There is loads of courses you can do, MCSA, CCNA’s etc, and many jobs will advertise this as requirements, but the main issue is just getting a foot through the door. I now do interviews for the entry IT jobs where I work, it pays above average (25k starting) but the applicants are few and far between. If we get someone who is relatively confident and knows how to Google, how a basic network works, what differs operating systems are and how to talk to people they would get the job.
If it’s something you like doing, go for it, don’t be put off by people telling you it’s an ultra competitive field and you need a million qualifications. It’s the same as most fields of work, if you enjoy it, are a hard worker and good at networking you will move up the ladder very quickly.
Not sure where this has all come from. Most people are capable of learning development to a decent standard, but it does take time. Other IT roles vary on how easy they are to do with little or no experience, and some are pretty close to generalist jobs once you understand the basics. The market for hiring technology people at the moment is utterly insane, it's ultra competitive as an employer, all sorts of people are getting hired and promoted as a result, and most organisations of any scale will have programmes to bring new people into the field. I started in IT mid to late 20’s, I now work at a football club on an above average wage having moved up the ladder pretty easily and quickly.
There is loads of courses you can do, MCSA, CCNA’s etc, and many jobs will advertise this as requirements, but the main issue is just getting a foot through the door. I now do interviews for the entry IT jobs where I work, it pays above average (25k starting) but the applicants are few and far between. If we get someone who is relatively confident and knows how to Google, how a basic network works, what differs operating systems are and how to talk to people they would get the job.
If it’s something you like doing, go for it, don’t be put off by people telling you it’s an ultra competitive field and you need a million qualifications. It’s the same as most fields of work, if you enjoy it, are a hard worker and good at networking you will move up the ladder very quickly.
Which part of IT interests you? Techie or Management?
Being a techie support person usually comes from being a bit of a tech nerd kid. IT Support Technician is the entry level for that and IME starts in the low £20k area. Then grow into the industry and bigger salary from there, maybe finding a specialism in Servers, Networks, Cloud, Development, Cyber Security, Management.
There's room for coming in on Project Management which might suit your experience. It's less techie but better paid than entry level support.
Being a techie support person usually comes from being a bit of a tech nerd kid. IT Support Technician is the entry level for that and IME starts in the low £20k area. Then grow into the industry and bigger salary from there, maybe finding a specialism in Servers, Networks, Cloud, Development, Cyber Security, Management.
There's room for coming in on Project Management which might suit your experience. It's less techie but better paid than entry level support.
DWDarkWheels said:
Which part of IT interests you? Techie or Management?
Being a techie support person usually comes from being a bit of a tech nerd kid. IT Support Technician is the entry level for that and IME starts in the low £20k area. Then grow into the industry and bigger salary from there, maybe finding a specialism in Servers, Networks, Cloud, Development, Cyber Security, Management.
There's room for coming in on Project Management which might suit your experience. It's less techie but better paid than entry level support.
First line support where I work starts at 25k. Single interview where you need to tell me you know what AD is, windows updates, Ipconfig, group policy etc. Being a techie support person usually comes from being a bit of a tech nerd kid. IT Support Technician is the entry level for that and IME starts in the low £20k area. Then grow into the industry and bigger salary from there, maybe finding a specialism in Servers, Networks, Cloud, Development, Cyber Security, Management.
There's room for coming in on Project Management which might suit your experience. It's less techie but better paid than entry level support.
Second line starts at 35k.
Sure there was lots of jobs with a very low wage for entry level support, but there is also plenty who pay a good living wage.
For what it’s worth, I’ve hired 4 people in the last 18 months. Advertised on LinkedIn and our website, probably only had 25 applicants for each role and the people who got interviews were very poor standard when it came to interviewing. We must just be unlucky but haven’t experienced any demand for the work we have on offer.
Seventyseven7 said:
For what it’s worth, I’ve hired 4 people in the last 18 months. Advertised on LinkedIn and our website, probably only had 25 applicants for each role and the people who got interviews were very poor standard when it came to interviewing. We must just be unlucky but haven’t experienced any demand for the work we have on offer.
This is what it's like everywhere. If you're not properly blue chip, and willing to pay more than you think is reasonable for any given job, you just get dozens of rubbish applications, spend ages sifting and end up lowering the bar just to get a couple to interview. Perhaps learn a finance application such as workday, Xero, FinancialForce, Oracle etc and aim to become a support analyst or even a PM in that domain.
Clearly, you are bright and have the capability to learn.
The 'quickest hot' route today is to learn Salesforce and become a Salesforce admin - 3 years ago it was a £25k a year role, today circa £50k a year, (£400 a day).
You can learn Salesforce online through trailheads - you might need to get an entry-level job £25k for a year - while you get all the badges in the background and then there will be an opportunity to triple that salary within 3 years.
If you are tech mined then AWS or Azure (cloud) admin skills, again can all be done online for free - or with a modest personal subscription.
If you want to go into coding, then Python, R, Snowflake - roles in data engineering and analytics (your background might help here)
Good luck.
https://aws.amazon.com/training/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/resilience/trainin...
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en
Clearly, you are bright and have the capability to learn.
The 'quickest hot' route today is to learn Salesforce and become a Salesforce admin - 3 years ago it was a £25k a year role, today circa £50k a year, (£400 a day).
You can learn Salesforce online through trailheads - you might need to get an entry-level job £25k for a year - while you get all the badges in the background and then there will be an opportunity to triple that salary within 3 years.
If you are tech mined then AWS or Azure (cloud) admin skills, again can all be done online for free - or with a modest personal subscription.
If you want to go into coding, then Python, R, Snowflake - roles in data engineering and analytics (your background might help here)
Good luck.
https://aws.amazon.com/training/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/resilience/trainin...
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en
My own experience is probably ancient history nowadays but fwiw:
I qualified as an accountant in 1990 at the age of 27 and had always dabbled in IT while I was in the process of qualifying. If memory serves my last part-qualified job was “Cost and systems accountant” back when that was a thing.
I moved into full-time Finance systems implementation work in 1995, still as part of a Finance organisation. Then in 1999 I moved permanently into IT at a relatively senior level.
I know at least half a dozen people in my peer group who did the same. Some of us stayed in IT and some went back to Finance or consulting; at least one went to a big software provider in a customer facing role. It worked out very well for all of us but I don’t know if such career paths are viable nowadays.
Like I say, my experience is probably out of date but my gut reaction reading your op was that you are making the move too early and that you might be better served making the transition into a senior management role later on rather than moving into too technical a role now.
I qualified as an accountant in 1990 at the age of 27 and had always dabbled in IT while I was in the process of qualifying. If memory serves my last part-qualified job was “Cost and systems accountant” back when that was a thing.
I moved into full-time Finance systems implementation work in 1995, still as part of a Finance organisation. Then in 1999 I moved permanently into IT at a relatively senior level.
I know at least half a dozen people in my peer group who did the same. Some of us stayed in IT and some went back to Finance or consulting; at least one went to a big software provider in a customer facing role. It worked out very well for all of us but I don’t know if such career paths are viable nowadays.
Like I say, my experience is probably out of date but my gut reaction reading your op was that you are making the move too early and that you might be better served making the transition into a senior management role later on rather than moving into too technical a role now.
E63eeeeee... said:
You may find the more appealing day rates require a fair amount of hands on experience.
Of course you really need to work out what you mean about working in IT. If you want to do hard technical roles you'll need to get some proper learning behind you and find something entry level where you can start accumulating that experience. There are apprenticeships, development programmes and similar schemes, including in the public sector, although starting at 30k might be optimistic.
There are a lot of non-technical roles "in IT" too. Have a look at something like Business Analysis or something in the analytics space where your existing skills will have the most overlap. Alternatively, one fairly common route in is to get involved in the systems your organisation uses (if that's an option) leverage your business knowledge in something like a product management role.
Business Analyst is a good shout. My IT career was....Of course you really need to work out what you mean about working in IT. If you want to do hard technical roles you'll need to get some proper learning behind you and find something entry level where you can start accumulating that experience. There are apprenticeships, development programmes and similar schemes, including in the public sector, although starting at 30k might be optimistic.
There are a lot of non-technical roles "in IT" too. Have a look at something like Business Analysis or something in the analytics space where your existing skills will have the most overlap. Alternatively, one fairly common route in is to get involved in the systems your organisation uses (if that's an option) leverage your business knowledge in something like a product management role.
2nd/3rd Line support > Support Manager > Business Analyst
Business Analyst was by far the easiest to learn and become certified in. I've seen people transition from business roles, straight into Business Analysis with little more experience than being involved in a single IT project. Once you understand the basics it's pretty easy.
For the OP...a Business Analyst bridges the gap between users and developers, writing system requirements, process models, and functional and non functional specifications. It's like being a translator!
As a contractor I could easily get £450 a day, and did so for 10 years before retiring. When I was employed I earned £50k basic + car + bonus etc (80k package).
Edited to add...
This is the formal certification route for Business Analysts, but most don't have the full qualifications (if any).
https://www.bcs.org/qualifications-and-certificati...
In IT your experice counts for much more so once you become a Business Analyst with a few projects under your belt formal certification becomes a nice to have.
Edited by 98elise on Sunday 30th January 11:59
My recommendation would be to look at PMO roles (project management office).
These normally have a good amount of finance related tasks so would have thought this would be a good in road off your own experience. Then after a year or so, could transition into the more IT side of roles, business analyst, project manager / product owners and product managers.
These normally have a good amount of finance related tasks so would have thought this would be a good in road off your own experience. Then after a year or so, could transition into the more IT side of roles, business analyst, project manager / product owners and product managers.
You really need to understand what you want to do. Saying "I want to go into IT" is a bit like saying "I want to get a job". There are a million different roles that might come under "IT" from the ultra-techy embedded systems developer, to being 100% focussed on customer-facing soft skills and just require you to be able to spell whichever platform you happen to be selling that day, to project management roles which need you to juggle resources and timescales.
But in the interests of throwing around random ideas, if you could reinvent yourself as a finance bod with a couple of SAP implementations under your belt then you can pretty much write your own cheques in terms of day date. It'll suck your soul and make you hate your life, but you'll be very comfortably off indeed whilst doing it.
But in the interests of throwing around random ideas, if you could reinvent yourself as a finance bod with a couple of SAP implementations under your belt then you can pretty much write your own cheques in terms of day date. It'll suck your soul and make you hate your life, but you'll be very comfortably off indeed whilst doing it.
Dynion Araf Uchaf said:
Don’t a lot of IT functions end up under the control of the finance department? You’d be better off going that route and finding a business without a dedicated IT dept
This....They usually have business systems analyst type roles.
I think you are mad getting into IT myself, its a political jungle in most organisations that gets very little recognition now days.
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