New IT Career

[BMWBen]

Wilmslowboy said:

IT is a very broad church, have you any idea what role you are looking for ?

Lots of growth areas, I.e. support (user), data, reporting, cloud environment admin, O365, cyber security etc

A few areas in decline, traditional networking, server and storage admin spring to mind.

The only thing I would add to this is that thinking you can get into cyber security as an entry level role is akin to thinking that you can get a job as a brain surgeon because you qualified as a nurse.

The route to a cyber security career involves a wealth of skills both broad and deep that take a long time to learn. You can have it as a goal, but it's one of the steps much further down the line.

[Bullett]

Take a look at Google Cloud, Azure and AWS certs as well. Most of them provide free foundation courses and just being familiar with the terminology will give people a confidence in you.

If you have a good working knowledge of call centres, the technology there is booming still especially in the current climate, voice is big but other channels such as email, webchat etc. are growth. If you can talk the language of CC then a helpdesk for those guys is a good starting point.

[TheAngryDog]

Good luck OP!

FYI though and anyone else reading this, professor messor provides some Comptia courses for free.

[siovey]

Well, I've now passed my A+ exams and am now certified! A minor milestone for me and personally very satisfying! I've now started the Network + course. Just wondering if there are roles open to people with no experience but with an entry level certificate? Is it worth applying? Or would I need to become 'more' qualified, with the next , more in depth course ?
Cheers

Edited by siovey on Saturday 10th April 11:43

[anonymous-user]

Civil service. AO/EO grades. Don't know where you are based. There's a pretty tasty apprenticeship at the bottom end of the payscale.

[siovey]

ExcitableBoy said:

Civil service. AO/EO grades. Don't know where you are based. There's a pretty tasty apprenticeship at the bottom end of the payscale.

Thanks mate. I'm based on the wirral. I'll have a look at the civil service website

[anonymous-user]

You have HSE in bootle, HMPO in Liverpool, HMLR in Birkenhead to name a few. Plenty of opportunity. But if you are not otherwise tied down, move for the right role.

[siovey]

Very tied down, sadly . But not too far from those areas at all.

[anonymous-user]

If you don't have a degree there is an excellent looking apprenticeship for DBS (MOD) in Liverpool. Two posts, will get you skills that give you a very clear path for progression in the CS but also private sector.

[siovey]

ExcitableBoy said:

If you don't have a degree there is an excellent looking apprenticeship for DBS (MOD) in Liverpool. Two posts, will get you skills that give you a very clear path for progression in the CS but also private sector.

will give it a look. Cheers

[Sir Bagalot]

siovey said:

Wilmslowboy said:

Edited my response, after reading yours, about seeking a service desk role.

We currently have 3 IT service desk roles available, ranging from £21k to £24k - key skills in order are:-

1. Good on the phone / email (with users)
2. Good trouble shooting / problem solving
3. ITIL foundation

4. Support desk experience
5. AD/ windows/ 0365 experience



Go on jobserve.com and look up support desk jobs, and see what skills are in demand.

Edited by Wilmslowboy on Sunday 28th February 10:05

Thanks mate, I've certainly got the first one. Need to work on the others though!

You might be surprised how many people get No.1 wrong.

When looking for a 1st/2nd line person (sometimes requiring no IT experience) after shortlisting CV's my next port of call was a phone interview lasting 10ish minutes. Now considering the date and time of the call was pre arranged you might be surprised that 70% of those couldn't handle a simple phone to a standard I'd expect

[siovey]

Sir Bagalot said:

You might be surprised how many people get No.1 wrong.

When looking for a 1st/2nd line person (sometimes requiring no IT experience) after shortlisting CV's my next port of call was a phone interview lasting 10ish minutes. Now considering the date and time of the call was pre arranged you might be surprised that 70% of those couldn't handle a simple phone to a standard I'd expect

Well I've certainly had enough experience in that field after 25 years!
Just need to convince an employer I can learn to practically do the other stuff now

[Blown2CV]

It worries me when people say they want to get into IT without really knowing what they want to do, because what i hear when people say that is "i can earn loads of money doing this". If that is the only driver, you will likely hate it and it will be a failure. So, my advice is to find what it is that you like about it, and focus upon that. You need to narrow it down a bit. There is no single way to get into IT because there are numerous career paths within IT, and with relatively little lateral transferability between. You need to know where you want to get to. I can say now that if you want to get into, say, support or installations then you're probably going to find it fairly difficult to find an opportunity to move on from there (if you want to) to something like development. It's not impossible, but there is no natural progression, is my point. One way to get a broader understanding, learn on the job and also be paid is to look at a non-degree apprenticeship. Lots of the larger tech firms are starting to do this, and also have options like 6 month entry diplomas.

[siovey]

Cheers for the advice. I'll be looking at helpdesk initially and then wherever that progresses to. I'm not interested in earning tons of money, I don't need to. I'm looking for a job I like doing for the next 10 years and I'll probably retire. As long as I can get to £30k, that suits my lifestyle just fine

[m_cozzy]

Crikey I would have thought 30k was possible. I got that 20 years with my first IT job with just an mcse to my name. Different times though for sure.
Im regarded as legacy IT infrastructure these days, it's all cloud whatnot now and I CBA with it. Looking forward to retiring within the next couple of years.

[Blown2CV]

m_cozzy said:

Crikey I would have thought 30k was possible. I got that 20 years with my first IT job with just an mcse to my name. Different times though for sure.
Im regarded as legacy IT infrastructure these days, it's all cloud whatnot now and I CBA with it. Looking forward to retiring within the next couple of years.

agreed. That's grad starting wage nowadays i think. Considering lots of companies do degree equivalency certificates and things now I'd have thought that would be the preferential way in for non degree holders but to each their own.

[Insert Coin]

Congrats on passing your CompTIA certs, I’ve also passed fundamentals and core 1+2 this year, trying to finish the Microsoft md100 +101 too.

I’ve changed careers in the last 12 months too, very glad to be away from the family business which I always hated, but did pay off my mortgage and a few other luxuries.

I start in my first IT support role tomorrow after taking a year off, got lucky when a friend of a friend was looking for a new member of staff.

Need to practise my surly, unsympathetic and condescending ‘have you tried turning it off and on’ support voice.