Career advice; starter job in IT infrastruture
Discussion
My 18 year old neice is about to finish her Level Three Hardware & Networking college course. She cannot go to Uni because of the health and financial condition of her Mum so is looking for her first job.
She did a work placement last summer and they have recently appointed a new trainess at that company, from over 300 aplications. The IT manager had tried to keep the job open for her but needed to fill it by January (or so he said!).
I am better at the later career advice, not at the starter end.
So, advice please for a young lady stating out looking for her first job. She has thought about offering to do a 3 month internship and/or hoping the new boss was as impressed or as horny as the last IT manager but other idea welcome.
My generic advice to new IT bods:
Finally, interpersonal skills and being able to empathise when supporting clients/colleagues in IT will do you lots of good. I recommend reading 'The Compassionate Geek' for a detailed rundown on this.TurricanII said:
Consider early on whether you want to be a programmer, network person (routers VLANS VPNS ETC) or System Admin. Once you get a job and start doing one of these specific skills it is very hard to be a top notch commercially capable programmer, guru network bod AND expert system admin. It's best to focus on one skill initially.
Also give thought to working in house, on one company's internal helpdesk, or for a 3rd party IT support company.
I am of the opinion that in house is the worst choice because:
One thing I should have done was to keep in touch with intelligent/connected people I worked with in 3rd party support companies. Having a good contact base is great for learning of new opportunities.
Finally, think about whether you might end up running your own company. Soak up the experiences you get from any employers, keep an eye on how things are done and any problems. Then you will find it a lot easier staring up yourself one day.
and...Also give thought to working in house, on one company's internal helpdesk, or for a 3rd party IT support company.
I am of the opinion that in house is the worst choice because:
- 3rd party support companies get brought in by the IT Manager to do the good stuff
- Training budgets are tighter
- You stagnate on one set of systems for ages
- They make money by selling your time, which encourages training opportunities and motivates them/you to get out on site doing the job
- You get exposed to the latest software and kit as different customers buy it
- You often get increased access to training copies of software
- You get access to other experienced techies who can give advice and mentor you
- good opportunities to change job and boost your salary with other 3rd party companies - especially if you can bring new clients to the company
One thing I should have done was to keep in touch with intelligent/connected people I worked with in 3rd party support companies. Having a good contact base is great for learning of new opportunities.
Finally, think about whether you might end up running your own company. Soak up the experiences you get from any employers, keep an eye on how things are done and any problems. Then you will find it a lot easier staring up yourself one day.
TurricanII said:
...
One other pearler of advice I spotted on PH is as follows: don't apply for jobs. When a job is advertised there is a whole ballache of a process for employers, plus you are one applicant of many.
I would say she looks well suited to an ISP or phone company that needs helpdesk and network engineers. Such a role would possibly expose her to other problems from which she can listen and learn.
Identify as many possible companies as you can and read their websites. Write a custom cover letter to each. I would address it to the MD for smaller firms and possibly to the support manager for the mid to large firms. I would include some common spiel along the lines of "I understand that advertising a job or paying recruitment agencies, filtering hundreds of C.V.'s and interviewing are costly for a busy company. Having read your website and read about your products on xyz website I feel that I would very much enjoy working on your support team providing the best service support to your clients. I include my C.V. for consideration in the event that you may need an additional support/network person, and would very much like to pop in for an interview at your convenience if appropriate."
I am an employer (albeit small company) and someone could be bothered to write to me for a job, considering my needs, and saving me the hassle listed above, then I would invite them for a coffee at least (and have done this). But it has only happened a few times in ten years. There have been periods of months where we could do with a support engineer but my co-director and I put it off - and someone taking the above approach would have at least gotten a few months trial. Edited to add - I invite other PH'ers to refine my above advice, it is not perfect! I took on a soon to be college leaver in Feb 2012 after he wrote to us.
One other pearler of advice I spotted on PH is as follows: don't apply for jobs. When a job is advertised there is a whole ballache of a process for employers, plus you are one applicant of many.
I would say she looks well suited to an ISP or phone company that needs helpdesk and network engineers. Such a role would possibly expose her to other problems from which she can listen and learn.
Identify as many possible companies as you can and read their websites. Write a custom cover letter to each. I would address it to the MD for smaller firms and possibly to the support manager for the mid to large firms. I would include some common spiel along the lines of "I understand that advertising a job or paying recruitment agencies, filtering hundreds of C.V.'s and interviewing are costly for a busy company. Having read your website and read about your products on xyz website I feel that I would very much enjoy working on your support team providing the best service support to your clients. I include my C.V. for consideration in the event that you may need an additional support/network person, and would very much like to pop in for an interview at your convenience if appropriate."
I am an employer (albeit small company) and someone could be bothered to write to me for a job, considering my needs, and saving me the hassle listed above, then I would invite them for a coffee at least (and have done this). But it has only happened a few times in ten years. There have been periods of months where we could do with a support engineer but my co-director and I put it off - and someone taking the above approach would have at least gotten a few months trial. Edited to add - I invite other PH'ers to refine my above advice, it is not perfect! I took on a soon to be college leaver in Feb 2012 after he wrote to us.
Edited by TurricanII on Thursday 25th June 22:13
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