IT Support Roles, What's Needed?

[NordicCrankShaft]

I'm currently in the midst of trying to change careers and learning to code, I'm getting along nicely and it's something I'm really enjoying.

For actual money though I'm currently a chef registered with an agency, whilst the money is ok and I get to pick and choose my hours, some days I'm left hanging around waiting to find out whether I'm going to be working or not. I've decided that I want to get away from that uncertainty and the whole catering industry in particular as it's easy enough to get sucked back in and get used to earning decent money again (another trap I don't want to fall into).

So I've been looking at the indeed job website and looking at local roles for junior IT Support, whilst it would be a drop in money it would be consistent work/pay and the hours would be more "normal" allowing me to carry on with my learning to code route. Also I feel like being in and around IT would be more beneficial than carrying on with driving up and down the Southwest working sthole kitchen to sthole kitchen.

So I guess my question is, for the below roles what courses or qualifications should I be aiming to get under my belt in order to land a role similar or like these?

https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Subfero/jobs/Entry-Le...

https://www.indeed.co.uk/viewjob?jk=7ae84a0db1c1d7...

https://www.indeed.co.uk/viewjob?jk=1a152fa0e1125b...

https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/WestSpring-IT-Limited...

[HantsRat]

Nothing is usually needed for entry level 1st line roles. Have a look at https://certification.comptia.org/ for some entry qualifications.

[CzechItOut]

First line support is answering the telephone, doing triage and basic tasks such as password resets. This is usually the entry level, requires least amount of technical knowledge and experience.

2nd line is more specialised, so hardware, Windows etc. and requires more technical knowledge.

3rd line is the most advanced and will often require indepth knowledge of systems and applications. Increasingly companies are following a DevOps model which integrates support and development, so you may be required to do hands-on coding.

If coding is what interests you, have you considered looking at entry level development roles?

Similarly, as your background is not in IT, have you considered something like this?

[S9JTO]

CzechItOut said:

First line support is answering the telephone, doing triage and basic tasks such as password resets. This is usually the entry level, requires least amount of technical knowledge and experience.

2nd line is more specialised, so hardware, Windows etc. and requires more technical knowledge.

3rd line is the most advanced and will often require indepth knowledge of systems and applications. Increasingly companies are following a DevOps model which integrates support and development, so you may be required to do hands-on coding.

If coding is what interests you, have you considered looking at entry level development roles?

Similarly, as your background is not in IT, have you considered something like this?

I can mirror what CzechItOut said above.

If I were you I'd be looking to apply for Junior Development roles and/or higher level apprenticeship/development programmes like the Nationwide one or the Civil Service Fast Track/Fast Stream Apprenticeship Scheme. IT is one of the few industries whereby you don't actually NEED a degree or qualification of any kind, it may help but it certainly isn't a requirement in most roles - Most of the experienced Engineers/Developers I've worked with have no qualifications. Proven industry experience > qualifications.

Just out of interest, what language/s have you been studying in your own time?

Edited by S9JTO on Wednesday 18th April 19:29

Edited by S9JTO on Wednesday 18th April 19:29

[83HP]

S9JTO said:

I can mirror what CzechItOut said above.

If I were you I'd be looking to apply for Junior Development roles and/or higher level apprenticeship/development programmes like the Nationwide one or the Civil Service Fast Track/Fast Stream Apprenticeship Scheme. IT is one of the few industries whereby you don't actually NEED a degree or qualification of any kind, it may help but it certainly isn't a requirement in most roles - Most of the experienced Engineers/Developers I've worked with have no qualifications. Proven industry experience > qualifications.

Just out of interest, what language/s have you been studying in your own time?

Edited by S9JTO on Wednesday 18th April 19:29

Edited by S9JTO on Wednesday 18th April 19:29

Would you say IT support/sys admin has had its' day or that a developer is just better in terms of salary? I'm hopefully getting into testing but seems like I'm going to have to start with manual testing despite being able to write automated tests in Java.

[bitchstewie]

My own view is that it depends who has the final say in the recruitment process.

Personally I don't believe qualifications add much to that kind of role, I believe it's much more about showing you're enthusiastic around the subject and showing you're capable of learning and showing initiative to fix issues.

Depending on the employer their HR policies may dictate that you must have a particular qualification, even though you may do none of the above.

[S9JTO]

83HP said:

Would you say IT support/sys admin has had its' day or that a developer is just better in terms of salary? I'm hopefully getting into testing but seems like I'm going to have to start with manual testing despite being able to write automated tests in Java.

IT support in my experience is just a foot in the door, it's not something many people stick with for long (unless they have to). There will always be a need for a Sys Admin, if it's a path you plan on going down I'd recommend leaning towards the Linux side of things... Pick up BASH/Shell scripting as well as general system administration and it'll be a good foot in the door for a DevOps/SRE role.

Surely there are Junior testing roles which would be suitable for you? Like a poster above mentioned, a lot of the time getting the job in IT revolves around enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, from my experience anyway...

[83HP]

S9JTO said:

IT support in my experience is just a foot in the door, it's not something many people stick with for long (unless they have to). There will always be a need for a Sys Admin, if it's a path you plan on going down I'd recommend leaning towards the Linux side of things... Pick up BASH/Shell scripting as well as general system administration and it'll be a good foot in the door for a DevOps/SRE role.

Surely there are Junior testing roles which would be suitable for you? Like a poster above mentioned, a lot of the time getting the job in IT revolves around enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, from my experience anyway...

is DevOps really going to be the future? seems to be a hard thing to get into.. I have some exp with CentOS and have used bash/shell for a few basic commands. I see what you mean re enthusiasm did you start on an apprenticeship like you suggested to the OP?

[S9JTO]

83HP said:

is DevOps really going to be the future? seems to be a hard thing to get into.. I have some exp with CentOS and have used bash/shell for a few basic commands. I see what you mean re enthusiasm did you start on an apprenticeship like you suggested to the OP?

I'd say so, but I'm biased

Yeah unfortunately it is, however there are Junior DevOps jobs available which require little to no experience just enthusiasm and a fundamental knowledge of the DevOps model and supporting OS/technologies are a bonus. They don't come up too often but they do... Alternatively a SysAdmin/Developer could easily make their way in to a DevOps role for obvious reasons.

That's a good start, getting familiar with the command line, Unix filesystem, services/processes, basic infrastructure/service monitoring, a text editor and some basic scripting experience will set you up in good stead for some Junior roles in DevOps/SysAdmin. I'd recommend creating a AWS free-tier account and following some of their tutorials. Even obtaining an AWS certification depending on your skill level.

Yeah, I was on the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme from aged 19-21 as an Apprentice 'WebOps' Engineer before 'DevOps' was the buzz word it is today. Happy to talk more in-depth about my experiences if it helps.

[ribiero]

S9JTO said:

I'd say so, but I'm biased

Yeah unfortunately it is, however there are Junior DevOps jobs available which require little to no experience just enthusiasm and a fundamental knowledge of the DevOps model and supporting OS/technologies are a bonus. They don't come up too often but they do... Alternatively a SysAdmin/Developer could easily make their way in to a DevOps role for obvious reasons.

That's a good start, getting familiar with the command line, Unix filesystem, services/processes, basic infrastructure/service monitoring, a text editor and some basic scripting experience will set you up in good stead for some Junior roles in DevOps/SysAdmin. I'd recommend creating a AWS free-tier account and following some of their tutorials. Even obtaining an AWS certification depending on your skill level.

Yeah, I was on the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme from aged 19-21 as an Apprentice 'WebOps' Engineer before 'DevOps' was the buzz word it is today. Happy to talk more in-depth about my experiences if it helps.

really good advice above, i've gone windows -> linux because the skills gap is there and it will increase, especially post brexit.

[S9JTO]

ribiero said:

really good advice above, i've gone windows -> linux because the skills gap is there and it will increase, especially post brexit.

Interesting re: post brexit - What're you thinking?

[83HP]

S9JTO said:

I'd say so, but I'm biased

Yeah unfortunately it is, however there are Junior DevOps jobs available which require little to no experience just enthusiasm and a fundamental knowledge of the DevOps model and supporting OS/technologies are a bonus. They don't come up too often but they do... Alternatively a SysAdmin/Developer could easily make their way in to a DevOps role for obvious reasons.

That's a good start, getting familiar with the command line, Unix filesystem, services/processes, basic infrastructure/service monitoring, a text editor and some basic scripting experience will set you up in good stead for some Junior roles in DevOps/SysAdmin. I'd recommend creating a AWS free-tier account and following some of their tutorials. Even obtaining an AWS certification depending on your skill level.

Yeah, I was on the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme from aged 19-21 as an Apprentice 'WebOps' Engineer before 'DevOps' was the buzz word it is today. Happy to talk more in-depth about my experiences if it helps.

Kind of kicking myself for not getting an apprenticeship when i was younger, a lot worse off for not doing so anyway.. but please do tell are you mostly self taught despite being on the civil service fast track apprenticeship? Are you located down south where most of the jobs are?(PM me if you don't want to disclose your location) I see very few 'junior' jobs listed where I am and it's mostly junior dev jobs and when you look at the job spec it just seems like the company weren't able to find a senior/mid level developer and are looking for a decent dev for a low salary, with there being so many agencies you don't even know if they are having you on half the time..

When I was younger I had a Raspberypi which i played around with a lot and had my own physical CentOS web server with LAMP but long story short ended up off the beaten track

Edited by 83HP on Sunday 22 April 10:25

[Slushbox]

The other sellable skill is Cisco/networking. A basic Comp.tia then a dive into the Cisco cert. schemes, plus access to a used Cisco router and switch for a 'home lab' is the usual route. Some basic Linux/terminal/hardware knowledge is a good start.

I'm out of date on what Certs are best, but here's a starter. My sister, an ex-librarian, fancied a change and is now a CCNA. It's working out well for her.

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certif...

Another route is vendor certifications like Microsoft. I put myself through the MCSE program a few years ago and it more than paid the rent.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/learning/certifica...

It's worth looking through the ads from the IT contract and employment agencies to see what is sought after in your area and what certs they require.

Sample: there are hundreds of others.

https://technet-it.co.uk/

[CzechItOut]

S9JTO said:

That's a good start, getting familiar with the command line, Unix filesystem, services/processes, basic infrastructure/service monitoring, a text editor and some basic scripting experience will set you up in good stead for some Junior roles in DevOps/SysAdmin. I'd recommend creating a AWS free-tier account and following some of their tutorials. Even obtaining an AWS certification depending on your skill level.

Are those kind of jobs not being impacted by the move to the cloud or is there just as much hands-on work required for AWS/Azure etc as it is to host on-premise?

[CzechItOut]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Interesting, thanks.

[S9JTO]

CzechItOut said:

S9JTO said:

That's a good start, getting familiar with the command line, Unix filesystem, services/processes, basic infrastructure/service monitoring, a text editor and some basic scripting experience will set you up in good stead for some Junior roles in DevOps/SysAdmin. I'd recommend creating a AWS free-tier account and following some of their tutorials. Even obtaining an AWS certification depending on your skill level.

Are those kind of jobs not being impacted by the move to the cloud or is there just as much hands-on work required for AWS/Azure etc as it is to host on-premise?

Nope, I mean to a certain extent in the sense of Infrastructure as Code and containerisation means the amount of command line use is reduced it’s still certainly required. When I’m writing a Dockerfile or some Ansible, I still need that fundamental command line knowledge as it’s essentially running those same commands on the host, I’m just writing this in a YAML file for example.

Plus there will always be physical hardware which will need to be managed for the foreseeable future unless you’re working for a start up - Also, toxicnerve is right in what he's saying re: EC2 etc, an EC2 instance is just a virtual machine.

Edited by S9JTO on Sunday 22 April 14:03

[S9JTO]

83HP said:

Kind of kicking myself for not getting an apprenticeship when i was younger, a lot worse off for not doing so anyway.. but please do tell are you mostly self taught despite being on the civil service fast track apprenticeship? Are you located down south where most of the jobs are?(PM me if you don't want to disclose your location) I see very few 'junior' jobs listed where I am and it's mostly junior dev jobs and when you look at the job spec it just seems like the company weren't able to find a senior/mid level developer and are looking for a decent dev for a low salary, with there being so many agencies you don't even know if they are having you on half the time..

When I was younger I had a Raspberypi which i played around with a lot and had my own physical CentOS web server with LAMP but long story short ended up off the beaten track

Edited by 83HP on Sunday 22 April 10:25

I'm lucky that I ended up getting into the DevOps world, I didn't intend on it but I'm glad it happened that way. Before starting my apprenticeship I didn't even know what Linux was, never mind any of the associated ways of working and technologies. So no, I'm not mostly self-taught, however the actual apprenticeship modules didn't teach me much other than the fundamentals of Linux, agile ways of working and continuous integration/deployment. It was mostly working on the job with Senior DevOps guys. I found that I learn best by getting thrown in at the deep end and reverse engineering what somebody else has done, rather than understanding and revising the theories behind stuff, so that kind of environment suited me more so and if you learn in a similar way then it's easy to pick up just from the Internet, getting a job with more experienced engineers/developers is a bonus, a big one at that.

I'm located in a small town, commutable to Manchester/Liverpool - Like I said the don't come up too often but keep an eye out, they're all Manchester based which I have come across but I imagine Leeds would be a good place to look too if it's feasible for you.

I know what you mean regarding the 'junior' roles which are essentially mid-level, you'll often find that those jobs have been advertised for months as no decent dev will take them, there's no harm in applying, don't count yourself out before you've even made a move - If you get to interview there's a decent chance you may be offered a role based on your enthusiasm etc - From your messages you don't seem like a complete novice, I think you'd be suitable for a Junior Dev/DevOps or even 2nd/3rd line support role. Feel free to PM me and I'll take a look at your CV and help out if possible.

[ribiero]

S9JTO said:

Interesting re: post brexit - What're you thinking?

That the minute the UK becomes an unattractive place for talented educated mainland European's to work the skills gap will increase.