How to get into I.T
Discussion
I would advise against getting into IT
Do not believe the hype about wages, the market is flooded with staff and dependant on your age it is hard to get into.
Also which area of IT? It is so vast and varied. The glory days of job security and job for life are gone. Unless you get a job that requires local support you are at risk of being outsourced, even these jobs are being outsourced.
Do you have a forces background as if you do and you have SC then I could probably put you in touch with agencies that will get you jobs tomorrow (albeit working in the defense sector left me feeling so bored I had to quit).
Was chatting only yesterday to my mate who is a builder. I said when we have kids I will make sure they are IT literate but beyond that I would also encourage they get a skilled trade too.
What is prompting you to want to get into IT? If you are serious then your best way is to get in to a small place with an IT team that look after their own servers/network. Its monkey work but you learn so much, you need to be able to understand networking (purely so you know how things interact). What is your skill and background?
Do not believe the hype about wages, the market is flooded with staff and dependant on your age it is hard to get into.
Also which area of IT? It is so vast and varied. The glory days of job security and job for life are gone. Unless you get a job that requires local support you are at risk of being outsourced, even these jobs are being outsourced.
Do you have a forces background as if you do and you have SC then I could probably put you in touch with agencies that will get you jobs tomorrow (albeit working in the defense sector left me feeling so bored I had to quit).
Was chatting only yesterday to my mate who is a builder. I said when we have kids I will make sure they are IT literate but beyond that I would also encourage they get a skilled trade too.
What is prompting you to want to get into IT? If you are serious then your best way is to get in to a small place with an IT team that look after their own servers/network. Its monkey work but you learn so much, you need to be able to understand networking (purely so you know how things interact). What is your skill and background?
Depends what you want to do.
Very much depends upon what you want to do. Being able to mix IT and business skills is very useful, for example there are a number of people who can configure a module of SAP's business solution and write bespoke progams to adjust those bits... that need adjusting.
That's just one example. There are many more.
The thing with IT is that you need to make decisions about what it is you want to become expert in. Then accept that you will spend the rest of your career constantly keeping up to date, learning new languages, ways of doing things and at the moment keep one step ahead of redundancy, outsourcing and at times quite high levels of stress and anxiety.
Depending on what you do the money varies - but as with anything, experience is king. I know two peoples who retired in their mid 40's, knowing little more than 2 major progams in SAP. But they knew them inside out, upside down and back to front. It bought them very comfortable lifestyles indeed and they were never out of work. But they are in all probability the exception.
Very much depends upon what you want to do. Being able to mix IT and business skills is very useful, for example there are a number of people who can configure a module of SAP's business solution and write bespoke progams to adjust those bits... that need adjusting.
That's just one example. There are many more.
The thing with IT is that you need to make decisions about what it is you want to become expert in. Then accept that you will spend the rest of your career constantly keeping up to date, learning new languages, ways of doing things and at the moment keep one step ahead of redundancy, outsourcing and at times quite high levels of stress and anxiety.
Depending on what you do the money varies - but as with anything, experience is king. I know two peoples who retired in their mid 40's, knowing little more than 2 major progams in SAP. But they knew them inside out, upside down and back to front. It bought them very comfortable lifestyles indeed and they were never out of work. But they are in all probability the exception.
choose:
Programming << not recommended unless you have experience
Admin << Will drive you insane
Tech Support << see above
Networks << low paided unless manager
Project manager << Experience is needed
Release management << gets boring quick
Data Monkey << Slit your wrists now
Sales << not sure
Recruitment << be prepared for long hours and not much reward
Its not what it was, but still can be profitable, but if you do a mundane job it will be outsourced.
It is going to take a few years to come back round when they realise that outsourcing is crap and they need to hire contractors to fix all mistakes.
Programming << not recommended unless you have experience
Admin << Will drive you insane
Tech Support << see above
Networks << low paided unless manager
Project manager << Experience is needed
Release management << gets boring quick
Data Monkey << Slit your wrists now
Sales << not sure
Recruitment << be prepared for long hours and not much reward
Its not what it was, but still can be profitable, but if you do a mundane job it will be outsourced.
It is going to take a few years to come back round when they realise that outsourcing is crap and they need to hire contractors to fix all mistakes.
Sales - you don't need any IT experience to sell most IT solutions.
That's because account managers have presales engineers as resource. However, by and large, presales engineers need experience in the relevant field and also sales skills. So it's somewhere to move to, not start in...
I started out in support - and had a lucky move to presales from there.
That's because account managers have presales engineers as resource. However, by and large, presales engineers need experience in the relevant field and also sales skills. So it's somewhere to move to, not start in...
I started out in support - and had a lucky move to presales from there.
Blah blah blah as everyone has said, many different markets, depends what bit you want to get into. Usually need some king of certification first.
As for the market being saturated, not always, that changes everynow and then in a cycle, what happened at first was IT exploded and there weren't enough people to fill the posts, so everyone trained/got a degree in IT, then there was too many people, and the .com bubble burst so everyone stopped going into IT and jobs were empty again... and then everyone trained in it again... and then it got saturated, but right now, not that many people are learning it, and as it turns out, it is set to be one of the fastest growing sectiors over the next 2 years, so you are doing the right thing.
I'm just finishing my degree, and am going into a Masters, after I hope to move into a lead junior programming role (I have a flair for it), right now the good jobs pay 30K/annum, but by then it's probably going to be more.
As for the market being saturated, not always, that changes everynow and then in a cycle, what happened at first was IT exploded and there weren't enough people to fill the posts, so everyone trained/got a degree in IT, then there was too many people, and the .com bubble burst so everyone stopped going into IT and jobs were empty again... and then everyone trained in it again... and then it got saturated, but right now, not that many people are learning it, and as it turns out, it is set to be one of the fastest growing sectiors over the next 2 years, so you are doing the right thing.
I'm just finishing my degree, and am going into a Masters, after I hope to move into a lead junior programming role (I have a flair for it), right now the good jobs pay 30K/annum, but by then it's probably going to be more.
Speed_Demon said:
Blah blah blah as everyone has said, many different markets, depends what bit you want to get into. Usually need some king of certification first.
As for the market being saturated, not always, that changes everynow and then in a cycle, what happened at first was IT exploded and there weren't enough people to fill the posts, so everyone trained/got a degree in IT, then there was too many people, and the .com bubble burst so everyone stopped going into IT and jobs were empty again... and then everyone trained in it again... and then it got saturated, but right now, not that many people are learning it, and as it turns out, it is set to be one of the fastest growing sectiors over the next 2 years, so you are doing the right thing.
I'm just finishing my degree, and am going into a Masters, after I hope to move into a lead junior programming role (I have a flair for it), right now the good jobs pay 30K/annum, but by then it's probably going to be more.
Learning stuff at uni doing a masters doesnt replace experience, going for a LEAD job is going to be hard straight off with no experience of the market in question, no management skills (uni dont count), etc.As for the market being saturated, not always, that changes everynow and then in a cycle, what happened at first was IT exploded and there weren't enough people to fill the posts, so everyone trained/got a degree in IT, then there was too many people, and the .com bubble burst so everyone stopped going into IT and jobs were empty again... and then everyone trained in it again... and then it got saturated, but right now, not that many people are learning it, and as it turns out, it is set to be one of the fastest growing sectiors over the next 2 years, so you are doing the right thing.
I'm just finishing my degree, and am going into a Masters, after I hope to move into a lead junior programming role (I have a flair for it), right now the good jobs pay 30K/annum, but by then it's probably going to be more.
Be prepared to accept a junior role and work you way up to it.
And thats from someone who can go in as a senior/lead programmer, but the competition is fearce as hell.
There is always specialist jobs that can get you huge wages per day, im being offered upto £600 a day at the moemnt, but be aware, you f
k up even once and your rep is tarnished and then you start again from scratch.stigmundfreud said:
yes SAP is still about hte only real lucrative area to aim for now. I am considering it, well, looking at the security test/audit/compliancy side of it.
Always a need for good SAP Basis peoples. Need to get the certification if you want to do this - most companies won't touch people without it.Sorry to jump on the band wagon but what, exactly, is a "lead junior"?
Anyway, OP have a nosey around itjobswatch.com for pointers towards what the market is looking for right now, might help the focus. "IT" is just such a massive umbrella term it's impossible to help
FWIW my skillset is so specialised (essentially one product, probably 2000 potential customers worldwide) that it's a double-edged sword... when work is there it pays by the bucket, but opportunities can be few and far between. But to put that into perspective you could get all the necessary certifications, prob cost less than £20k, and have that all recovered within a few months. Of course, you don't have the experience but we all have to start somewhere (and you can always drop your pants on rate).
Anyway, OP have a nosey around itjobswatch.com for pointers towards what the market is looking for right now, might help the focus. "IT" is just such a massive umbrella term it's impossible to help
FWIW my skillset is so specialised (essentially one product, probably 2000 potential customers worldwide) that it's a double-edged sword... when work is there it pays by the bucket, but opportunities can be few and far between. But to put that into perspective you could get all the necessary certifications, prob cost less than £20k, and have that all recovered within a few months. Of course, you don't have the experience but we all have to start somewhere (and you can always drop your pants on rate).
stigmundfreud said:
Fortunately the company I work for will soon see that getting me certified will save them a fortune in the long run
Good plan. A trip to Heathrow for you soon for the certification exams.Now that's interesting watching the poor "sap's" sweating it out in the morning waiting...waiting ... for the exams to start
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