Making a 180 Career Shift into IT

Hamurabi

So I'm a little frustrated by my lack of success finding steady work post-graduation.

I've been very interested in/have actively followed PC hardware and networking technology/developments for some years now. I'm wondering if this awkward 'transitional period' in my life is the time to finally do something with that passion.

After very briefly asking around in D&D, it sounds like if I wanna break into IT work that I should at the very least have A+ and Network+ certifications, and then work toward getting Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco certs from that foundation.

Does this seem like a solid plan for someone with no other (formal) credentials in IT?

Thanks.

BlindZenDriver

IT is big field with loads of different jobs so just talking about getting into IT isn't very specific.

With your interest in PC hardware and network tech it could lead you to work with selling the goods, doing after-sales support, being part of non-IT company in-house IT-staff or doing server work at a hosting center just to name a few examples. The more you work with the computers and the less with the people around the more the specific education and certifications matter, but of course having documented skills never hurt.

I think your first move should be to try and narrow down a bit exactly what kind of work you want and then look at what the job listings out there asks for. In my experience the bigger work places are more interested in formal education and certifications than the smaller places, so keep that in mind when looking.

schuss

Do you have a degree? Anywhere you can work near that has decent presence/training?
The two legs are generally certs and actual experience. You can absolutely turn these into a very productive career, but only if you have the company opportunities, so you may need to move if you're not in a major IT market.

Orthanc

Probably a bit of an out there suggestion, but if you're trying to narrow down what sub area of IT you're interested in, head over to the tech sub-forum of G&T and compare the sysadmin & programming threads. Those give some feeling of a couple of the top level categories.

I've spent most of my working life in programming & related roles. The key in that space really is being incredibly detail oriented & a bit obsessive as all the interesting challenges really come down to breaking a problem down into increasing smaller parts.

If you're more thinking operational roles then you probably need to think though whether you want to do desktop support vs work with servers.

Hamurabi

So I have a lot of experience in higher-ed environments, and am thinking I'd like to be what I guess I would call an on-site "IT guy"/desktop support person.

Are A+ and Network+ certification the most relevant credentials in that line of work?

(Thanks for your help btw!)

schuss

Hamurabi wrote: »

So I have a lot of experience in higher-ed environments, and am thinking I'd like to be what I guess I would call an on-site "IT guy"/desktop support person.

Are A+ and Network+ certification the most relevant credentials in that line of work?

(Thanks for your help btw!)

MCSE or A would probably be the most useful, network stuff depends on the university and org structure (some farm it out to each area, some centralize).