Does anyone know of a good place online for career advice?

grcaro

I'm desperately looking for feedback on how I can further my education so that I'm more appealing to employers. I am trying to land a job in the computer science/IT world, but I can't seem to get the time of day for even an interview at a staffing agency here in Austin, TX.

Is there a good website online that offers career advice from IT professionals? Heck, at this point I'd pay someone if they can help guide me.

My background is that I have a BS in computer science, but I spent the last 5 years in Finance (I'm 28 now). I recently became certified as an ``Oracle Certified Professional, MySQL 5 Developer``. I can't tell if it'd be better for me to get a certification in PHP or JAVA at this point...

Thanks kindly.

ceres

I'm guessing from what you've listed you want to program? There are a ton of different hats you can wear as an "IT professional".. If you're bothering with certifications (and paying for them) you should make sure they make you look good for the specific kind of job you want.

Deebaser

Computer Science and IT are two fundamentally different fields. What do you want to do? If you want to develop SQL and make use of that cert, look for gigs with the word "analyst" in it or you can even through "SQL" in there as well.

grcaro

Thanks @ceres, @deebaser. I definitely want to develop SQL, I just have no prior job experience and it seems every employer online (indeed, monster) is looking for candidates with 2-5 years experience at a minimum, not to mention all sorts of other job credentials that I am completely unqualified for (Java, PHP being the biggest two).

What is hard for me is that I am trying to navigate all of this by reading a bunch of stuff on the internet. My path as of now is brushing up on HTML/CSS and moving on to PHP and phpMyAdmin for MySQL after that. I'm not sure if that's the best approach or not...

Thank you both for the replies.

Deebaser

2-5 years experience?
Fuck it, apply anyway. What're they gonna do, say no?

Also in your OP you said you had 5 years in finance. There are most certainly jobs out there that require an understanding of finance as well as sql.

grcaro

Haha, thank you very much. You're absolutely right. There's no harm in applying.

I had considered this as a total switch in careers, but you're right, maybe I could find a job where my past in finance is an asset.

Jimmy King

Right here is a good place for advice. For programming specific stuff (both in terms of how to do stuff and job advice) you could even head over to the programming thread in moe's technology tavern.

My immediate advice would be, as @Deebaser said, look at positions that say "analyst", or Reports/Reporting, possibly DBA (although there's much more to that than writing sql). For other programming jobs, many of which will involve writing SQL or in the very least understanding what SQL an ORM is creating behind the scenes, just start writing code... do small projects for fun, stick them up on github, offer them up as examples to any potential employer who will give you the time of day.

Usagi

Deebaser wrote: »

2-5 years experience?
Fuck it, apply anyway. What're they gonna do, say no?

Also in your OP you said you had 5 years in finance. There are most certainly jobs out there that require an understanding of finance as well as sql.

Yep, so true

Also, a lot of the time employers put 2-5 years of experience because they don't want somebody completely green to working a real job, so even if your experience isn't directly related to your desired programming career at least it's something

Deebaser

grcaro wrote: »

I had considered this as a total switch in careers, but you're right, maybe I could find a job where my past in finance is an asset.

It is.
Anecdote time:

I graduated college with a Poli Sci Degree.
I got a job as a corporate scrub at a health insurance company.
I left that job to go to another place that needed my industry knowlege and taught me a little SQL and made me use excel
I left that job by leveraging my industry knowlege AND my knowledge of SQL
I left that industry entirely on the strength of my SQL, l33t MS Office skillz.

I now do data analysis at a financial firm.

Grow your skills and build others. Be a motherfucking charizard

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Especially in the current environment, companies are adding a 2-3 years of experience requirement for functionally entry-level positions entirely as a way of cutting down the volume of applicants.

bowen

Deebaser wrote: »

grcaro wrote: »

I had considered this as a total switch in careers, but you're right, maybe I could find a job where my past in finance is an asset.

It is.
Anecdote time:

I graduated college with a Poli Sci Degree.
I got a job as a corporate scrub at a health insurance company.
I left that job to go to another place that needed my industry knowlege and taught me a little SQL and made me use excel
I left that job by leveraging my industry knowlege AND my knowledge of SQL
I left that industry entirely on the strength of my SQL, l33t MS Office skillz.

I know do data analysis at a financial firm.

Grow your skills and build others. Be a motherfucking charizard

This. Learn to learn.

Pick up on what others do, ask if you can do it too.

grcaro

Ok, thank you. That means a lot.

It has been hard trying to stay resilient and optimistic since I haven't had a job since last September besides temp work. This is a really nice website and I thank you all for encouraging me to be a motherfucking charizard, haha