IT Career Advice to new IT Professionals |
- Advice to new IT Professionals
- Already in IT but want some change
- Next Cert, CCIE Possible?
- Do I need this?
- How do I become a highly-prized candidate that employers fight over?
- What certifications are in demand in Michigan?
- How long do you spend at a desk each day?
- Worried about not getting an IT related job after college
- Went in to give my 2 week notice and company wants to Promote me.
- HR "let me" accept a job for >10k less than candidates with same experience, is this acceptable?
- Preparing for the GIAC Security Leadership (GSLC) Exam?
- What certs do I need to get into an entry level job as an ar developer?
- Looking to pivot career or is it just my company?
- What certifications/training/experience can I learn to make around $1,600 to $2,600 net pay per month? (One year or less timeframe to acquire the skills). What would you recommend?
- What should I do next?
- New pathway into IT (UK)
- A+ certified, and I cannot get a single entry level position. Even a callback. Need advice.
- Info Sec analyst to Infrastructure analyst advice
- VMWare engineer... whats next?
- What does it sound like this job is about?
- Employement history question
- What job title am I looking for?
- IT Jobs in Interesting Places
- I hate my job
- Breaking into IT without going back to college.
| Advice to new IT Professionals Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:42 AM PDT I've been noticing a trend on questions lately and figured I would start a discussion. People seem to come here and ask a variation of can I make it without -insert problem area-. The answer is almost always yes, but it'll be harder. If you must question something, or ask yourself if it's possible, it's likely going to be an issue. To get a job in IT or to advance in IT, you're going to need a combination of experience, education or certifications. Now, how can you get experience without a job? That's difficult sometimes. If you're in university, internships or hiring programs sponsored by your college are the way to go. If you are outside of college or coming to this later in life, it becomes more difficult. There are opportunities to volunteer for organizations or even some short-term contracting work, but it's hard for most people to do this. This is because from what I noticed by the time some people think about switching into IT they already have family and financial responsibilities. So it's a matter of trying to find entry-level jobs that will accept you without experience. MSP's, and Small businesses are more likely to take a chance on you if you're able to talk the language. They do have downsides though, as these places are usually filled with stress and people that were taught bad habits and so pass them onto other people. Education. It should be simple, but it's something that is asked several times a day. It boils down to this, yes, you should have it. The minimum people should shoot for is a bachelor's preferably in Computer Science or Information Technology. While a cybersecurity, networking, and database degree will be accepted it's just not looked as favorably as Computer Science. This is because the degree paths of the specialty degrees are too new, and not standardized across colleges, and that means it's harder to vet what you know. Anything less than a bachelor's, it's going to make your career more difficult. It shouldn't matter, but it does, and you're going to have to fight against people that went to college and just have the mindset that it makes you a better candidate. Rather than struggle, it's easier just to accept the fact and get a degree from a respected university. Certifications. This is a hot topic here. Generally, what I notice is that people ask "What certification should I get to get started/advance in IT." The response is usually A+, Network+, Security+, or even more randomly CCNA. Certifications can be useful, but without experience, it's just a piece of paper. More so, because if certifications are being recommended they need to match what career path a person is following. If somebody wants to be a Systems Administrator, a CCNA is less useful, instead focus on RHEL or Microsoft certifications if somebody wants to go that route. Each specialty has its own certifications that are valued, but the answer is rarely CompTIA or CCNA. CCNA is only useful if you're looking to go into big enterprise networking, and then the minimum you should have is a CCNP R&S. I say this because most smaller organizations do not pay for the cost of running a Cisco stack, and rather than spend a lot of hours studying something that you'll never use, spend it on something that directly relates to what you want to do. To flip this topic. What are some trends that you all have noticed? Do any of you have any advice that you can give people? Feel free to even call me out on some of these points as I welcome a discussion on these topics. Edit: Trying to make the formatting better. [link] [comments]  |
| Already in IT but want some change Posted: 30 Aug 2018 10:08 AM PDT Hey everyone! I'm already working in the IT field but I'd like to improve. My dream position would be CTO for a Fortune 100. I started in IT at Geek Squad, interned for a large school district, became a sysadmin for the same district for a couple years, joined an MSP, and 6 years since Best Buy, I'm now the Director of IT at my current location. I'm a glorified sysadmin, have some autonomy, report to the CFO. I love the company and the job, but I'm never one to settle. I definitely have room to grow here as this company continues to grow. But I need to do something on my own time in order to actually grow! I have little to show on paper, I have A+, an AA, and that's it. I've hustled to get where I am but I have nothing for fall back next time the economy crashes. My company wants me to get a Microsoft cert, we are heavy on O365 and I want to move us to SPO and AAD so MCSA/E Cloud seems to be the best path. But what else should I be doing? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2018 10:03 AM PDT I've just started working at an ISP and an now I've settled into my new job. I've got my CCNP R&S and I've been told to look at doing my CCIE SP but I have absolutely no SP experience. My question is would the jump be to much, I don't particularly want to do the entire track of CCNA and CCNP. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2018 06:13 AM PDT I have been working in IT "support" (I use support in some cases loosely because I spent a year working at office Depot working on customer computers) for about 10 years I have been either supporting customer technology needs or working directly with or in an IT department. My knowledge I have ranges did you plug it in to trying to troubleshoot a failing iDrac on a Dell server that refused to boot. I have also built a great many computers, most of them were not mine. I also have encountered plenty of software issues and solved them. However I do not have any certifications. I feel like I have plenty of knowledge but do I really need to have certifications? My current job is working for a University's IT department on contract (happens all the time at this University). Any advice anyone has would be great. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I become a highly-prized candidate that employers fight over? Posted: 29 Aug 2018 04:33 PM PDT How do I get to a point where I am an invaluable asset to a company? How do I get to a point where recruiters beg me to work for their company, and not the other way around? How do I become a person that companies have bidding wars over and are willing to fight for? Like most engineers, I'm not really good at selling myself or pretending to be the next messiah during a job interview. I understand it's a necessary evil, but I would rather walk the walk than talk the talk. Instead of spending my entire career trying to prove to hiring managers that I'm competent, I'd like it if the roles were reversed. I had a professor that said he never applies to companies anymore. He was lucky enough to work for a startup that blew up and got bought out by a big4 company, so now he gets hired because people reach out to him. He's also experienced in a niche field that's in high demand (mobile security) so I imagine that helps. How do I get to this point? Do I need certain technical/people skills? A niche specialization? Employment at a prestigious company? Some kind of well-known achievement? [link] [comments]  |
| What certifications are in demand in Michigan? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:38 AM PDT I have zero IT experience and I am wondering what certifications are in demand in Michigan. I plan on getting my A+ and building on that. I took a intro networking course a couple years ago at a community college and really enjoyed the material. Indecision and a negative review on the future of networking made me hold off on pursuing the CCNA and networking as a career. All advice is appreciated. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| How long do you spend at a desk each day? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:34 AM PDT Hello, Im considering a career in IT and would like to get some information about what the day to day life is like. Specifically, how much of your day is spent at a desk working on a computer and what your role is. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Worried about not getting an IT related job after college Posted: 30 Aug 2018 10:44 AM PDT I go to a college in New Jersey (I live here too) and some people who have graduated this college have struggled finding jobs after college. My dad went to the same school as me in the 80s as a Mechanical Engineering major and I know a family friend in his 20s who graduated from my school a few years before I started school and majored in Mechanical Engineering. He still lives at home and works in retail at Lowe's. My dad got a job right after college, but he got rejected from every job he applied to except for his job he still has up to today. These two situations scare me, however my school is actually known for having a lot of people get jobs right after college. I am not sure how IT jobs would be after college. IT job opportunities (and internships) in NJ suck. There are lack of them except for the more complex jobs. Most of the IT related jobs in NJ are all the urban parts of NJ. The urban parts of NJ suck. Most of them are very dense, ghetto, high traffic, and parking is a pain to get. Working in NJ's suburbs would be really nice, because parking is damn easy, especially parking near those corporate offices. After I finish college, I really want to leave NJ, because I am really sick of the East Coast and the climate out here. I always dreamed to move out to the West. I heard that there are an abundance of IT related job opportunities in Washington and Oregon and the jobs there are less people to fulfill all these jobs. I haven't even gotten an internship this summer (I am going into my junior year). [link] [comments]  |
| Went in to give my 2 week notice and company wants to Promote me. Posted: 30 Aug 2018 06:45 AM PDT Hi guys, i would like to start with i had an interview a few days ago and i got a good package from another company, that company is in a remote town and the town is a ghost town no one lives there except for 1000 people. But package is great and benefits are awesome. I went to give my boss a notice and he said he would love to keep me here and will present me with a counter offer, and he interviewed me for that position and it will be a full time opportunity (I'm on contract now). My plan was to go to the remote town get some certs done and get that drastic financial boost at the same time but leaving all the social life behind. but now I'm confused which way to go should i stick with this company and start over a new role or should i go there and have the benefit of being rich with no friends. My boss said they can not match the package I'm getting there but I haven't heard from the anything related to the compensation yet. Edit: Also guys the new place has a six month condition on the offer letter. [link] [comments]  |
| HR "let me" accept a job for >10k less than candidates with same experience, is this acceptable? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 10:15 AM PDT just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this scenario. I applied alongside someone i knew from university and we had similar internship experience (both CS grads). The company was putting together a 15 person team and as far as i could tell they had less than 10 candidates interviewing. the HR "recruiter" for the company pretty much asked me how much i expected in the pre-screening interview. I told her 45-49k (this is Indiana so this is was honestly a lot for me as a first job, my dad makes 58k after working for 30 years) and she didnt say anything about it again until i "passed" interview 2 and then interview 3. She sat down and had an offer of exactly 49k (salary exempt). I accepted. Later on I find out that my friend had been offered 65k and he did not even recall being asked what he expected there were no technical questions for me, only experienced based/behavioral questions. Should i feel slighted by this company for doing this or is this my own fault? [link] [comments]  |
| Preparing for the GIAC Security Leadership (GSLC) Exam? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 09:12 AM PDT My job sent me to a prep class for the GSLC, but so far those that have taken the exam have said the prep wasn't helpful. Has anyone taken this exam and have suggestions on studying for it? So far, I've found very little online that is related to this exam. [link] [comments]  |
| What certs do I need to get into an entry level job as an ar developer? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 09:09 AM PDT |
| Looking to pivot career or is it just my company? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 12:22 AM PDT Hi all, So as the brief subject line entails, It seems I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment and constantly asking myself if its time to switch my career whilst im still young or is it because I am working at a company where I feel like I am not valued nor does it cater for any progression. Long and short of it I am a network engineer with no related industry qualifications like a CCNA but I have over 4 years of experience in the position and over that time I have rolled out multiple networks working in different teams all across the company and providing continued BAU support to these networks. just to give you an idea of the spectrum of the networks we provide, all customers sit on an MPLS core and from there they are routed down to their own individual core of which multiple services are provided from our exchanges and routed down to the customer - we support our core and all the way down to the end site. Now a bit of history on the company. without name dropping it is a subsidiary of the mammoth destroyer and all things hell which starts with CAPI and ends with TA. obviously due to the company recent financial failings there has been an increased drop in morale which you can feel shimmer throughout the company, senior management walk around like they have no care in the world all community/bonding days are totally gone (we had to arrange our own Christmas party), the attitude of other employees is highly tolerated no matter how informal they are being in their approach to talking to individuals when either attempting to ask for help or just escalating incidents. I have lost out on promotions to external candidates because they have a CCNA qualification even though they skipped the technical questions in my interview down to the heaps of recommendations across the company I gathered. all management have not been trained to be in their position and therefore you can see informal micro-management cascade down which ultimately makes me feel like I am still a child and am not trusted to do my job even know I have been here longer than most employees and have a proven track record of good work. I always had in mind that a career in networking would be like this snippet from an article I found online describes; " IT workers are looking for a combination of high incentive pay and creative compensation, such as work from home opportunities, tuition reimbursement, flexible schedules, ongoing education, and paid healthcare, the report noted. " - however in a more personal sense I am probably looking for this within a young and fun company to keep me happy and actually make me want to come to work, only ones I can think of are places like Ubisoft or Google. Finally this leads me to ask two questions to people of which may have more experience in the industry as a whole or can shed some light on the topic. Would it be better for me to find a new company which can live up to the expectations of what I want and will this give me more drive and motivation to continue with networking? or should I pivot my network career as a whole to something else within the industry that will be more rewarding, if so then what? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2018 10:36 PM PDT Background: Effectively I have nothing (no degree, some college, odd job work experience). On an optimistic aspect, treat me like a "clean state." It does not really matter what role I am doing. I care more about the net earnings and the potential to go from nothing to something within a timeframe of around 1 year or less. What path would recommend? Thank you for your time. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2018 07:59 AM PDT I have been working in IT for the past 3 years in a few different jobs and my current job title is Service Desk Analyst. Our company hosts/creates/supports/backs up/security for Windows and Linux VM's across two datacentres with failover. As this is the end of my first year working here I am up for an annual review with my manager. Overall I enjoy the work but I have a few issues. I don't feel my current job title (Service Desk Analyst) reflects what I do on a day to day basis, for example below is a list of what I do / responsible for: Monitoring (Nagois) DNS Changes ESET administration Kaseya administration Managing and diagnosing backups (VEEAM) VMWare - Creating new VM's - General tasks (vmotioning/RAM upgrade/hard drive increase) - New datastores / creating failover between datacentres Patching Server 2003 - 2016 issues / diagnostics Rollouts Linux admin SQL issues Active Directory Powershell scripts Network issues Firewall changes Another problem is that we're a small team (7 technical staff). There are currently on 4 of us who are SDA's and one of which who has had the same title for 5 years! The problem with being in a small team is that as well as doing all the technical work we also have to do the admin work. Like delegating tickets, replying to emails, being the first to answer the phone to customers etc.. I hate doing this part of the job and feel I'm way past this 1st line tier stuff, especially as my previous job title was 2nd line engineer. Do you think I'm wrong in wanting a different title within my job? Is there anything I can do about doing less admin work? What would you do if you were up for your annual review? Thanks My current qualifications are: 1st Class Degree ITIL Foundation CompTIA A+ Essentials CompTIA A+ IT Technician MCTS Windows 7, Configuring MCTS Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 I'm looking to do more Windows probably - Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016 and another 2 to get my MCSA [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Aug 2018 03:20 AM PDT Okay so I'm looking for some advice. I studied a BND IT practitioners course at college for two years which I finished around 7 years ago. I wanted to work in London so looked around for any office jobs in the area and managed to get myself in the facilities umbrella at a Solicitors in central London. I've now been working here almost 7 years and I'm keen to move on and would like to get back in to IT as I really enjoy it. I'm looking to stay in Law as it may be easier for me to transition over since I've already worked in that environment. I'm specifically looking for a role starting off in a IT helpdesk however I'm concerned that it will be very difficult for me to get into now as my course finished several years ago. I'm also on a good wage at my current job (around 30k) and would take a hit to around 25k just to change. Really I'm just after some advice or guidance into what I can do to help my chances of finding what I'm looking for! Should i do some sort of refresher course? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| A+ certified, and I cannot get a single entry level position. Even a callback. Need advice. Posted: 30 Aug 2018 06:53 AM PDT Can someone take a look at my resume, and give me notes? I can't find any entry level positions at all, with an A+ certification. Can barely even get a call back. I keep hearing on this subreddit that A+ is a good way to start with entry level positions, but I can't seem to find any at all. [link] [comments]  |
| Info Sec analyst to Infrastructure analyst advice Posted: 29 Aug 2018 09:41 PM PDT Currently in an Info Sec analyst role in IAM which is not as technical as I hope it'd be. I've been offered a infrastructure analyst role and I'm wondering if this would be a good route to pursue? My goal is to eventually obtain a Net Sec engineering role. [link] [comments]  |
| VMWare engineer... whats next? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 06:23 AM PDT So all I keep hearing about is CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD... my company has recently started going hard into "the cloud" but opted to hire external for their cloud team rather than training any of the already hundreds of people in IT. So I guess my question(s) is, is VMware knowledge not nearly as important as it once was? How can I get into "the cloud" without actually having any work experience with it, working at a company that won't give you a shot at it? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| What does it sound like this job is about? Posted: 30 Aug 2018 06:17 AM PDT Job title: Application Analyst I. It's at a new hospital and part of the long description states:
"Responsible for coordinating between Information Technology and customers all aspects of information systems to ensure that existing and future systems facilitate, and enhance quality and regulatory requirements."
Why would I need to tell customers aspects of I.T.? It's confusing the Hell out of me. The job is listed as an I.T. job, but then in that description it says it basically acts as a funnel between I.T. and customers. Well, what would people going to a hospital need to talk to someone about I.T. for? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2018 10:40 PM PDT I'm filling out the clearance form, and for the employment activity part should I list the name of the company that I worked for or the temp agency that hired me and gave me the paychecks? I used to work in company A, through a temp agency. Which one should I put as the name of the employer? Does this small details matter when it comes to background check? Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
| What job title am I looking for? Posted: 29 Aug 2018 07:54 PM PDT I'm self taught at repairing computer hardware and software issues. I'm looking for a job in the field, but not sure what the job title is called. I would rather work for a company and it's employees than doing home service or customer remote support. I love ripping open computers to replace/repair/upgrade and get them back in working order. I also like the software side as well (removing viruses, cleanup, random problems, etc) What kind of job am I looking for? And are there other IT jobs closely related? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2018 05:44 PM PDT I have been working in a help desk position for a little over a year now. I like the company I work for and my co workers are great. Problem is I'm very much an outdoor enthusiast and I'm starting to get tired of being in a cubicle for most of the day. I enjoy working with computers but it would be awesome to find an IT job that had me in interesting locations like State or National Parks. Do you guys have any other suggestions for interesting IT job/locations? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2018 10:04 PM PDT So yeah I've been working at this company for 11 years now. Nice co-workers, I get to work from home, great salary, decent benefits, lots of time off...Anyway there are some aspects of the job I can't stand. Mainly running into support issues I nor anyone else can resolve, having to update all of our checklists and procedures some an outdated 10 year old OS every quarter, etc...Just gets on my nerves. The problem is I don't have a degree or any certs and it seems like every employer out there requires a CCNP for an 'entry level' position(maybe I'm exaggerating a bit with that one). I am also willing to take a small pay cut but not a big one. What do you guys think I should do? For a few months I was pondering on what type of cert I should get and settled on some sort of Windows 2016 certification along with some Powershell training(I read these 2016 exams feature alot of Powershell) as I have been working with Windows for my entire career. The issue is sometimes my job stresses me out that I lose motivation. One other factor is our company has been losing some business to public clouds like AWS, and we had a call a few weeks ago and it was mentioned we would eventually try to leverage these public clouds. Not really sure what that meant for us. [link] [comments]  |
| Breaking into IT without going back to college. Posted: 29 Aug 2018 12:28 PM PDT I just finished Codecademy's beginner Java course. It was a nice re-introduction to Java after 10 years away but it's obviously not meant to be comprehensive. I took a few quarters of Java in college (spent a year in IT), and it didn't quite catch me back up to where I'd been which is fine, I just need to figure out my next steps (besides Java). I'm a librarian who is not only underpaid, which was expected, but who is also overworked and mistreated, which was not expected. At this juncture, it would work out better for me to change careers and I did actually enjoy IT despite not finishing. The problem is that I have no particular job title in mind but rather the sort of lifestyle I wish I had, which I've found is more important to me.
I currently have some knowledge of Java, I've started learning Python, and I am decent with HTML and CSS but it's been a while since I used them regularly. I "manage" our website which is built on Wordpress so I don't touch anything under the hood. I've toyed with PHP and JavaScript but all I learned in those classes was not to take tech classes as part of a library science degree. I don't have a direction to go in at the moment, I'm just going because sitting still is killing me. What I want, more than anything, is to work towards a job that allows me to enjoy my life. So I've researched different titles/careers and their associated skill sets but I'd appreciate feedback on what might be the best track to continue on. I truly do enjoy just about everything I come across, even picking a specialization in grad school was difficult, so the piece I'm missing is personal fulfillment. After Java, I'm just not sure what would be best to learn to achieve my goals. TL;DR I'm a librarian and I hate it. I know some amount of Java, less Python, am decent with HTML and CSS, and want to work towards changing careers. I'm driven so I anticipate constantly seeking out new knowledge anyways but am primarily seeking a track that will allow for more personal fulfillment than what I have at present. Advice on what topics would be best to start learning would be much appreciated. At present, my only plan is to continue picking up Java but after that... [link] [comments]  |
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