Hi, I need some advice about what courses would be best to go for in IT as I need to start working on building a career ( and earning some decent money). I have no experience working in IT but I do have a degree in ‘Business IT’ attained in 2005, which was quite general in nature. I was thinking of Microsoft courses, would this be a good idea and could anyone recommend a good one to go for?

Do you want to be an engineer? “Business IT” implies more sort of project management maybe?

Look at a job postings board used locally, see what’s in demand?

Where are you based?

As with most things, if you’re just getting into it then you’re going to start at the bottom rung. If you’re looking to go ‘technical’ that probably probably means on a service desk somewhere on 17-20k

There’s a whole world of Microsoft courses you can do (and find the course materials online) then the exams are £90 odd each (I think).

In that time frame you could probably get yourself to MCSA/MCSE in server 2012 depending how fast you pick the concepts up.

The MS website is actually quite good at explaining it, until they change it all again.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-gb/certification-overview.aspx

What’s your current role?

IMO the more business side courses are probably more up your street e.g. Project Management, Service Management (ITIL) with a view to being a Business Analyst / PM / Junior Service Management role.

Going in to a techy role you’ll be up against stiff competition with no previous whereas the PM / SM stuff is more open to transferable skills.

If you’ve got a techy bent though and are logical and can code already but just need the certificates then go for it.

SQL is always in demand, or Java .net etc.

hmmm, I’m a techi and I’d say you need at least 3, probably 5 years before you start to know your stuff and earn some good cash.

In your situation, I’d be tempted to try and do some Prince stuff and look at IT project management.

Just my two pence worth.

The degree did touch on project management, but only slightly, the course did not really focus on any one area, which is why I need to specialize in something, also, the degree is 9 years old now. Re. engineer, do you mean network engineer, and would you recommend it?

3, probably 5 years before you start to know your stuff and earn some good cash.

the same is true for project management….not an easy field to get into if you don’t have any actual experience of working in a project team. I wouldn’t hire someone as a pm with no experience and just a P2 course…

What are you doing now? What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at? Why IT? It’s a varied industry with lots of different types of role.

The pavements are no longer covered gold in IT anymore imo.

Agree with growinglad – Prince2 and/or ITIL foundation would be the way I’d go, then look at jnr service delivery or project management roles. Any technical knowledge you can pick up will then be an added bonus, rather than being up against seasoned techies for hands-on roles.

Mind you, ultimately it depends whether you want to do more management/overseeing work vs coal face, technical stuff.

We need to know what sort of role you actually want.

Think of the ‘IT industry’ like building houses.

Do you want to:
Manage the build – PM
Design the whole town – Enterprise Architect
Design the house – Technical Architect
Do the plumbing or electrics – Senior Developer
Do general labouring – Junior Developer
Install the kitchen – Infrastructure/Network engineer
Fix the washing machine – 2nd/3rd line Support
Answer the phone to the person with the broken washing machine – 1st line support

(I think this analogy is going well so far 😉 )

Wow, thanks for the posts. I’ll look on The MS website, scaled, would you recommend training in MCSA/MCSE in server 2012?

Pieface, been self employed builder (with another part time job) I have no relevant experience in the IT but need to move in a totally different direction, coding is definitely out – I was useless at it.

Growlinglad, what is Prince stuff, and is IT project management a good route to go down?

some more roles for my metaphor:

Manage the building of the garage/extension – Junior PM
Oversee all the tradesmen – Development Manager
Head plumber – Development Team Lead

With no real world experience the training courses aren’t worth much.

Most people with half a clue about PCs and what they’re for can get a job as an information analyst in the NHS – most people who do it are drones who don’t understand how to make a computer work for them.

So why would you want to do that? Exposure to a variety of software SQL/Bus Objects/Qlikview etc. Sidestep into IT in the NHS maybe?

And they pay for your training 🙂

I was just using Server 2012 as an example as it’s a pretty broad subject that would require you to learn about the building blocks as well as the specifics of the software.

I don’t know really, I live in an insular world of techies. To give you an idea, the apprentice sat next to me is studying for his MCSA and will have the same qualifications and 2 years experience by the time he’s 18…

The poor sod has had to survive on <£3 an hour for the last 2 years though.

DT78, I need a total change in direction as I have done through my own laziness a succession of 9 to 5 jobs, I want to move into IT because of the degree which i have not yet made use of.

Manmurray, I just need to get my foot in the door as my CV is pretty much useless.

alfabus, analogy is fine, of those I would pick Infrastructure/Network engineer.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Project Management (Prince 2 is popular) is transferable between building and IT, however the detail is industry specific.

If you can lie and charm people then consider a consultancy role? 🙂

IT is difficult to get in to and work experience is as important as qualifications, however the (IMO) better section of the industry take you as a person more in to account. This sector is primarily the more ‘People skilled’ section and is all baout talking to people, understanding their needs and co-ordinating the techies to do whjat they need to. Technical knowledge is still important though.

If you go here https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobfamily/Pages/default.aspx and put the following job titles in these may be more amenable roles for someone with little work experience

Requirements Analyst
Business Analyst
Project Manager
Project Support Officer
Service Manager
Problem Manager
Change Manager (probably the easiest route, you just need OCD and to be a control freak)

If you did an ITIL Foundation and PRINCE2 practioner (Prolly about £3k in total)OR Agile (its the in thing at the moment and probably cheaper) and then sell your transferable skills (Communication, empathy, problem solving, seeing things through)there’s no reason why you couldn’t get a Project Support Office role, but nothing’s guaranteed.

I think that there may be links to related roles but hopefully that will give you a feel for what’s out there.

Actually that links a bit rubbish, but have a look around at those sort of job titles on recruitment websites.

I got into PM’ing business and IT projects via a grad scheme. I had previously been a teacher. They didn’t specify IT experience as they were lookiong for more general transferable skills.

The scheme allowed you to try rotations in business analysis and project management and then focus on which you were best at.

For most of these schemes you need a 2:1 degree. Mine was in geography and PGCE in teaching, so not really related apart from demonstrating there are transferable skills e.g. dealing with a class of screaming kids is much like dealing with 3rd party IT suppliers :).

http://www.zurich.co.uk/graduates/ourgraduateprogrammes/ourgraduateprogramme.htm

I did this 6 years ago and the starting salary back then was £24k. So would probably be more now.

Its a good route in if you don’t have any experience and want to get on quickly. I’m sure there are other companies offering similar schemes as well.

It worked well for me and has now allowed me to go contracting which is one way to make a quick buck out of the industry.

Cheers

Andy

Are you just thinking that the IT industry is a simple way to stable cash, as it’s not assured and some of us do actually have to work hard for our salaries you know 😉

We aren’t all always hanging around on here while earning massive day rates ….

We aren’t all always hanging around on here while earning massive day rates ….

<ahem…. walks away whistling/>

There’s a huge pool of people wanting to break into IT – all claiming to have ‘experience’ in various technologies, whereas in reality, they have VMware at home (and never been close to a business network).

The harsh news is – you’ll most likely need to start at the bottom, on £13k-£17k (depending on location/company), unless you strike lucky with a graduate scheme.

In time, you’ll discover what particular elements of IT interest you, and thus decide the direction of your IT.

With no real world experience the training courses aren’t worth much.

This x1000!!

The certifications like MCSE are known in the industry as “zero-to-hero” courses. Your certifications are supposed to reflect (and compliment) your real world experience.

A fresh graduate with zero experience, and the latest MSCE is worth less than a candidate with 1 year experience and basic MS certification (Microsoft Technology Associate)

Thanks again to all, lots to consider and it’s very helpful to get views from different perspectives.

I would really recommend you decide what you like doing and are good at than simply look to IT because you have a degree.

Read what colour is my parachute. If you can get over the americanisms in it it has some half decent advice.

If it was me and i could take the hit, I would be looking to move into mobile and ux, you need to be creative, move rapidly with the times and see things from a users perspective. Lots of money to be made if you are good. Oh and if you are really serious about moving to IT your life will be made much easier by being commutable to london. Yes jobs exist outside, but no where near as many so it will be harder to start….

Start mucking about with apps now, this afternoon, that will tell you something, come back and show us what you have built and learnt. If you can make some money even better (you probably won’t). Build up a portfolio that shows you are interested in tech and have got off your sofa to try it out even if you don’t have a job in IT.

I just recruited several trainees and some didn’t have IT work experience but they all had a track record of an interest in IT and when asked why IT had better answers than my degree was in it and I need a change!

Might sound harsh but trying to be constructive

While ‘Prince 2’ or similar is a nice to have – be aware that a 1-week course doesn’t make you a project manager.
People will almost certainly look at experience over a certificate for any PM job.
Prince does tick a box though, so not a bad thing…

So far in my (relatively short) career in IT, I have dabbled in different disciplines – 1st line telephone support, 3rd line “the-buck-stops-with-me” engineer, web designer, developer, networking engineer, IT management/policy..

Now I’m about to (fingers crossed) leave full time IT employment, do a related MSc, and then change direction into digital forensics (and start at the bottom).

Oooh, xiphon, that sounds interesting – there are elements of IT work that are interesting, it’s just not most of them 😉

toby1 – Member
Are you just thinking that the IT industry is a simple way to stable cash, as it’s not assured and some of us do actually have to work hard for our P*** Poor salaries you know

+1 with amendment

I have nothing constructive to add, but would just like to say to alfabus…

Typical developer, gives no thought to actually testing that the end, erm house, is actually in any fit shape to be lived in 😉

@verses

good point 😳

not sure what the parallel is for testers… building control maybe?

can i add to the analogy

breaking in and trying to steal the tv – pentester

not sure what the parallel is for testers… building control maybe?

creation of the snagging list

I think you’d be best looking at ITIL and service delivery than MS certs.
PRINCE2 is fine (I’m a Practitioner) but again pretty useless without actual experience of running a project. ITIL would be a way to transfer general business/people management experience into an IT context.

I have certs from MS, VMWare, RedHat, IBM, HP, etc. etc. and none of them are substitutes for experience – indeed many of them you just won’t pass without experience no matter how many courses you do (well.. maybe after a few attempts with exam cram style bootcamps, but you probably still won’t GET it). If you want to be a techy, go for it, but get a service desk role, take any training going and show willing.

To the OP – Do you like traveling and working flexible hours or do you need to be home by 5:15 every night?

A lot of the money in IT (non management) comes from learning skills that are in demand and working when and where required.

If I was starting a career in IT now, I would do the new CCNA R&S, then CCNA Wireless and also work through the CWNA, CWNE certs whilst getting experience in a junior position.

GT Hill says it better than me.

There are few experienced Wi-Fi engineers in the UK and the cross knowledge between routing, switching and Wi-Fi means that you have a lot of skills to fall back on.

Just my tuppence.

MrGrim, thanks for the advice, the CCNA R&S and CCNA wireless qualifications look good I’ll look into them further.

While ‘Prince 2’ or similar is a nice to have – be aware that a 1-week course doesn’t make you a project manager.

Agree, but unfortunately no one’s told many of the PM’s I’ve had the misfortune to work with…

My route to where I am (contract ASP.Net developer) from sales and customer support stuff for many years:

Taught myself desktop support stuff (MS Office, installing things, troubleshooting things etc).
Worked in desktop support for a bit.
Taught myself HTML, JavaScript, CSS and the usual front end web stuff.
Got a job as a JavaScript programmer.
Bit of a return to desktop / rollout stuff after some people flew some aeroplanes into some towers and the economy went foom.
Taught myself (what is now called Classic) ASP, learned SQL and SQL Server along the way.
Got a job as an ASP developer and learned a bit of PHP along the way.
Got a job as a PHP / ASP developer and learned some ASP.Net (C#, not that awful VB.Net thing) along the way.
Had some really, really shite times while the economy was in the doldrums.
Ended up as a Ltd Co contractor making some decent money – more than I ever dreamed I would.

I’ve spent a small fortune in the past on (mostly Wrox) reference books, but that was before training for almost anything was available on the net. I wouldn’t buy another book these days – it’s all out there for free. I’ve also spent a lot of time studying, so be prepared for that.

My suggestion? Learn HTML, JavaScript, CSS, SQL, SQL Server, ASP.Net (C#) using Microsoft’s free tools (VS Express for Web, SQL Express, SSMS Express and loads of free tutorials) in that order and in a few months you should be good for £100 – £150 a day and from there the world is the mollusc of your choice. You should be looking to double those figures in a few years, and with a Ltd Co the money is much better than PAYE.

I’ve been incredibly lucky and had a few great breaks from people who thought I did a good interview, but anyone with a bit of nous could do it.

The great thing about web stuff is that you can show off what you can do by writing a few web sites for friends / local charities etc who will appreciate a freebie – than you have reference sites. Don’t know how you do that with CCNA etc quals.

Good luck whatever you do. Let me know via this thread if you want any more info and I’ll be happy to share.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-do-i-get-into-it

Julian A is clearly a very motivated person! I’m self taught, but have only learnt what I have by seeing the use of it in whatever job I’ve been doing at the time.

As a career contractor I experienced this:

Had some really, really shite times while the economy was in the doldrums.

Once you start making money make sure you save plenty!

@Rob Hilton I’m also very lucky that I really enjoy learning and have always had the support of MrsJulianA.

I can learn stuff for its own sake and then see its application later, which comes in handy.

Yeah, saving for the down times is a very good idea. Fortunately, the down times are fairly short these days – depending on the time of year. I finished my last contract in mid November and didn’t start my current one until the last week of January, but then I didn’t even try to find something until the start of this year. Then a previous company got in touch about a six month contract. Repeat business is great!

There seems to be a demand for people who can engineer a smooth move to the cloud for some services. I think, were I in your shoes, I’d try to pick up some cloud certs. There’s an AWS one, some good IBM ones, a VCP-cloud, one from Rackspace, MCSE private cloud. Lack of experience running a large network won’t hold you back as much with this sort of thing.