Is anyone able to offer any advice on a possible career in IT? Something I could train into in no more than about one year and get a job? Doesn't have to be a very well paying job just something to earn me a living, but perhaps a little more interesting than being a help desk monkey?
I have a reasonable aptitude for IT related stuff but no formal qualifications in the field.
Developer - look at some of the code clan type boot camp places. I’ve worked with some great people that have come in on that route.
Or with a help desk background maybe business analysis or performance analyst type roles?
What's your background / what do you enjoy?
I worked in oil and gas for many years doing technical jobs offshore. MWD (one job I did) involved a lot of data handling, data processing, etc., plus the practical side of looking after a unit of surface equipment with several PCs and numerous sensors.
I recently did an MSc in building surveying but have no wish to work as a surveyor now. Not my cup of tea. This was to the ends of a career change away from oil and gas.
What’s your background / what do you enjoy?
Generally, I prefer technical jobs and problems rather than dealing with people if that helps? 😀
I think data analyst better than a developer role for you. Train up in Power BI or Tableau
Do a Cloud Guru AWS course - I think the "basic" but pretty in depth one is called solutions architect or something. Maybe do something AWS-ey that covers the data stuff too - data lake bits, Glue, Sagemaker etc. Also if you're data inclined, learn Python.
I think I'd probably look at something data analyst to start with.
But it probably wouldn't hurt to do a few intro/taster courses for a few different areas, and see if there's anything you particularly enjoy. IT can be a pretty miserable place if it's not something that resonates with you.
Fundamentally though, why IT? If you've opted out of surveying after doing an MSc, what are you hoping for?
IT Security
IT Security
Or maybe IT Security
Or if you want big money Data Protection Officer.
Oh, I'd definitely do some kind of fundamentals of programming course - helpful for most IT roles, and for the most part, don't worry about formal qualifications (unless you like that kinda thing).
help desk monkey
Nice attitude. You'll go far.
If you’ve opted out of surveying after doing an MSc, what are you hoping for?
Surveying is mostly minor project management which just isn't something I'm interested in. It's all networking and building relationships. Just not me. I'm more comfortable with technical work where I can work semi-independently to accomplish some goal.
IT Security
IT Security
Or maybe IT Security
It’s not a bad shout.
If OP is interested the OU, via their online offering called futurelern have got a fundamental cyber security course, it won’t be enough for you to get a job, but it’ll give you a taste to see if you like it.
Problem solving is a big part of it, and we’ll as for people. If IT people had interpersonal skills, they wouldn’t employ people like me (sales, soon hopefully to be IT security).
Security or even with some technical aptitude, flexibility and a desire to be away from a desk, presales - https://blog.goconsensus.com/sales/presales/understanding-the-difference-between-sales-and-pre-sales. It pays very well and can be pretty varied.
Sounds like you might have the aptitude to be a good software tester.
ISTQB course is the defacto course \ qualification. You don't always need it to get a job, but it will help.
My advice would be don't do it. Become an ooenreach engineer or similar. Good pay, technical, out and about. Career progression if you want it. Most of IT is pretty dead end
If you must, how about testing? Requires good IT skills, good mindset to think of how to break things.
IT Security is not a bad shout if you have the time to invest in learning it and the willingness to accept the time it will take. It can be, and frequently is, extremely frustrating and has a lot of responsibility attached to what you do, but can also be very rewarding. It’s also an area with a vast range of different skill sets.
If you are methodical and enjoy problem solving, maybe consider SOC or Incident Response work. As you learn more, there are lots of different areas even within that to specialise in. If you enjoy standards and how they relate to working environments and process, GdPR and information security is big too. Companies of all sizes need to be aware of how they relate to GDPR and other laws (SCHREMS2, etc) so it’s also a good area to look at. You could also read ISO27001 and make a career of advising on how that applies to businesses.
Career wise it would be best if you can get IT skills and add that to your existing knowledge from your past careers and studies. IT guys without relevant business knowledge (like myself) have disadvantage of being generalists in the beginning of most projects.
IT does offer a broad spectrum of roles so you might want to do some general training before getting into a specialist area. Cloud and Security are probably the major skills gap at the moment, so there are plenty of well paid roles there.
Either acloud.guru or whizlabs can guide you through the cloud certification path, and starting with the AWS cloud practitioner gives you a basic grounding before going onto the AWS CSA Associate. There's equivalent certification in Azure too, which is the next most popular cloud provider.
Personally, I'd also recommend reading The Phoenix Project and/or The Unicorn Project to get an understanding of devops and agile principles. These two books are fictional scenarios rather than textbooks, making them fairly light reading. But having an understanding of these concepts and the terminology could make a big difference in an interview and help you when you get started.
Mobile app developer.
Lots of resources to get you started.
(I'm an android developer, and dabbled with Flutter)
If you are looking at starting in a year or so, I suggest Flutter / Dart.
It's a development platform that works for both ios and Android (and web and desktop)- it's becoming very popular and you wont be behind people with 5 years experience as it's pretty new.
Get a Macbook for development.
My advice would be don’t do it. Become an ooenreach engineer or similar. Good pay, technical, out and about. Career progression if you want it. Most of IT is pretty dead end
I've working in 'IT' for nearly 40 years, and TBH I wouldn't particularly advise it as a career change job based on what you've said about yourself - but the above is a good shout.
Generally, I prefer technical jobs and problems rather than dealing with people if that helps? 😀
I've just retired after 35 years in IT, mostly software projects. There is an increasing realisation that many of IT's problems are a result of the failure to take the people aspects seriously. This leads to dysfunctional teams, building the wrong things for the wrong reasons. There are very few IT jobs that actually require no interaction with people.
mostly minor project management which just isn’t something I’m interested in.
Welcome to IT, you are either managing your own or a teams work, or working with incomptetant micro managers doing the same to you </sweeping_generalisation>
Often the hardest part of any job is the people you work with, IT is no different. DevOps, IT Sec, QA (although manual test will hopefully die out in favour of automation one day, I can dream).
@toby1 basically nails it. I work IT-security and (with the exception of my incident response work) pretty much all of what I do is trying to get other people to do things for me or with me.
I appear to constantly "joke" about our next hire being a behavioural psychologist as so much of our job is trying to convince people to do things in specific ways. I'm not joking. If I knew of someone with that skillset, I would hire them.
Anyway, there's a huge element of being able to manage things in IT, be it time, people, projects. If you find a job you like and are good at with just one of those, you'll probably end up being exposed to the others too.
IT Security
To do IT security effectively you need one or both of an understanding of the business you're doing security for and a wide understanding of IT, so from your description of where you are I suspect you would find this endlessly frustrating, as would people you worked with. On the other hand if people are suggesting this to you it perhaps helps me understand why I used to have so much trouble finding good candidates!
To do IT security effectively you need one or both of an understanding of the business you’re doing security for and a wide understanding of IT
Yeah - I was surprised by the IT security suggestions, that's a very specialist subject that takes way more than a year to get up to scratch in, imo.
It is because "cyber" is short-staffed and there is near constant pressure to get more people into the field to do things. The same sort of thing exists around development, with people being bombarded by news articles about teaching kids to code to drive the knowledge-based economy forward in years to come.
I am trying to be positive about how I recommend IT-related careers; I want the market sector to have good people, but I also want people to understand that to be good takes time, experience and skill. With ITSäk, you need one or more specialist kills and, generally, a good lot of experience to make a positive contribution and those take time to gain, often in areas that have a lot of pressure or pay badly (like SOC L1). Or, they take people putting in a lot of effort in their own time and trying to sell that equivalence to a company or a recruiter as to why they should get a job as a cloud security architect when their previous experience is all working at a swimming pool since university.
I have 25 yers in IT, with the first 10 in software testing and the last 15 in ITSäk. I am still "only" a Senior Specialist. I still learn every day. I still get frustrated every day. Such is life.
I was think ing speciifically about mobile app development. To develop for ios you have to use an Apple - whereas for Android you can use PC or Mac - there are ways around it, but they are pain.
I’m in similar position looking to get away from the oil industry. Had a wee look at the trainee openreach engineer positions, and they sound quite attractive. I have found some shocking reviews of the position and the company to work for and wondering if anyone has any direct experience to share?
Cheers
working with incomptetant micro managers
This x100. I've worked in 'IT' for a while in a few different industries and it always, always comes down to this. If you don't have one yet, you will do soon! It seems as every company grows and its IT team with it, these people get in all the nooks.
This x100. I’ve worked in ‘IT’ for a while in a few different industries and it always, always comes down to this. If you don’t have one yet, you will do soon! It seems as every company grows and its IT team with it, these people get in all the nooks.
And all of them adamantly insisting that "I used to be a developer too! I understand!"
As others have said,
Security is a boom* sector and screaming out for good people.
(*in more than one meaning)
You're looking at 5yrs experience + CISSP to get decent money in IT security. If you're looking at long term career switch well worth it. It's not an easy ride despite the demand.
Quickest £££ money for low - med upfront learning investment has got to be SAP or Salesforce admin / consultant.
If on the other hand you want an easy way to get into tech you can pick up in a matter of months, while making semi decent money try:
Shopify, Wordpress, Big Commerce or Webflow setups / maintenance. Pick one and focus. You will be able to do your learning for free at The University of Youtube. Probably enough business from this forum alone to keep you running. Plenty of people happy to pay for someone that simply picks up the phone while running on UK hours.
Surveying is mostly minor project management which just isn’t something I’m interested in. It’s all networking and building relationships. Just not me. I’m more comfortable with technical work where I can work semi-independently to accomplish some goal.
There's not much of IT, whether development, testing, infrastructure, analytics etc that doesn't invoice minor project management, building relationships with people, etc except at the very junior levels where you turn up and get told what to do.
Cyber security - Loads of companies are behind the curve, especially public sector/NHS who have been increasingly targeted since Covid. It’s a pressurised job and you need technical skills plus governance/policy knowledge. Also heavily linked to cloud migration below and the increased need for assurance.
M365/Teams/ - going to continue to grow as orgs work out what a sustainable model of flexible/home/mobile working looks like. Orgs learning on the job how they migrate accounts to 365 and role out these new evergreen services
Cloud/azure/aws migration - trend is for suppliers to offer their products as cloud first/cloud only. Plenty of orgs creating their own private tenancies as a result so on premise services will increasingly need to migrate across.
Mobility services - phones now need corporately built & managed with products such as in tune (so you get native MS apps) and Apple DEP. MDM/MAM policies need applied and managed and app deployment controlled.
Very simply explanation but if you have any of those I guarantee that proactive heads of IT will be after you.
OP, looking at your contribution to the GB News thread, and assuming that you aren't just trolling there, I would suggest IT is not an appropriate path for you. In almost any IT role, there is a need to communicate with non-technical people in a comprehensible way, and your refusal to do that on that thread suggests that you are either unable or unwilling to do that. If you do still want to go down the IT route, some training in effective communication would be as important as the technical training.
In almost any IT role, there is a need to communicate with non-technical people in a comprehensible way
yeah, good one....
I would suggest IT is not an appropriate path for you. In almost any IT role, there is a need to communicate with non-technical people in a comprehensible way, and your refusal to do that on that thread suggests that you are either unable or unwilling to do that. If you do still want to go down the IT route, some training in effective communication would be as important as the technical training.
I'm sorry if what I wrote sounded impenetrable but my understanding of something was questioned by someone who implied that they knew a lot about it. Discussing that something in its own terms seemed appropriate.
more interesting than being a help desk monkey?
I am an IT Director. My SD team are not "monkeys" maybe you need to rethink
Not going to lie, gonna be a tough ask with no formal qualification or experience to get into anything IT apart from lowest level stuff, and even then you're fighting the grads and yooths for that (who will be paid less). Its a slight peev of mine that people just say they fancy working on IT as they've got an aptitude for it (from experience interviewing people, 16 hours a day on Call of Duty doesn't count as IT experience). Ironically it's your other skills you probably have that'll be what you could sell.
If you want coding experience, I'd always suggest going for the widest used stuff, so web side - JavaScript/HTML/CSS/JS frameworks, maybe Python - as people say there's loads of online help out there.
Once you start doing things like app development you're specialising quite a lot and with the limited skills/background you can bring I'd say that'd be a tough one to blag.
If you can live with the talking to other people stuff, maybe Scrum Master roles are feasible. Definitely worth starting to read up on Scrum/agile methodolgies as a way of working anyway regardless.
I'd be open about what role you go for - at a junior level it might be a case of taking whatever role/technology the employer sees fit rather than hanging your flag on being, say, a web developer, or an IT Security specialist. Your home training/aptitude will get you into the frame, I'm not 100% it'll give you much power to demand a specific role.
In almost any IT role, there is a need to communicate with non-technical people in a comprehensible way
yeah, good one….
Best laugh I've had all month.
Can't offer any advice myself, but what breatheasy just posted looks very sensible based on my experience of working closely with a dev team.
And perhaps the scrum master/project management side is a better way in for people with significant experience in other industries?
On a positive note, I think the barrier to entry has never been lower. When I started in IT I managed to scrounge some outdated CCNA material from a friend and studied that. Nowadays you can pick a subject to learn and between YouTube, Udemy, Pluralsight, ACloudGuru etc the learning resources are so easy to get to.
I do a fair bit of interviewing and one thing I've noticed is attention spans are dwindling and a lot of the younger folks struggle to maintain focus and learn in depth concepts. I would have no issues hiring an older candidate if that person brought a load of life/work experience and showed proof (portfolio, demo etc) that they were able to learn. It would be refreshing and make you stand out in a sea of grads.
