Quote (Article @ Jun 5 2022 03:21pm)
Hey all
Am interested in a career change to IT and I know there’s a billion avenues to take, and I know….next to nothing about any of it.
Any advice for someone looking to get into the field?
I’ve heard it’s good to try to get your CompTia A+ Cert and try to get a helpdesk entry job. Any advice on what else I can be studying/practicing in the mean time?
Any classes I should take at community college?
Right now I’ve just been watching professor messer YouTube videos and taking notes. Just looking for all the advice I can get.
This should be obvious but the first step is to see where in the field you want to go. Just saying IT is like saying you want to be of the homo genus... But there's homo neanderthalensis (neanderthals), homo sapiens (old school humans), Homo sapiens sapiens ("modern humans) etc etc.
Do you want to build actual computers, setup new computers for an enterprise, architect an entire network, create cloud networks etc.... Then if you mean cyber instead of IT, there's red team activities, blue team activities, creating policy etc...
But there's also tons of within the "Digital" field as well. Data scientists, UX, UI, GIS, etc. etc.
So to reiterate.
1. Figure out what you actually want to do.
A. Note. If your goal for entering the "IT" arena is just to make lots of money, that's fine too -- check the average salary for each and the average time commitment to get that salary too.
B. If your goal is just money, then start looking at the things that pique your interest and then check out the day to day from there... Some require a lot of stakeholder hand holding, some require very little communication with people, some requires much more "upkeep" than others (ALL will require some level of upkeep), are you someone who likes theoretically concepts or are you more of a do it/get it done hands on personality etc etc.)
2. Work towards the field you WANT and as you prepare, just take whatever job comes along the way that'll help get you to where you're going. It could be Help Desk or it could be a project manager, whatever.
Note: everything below pertains to US. Unsure if it's the same in other countries.
As a side note... the A+ Cert is only helpful if you want a Helpdesk position and have no plans of doing anything else with your life. It's quite useless.
Don't bother with community college UNLESS it's a hands-on approach. If they're just teaching you theory, you can learn it yourself for MUCH cheaper. Also, WGU offers a degree -- go at your own pace, like 4k/ 6 month semester and it's well respected (mainly because the field is so much figure it out yourself anyway, that most people just get it to say they have a degree to check the box needed to get the promotion that they're already otherwise qualified for.
Having said that, if you do want to go the IT route, start with the Google IT Help Desk Certificate. They break everything down in a VERY basic manner and it's go at your own pace so however much it costs depends on how long it takes you to finish. From there, get a specialized cert in whatever field you're looking for. If you're going cyber, then just go the CISSP. You'll get an associate of CISSP, but it's much more respected and you can get an entry level position or internship with this much more than the security+ would offer.
If you're going digital, there are often bootcamps for these fields. They often have either a single price, a single price that you pay back in installments after you get your job or take a % of your pay for X number of months. Make sure you learn how they charge, then take it and be done. From there you can either get an internship or entry level position. [As a note, in many of the digital fields, there are so few people in there that if you're half decent, you can easily go from intern to senior within 3 years]