Tell me about IT careers

[MrFancyPants]

You will not get a NOC position with no IT experience. A datacenter is too critical to hand over to somebody totally green, and unless you have experience deploying and configuring network hardware and servers, you won't even know where to start. If you really want to switch careers to IT, you will have to start at the bottom like everybody else, help desk. I started as a field tech, and I was more or less just hands while NOC engineers guided me over the phone in resolving network issues.

I'm about 7 years in to my IT career now and I'm at senior systems admin level and I manage the datacenter for my company at one of our branch offices. I moved up faster than most because I put in a lot of extra work to get certified in relevant areas, did lab work at home, and I just have a knack for problem solving and innovation. I'm a certified Cisco network engineer and VMware datacenter professional, and I have so much experience building and managing Windows servers, there's nothing in the datacenter I can't handle on my own. Just to give you an idea of the level of knowledge you need to attain if you really want to move up in the IT world.

The perks of being a high level IT employee are second to none, short of being an executive, so it's a great career path. Just be aware it takes some trudging through the trenches at first to persevere.

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[InFamous20]

Alright, is it possible to get into help desk with no experience or certs?

[MrFancyPants]

Alright, is it possible to get into help desk with no experience or certs?

Possibly, depends on the company. Some are more willing to train than others. Can you demonstrate a basic understanding of how computers work? Do you know how to replace hardware components and/or build a computer? Have you ever troubleshooted and fixed your own computer or a friend/family member? What's your level of experience with computers in general?

If you're applying for a help desk position, it's mostly important to understand the process of troubleshooting and develop an efficient methodology, as most things can be learned. If you're interviewing with a company as somebody with no experience, just make it abundantly clear that if you don't know the answer to something, you will exhaust all possible resources to find it, and that you're genuinely interested in learning. I've interviewed people for tech positions before and I consider the right personality traits more than technical knowledge and experience, because again, all that can be learned. Matter of fact we just recently hired a new help desk tech at my office, and I recommended the guy we hired over a couple other candidates who clearly had more experience, because of the way he carried himself, his upfront honesty about lack of experience in some areas, and just the feeling that he would mesh well with the rest of the office. Personality goes a lot farther than people give it credit for, even in IT.

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[ibanezfoo]

Possibly, depends on the company. Some are more willing to train than others. Can you demonstrate a basic understanding of how computers work? Do you know how to replace hardware components and/or build a computer? Have you ever troubleshooted and fixed your own computer or a friend/family member? What's your level of experience with computers in general?

If you're applying for a help desk position, it's mostly important to understand the process of troubleshooting and develop an efficient methodology, as most things can be learned. If you're interviewing with a company as somebody with no experience, just make it abundantly clear that if you don't know the answer to something, you will exhaust all possible resources to find it, and that you're genuinely interested in learning. I've interviewed people for tech positions before and I consider the right personality traits more than technical knowledge and experience, because again, all that can be learned. Matter of fact we just recently hired a new help desk tech at my office, and I recommended the guy we hired over a couple other candidates who clearly had more experience, because of the way he carried himself, his upfront honesty about lack of experience in some areas, and just the feeling that he would mesh well with the rest of the office. Personality goes a lot farther than people give it credit for, even in IT.

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Good answer. I agree with that completely.

[InFamous20]

[the86d]

I fix windows issues with Linux utils all the time...
And time clocks, even under the radar... ... ...

[fbody_mike]

InFamous20, why are you not interning some place? The demand is high for Engineers at the current time and if you are clearable even more so. The defense industry is big in So-Cal.

[ibanezfoo]

Would it be a good idea to learn Linux?

As far as pc stuff goes I know enough to do some troubleshooting, OS installing etc, never built one but
I’m familiar with the components.

Depends on your goals. In general, its a good idea to learn about everything. My bread and butter skill sets are *nix systems (Linux, IRIX, SCO, BSD, etc) and Cisco stuff. I would advocate for Linux without question.... BUT, reality is, not too many places use it as a desktop. Heres the thing though, if you get into VMware, Cisco phone systems, various SAN and NAS devices, and stuff like that they sit on top of a Linux systems. So, if you really need to dig in you will be in a Linux shell at some point. Even our CNC machines here at work have various Linux controllers.... Since I have damn near Linux mastery I was able to script all kinds of server mapping and automation for them. Heck, what got me out of help desk was my Linux skills. The company had sent all the locations these little all in one desktop servers that ran Linux. I ripped through that thing like it was nothing and modified all the settings and such from a shell, modifying the configs directly rather than using the limited web interface. I called my future boss (he was IT manager at that point, I worked in a different department, not IT directly) and was asking him some advanced Linux stuff to set up the box and he was like "uhhh I have no idea. You want a job?"

So yes, learn all you can about Linux unless you want to be stuck as a Windows help desk guy forever.

[BigFatGuy]

I worked in IT for about 14 years, including trying (and failing) to start up my own IT consultancy.

I was once offered a job at a tiny, little, 4-person startup company called Earthlink, to put things in relative chronology.

I've done Linux, Windows, Mac networks, as large as 50 or so nodes, scattered across several city blocks (either remote offices, off-site commercial establishments, etc.)

Generally speaking, I was the only tech support onsite. I've been called at 3am, I've been paged while on vacation.

My resume used to look like a NASCAR hood, full of logos and certifications.

IT paid for my food for over a decade, helped put my wife through school, and... and this is the important part, basically destroyed my soul.

I was at the local CC working towards a Cisco certification when I had an epiphany: I'd hated every minute I was at work for 12 of those 14 years. I walked out of class, signed up for a more academic schedule, and finished the engineering degree I should have finished in my younger years.

Unless you are one of the truly brilliant "ENGINEERS" at the top of the IT pyramid, IT work is grunt work. You'll spend years changing toner cartridges and trying to teach your boss how to use his new iphone. You're expected to be on-call like an emergency room doctor, but paid like an Indian call-center drone.

If you have two years til you are done with your engineering degree, and don't want to go all-out for an IT career, start looking into engineering-related work... internships, academic research projects, see if a professor needs some ****-work done. You'll get about as much respect and money as IT, but it will help your career.

You'll live without beer-money for a couple years. Think about where you want your career to go, and start working towards that goal.

Basically, don't be me. Be better than I was at your age, and you'll live a better life for it.

(Edited to add: I don't knwo what kind of engineer you are, but if you are Comp Sci or EE, learn a bit of VHDL or Verilog. The cross-training will help you get into internships at companies like Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.)

[InFamous20]

EE major.

[MrFancyPants]

Heres the thing though, if you get into VMware, Cisco phone systems, various SAN and NAS devices, and stuff like that they sit on top of a Linux systems. So, if you really need to dig in you will be in a Linux shell at some point.

Good advice, and true about Linux based appliances and software. I occasionally need to do things which are either a pain or impossible to do via the stock shell or GUI, so I connect directly to the Linux shell and get it done. Example, try creating more than one VMFS datastore on a single LUN in vCenter or ESXi. Can't be done. BUT, it CAN be done (though it's not officially supported by VMware) via parted and vmkfstools. Of course that takes Linux knowledge. It's also much easier to script and automate your own tasks such as custom backup routines if you know Linux well. I've also had to backdoor stuff in OPNSense which is a Linux based firewall appliance.

Bottom line, Linux knowledge is an invaluable skill to have and well worth learning as it's extremely versatile.

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[BigFatGuy]

If your an ee... If you have any interest in digital design, and can build your skills to the point that you could design a pcb, do a simple board layout, select the right parts, and program an FPGA, the big aerospace companies will pay you a lot more than a help desk job...

[NorCalAthlete]

You a veteran by any chance? If so I can point you toward a bunch of free certs that’ll help. Ultimately though I’d agree with “just knock out the degree already”. I know several EEs who went the software engineer route and are doing extremely well - the hardware knowledge and understanding architecture can help right juuuust ever slightly more efficient code and that’s an extremely valuable thing to companies that have to deal with scale (FAANG and more). I know one guy who’s basically built a niche career living in X86 assembly. He sometimes comes up to C but can write assembly as if it’s Python. He makes $$$$$$$$. So don’t think that just because you’re an EE major you have to stick with circuit boards. You’ve got a lot of options once you graduate with that degree.

[NoHeavyHitter]

So you plan on competing against all of the other IT applicants (who will be coming in with certifications and probably a few years experience) just how? Do you think data center jobs are just something people "walk in" to?

I'm guessing that you either have no clue or are particularly dismissive of the skill and experience it takes to work at that level of IT..

Anyways, be sure to let us know how this new career works out!

[InFamous20]