career in IT ???????

[mackab24]

hi all i have my self really struggling for work in the painting trade these last 6 months and i would really like some info on some career paths in It i could take? I have built many pc's in the past and something like that would interest me?????

[interele]

Be warned working in IT isn't like working on a PC at home, it can be just as boring as any other job. Spending 2 or 3 hours fiddling to get something working is no good if you have 400 machines to fix. I have been doing it for 25 years now ( IT I mean ...you have a dirty mind ! ). I have made a very good living but it is one career that you are forced to get on the learning treadmill. If you really want to join the sad geek brigade then you need to basically start at the bottom. Schools and colleges are a good start as they will take you with little experience but the pay is terrible and you end up spending a lot of time fixing paper jams and other boring stuff. Once you have a bit of experience start moving around to work your way up. This also means that you get to see a few different aspects so you can see which bits you like and are good at. For example, there are quite a few general PC support jobs but the pay is average but if you are very good at databases you can earn a fortune but these positions are few and far between. I specialised in networks and operation systems. So I know a lot about Windows/Linux etc but I don't know much more than the average punter about Word and Excel etc. IT is, I guess, a bit like painting. Everyone can do it but most people are rubbish. In tough economic times a lot of IT projects get cancelled or postponed so work can dry up just like any other business. I would say if you really do want to do this, get a job doing anything IT related as it is always easier to get the second job than the first one. It is NOT like the ad that is on TV. That company implies that a few weeks on their training course and you will get a job as a rocket scientist, it's bulls**t. My advice is ( others may have a different view ) DO NOT pay for a course in IT from one of these colleges. Get a really basic job ( should be doable if you know a bit and can waffle ) then have a think about what training might help you to the next step
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[beso]

Like me people often end up in IT almost accidentally. Small businesses have IT need that they can't justify a dedicated staff support person. Often the problems are trivial and it ends up costing a lot for an outsourced solution especially the down time. While most people just shrug their shoulders and wait for the expert to turn up, someone has a go and learns a bit.

Then each time something goes wrong others start turning to them. Eventually they find more and more of their time is spent doing the computer stuff. I ended up nearly full time on it when we put in the new accounting system.

Once you get this far you can then look to getting a job as an assistant to someone who really knows what they are doing in a bigger place. I was lucky that I was able to build up my skills when the place I started out at got big enough and decided to hire an expert and set up an online shopping facility. I learnt a lot from him especially about databases.

Then I scored a job as assistant in a small financial institution with a network of 10 branches and about 100 desktop computers and about twenty servers of various flavours. Actually where I work now is excellent because we have so may different systems. We have Linux based mail and proxy systems, a Unix banking system running Universe and a network with Windows and Novell servers. There are so many way they communicate with each other it is mind boggling.

When I started fooling around with computers there was little more than MSDOS and I grew my skills with the industry through practical experience. It would be difficult to start off cold as a good IT worker needs a wide variety of skills nowdays.

contd

[beso]

You always find yourself moving into new skills. I learnt accounting when we got the new system at my old place. Then I got into the website design in my new job because it was mostly a matter of minor edits and enhancements to professionally written sites because it was too small a job to get the expert in. This is an excellent way to learn because you can see lots of working code and how your changes affect it. We have a netbanking site in asp and main site mostly in plain html with a little php.

With so many business having websites, html is important. It does vary depending on the position but scripting, particularly DOS, Basic and increasingly XML is important. DOS is still surprisingly useful as it got quite powerful toward the end and many legacy scripts live on in modern environments. Most of the advanced script implementations like php and asp are really forms of or extensions of Basic-like languages.

Database skills especially SQL is incredibly useful. Databases are really powerful ways to manage information and so many small business do use them. Unfortunately many have woefully written examples done by people who just fell into the task because they knew a bit more than average.

Network implementations are very important and you need a good grasp of the workings of TCP/IP, procies, firewalls and mail servers.

You should learn how to manage a Windows Domain. While a lot of small businesses use workgroups there are vast advantages to running a network as a domain.

The hardware level stuff is useful but most companies upgrade rather than repair. We keep spare computers and swap power supplies and drives around to make good ones out of broken ones but rarely more as it isn't worth the hassle.

contd

[beso]

I would recommend you get some books. The "Learn Whatever in 24 hours" series quite are well written. You can also learn a lot from Googling for answers to problems.

One the job training with a good mentor is by far the best way to learn. Courses do cost a lot and generally teach you how stuff works. However they aren't usually broad enough or deep enough and if they are you aren't going to remember it.

Moreover they don't really teach about why things don't work which is more often what you have to deal with in the real world. The solutions are almost invariable simple but the diagnosis requires a lot of background knowledge.

The job can be challenging , frustrating, rewarding and boring all on the same day. You need focused knowledge, broad understanding, patience and persistence.

While pay can be good for the very skilled in the right business these guys get driven hard. Most of us work for peanuts in smaller places where the financial constraints force us to come up with cheap work arounds. If you are very lucky your boss understands the limitations and doesn't expect corporate high flyer performance from the cobbled together budget driven system you have to keep alive.