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[SOLDIER]

You may remember that I posted a topic not too long ago about careers, so this thread is a bit of an extension of that.

For years it's been suggested to me by close friends and family that I should consider an "IT career". Being in front of a computer almost 90% of the day as well as personal experience working with various software (Windows, Office, Excel, the usual desk job stuff), this suggestion has always been in the back of my mind.

Thing is, IT is such a broad field. It's like suggesting someone to major in medicine. I really want to try and narrow things down and come up with a "road map" of sorts. There's lots of tools to learn, from Java to C++ and so on, but I really want to focus on the things that will land me a good paying job quickly.

So that's why I could use some advice on where to start. I've got a friend who is earning a degree in Systems Administration. He did some minimal research and jumped into that. I wish him all the luck, but I personally require more assurance before putting in the time and money.

Not only that, there should be free resources online that I could learn without having to back to school. I always see websites and apps that feature dumbed-down learning tools (and even apps built as "games" to teach coding). I have a lot of free time at work, so I could potentially use this time to learn these things from my PC or iPad.

I also spoke to a colleague from work who works at the CITEs department, and he told me that there's going to be an opening soon. He believes that all I would need is A+ certification, and recommended I learn Java and C++.

So yeah, please recommend me the essential stuff I should look into learning, where I can learn it, and what kind of job titles I can potentially shoot for. I know there's no such thing as a guaranteed path, what with fluctuating job markets and all, but coming up with a road map that offers a really good chance of a high-paying career is what I really want.

 

[Carnby]

Off the top of my head, I always recommend getting a help desk job first. It gets your foot in the door in the field and you'll develop very important skills you CAN NOT get from a class or book. While working the phones you'll be exposed to technology that will help you decide what you want to specialize in.

The most important thing is to determine your goal. Because help desk is an "up" or "out" position. You either move up in the company or you'll have to leave the company to elevate your career.

 

[Frustrated_me]

I would recommend getting into development instead of system administration.

Learn to code, start with Java.

 

[Sch1sm]

I would recommend getting into development instead of system administration.

Learn to code, start with Java.

^ Pretty much what any CIS/IT degree will primarily teach you in the first 2 years, anyway. Java. Wouldn't be hard to pick up C++ afterward, considering they're both OOP languages.

 

[eddie4]

hack a well known company, leave your resume in their data files.

Spoiler

experience, and getting your foot in the door. once you're there, you can always move up and companies prefer to hire from within

 

[shawnbuddy]

Yeah, if you're going to try to do it all on your own and online, forget sysadmin, just learn to code.

Personally, I went back to school for a year to learn network administration. Plugged a lot of virtual cables into virtual ports on simulators, watched a lot of videos about splicing cables. Made the Dean's list, but couldn't have done that shit in real life to stop WWIII. But I got a job that taught me coding and I haven't looked back. We've got two other guys at our company that literally have network administration degrees but never did anything with them, though that's just from their life circumstances, not really a knock on that career.

 

[Corum]

I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and my first job was in client-facing software delivery. I started at the bottom, learning about the software in question and then more broad aspects of end-to-end delivery such as requirements gathering, solution design and testing (SIT, UAT).

Whilst I didn't apply the practical parts of my degree, such as programming, the logical problem-analysis and decision-making has helped me greatly.

I eventually moved up into more senior positions and have now recently transitioned into product management.

This may not be helpful but I suggest starting somewhere that interests you, can make use of your skills and has opportunities to transition into other roles if the current role doesn't suit you.

It terms of learning there's plenty of books and courses on business analysis which is a facet of IT (but perhaps more information systems).

 

[liquidtmd]

Off the top of my head, I always recommend getting a help desk job first. It gets your foot in the door in the field and you'll develop very important skills you CAN NOT get from a class or book. While working the phones you'll be exposed to technology that will help you decide what you want to specialize in.

The most important thing is to determine your goal. Because help desk is an "up" or "out" position. You either move up in the company or you'll have to leave the company to elevate your career.

This is A1 advice.

Service desk for one of the major tech companies or a bank is great exposure to soak up tech bridge lines of tech issues.

 

[derder]

Help desks are usually a good one. QA is also solid (what I did)

An interesting aspect to this is whether or not you want to go Sysadmin or traditional Software development. I personally would hate the day-to-day sysadmin job, but find the software development career very interesting.

Also, in the age of "the cloud" it might not be the best idea to get Microsoft certifications - you might want to go AWS+Redhat. The cloud runs on linux.

 

[BstnRich]

Here's my path:

High Shool: Lan/Wan Technologies. Basic CCNA course. Over the course of Junior/Senior year.

Military: 0651/0653 Data Specialist (or whatever they like to call it now) for 5 years. Mostly help desk. Active Directory, SharePoint, End User issues.

College: Go to private college for MIS degree. Drop out due to personal issues, but enroll at community college. Transfer to another CC because of relocation to another state. Dealt with personal problems and grades start to come back up. Networked with my advisor and he gets lands me an internship as a systems engineer.

Internship: Been at it since the end of January, however I've been reassured by upper management (small company) that I have a job at the end of Spring Semester.

Note: I went in the military at 21 and now just staring my career in the private sector. It was a long road to get here - what I see as the "beginning" of my career. Can't tell you how much I dealt with self-doubt, depression, and anxiety due to failure. I'm fortunate enough to have a SO that was there for me (along with two cats!).

Study your profession, but remember that it is people who will help you move your career. Network with others and never forgot to thank those who lift you up.


Edit: also want to add that I'm getting my Associate's this Spring at 29. And the only two certs I've held were Security+ and Network+. I say this to show that there is no define path to success.

 

[Makai]

Just learn JavaScript and get a web job

 

[speshylives]

Pick up java... go from there.

Do not make the mistake I did and get lured in to the riches of specialized application support. 21 years of stability is looking like it's finally giving way to magic of the cloud, which most private companies equate with eliminating headcount (thanks Oracle!)

 

[Rur0ni]

If you have the chops, do something in software engineering instead. Better pay, flexibility. Learn to code, for reals. Otherwise, as far as systems administration is concerned:

Work in support for a couple of years, during that time you'll want to soak up as much as you can from others around you, and supplement that with learning at home. Read, lab, read, lab. You'll also need to learn to script (coding fundamentals). Eventually you can jump into a junior admin role somewhere, and go from there.

 

[AlphaDump]

Security+ you can get off the bat.

Check out the following links for some great certifications, and see what the requirements are:

ISACA https://www.isaca.org

ISC^2 https://www.isc2.org/

 

[CreepingFear]

You may remember that I posted a topic not too long ago about careers, so this thread is a bit of an extension of that.

For years it's been suggested to me by close friends and family that I should consider an "IT career". Being in front of a computer almost 90% of the day as well as personal experience working with various software (Windows, Office, Excel, the usual desk job stuff), this suggestion has always been in the back of my mind.

Thing is, IT is such a broad field. It's like suggesting someone to major in medicine. I really want to try and narrow things down and come up with a "road map" of sorts. There's lots of tools to learn, from Java to C++ and so on, but I really want to focus on the things that will land me a good paying job quickly.

So that's why I could use some advice on where to start. I've got a friend who is earning a degree in Systems Administration. He did some minimal research and jumped into that. I wish him all the luck, but I personally require more assurance before putting in the time and money.

Not only that, there should be free resources online that I could learn without having to back to school. I always see websites and apps that feature dumbed-down learning tools (and even apps built as "games" to teach coding). I have a lot of free time at work, so I could potentially use this time to learn these things from my PC or iPad.

I also spoke to a colleague from work who works at the CITEs department, and he told me that there's going to be an opening soon. He believes that all I would need is A+ certification, and recommended I learn Java and C++.

So yeah, please recommend me the essential stuff I should look into learning, where I can learn it, and what kind of job titles I can potentially shoot for. I know there's no such thing as a guaranteed path, what with fluctuating job markets and all, but coming up with a road map that offers a really good chance of a high-paying career is what I really want.

A+ and Java/C++ are for different types of jobs. A+ is more for IT support/Desktop support while Java and C++ would be more for a development/programming type job. What do you want to do? Do you see your self helping people with their IT issues or do you see yourself being a coder? I am an IT Help Desk Technician with two years of IT experience. The A+ got me into the door
Edit: All the people saying java or coding: It isn't for everyone. What little I took in junior college, I hated it. I like working with hardware and managing it.

 

[Nevasleep]

Security+ you can get off the bat.

Check out the following links for some great certifications, and see what the requirements are:

ISACA https://www.isaca.org

ISC^2 https://www.isc2.org/

OP only go into cyber-security if you have a passion for it (At least for operations side).

 

[SOLDIER]

Off the top of my head, I always recommend getting a help desk job first. It gets your foot in the door in the field and you'll develop very important skills you CAN NOT get from a class or book. While working the phones you'll be exposed to technology that will help you decide what you want to specialize in.

The most important thing is to determine your goal. Because help desk is an "up" or "out" position. You either move up in the company or you'll have to leave the company to elevate your career.

My current job is pretty similar to a help desk job: I'm a Digital Court Reporter for the state, though in truth my duties are about managing the microphones in each coutroom and checking in with the actual reporters.

If something isn't working, my role is to do a "Tier 1" inspection: basically, check that everything is plugged in, restart the PC, basic stuff like that. If the problem can't be solved by me, I escalate to Tier 2 (CITEs) by informing them of the problem, where they take it from there.

So technically I do have my foot in the door, as the CITEs rep I mentioned before told me. Problem is there's nowhere to advance in my position, no promotion or anything. If I want a higher-paying job I have to search laterally through the company website. As it stands though, most openings involve jobs that require more work (the standing and box moving variety) and less pay. No thank you.

Ideally I would like a computer-focused job within my department, since I'm already in and I don't want to go through the hoops/unemployment to find a totally separate thing, unless I was certain I would get it.

A+ and Java/C++ are for different types of jobs. A+ is more for IT support/Desktop support while Java and C++ would be more for a development/programming type job. What do you want to do? Do you see your self helping people with their IT issues or do you see yourself being a coder? I am an IT Help Desk Technician with two years of IT experience. The A+ got me into the door
Edit: All the people saying java or coding: It's isn't for everyone. What little I took in junior college, I hated it. I like working with hardware and managing it.

Here's the thing: I have no idea what I want to do. I don't know what a coding job entails or an IT help dsk entails. I can't say which I would prefer doing and which would drive me nuts.

If there's a handy resource that better details the day-to-day activities with these jobs, I would really like to know about it. It's part of the reason I'm afraid to commit to something: I have no idea if I want to actually do the job for the rest of my life (or at least every week for an undetermined amount of time).

The more info I get, the more confident I can be to venture out and commit to something.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

Went back to school for Computer Science, gonna sub to this topic and read all the advice.

I know alot of people suggest starting with Java for coding? I actually started with HTML and C++ this semester, am I already dead?

 

[koji kabuto]

Become sap erp developer and get a certificate or oracle sql developer

 

[Joni]

You will have to know what you want to do:
- work with people and go more the requirements/analysis route,
- work with computers and go the route of computer networks
- work with data and go into business intelligence
- help create programs and go into development
You really have to think of how you see your days.

Off the top of my head, I always recommend getting a help desk job first.

I know no one that started his career on a generic help desk. The help desk at SAS, yes, but you'd already be very qualified to start somewhere. I would more recommend consultancy, that always requires beginners.

 

[CreepingFear]

My current job is pretty similar to a help desk job: I'm a Digital Court Reporter for the state, though in truth my duties are about managing the microphones in each coutroom and checking in with the actual reporters.

If something isn't working, my role is to do a "Tier 1" inspection: basically, check that everything is plugged in, restart the PC, basic stuff like that. If the problem can't be solved by me, I escalate to Tier 2 (CITEs) by informing them of the problem, where they take it from there.

So technically I do have my foot in the door, as the CITEs rep I mentioned before told me. Problem is there's nowhere to advance in my position, no promotion or anything. If I want a higher-paying job I have to search laterally through the company website. As it stands though, most openings involve jobs that require more work (the standing and box moving variety) and less pay. No thank you.

Ideally I would like a computer-focused job within my department, since I'm already in and I don't want to go through the hoops/unemployment to find a totally separate thing, unless I was certain I would get it.



Here's the thing: I have no idea what I want to do. I don't know what a coding job entails or an IT help dsk entails. I can't say which I would prefer doing and which would drive me nuts.

If there's a handy resource that better details the day-to-day activities with these jobs, I would really like to know about it. It's part of the reason I'm afraid to commit to something: I have no idea if I want to actually do the job for the rest of my life (or at least every week for an undetermined amount of time).

The more info I get, the more confident I can be to venture out and commit to something.

You mentioned your current job being similar to help desk. Do you like it then or not? For coding and development, you basically have to learn another language, a computer language.

As a help desk technician, my day to day activities include imaging PC's(installing windows, software, drivers, updates, etc), upgrading RAM sometimes, installing new monitors, resetting Active Directory passwords, helping with printing problems, etc. This is very much an entry level job still, but I have a road map of getting some more certifications and experience so that sometime in 2018, I can become a System Administrator or Network Admin.

 

[MarkMclovin]

Depends on what area you want to work in, but if you are interested in going the OS / Exchange / Citrix side of things, I would start by getting your foot in the door via a helpdesk position, create your own lab at home, prepare for Server 212 R2 exam, then Hyper V, then Exchange 2010 and/or 2013. Apply for Wintel 3rd line roles. If unsuccessful, get some Citrix, Powershell and McAfee under your belt too. If successful, congrats your are now over skilled and underpaid.

 

[Mondrian]

Went back to school for Computer Science, gonna sub to this topic and read all the advice.

I know alot of people suggest starting with Java for coding? I actually started with HTML and C++ this semester, am I already dead?

Nah you're fine. C++ to Java is something you'll be able to ease right into.

 

[Meatfist]

There's quite a big gap between being "good at computers" and being familiar with the technology you'll see in an enterprise environment. I'd definitely look into helpdesk positions in order to expose you to everything, and then you can specialize from there.

Virtualization and containerization are hot right now--look into vSphere, Azure, AWS, and Docker as well as the tools to support them (chef, puppet, ansible, powershell, powerCLI, bash, python)

Sharepoint and Exchange admins make killer money, but those technologies will be out the door soon enough and you'll want to kill yourself after a year or two

 

[SOLDIER]

You mentioned your current job being similar to help desk. Do you like it then or not? For coding and development, you basically have to learn another language, a computer language.

As a help desk technician, my day to day activities include imaging PC's(installing windows, software, drivers, updates, etc), upgrading RAM sometimes, installing new monitors, resetting Active Directory passwords, helping with printing problems, etc. This is very much an entry level job still, but I have a road map of getting some more certifications and experience so that sometime in 2018, I can become a System Administrator or Network Admin.

I like that it's a stress-free desk job where the amount of work I do is minimal. The pay is average, but that's all the more reason I'm glad I don't have to bust my tail off on a daily basis.

Not a fan of the repetitive tasks. I do wish I could have a career where I get to be more creative, but that's a topic for another day.

Setting up PCs and doing diagnostics does sound interesting. The other day I was with a CITEs person who was trying to determine why a reporter's computer froze during a specific time. I found it interesting how he searched for the error message using the exact date and time. It was like being an investigator...for computers.

This isn't to say I refuse to work hard. If the pay is worth it, then I put the work. But I do certainly prefer a desk-based job that's more reactive than proactive (as in, I'm free to browse the internet or whatever on my down-time, instead of having to be constantly working the entirety of my shift).

 

[Vanillalite]

OP see if there are any technical colleges or community colleges around where you live. Going and getting even a 2 year degree could help you a lot, and you don't necessarily need to go to a full fledge 4 year University

Went back to school for Computer Science, gonna sub to this topic and read all the advice.

I know alot of people suggest starting with Java for coding? I actually started with HTML and C++ this semester, am I already dead?

Your fine. Just follow your school's designed coursework and you'll be ok.

 

[nullset2]

Learn to code or learn to be a sysop, help desk will lead you to a dead-end job, fast, super fast. And it doesn't pay that well.

Take up linux and unix, the main variants of them: Debian, Fedora/Redhat and BSD. Learn to do admin stuff: set up services, open remote sessions, administer databases, run cron tasks. Big points if you manage servers with AWS or Openstack or something along those lines. Docker is also a great skill to have but it's gonna be brutal for you as a newbie --read up on it if you ever get the chance though.

If you're interested in programming definitely take up python. Learn web development, and fast, it's the de-facto thing to do these days. Then take up Ruby or PHP. Java is good for ultra-stable job security but truth be told it doesn't pay that well.

Ideally you want to do both: these days you'll start seeing tons of positions looking for a DevOps engineer, which is nothing but a fancy way of saying they want to get someone who'll do the job of several engineers at the same time for one engineer's pay their bar is risen high and they want highly-responsive engineers comfortable to work on any and all kinds of technology they may ever come across

Front-end development is also a fantastic field to get into: learn what AJAX is and how to design sites around it, then take up jQuery, then React.js or Angular. React is the driving force in the field these days.

Generally, what you want to do is to specialize in one strong tool or framework first, then proceed towards generalization.

Cheers.

 

[shawnbuddy]

Went back to school for Computer Science, gonna sub to this topic and read all the advice.

I know alot of people suggest starting with Java for coding? I actually started with HTML and C++ this semester, am I already dead?

You're good. Honestly, people get too hung up on languages. The first important step is learning coding fundamentals and best practices. The core concepts are transferable between the languages, although some languages are closer than others.

 

[CreepingFear]

I like that it's a stress-free desk job where the amount of work I do is minimal. The pay is average, but that's all the more reason I'm glad I don't have to bust my tail off on a daily basis.

Not a fan of the repetitive tasks. I do wish I could have a career where I get to be more creative, but that's a topic for another day.

Setting up PCs and doing diagnostics does sound interesting. The other day I was with a CITEs person who was trying to determine why a reporter's computer froze during a specific time. I found it interesting how he searched for the error message using the exact date and time. It was like being an investigator...for computers.

This isn't to say I refuse to work hard. If the pay is worth it, then I put the work. But I do certainly prefer a desk-based job that's more reactive than proactive (as in, I'm free to browse the internet or whatever on my down-time, instead of having to be constantly working the entirety of my shift).

To start off with, most entry level jobs do have the repetitive aspect to it such as password resets, but if you can get promoted that's when the more creative parts can come to play. It depends on where you work as to if you'll have the downtime you want. At my first two IT jobs, I never had that time. At my current job, I am able to study for IT certifications. I have even watched movies and tv shows at my computer. The work environment can really make or break you.

 

[SOLDIER]

Asking again what the best online guides are for Java, C++ and anything else I should consider learning about early on.

I know they have learning guides disguised as online games for programming language like Python. I'm wondering if the same exists for the other progams mentioned.