Getting an IT job and what is it like?

[IPushFatKids]

So I'm wanting to get a job doing what I love. I am working on my network cert, but I wanted to ask you what you think. Do you work in the IT field and if so do you enjoy It? Is it demanding, working a lot of overtime? How much do you get paid and how long have you been doing it? What was it like getting your foot in the door and what background did you have before you started? What type of Certifications do you hold? Comptia A+, cisco? I'm wondering if I should get my foot in the door or should I stay away? Let me know! Thank you!

[jeffmeyer5295]

In my experience IT is a great field to work in. Every IT job I've had has been mostly easy work, Monday through Friday, 8-5pm(ish) type of shift. A+ cert is the one most  people use to get their foot in the door and it is the most basic that almost everywhere will ask for, pretty important. Another great way to get into it is to take IT contracts, that is where I started. 3-4 years of that then move into something more stable. It also lets you see how companies work before you take a permanent spot.

 

EDIT

 

Sorry I forgot to put what certs I have: I have no certs or schooling  Just took contracts, showed up on time, worked hard, and showed that I knew what I was doing, it will pay off.

[IPushFatKids]

6 minutes ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

In my experience IT is a great field to work in. Every IT job I've had has been mostly easy work, Monday through Friday, 8-5pm(ish) type of shift. A+ cert is the one most  people use to get their foot in the door and it is the most basic that almost everywhere will ask for, pretty important. Another great way to get into it is to take IT contracts, that is where I started. 3-4 years of that then move into something more stable. It also lets you see how companies work before you take a permanent spot.

 

EDIT

 

Sorry I forgot to put what certs I have: I have no certs or schooling  Just took contracts, showed up on time, worked hard, and showed that I knew what I was doing, it will pay off.

So when you say contracts, what's that and how do they normally work? How would I find them? Also what do you do now in the IT field as of work?

[Taswell]

Depends on the IT role your aiming for, Im a Systems admin and Im Practically on call 24-7 granted I can fix 97% of the issues called in after hours remotely (thank fucking god), I started just doing a bunch of internships at high schools, private institutions, and non profits. after high school. I was taking college classes and i have a small collection of networking/hardware certificates nothing crazy. I would start with finding a help desk position some where and go from there. 

 

once you get past the help desk, most of the jobs are pretty easy most of the time as long as you don't mess up a server or something big 

[IPushFatKids]

1 minute ago, ITheSpazI said:

Depends on the IT role your aiming for, Im a Systems admin and Im Practically on call 24-7 granted I can fix 97% of the issues called in after hours remotely (thank fucking god), I started just doing a bunch of internships at high schools, private institutions, and non profits. after high school. I was taking college classes and i have a small collection of networking/hardware certificates nothing crazy. I would start with finding a help desk position some where and go from there.

I'll look into those. My church is building a new building and my pastor asked me to set up the network and wanted me to be over the entire system. I figured that would be a good step in the right direction. My problem is I'm making 17 bucks an hour doing maintenance work for rental properties.  I hate my job but I do it because I have a wife and a 3 year old and another on the way. I'm 24 years old and regret going to collage for aviation maintenance.  Lol I'm up a creek without a paddle and want to get into something I would enjoy doing every day but I'm afraid of the pay cut starting out. Lol

[NinJake]

Do you simply not have any job openings for the aviation maintenance? If you already finished your schooling for that, there's huge amounts of money to be made in such a field. (Especially since peoples' lives are on the line)

 

I went to school, and took an internship at a government entity. They liked my work and hired me on full-time.  Every job will be different, since I work in the public sector, our budget is VERY limited and we have to make use of what we have. Small amount of employees (My boss and I in IT). 50% of what I learned in school went down the drain in terms of what I can or can't do here. (Inefficiency/lack of budget again) but the benefits are great and once I have a few more years under my belt I'll definitely be moving to the private sector.

 

Best of luck to ya.

[Teddy07]

7 minutes ago, IPushFatKids said:

 I'm 24 years old and regret going to collage for aviation maintenance.

1

edit: I don't know about the job perspective with such a degree but I assume they are good?

 

If it helps, I am fucked way more. I am 30 now and just started my bachelors degree in informatics (university). It is fun but I wasted all my time with an addiction. It does piss me off every day....

I can tell you that you are still doing fine. There are a lot of 26+ old students in my first-semester informatics class. They often did study other subjects but realized that the job perspective is way better with it.

 

I didn't answer your questions but I might have helped you in a way that you are in nowhere near alone in such a situation. You still have all options available to you.

 

Greetings from Germany.

[SCHISCHKA]

the person above is in a different country from me. A+ is useless in NZ, AUS, and UK as they just exploit migrants for this. They get these easy qualifications to score points towards getting their visas. Same goes for call center type roles like app support, call centers are full of people who want to be engineers but will never get out of their situation because they are just there to be exploited. You do not need any education to do these jobs. Locals do not waste their time and money with below degree level qualifications. Its fucking funny when they barely write or speak english, but this is a different long story about a man named Bong who works for Vodafone NZ.

 

Retail shops pay minimum wage and are the place to go if you want to get into business sales, no education required. Business sales pay very well and is a good place to go if you cannot spend money on a qualification.

 

If you want an engineering level job you need to get a degree that includes job placement in the final year. this is the best option, or the most respectable option. Obviously an engineering degree is not cheap.

[IPushFatKids]

Just now, Teddy07 said:

If it helps, I am fucked way more. I am 30 now and just started my bachelors degree in informatics (university). It is fun but I wasted all my time with an addiction. It does piss me off every day....

I can tell you that you are still doing fine. There are a lot of 26+ old students in my first-semester informatics class. They often did study other subjects but realized that the job perspective is way better with it.

 

I didn't answer your questions but I might have helped you in a way that you are in nowhere near alone in such a situation. You still have all options available to you.

 

Greetings from Germany.

Haha thanks man! It makes me feel bettering knowing I'm not alone. My wife and I are working our tails off to pay off our debt. Figured while we do this I'll study and get my desired certs. Once we are debt free I'll move into the IT field once I know I can take a pay cut and make it work until I get the experience needed for a higher paying job.

[KuJoe]

9 minutes ago, IPushFatKids said:

Do you work in the IT field and if so do you enjoy It? Is it demanding, working a lot of overtime? How much do you get paid and how long have you been doing it? What was it like getting your foot in the door and what background did you have before you started? What type of Certifications do you hold? Comptia A+, cisco? I'm wondering if I should get my foot in the door or should I stay away?

1) I enjoy it a lot, it's my dream job and I've passed up plenty of better paying jobs with better benefits so I can continue working my dream job.

2) Some nights are more demanding than others, some shifts I won't be able to finish all of the work because there's just so much of it while others I can relax and work on scripts and take online classes for other stuff. I worked less than 15 hour of OT last year, mostly because I didn't want to so I got my work done within my normal 40 or I handed stuff off to other people on my team if the current issue was going to put me over 40 hours.

3) Pay-wise is decent, I'm closer to the $100k mark than the $50k mark (I also make a nice chunk of change from my own web service company I created 7 years ago). I was making a lot more doing the same job in Colorado before I moved back to Florida though. I've been working in IT for the same company since I was 20 years old so all of my adult life.

4) I was an assistant manager at Dominos and one of my delivery drivers worked in HR at the company I'm with now. Coincidentally the general manager's mother was in charge of the internship program at the company so I used both connections to get my foot in the door and get interviews, once I got into the building I was able to show off my fancy (yet depressingly easy to get) CompTIA A+ cert I got in high school and funny enough the team that wanted me was the team I'm currently working for full-time. I was attending community college at the time with no technical background except for having built my own computers for years and learning a little HTML along with some Linux experience.

5) I have a few CompTIA certificates but mostly because they were free and I like to beta test exams. I considered getting my CCNA-Datacenter cert since we're mostly a Cisco UCS shop now but I'm in no rush to get anything anytime soon, maybe a VMware cert down the road next time VMware offers free training.

 

If you want to get your foot in the door, try to find an internship. I know a lot of people that started out as an intern and now work full time in IT with little experience prior to their internship (my younger brother had very little IT skills before he became an intern, now he's a senior admin for his team making significantly more than I am). Just be aware that the IT market is pretty saturated now so if you want to get into IT, you will need to move to where the IT jobs are (Texas and Colorado are booming right now, I could double my income tomorrow if I was willing to move back to Colorado).

 

Sorry if I was rambling, I just finished a 10 hour shift (4x10 isn't bad) so I should head to bed.

[IPushFatKids]

6 minutes ago, NinJake said:

Do you simply not have any job openings for the aviation maintenance? If you already finished your schooling for that, there's huge amounts of money to be made in such a field. (Especially since peoples' lives are on the line)

 

I went to school, and took an internship at a government entity. They liked my work and hired me on full-time.  Every job will be different, since I work in the public sector, our budget is VERY limited and we have to make use of what we have. Small amount of employees (My boss and I in IT). 50% of what I learned in school went down the drain in terms of what I can or can't do here. (Inefficiency/lack of budget again) but the benefits are great and once I have a few more years under my belt I'll definitely be moving to the private sector.

 

Best of luck to ya.

I live in Ohio,US and starting pay in this field is 14 bucks and lives are on the line but that doesn't stop them from working you 12 hours day day in a very stressful demanding job. I backed out due to health problems and never being home to watch my kid grow up.

[IPushFatKids]

4 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

1) I enjoy it a lot, it's my dream job and I've passed up plenty of better paying jobs with better benefits so I can continue working my dream job.

2) Some nights are more demanding than others, some shifts I won't be able to finish all of the work because there's just so much of it while others I can relax and work on scripts and take online classes for other stuff. I worked less than 15 hour of OT last year, mostly because I didn't want to so I got my work done within my normal 40 or I handed stuff off to other people on my team if the current issue was going to put me over 40 hours.

3) Pay-wise is decent, I'm closer to the $100k mark than the $50k mark (I also make a nice chunk of change from my own web service company I created 7 years ago). I was making a lot more doing the same job in Colorado before I moved back to Florida though. I've been working in IT for the same company since I was 20 years old so all of my adult life.

4) I was an assistant manager at Dominos and one of my delivery drivers worked in HR at the company I'm with now. Coincidentally the general manager's mother was in charge of the internship program at the company so I used both connections to get my foot in the door and get interviews, once I got into the building I was able to show off my fancy (yet depressingly easy to get) CompTIA A+ cert I got in high school and funny enough the team that wanted me was the team I'm currently working for full-time. I was attending community college at the time with no technical background except for having built my own computers for years and learning a little HTML along with some Linux experience.

5) I have a few CompTIA certificates but mostly because they were free and I like to beta test exams. I considered getting my CCNA-Datacenter cert since we're mostly a Cisco UCS shop now but I'm in no rush to get anything anytime soon, maybe a VMware cert down the road next time VMware offers free training.

 

If you want to get your foot in the door, try to find an internship. I know a lot of people that started out as an intern and now work full time in IT with little experience prior to their internship (my younger brother had very little IT skills before he became an intern, now he's a senior admin for his team making significantly more than I am). Just be aware that the IT market is pretty saturated now so if you want to get into IT, you will need to move to where the IT jobs are (Texas and Colorado are booming right now, I could double my income tomorrow if I was willing to move back to Colorado).

 

Sorry if I was rambling, I just finished a 10 hour shift (4x10 isn't bad) so I should head to bed.

Wow sounds great! I'll need to look for some intern positions and see what my area has. I live in Ohio. Don't want to move really all my family lives here. Thanks for telling me your story. It motivated me.

[Poohy14]

I am in the Industrial Electrical field and I do not do full time IT but I do some IT. For example, replace and setup Cisco switches, play with fiber optic (multi-stranded), some computer work here and there and get to play with some server things as well. Currently, I do not have any certs for networking but would like to go back to school for them one day. Right now, I make $70,000 a year but mostly do Electrical troubleshooting most days but do get to play with some IT things some days. Getting my foot in the door was pretty easy, since there are a lot of electrical jobs out there and I know a lot of places here in Ohio (around Toledo) to do IT work. You need to be an electrician since those two job are combined in the field. This is something else to look at as well, and hope you find something in the field.

[Sir Balbador]

I started my current job about 4 months ago in IT. I enjoy it a lot here and have not had to do any overtime. 
That being said I believe that my positive experience has a lot more to do with the culture here. Everyone is friendly, the CEO is always around and you can just go have a conversation with him, the work environment is not stressful, unlike other places I have seen. Everyone is just relaxed all the time but still gets work done.

 

I would strongly suggest you stay away from a company that has a lot of stressed employees. It usually has something to say about management. And you don't want to be fighting management just to do your job.

 

I have no certs and joined as a junior IT. I just have been learning as I go.

[You_are_a_cunt]

Pain, suffering, misery and fun.

[Not_Sean]

13 minutes ago, revsilverspine said:

Pain, suffering, misery and fun.

I've been working in the field seven years and this hands down best describes it. 

[You_are_a_cunt]

2 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

I've been working in the field seven years and this hands down best describes it. 

Technically been working in IT ever since I was 6 or 7 when I started fixing Commodores and DingDongLo TV "consoles" around the neighborhood. The only thing more frustrating than a moron client is a moron client that thinks he knows better. Among other things.

[Not_Sean]

9 minutes ago, revsilverspine said:

Technically been working in IT ever since I was 6 or 7 when I started fixing Commodores and DingDongLo TV "consoles" around the neighborhood. The only thing more frustrating than a moron client is a moron client that thinks he knows better. Among other things.

oh no I can beat that.. the worst client (Same also been doing this since my first P2 400Mhz) is family. Have a aunt who will only call and invite me round to dinner, than when i'm there oh could you just have a quick look at my computer. 

 

Doctors and IT guys have it worst with family and family friends mainly cause you never get paid. 

[BuckGup]

Don't go into IT.

[You_are_a_cunt]

10 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

oh no I can beat that.. the worst client (Same also been doing this since my first P2 400Mhz) is family. Have a aunt who will only call and invite me round to dinner, than when i'm there oh could you just have a quick look at my computer. 

 

Doctors and IT guys have it worst with family and family friends mainly cause you never get paid. 

I don't think you've ever read my Clients from Hell posts.

I can top that just with last Christmas.

Should probably write my stories on my blog at some point so they're there as a warning (and source of entertainment) for people that want to get into IT, either as a hobby or a profession.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Be prepared, you'll end like this guy.

 

[Arika]

[removed]

[yathis]

I know a guy, started making $80k a year climbing cell phone towers. He was early 20's back then, 2004'ish, he had a computer degree I believe.

[LAwLz]

"IT job" is way too broad. It's like saying you "work with sports". You will get completely different answers depending on if you ask a professional athlete compared to someone working in a sports equipment store. You will get very different answers from different people.

[sgzUk74r3T3BCGmRJ]

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