Becoming an I.T professional

[Jackhamm3r]

Hi all,

 

Firstly I just want to say, I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this.

 

So...I'm looking for some advice, and any is welcome.

 

I live in the U.K and looking to have a change in career. I have had a life long interest in all things tech, and decided that at 33, I want to do something that I actually have an interest in for work.

 

So...what advice am I looking for...I get that some of it is down to personal preference and I cant ask people what I should do, but...I am looking for some help/info/advice in what that should be.

 

I have started studying for a degree in computer science part time, but I would ideally want to move away from my current job (IKEA) and get some experience and/or improvement in pay. 

 

The other is, exactly what are the sectors people think I should be looking at? I'm also studying at home, with things like udemy courses. I've been looking at programming and cloud solution things mainly.

 

I get it's a little vague what I'm asking, but its easy to say, I'm going to do computer science or whatever, but...its the deciding on what I should be specialising in, and what pathways to get where I want to there are.

 

Thanks,

 

Gaz

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

6 minutes ago, Jackhamm3r said:

been looking at programming

Don't go there.

Too many companies will infer your age and go "nope"

AI is the current hotness, programming can be done if you work for yourself, but *very few* companies will hire a fresh programmer in their 30s.

20s, (late) teens, sure but 30? Highly unlikely.

Unless you work for the gov't, where your age is an asset.

 

[MedievalMatt]

12 minutes ago, Jackhamm3r said:

Hi all,

 

Firstly I just want to say, I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this.

 

So...I'm looking for some advice, and any is welcome.

 

I live in the U.K and looking to have a change in career. I have had a life long interest in all things tech, and decided that at 33, I want to do something that I actually have an interest in for work.

 

So...what advice am I looking for...I get that some of it is down to personal preference and I cant ask people what I should do, but...I am looking for some help/info/advice in what that should be.

 

I have started studying for a degree in computer science part time, but I would ideally want to move away from my current job (IKEA) and get some experience and/or improvement in pay. 

 

The other is, exactly what are the sectors people think I should be looking at? I'm also studying at home, with things like udemy courses. I've been looking at programming and cloud solution things mainly.

 

I get it's a little vague what I'm asking, but its easy to say, I'm going to do computer science or whatever, but...its the deciding on what I should be specialising in, and what pathways to get where I want to there are.

 

Thanks,

 

Gaz

 

 

You are likely going to start at the bottom wherever you go, and work your way up.  I started at an IT call center, then i moved to Level 2 support.  and now I manage production changes and deal with things like the corporate customer facing website being down, or the exchange servers, or some other thing we have that should have been implemented better but wasnt because intelligence.

[LinusOnLine]

There are so many different career paths for computer people. I was specialized in Server operating systems, directory services and server hardware/SAN's. Not really sure what the UK is looking for right now though. Back when I did this, certifications was the fastest way in to the industry but from what I hear that is not the case anymore.

[SolarNova]

The more frequent job listings i see in the UK usualy revolve around networks and network maintence. perhaps look into that.

 

Generaly speaking for a tech enthusiast, the UK has little on offer.  For example if you wish to empart your technical knowledge onto others in a retail environment, well your not going to get paid for that expertise, those retailers have no problem emplying som1 who know F all about the subject and would rather teach them some basic sales tactics than pay for proper technical knowledge.

PC building is also somthing that is non existant in the UK with exception of a few very specific places that will already be fully staffed.

 

You could get a position in a technical support department of a large company, all you need their is some qualifications in IT to get you through the door. Though not exactly a 'tech enthusisst' worthy position.

 

You really have to specialise into somthing specific to get anywhere. at that point i wouldnt call it a 'tech enthusiast' position as its way to specific.

[LinusOnLine]

17 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

 

 

You really have to specialise into somthing specific to get anywhere. at that point i wouldnt call it a 'tech enthusiast' position as its way to specific.

Specializing is the way to go. Not much work out there for someone that knows a little about everything. Also terrible pay usually. Knowing everything about a smaller area though gets you both work and a nice pay check

If they are after networking people, check out Cisco certifications. Might be a way in at least.

[Jackhamm3r]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

Don't go there.

Too many companies will infer your age and go "nope"

AI is the current hotness, programming can be done if you work for yourself, but *very few* companies will hire a fresh programmer in their 30s.

20s, (late) teens, sure but 30? Highly unlikely.

Unless you work for the gov't, where your age is an asset.

 

That is one thing that I have been concerned about. I think that I will develop skills anyway, as it can't hurt, but I'm not expecting that to be an out and out proposal. 

 

1 hour ago, MedievalMatt said:

You are likely going to start at the bottom wherever you go, and work your way up.  I started at an IT call center, then i moved to Level 2 support.  and now I manage production changes and deal with things like the corporate customer facing website being down, or the exchange servers, or some other thing we have that should have been implemented better but wasnt because intelligence.

I get that it's not a likely situation to start anywhere but entry level. You've got to work for it ain't it. 

 

1 hour ago, LinusOnLine said:

There are so many different career paths for computer people. I was specialized in Server operating systems, directory services and server hardware/SAN's. Not really sure what the UK is looking for right now though. Back when I did this, certifications was the fastest way in to the industry but from what I hear that is not the case anymore.

This is something that I have been looking into. I've been looking into Cisco quals, along with some either Azure/GCP/AWS. 

 

1 hour ago, SolarNova said:

The more frequent job listings i see in the UK usualy revolve around networks and network maintence. perhaps look into that.

 

Generaly speaking for a tech enthusiast, the UK has little on offer.  For example if you wish to empart your technical knowledge onto others in a retail environment, well your not going to get paid for that expertise, those retailers have no problem emplying som1 who know F all about the subject and would rather teach them some basic sales tactics than pay for proper technical knowledge.

PC building is also somthing that is non existant in the UK with exception of a few very specific places that will already be fully staffed.

 

You could get a position in a technical support department of a large company, all you need their is some qualifications in IT to get you through the door. Though not exactly a 'tech enthusisst' worthy position.

 

You really have to specialise into somthing specific to get anywhere. at that point i wouldnt call it a 'tech enthusiast' position as its way to specific.

This is where the main issue I've found to be. I know that essentially I need to specialise in some particular area, but it's a matter of just what. I genuinely have found it crazy difficult to attempt to find any sort of real or certainly unbiased/reliable info about any area in general.

 

1 hour ago, LinusOnLine said:

Specializing is the way to go. Not much work out there for someone that knows a little about everything. Also terrible pay usually. Knowing everything about a smaller area though gets you both work and a nice pay check

If they are after networking people, check out Cisco certifications. Might be a way in at least.

I think this is definitely the right. I came to this conclusion early on. As I've replied earlier on, it's been more figuring out what the hell to actually do, and that I would find interesting.

 

I just want to say thanks for the replies. One thing I'm thinking of doing, is producing some sort of blog/website to help people determine their options for these sort of things. Specially if you're a bit older like me.

 

Personally I'm thinking that I'm going to look more into cloud/networking. But I still want to develop my programming skills.

 

Again, thanks (Y)

[Canada EH]

3 hours ago, Jackhamm3r said:

tech

You should be looking into technologies that oil and gas companies are interested in, or mining companies. That is where the real scratch is.

[LinusOnLine]

12 hours ago, Jackhamm3r said:

 

I think this is definitely the right. I came to this conclusion early on. As I've replied earlier on, it's been more figuring out what the hell to actually do, and that I would find interesting.

Finding out what you want to do is the hardest part I think

[Sauron]

A computer engineering degree is basically a "get hired anywhere, anytime" card in most of western europe. As for what will interest you personally, only you can answer that - be careful though, if you're looking into IT just to get a better job you'll be facing some pretty fierce competition from people who would do it for free.

[lacion]

since you're in the UK is going to give you a recommendation based on the current job market.

 

Software engineers are a very competitive market right now. with EU (and UK) companies starting to closely follow the SV startup approach companies are not hiring hundreds of engineers and you will only find a handful of programmers (vs the thousands looking for jobs). on the other hands, the new jobs (DevOps and SRE's) are being desperately looking for and there are not a lot of people doing that in the EU/UK most of the people that put DevOps experience in their CV are really just people that been working on IT and what to move on to DevOps/SRE. so if that is something that may interest you the market for it is excellent right now and will probably be like that for the new couple years.

[wANKER]

There's no such thing as an IT professional. Just qualified Googlers 

 

I think you need to decide at least roughly where you want to head before you make any choices. You can go do a computer science degree, then find you want to go into is network consultancy and what you should have wasted spent your hard earned money on is CISCO CCNA/CCNP

 

 

[LinusOnLine]

19 minutes ago, Sauron said:

A computer engineering degree is basically a "get hired anywhere, anytime" card in most of western europe. As for what will interest you personally, only you can answer that - be careful though, if you're looking into IT just to get a better job you'll be facing some pretty fierce competition from people who would do it for free.

There are plenty of IT jobs that definitely will not do it for free

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, LinusOnLine said:

There are plenty of IT jobs that definitely will not do it for free

I'm not saying he or anyone should do it for free, but IT more than other fields is full of people who do what they do for fun more than for money.

[LinusOnLine]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

I'm not saying he or anyone should do it for free, but IT more than other fields is full of people who do what they do for fun more than for money.

That is mainly entry level stuff. If you like me design network infrastructure for big companies it is far from free