i havent posted on here for a few years now and want some advice/help from you guys. i have been working in pubs bars and kitchens for the past 5 years and dont think i have got to far. i have lost all drive and motivation for the trade now apart from the salery is crap. so i now its only taken me the best part of 6 years to work this out. but i have decided i want to get into computers and work within the industry. so i have sent off for some information from advent training, i had a meeting with a adviser there and he reccomended i do an MCSE give me all the details and i was lke ok so whats it gonna cost £4750 was the answer now that i cant afford at the moment. i talked it over with my mum and she doesnt think getting an MCSE will get me into IT as every employer wants experiance. so i have hit a brick wall. i have done things backwards and without thinking about how to go about this.i moved back home and left a job that was paying £250 a week to live at home and to a job thats paying £150 a week. so im kinda stuck. my question is whats the best way to get my foot on the lader to get me over this wall. as i cant afford a MS qualifactaion and dont know where to look and to what companys for help. i dont do customer service or help desk that would frustrate me and i dont have the patience for that. ideally i would like to go into networking mainley the design/setup and security. not just a sys admin. thanx guys Matt
With no relevant qualifications, joining first line support is really your only way into the industry. You have to start somewhere For the record, an MSCE is unlikely to give you much of a leg-up either.
yeah, MCSEs are only really taken seriously by people who don't know anything. get yourself some experience and work hard and upwards.
i was s hopeing to miss out the helpdesk stage. as when i did work experiance at south birmingham college there were always calls t thehelp desk with trivial things like my computers beeping and wont do anything ( well take the book off the keyboard) i lost my student card in the computer ( well dont put it in the floppy drive ) things like that frustrate me.
You're failing yourself at the first hurdle with that defeatest attitude Put up with crap for a while knowing that in x months you will be given the chance to move on? (and then once you have, look back on it and feel good) The only parallel i can think of is that fighter pilots once had to go through basic training, right? You get the idea...
While working the help desk for a company and dealing with annoying situations it's a great way to learn about the company and what the real problems are. Plus if you ending up being professional and polite while helping some big-wig with a simple computer problem you're setting yourself up for a promotion.
You may have to do first line support for a while, but it shouldnt take long to move away from it if you're pro-active and enthusastic. You could try applying for jobs that are a bit out of your league. Make sure you emphasise that you're willing to learn/train in your own time, and that your lack of experience is a plus point (IE, a fresh mind and a fresh way of doing things) as opposed to a negative. If you apply for enough, you're bound to get a few interviews.
the same problem exists with that company there the same type of thing with advent it will cost anywhere from £2700 -£4900. mums worry is i come out with this wonderfull qualifactaion but still end up at the bottom and the round of the ladder is just that bit out of reach and you cant jump any higher. have you guys got any advice on where to look exept the local paper as theres never many in there.( about 2 jobs that are compaetly unrelated to the field i wanna get in )
Just look online for jobs, there are a bunch of sites dedicated to jobs in IT, you should find dozens to apply for - don't be picky. Its far easier to do a lateral move once you have a year or two of experience under your belt than to be picky and try to get your dream job straight from the start. I wouldn't bother with any qualifications at this stage, you're not likely to start any higher on the ladder because of it, and the experience you could gain in that time will be more valuable.
buy me the ticket and ill be there in a flash. serousley i would love to move out to australia ( i should actually be living there now. long story ) where abouts in melbourne are you as mum has quite a few friends who lve in melbourne its a pretty nice city from some of the photos i have seen from when mum lived there. )
Dude, I worked for help desk for a few months, my manager saw how good i was, he started giving me more better things to do. Also while in the company i could see all the internal vacancies before the public, plus sometimes they did training for free. As the rest have said, you got to to start from somewhere. Also my local job centre had a scheme were they were doing MCSE courses for FREE!! Anyway i left all that now, as i was only working until i found what i really wanted to do.
You could always try working in a PC repair shop that works with businesses, that isnt PCWorld. It will get you experience in fixing problems first hard and give you a leg up towards being something like a system admin for a bigger company. I know a few people who have done this.