Finished College, Job in IT

Hyper

New member
I am about to finish college this week, for the last year I have been doing a IT Tech Support course at college where I have obtained a few certificates along the way including CCNA 1, 2 and IT Essentials 1 & 2. The course I am doing is a NVQ Level 3 which is equivalent to 1 A level apparantly.

Now I have enquired into a Foundation Degree and can do it in September if I want but it doesnt look for me so I have been looking at jobs in IT. Loads of jobs are asking for expierence etc and I just dont know where to start to get a job in IT.

I am just simply asking for any advice and how you lot started off in IT.

Thanks, Sam
 
Perhaps a local store mate? Even PC world would be a starting place but try and get in the tech repair department if anything.

I'd start by uploading your CV to a career site or similiar
 
i would go speak to the careers advisor in your college, they can give you tons of information on jobs that are available to you taking in to consideration grades courses qualifications experience all these things matter :D

speak to your tutor aswell if you dont know where career advisor is

its a company called "connections" that deals with this kind of thing
 
name='Silentsnake' said:
i would go speak to the careers advisor in your college, they can give you tons of information on jobs that are available to you taking in to consideration grades courses qualifications experience all these things matter :D

speak to your tutor aswell if you dont know where career advisor is

its a company called "connections" that deals with this kind of thing

Its connexions :P

They visited my school not so long ago, was there to give jobs advice and stuff. I got a free pen-drive. :p
 
Iv just finished my ND IT at college,

Working in a factory now (have done for a while) and my employers have seen that ive passed my course with flying colours, got offered a promotion the other day so ive taken it.

Its going to be nice to work my way through the company. Now on £6.75 an hour, no complaining from me. XD
 
I have to admit I'm not up to speed with all the modern qualifications, 'in my day' you did your gcse's, went to college to do 3 a-levels, then to uni for a HNC/HND/degree.

You say your qualification is the equivalent of one a-level? If so I’d urge you to continue your education and get whatever is close to a HNC (1 year) or HND (2 year) if the full degree isn’t for you. I say that because I’ve been applying for jobs recently and over the last 2 years I have seen a lot of jobs move away from having HND/degree in the desirable column to the essential column.

This could be because as my career progresses the jobs become more demanding, therefore they require more from the individual. I’ll concede that point but I also believe the trend is shifting towards degrees becoming a requirement for all ‘decent’ jobs.

I guess it depends on your career aim. You probably don’t know, I’m guessing you are 18 as you speak of college. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so o went to uni! I still didn’t know what I wanted to do after uni (I slacked off at uni and all the graduate programmes wanted 2.1 or above meaning I had to apply the normal way) so I became a contractor to get experience in various fields as I had no experience and wanted to see what I liked.

Get a decent CV together, I’ll help if you like, don’t worry too much about not having experience; prospective employees don’t expect you to have any. As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

1. A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer's greatest wants and needs.

2. Intelligence...management "savvy".

3. Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.

4. Good fit with corporate culture...someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer's team.

5. Likeability...positive attitude...sense of humour.

6. Good communication skills.

7. Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.

8. Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.

9. Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.

10. Confident...healthy...a leader.

Whack it up on Monster.com or look for agencies that cater for the field (I.T – pretty vague tbh) you are interested in. Get in at a FTSE 100/Dow 30 company at any level, listen, learn and knuckle down. Every company needs tech support,

From my first major role as a glorified administrator I have ended up doing project management and business analyst roles which I really enjoy. I have done some jobs I haven’t enjoyed like my current role (data management) but it is just a stepping stone and I’m leaving to become a PM/BA again with a hefty pay increase .

Also, get companies to sponsor you for professional qualifications within your desired field e.g. Prince 2 for project management, CIPS for SCM/procurement.

Hope that is some help,

Jon
 
im 22, and as for the equivalence of my ND its about 3 A levels,

I would go further in education but hey, i have the rest of my life to be doing that.

Good luck with whatever you do, im sure one day you will find you footing.

I did:

The Army

Farming

ND Agriculture

Work

More work (bar staff)

Then back to college when i got fed up of work

XD
 
The other way of approaching an "IT" sector job, is through agencies.

Afaik there is a shortfall in jobs vS people to fill them. Recruitment agencies work darn hard to get people jobs, of all kinds of positions, as they get paid 1stly for placing u and they as u get paid. (not a skim off ur salary, it`s just how agencies work)

In all honesty, with the intent of getting a foot-in or experience with a company, any sort of IT support, installs, can be very very basic. Every company needs "some1 to fix a mouse for a user" - to be extreme about it.

So u could.. sign up for an agency, there`s no commitment in terms of u have to do what they say about taking positions, just sign up, provide them with a CV that lists ur qualifications and any experience and they WILL find something. (As long as u don`t aim too high initially, or I guess u could aim high initially and lower the aim if time goes by)

On the back of that, u can either get taken on by these companies, or stay with them on contract and move to others, all the while gaining experience. Oh and whilst ur there, ur agency will constantly email u about other positions, as well as having a homepage with all sorts of advice and potentials.

Tbh with "IT" (as said already, that`s a blanket phrase for many of us) the options are huge. Options in terms of how u go about getting started in it.

As I said, afaik there are more positions than applicants in the IT support field atleast. And less and less students are taking computer & science based subjects, so it`s only going to get worse.

I can tell u hand on heart that the majority of people here, that give good replies to pc problems, would have zero problems in IT support.

I had no idea what my job title would be at my current position. I thought IT Technician (which would be ok cos I do hardware stuff aswell as OS), but my manager filled in my thingy as IT Analyst - pfft suits me.

Money, really, is as good as u pursue it. U can be on "good" money and love the place and be happy. Or of course u can be happy with the "good" money, but actively look to push urself to other things. That`s really down to the individual.

I still laugh when people talk about "work". Pfft I go in, play with computer stuff, drink coffee, post on forums (OC3D ofc), and go home. U call that "work"? lol (this is after about 18 months of main career switching) - it is work to some people mind, but if u love computers in general, it`s different. I know some1 in the department without a home pc.. how does that work ?

EDIT: Oh I got A levels in Electronics and Math, AS in Math too (taken early). Grades are crap mind, but they`re letters other than U, F or N :p
 
Wow two nice big posts there!

Myself Im on a ICT national diploma right now, about to end my first year out of two - so this is all relevant to me. I aim to finish this, which is equivalent to 3 a levels (up to 360 ucas) and then do two years HND at the college making it cheaper than uni. I then want to go to UNI for the full degree (hnd is a foundation degree also) and they also give you the choice of work experience, which can vary from local firms, all the way to HP in germany (not bad :p)

I then HOPE i can go on to do another year for bachelor degree

This is all in computer science, as i dont see the point in specialising in something such as gaming - trends are always changing and i would rather somethin generic at this point
 
I got a degree then got a Support desk job and quickly worked my way up - that's a nice way to go as helpdesk gives you a broad range of skills to start any job :)
 
Plenty of good advice here mate, not sure if its your cup of tea, but have a look at the Royal Signals, you can get some really good courses on joining and will definately get plenty of experience.

I know some real uber geeks who used it as a ladder, and now work as consultants. earning £650 a day, wish I knew then what i know now as they say. Now you know what I did not at about the right age.

Good Luck
 
Thanks for all the advice guys.

Been and spoke to someone at College today who recommended me to do the Foundation Degree in September since its very similar to what I have been doing this year.

They told me If I decided It wasnt for me within the first few weeks I could leave without any fees which is nice to know. Think I will go down this route or atleast apply so I have something to fall back on If I dont find something more appealing before then and see how things go.

I will let you all know how things pan out but I must say I am very grateful for all the advice so far!

Thanks again.
 
It`s pretty important, imo, that people stay away from courses and such that are too keyed in on specific OS groups or situations.

As an example to explain, there are many course offered around places that target the likes of microsoft XP and server (server maybe not so good an example). Point here being, u can study and pass a course on such things and a year or so later it`s worthless as a piece of paper. Even tho u do retain the experience obviously. But u`ve wasted time and money (if u pay for it urself)

Imo, it`s best to study on general things that will be applicable in many years to come. The likes of Network+ (so I`m told) and there are other things that the guy to the left of me usually reads up on, but is on holiday atm so I can`t go further into detail about it as I don`t read up on it myself.

There is a fine balance between studying time and actual experience-in-the-field time. Generally, in the field, ur knowledge can expand whilst new things come along - however u don`t tend to get any paper to show for this.

Getting a degree/diploma(HNC/D) that is computer related, including the likes of math, electronics, is money in the bank and a firm foundation whilst u look to further urself once u get a foot in.

(just on the news this morning, gaming companies reporting on the lack of graduates in the field with math qualifications. It`s not just gaming companies I`m sure)
 
name='Rastalovich' said:
(just on the news this morning, gaming companies reporting on the lack of graduates in the field with math qualifications. It`s not just gaming companies I`m sure)

hehe, hopefully my degree will earn me plenty of £££ then :D
 
My point exactly

I'd rather get a nice foundation layed at a generic level which can cover me for a wide spectrum of jobs

Then perhaps as the trend changes, my interest changes or whatever, i can then gear myself towards that technology
 
Just 1 basic example. Practically all games are 3d orientated these days. It`s a good investment to have some1 on staff that understands vectoring and movement within vectors.

Not exactly something we studied in pure-math, but it`s easier to think in 3d terms when u understand dimensional equations. Particularly on a screen display that is inherently 2d.

I`m sure those looking for the graduates could throw out a list of other reasons.

Physics ? Well, off the top of my head, physics in going to be a part of nVidia`s near thinking, so hey. ;) Physics is an awsome subject, I loved it and failed it cos I`m an idiot more than anything else. Got an "N". But now I remember so much of it - crazy.

To be fair, alot of games are made from packages that can do the whole job for u, but if u don`t follow what the package is doing, it`s hard to understand why it throws an error out when u try to do something.
 
Hum, we could use a tech-support guy at work. :P

I think you're the wrong end of the country, hell...I wouldn't mind an assistant :P
 
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