from userend to techend in 18months

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as title say ive now gone from user to "tech" in 18months
a year ago i was working in a large oilcompany drawing pipes and spending half my days doing paperwork, this was beyond just boring but on the edge of depressingly boring.
i applied for goverment support for reschooling as i had only my education as technical drawer and after what felt like a lifetime i got it approved.

at the time i was a slight wownerd so figured if i can play on the computer naturaly i can maintain for a living
had a short interview with a consultant from a corporate training center (that also followed me along the way) as to what training they thought id need to work in IT and infront of me was pile of courses.
over about 8-9months i got/did these courses:
- European Computer Driving Licence (hard stuff like what button do you close windows with etc)
- Microsoft Office Specialist (office sure had ALOT more functions than i assumed when starting it, found excel to be a slight pain)
- "crash course" in IT with 1on1 training covering the theory of the 1year "it-maintainance" classes shrunk to 6weeks then did the exam along with students that did the regular year passing and getting full credit for it as the 1year education since i had points from a completed education already.
- 2285 : Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional
- 2273 : Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment
- 2276+2277: Implement., Manage & Maintain a MS Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastr. (komprimert)
- 2279 : Planning, Implement., & Maintaining a MS Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure

the last 4courses especialy i felt slightly misplaced being 22 and evrybody else 40+ in suits but learnt alot.
since i now had the 1year education complete i could start as a "apprentice" since i need a year of workexperience before the final exam and certification as a it-tech (unsure if it counts just for norway or not).
a week after my last microsoft course i had a new interview with the consultant about what job to look for, we agreed that a school would be a fitting place to start and made a list of schools as a "wishlist".
about 2weeks after he got me a interview at the school on the top of my list and got "hired" (as a apprentice i get a goverment salary so no expense for them).
so a year after applying for reschooling i now got my first and current IT job!!

its a school for year 11-13 not sure what equals in british schoolsystem, 700ish students and 800ish computers mostly laptops.
also one of the few "future schools" for norway testing all the gadgets and systems before taken in use nationwide.
some gruntwork involved like doing all the cabling but mostly hanging around the office taking "walk-in" customers that mostly consist of minor stuff like helping them with office,drivers etc but also more intresting stuff like setting up wds from scratch over multiple servers and making all the images.

quite a diffrent world than 18months ago doing nothing but painful paperwork and boring work
got about 8months left for my final exam as and it-tech title/papers, also just started buying gear for my cisco home lab and aiming for ccna/ccnp there!
reading some of the topics here i suppose i was fairly lucky landing a IT job i like a year after deciding to reschool for it.

 

Nice to hear such a positive story. Very encouraging. I only wish the UK government was quite so helpful here

 

norway isnt to bad for reschooling, if u get reschooling granted above the age of 26 i think it is u can also get a bachleor partly covered.
but best of all since im still in the apprentice stage il get any certification expenses refunded but unsure if they would approve cisco homelab as certification expenses, will try getting it refunded along with fee for first exam

 

Sadly so true...

Not even the ECDL you can get on the JobCentre anymore.
I guess the money is going for the asylum seekers and their "little" mansions.

 

Gratz on your progress cruzader

Don't forget £10mil for new RBS boss and £12.50/week for people trying to quit smoking in Poole area

 

id be willing to trade some benefits for new custom laws and lower postage

a package over 20£ into norway i gotta pay a 15£ fee + 25% of package value.
for a small package with 2-3cables i could send it 6times from england to norway for the price of inside norway

 

Congrats and welcome!

 

Yep. Blame it all on them damn asylum seekers. Still - at least we have the luxury of being able to blame it on them - rather than live in the countries they come from (which we are bombing back to the stone age/rinsing dry economically). In most of the places they claim political asylum from, attempting to moan about things will get your family tortured, your wife raped or you shot - just for asking questions.

Its all relative fella.

 

I think its the blame culture we live in, all the successful people who's tapes ive listened too say that spending money on your own education is the best investment you can make, I doubt any of them moaned when they had to pay for it themselves as that isnt the successful way.

And if you dont like government policies, vote for someone else and get involved in politics to persuade others to do the same.