Greetlings

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Hi all,
kind of jumped in with both feet when I registered but think I should do the courteous thing and say hello

24 yr old chunk disillusioned with the whole educational system and the reliance on degrees and other unrepresentative cack in this country, mainly because I've done badly with them

Floating around aimlessly looking for career direction, nothing's really lighting my fire, might just go back to sitting at a cash till beeping cans of beans all day long. Hey, it's a living.
...which is why I'm here. One of my diverse hobby-ish activities is making a nuisance of myself with electronics, and apart from mechanical tinkering which I also enjoy (the two have FAR more in common than you'd realise) it's the one most likely to get me some kind of career with a living wage.

But to get into it requires the right leads, the right work-based experience or the right training, and preferably a combination of all three. So needing to get hold of at least the training if nothing else.

Been thru the usual school guff... various GCSEs at A-C, A-levels across the entire spread of passing grades, then onto university where I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to get a 3rd class degree in Biology when, if not for a complete c**t of a viva assessor, it would have been a 2.2 ..... oh well... there's not much you can do with one, and nothing you can do with the other, so no big loss.
Just recently come out of a hospital-based Clinical Technician training course... it was a good job, liked it most days, loved it on others, and the learning was interesting... but it was simply too much work to do all together. I said at interview I didn't want to go back to school and was assured it was nothing like that... but that's more or less what happened, except I was having to do a 4/5ths fulltime job at the same time. I have a slight, recognised difficulty with ploughing through piles of text and making up official academic or scientific documents and reports without them looking and sounding like crap, yet that's what 90% of the course material involved. Very nearly snapped under it all, and not having my contract renewed (in favour of a more experienced other applicant) was almost cause for a celebration as I could withdraw and blame it on circumstance rather than wimping out (hey... I passed... even though it was only a "pass" rather than merit or distinction, and it's only an HND not the full degree, in a deeply niche area, it's another bowstring)
Options include finding another post - in what is currently a pretty dead area of employment - in order to continue into the last two years of the course, which I don't know if I can handle ... it requires even more of the same slog, personal reviews, honours project, etc, which will last at least until I'm 27, for a less than stunning wage and - nowadays - a not even that well guaranteed job or pension unlike the NHS of old. Still, it's a lot to throw away.

Alternatively... I.T.!!! Could be very enjoyable (or not..) and lucrative, and it's something I'm already pretty good at and can happily "zone" away with. But outside of a C-grade in IT at GCSE (what can I say, the teacher was a pillock, he entered us all for Foundation level when everyone in my class could have aced the Higher level for an A* grade), the IT based modules at university and the training college, and the odd side-task things done in my previous jobs, I have no formal quals or work experience to draw on or use to get into a post.

Eventually Cerco caught my eye whilst I was trawling late night cable TV (they know their target audience well) and I got some of their info, along with a few other companies - Skillstrain, NITLC, New Horizons etc. A lot of their stuff sounded like sickening marketing hyperbole, and it seemed to be a lot of cash and cramming in a whole stack of information into not very much time, for a dodgy certificate at the end.... none of which would be good.

So... searching for infos lead me to here. And I think that was a good thing. I'm no longer going to go on the Cerco course, mainly based on comments on here (and in a few other places, but mainly here), as it's basically an A+ but more expensive and without the CompTIA certificate... and a skim-thru of the A+ stuff suggests I know 80-90% of it already. So well done... you've saved me four grand And the other places, i already told them where to stick it - bothering me with a pushy marketing call when I'm doing my shopping or at 8.59am, asking if an advisor "can come visit you at home tomorrow" is no way to make a friend of me. Sorry love. I don't buy at the door.

Also had people, such as techs my mum works with, suggesting I should start studying an MCSE... only after they've loaned me a massive breeze block pack of books, and I've dropped £170 on a 30-disc CBT course, do I realise it's far too advanced for where I am, and it would better fit someone with a year in the industry already. Oh well. Save it for 18 months and see if it's still useful.

Idea now is to start from the ground up. Get my learndirect ECDL (and, at the same time, their basic "12 hour free Sage Line 50" cert - it's a nose into a rookie accountancy job, if i'm ever really strapped for cash), read through some hooky A+ e-books and sign up at my local test centre for the exams, see if I can get an assistant under-lackey's post somewhere for a taster of the industry and if it's worth persuing further, get some good career, ed-psych and life advice in the mean time, and take it from there. In which this site still looks to be pretty useful... So thank you all so far

-Tah

 

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That was a stunning introductory post Tah!

From what you have written here, it sounds to me like you can turn your hand to anything you wish to. You have an excellent way of expressing yourself in writing and that alone is a talent which will help you progress in any industry.

Yes MCSE is over the top for someone starting out in IT. You have probably already realised that as a group, we recommend that people study *entry level* certs first. This may sound odd coming from me as I didn't actually take that route. It was too late before I realised that I had jumped in at the deep end, so to speak. The MCSE I am sure would have taken me less time if I really had a rock solid understanding of the basics.

It's worth bearing in mind that the CompTIA A+ and Net+ together count as an elective toward MCSA. This means if you do those two exams first, you only need three MCP exams to gain MCSA status. From there it's not such a big leap to go for MCSE. That is the route I would suggest, as it starts out fairly easy and gets gradually tougher as you move on.

You clearly have a good working knowledge of computers which is good. IMHO there is no point in considering a job in IT unless you have a natural flare for this kind of thing and really enjoy learning new things, forever trying to keep in touch with the cutting edge. In IT the learning never stops and the rate of change is very rapid, so do not go there unless you are prepared to study for ever.

Good luck in whatever you decide and welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome, Tah, and ...

3 grand saved straight off then !!

Yer welcome

Hang around and follow your nose. It's a good place you've found

 

Hi there and welcome to the pub at the end of the road

 

welcome to CF!

 

Is that somewhere near the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

Welcome Tahrey. Glad you've found it useful already.