Hello all - thinking about a new career in IT

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Hi all,

Firstly i would like to say what a great forum this is!!!! ( i have spent about 5 hours reading various topics and threads today)

This is my first post and i would like to apologise now because this will be long and many of you may find it very boring but i would like to get a few feelings and worries i have across so people can understand a little about me

Im 27 years old and am married with 2 boys, 8 and 3 years. I have worked as a data comms engineer for nearly 11 years. I have worked with structured cabling sytems (cat5/6 etc etc), fibre optic cable installations and some voice cabling installations. Im self employed and have been for about 3 years now.

I had a phone call yesterday in response to an application i made online to a job that was for an MCSE engineer "no experience needed starting on 27k a year". Basically it was a training provider i wont go into detail and im sure your all aware of the drill. Well i wasnt aware of what was in store and it got me exited. I had a telephone interview today and the jist of it was it would cost me £2750 plus exam fees and by April i would be fully qualified to be able to walk into a 27k plus job!! Brilliant i thought amazing but it does sound a little bit to good to be true. So basically i started researching :-

1. I found this website and as previously stated read and read.

2. Rang my Dad as he is an officer in the RAF and always a good person for me to go to for advice.

He basically told me what i already thought that this seemed just to good to be true. He also spoke to careers advisers within the RAF who agreed.

I read Arroryns post about training providers and Zimbas post about self teaching (both excelent i would like to say). Also alot of other posts and topics on lots of topics about IT careers.

To cut a long story short i have concluded that from knowing next to nothing about IT to in 8 months of online training and a few exams becoming an MCSE engineer and being able to walk into a 27k plus job well basically is just not realistic. To gain this qualification maybe possible, highly unlikely, but the skills, knowledge and experience to name but a few things needed to walk into this kind of paid job is just completey unrealistic. ( this is not meant to be a slant against training providers )

I have for a while been wanting to change career (basically i dont want to be doing manual labour for the rest of my life). I geuss its fear of change, lazyness and the pressures of being the breadwinner that have stopped me doing something different. BUT i do really want to change and get into IT, but dont really no if its what i really want to do if that makes sense??

My plan is to basically start off with a couple of books ive noticed A+ and N+ being mentioned a few times. Read them and see what i think if it sinks in and if its something i really want to learn, understand, jump into and pursue as a career. Lets face it for someone who is unsure its gotta be better then paying a TP thousands of pounds before realising its not for me.

Any advice on what books would be a good starting point for my would be greatly appreciated and any general thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks alot in advance and sorry if this is a bit of a ramble

Regards

Andy

 

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Welcome onboard matey!

Sounds like you have a plan, I would recommend the keeping the day job and then study for MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician) this is an entry level qualifications, that can really assist with jobs on Helpdesks etc.

I'm sure you could probably bang it out in a month or two, and see what happens.

Also, it's always good to put on your CV 'Studying towards MCDST'.

 

Thanx for the advice mate!

I also read your threads aswell and it did give me optimism congrats on what you have acheived. Hard work always gets rewarded keep up the good work

 

Sounds like you've thought things through and researched them well! With that kind of attitude and persistence, you should do well in IT!

Welcome to the forums!