Other Jobs in IT - Sales / Project Management...?

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Hi All,

After studying hard for several months for my CCNA and proudly passing, I finally landed my first job in IT as a PC Desktop Engineer. After 14 months of overcoming a very steep learning curve I am starting to wonder if Desktop Support is really for me...

My intention was to sidestep into the Networks team at my earliest opportunity but have been blocked by office politics and am running the risk of stagnating in my job - I realise that this sounds like I am trying to run before walking, but that's me!

I am now looking to move in an IT related field which is not so technically dependent such as IT Sales (I was an Antiques Dealer for 9 years!) or IT Project Management and was wondering if anybody has any expriences to share with me or any pointers to give with regard to training, certifications and experience required to achieve my goal.

Thanks in advance for your kind consideration.

Cactus.

 

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Project management? This is what popped into my head:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/officespecialist/project.mspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/default.aspx

 

Well that doesn't surprise me to be honest, first or even second line support is no picnic. This is what people need to understand when they take these courses ! A career in IT can mean many things and will generally require years of hard work.

Pure Project Management is a discipline in itself and in my experience the best managers required no IT knowledge whatsoever. Thats what IT workers are for !

The planning will depend on the project, is it development or infrastructure related ?

Prince 2 is probably the most useful certification in the UK. Maybe ITIL for infrastructure.

Theres also project+ and others

http://certification.about.com/od/projectmanagement/Project_Management_Certification.htm

If you wanted to do a development/project manager role theres many more methodologies some with certs most without.

I'd question why you want to become a manager if originally you wanted to be hands on ? The emphasis is really entirely different, like switching from a computer science degree to a business degree.

Office politics will always exist, it may be theres a less radical solution to your problem, maybe you should stay put for a bit ?

Sales is always an option, technology companies need to sell their product like anyone else. Again its totally different to hands on implementation. Some jobs are tech pre-sales or consultancy based, this means they may want you to use your tech skills to demonstrate or adapt the product. However most will be at least 80% sales based. I can't think of certs helping much in this area unless theres a tech sales position that really wants a certain skill.

 

If you really want to do network support, maybe it's time to look at changing employers and see if you can get something more to your liking?

Maybe even speak to your bosses and state your intentions and see what they can do you move you into the network team?

I dunno, it's kinda hard to say without knowing your situation but as dmash26 said, you get office politics everywhere i'm afraid!

 

Thanks for all of your thoughts and comments...

Thanks Trip - We have a copy of MS Project 2003 here which I could certainly play around with.

Thanks DMarsh - A fair comment, I took this job as it was the best entry level role I had been offered, and as it was so difficult to enter the IT field with no commercial experience, it was and still is my intention to use this role as a stepping stone to other things but am not sure what!

Technical experience was the only true commercial experience I had, so decided to expand on that. To earn a semi decent wage in Sales with no relevant commercial experience was impossible. Prince and ITIL are good ideas, which I will look further into, but I think I would like to aim to either Sales or Networks (opposites, I realise!).

Thanks TartanBill - Office politics is hard me for to accept as I was self-employed for 9 years and worked alone! Good point about persisting with Networks, I intend to stay put for at least another 10 months to complete a 2 year stretch, but just thought it would be a good idea to start the cogs turning...

 

How about sales of networking equipment?

Or project managing network projects?

Having tech knowledge and certs is a huge bonus if you want to do business in that field

 

Good point...