Really need someone to help me with a plan of action and answer a few questions

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Basically I really need to get thinking on what it is I want to do, I have a young child to provide for so I dont have time to waste. I want to pursue a career in Networking I plan to do my Comptia A+ first but dont really know where to go from there. I have no experience working within the IT industry but do have 6 years of study within business studies and I am currently working as a security guard. I just want some advice on how realistic is is getting an entry job in IT with no experience... I mean if I turn up to a job interview with a few comptia certs while another cadidate turns up with a full blown degree I wont stand a chance.

So essentially what I'm asking is:

what certs should I get to get into Networking (comptia cisco etc..)

what is the easiest field of IT to get an entry level job in?

How realistic is it getting an entry job?

is it possible to self study?

is there any advice you can give me in general in persuing and IT career?

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Every firm that has more than 4 or 5 IT guys will probably have an entry level trainee who came there with no experience or qualifications. Probably in a role called Service Desk Administrator or similar. It's boring and underpaid, you just take phone calls, log support tickets, run some kind of reports maybe, and pick up the ropes so you can be moved up to a support role and another newbie can take your place.

If you are ok with that you shouldn't hang around waiting for an A+, get on with it now and certify later. All the employer needs from you is an air of diligence and commitment enough to endure short term tedium and low pay in order to get where you want to be in the longer run.

Don't try to pick your specialist subject this early in your career, you'll just miss opportunities if you get tunnel vision.

There are lots of different types of employer to look for. If you are ambitious, then the sometimes stressful, often barbaric, Managed Services / Outsourced Servicedesk industry is a good place to start. You work on a lot of different networks every day, often have to improvise quick shameful fixes, and there's always lots of leaving drinks because staff turnover is pretty high.

On the flip side, they hire a lot of junior staff, the experience you gain is excellent, and advancement is usually pretty quick if you have the aptitude. The larger places have lots of teams for you to move into if you like (often including a networks one if that still floats your boat when the time comes).

It's pretty easy to find these companies by the way, just Google "IT support <your region>" and you will probably get 10 pages of relevant results.