Voluntary Work

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Hi,

firstly I'd just like to say what a great site this is with some fantastic views, insights and advice on offer.

My question relates to voluntary work. I am about to make a career change into IT, among the many posts I have read there is a recurring piece of advice to those starting out and that is to gain experience any which way or how. One of the possibilities is voluntary work, but how do you go about getting voluntary work to help out on IT systems at any level.

Is it a case of going to IT based companies and asking for help, or are we talking about charity organisations and the like. I am talking about getting into entry level IT support here so assume no prior experience other than user level.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

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Think you've answered your own question matey.

Just get an up to date CV and ask ANYWHERE which you think would appreciate and accept volunteers for their IT department. So... colleges, care homes, charity oranisations. The works.

The worst they can do is say no.

The best of luck to you.

Qs

 

On my first few jobs eg. Call centre work i made a point of speaking to people in IT and offered to help the onsite IT team whenever and got a few opportunities which i later put on my CV to help get me an IT job

Ive also found this to be great if you try building up contacts with higher level teams once you get a basic IT job. Certainly has helped me.

 

Hi and welcome, I to am A Blue but my blues come from west London Stanfordbridge way.

 

Yeah I realise the easy answer is just to keep trying till you get a break hence the "get experience any way or how" reference.

But my main query is how likely is it that a company will give someone the opportunity to get involved in their IT infrastructure at any level when that person has no experience maybe other than reading cert books or messing around with their own eqpt.

I.e what have other people experienced when offering their services voluntarily for the experience, or are there any individuals on the forums who regularly or irregularly give individuals the opportunity to gain worthwhile experience.

Right now I am employed in an organisation that wouldn't let me near IT support due to security restrictions therefore any experience I gain would have to be external and obviously during time off work

 

Messing around with their server or network infrastructure? Extremely unlikely. Messing with PCs and doing other entry-level tech work? Much, much more likely.