30 years old, with no paid work experience. Am I being unrealistic about an IT career? (UK)

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Hi,

As the title says, I'm 30 years old, with no paid work experience. In 2017 I received an MSc in environmental science, but less than month into my job search a close relative became seriously ill, and I ended up caring for them full-time rather than getting a job. Sadly, they passed away last month.

In my free time during this period, as well as volunteering as a mentor to environmental science students at a local university, I took a lot of online courses on Edx, Coursera, and Udemy, and discovered that what I'd really like to be doing professionally is IT (eventually networking). The thing is, now that I'm faced with the reality of being a 30 year old with no paid work experience, I'm concerned that I may just wasting my time pursuing some certifications and trying to get an entry-level position.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

Morning,

So the age thing really resonates with me as I didn't start working in IT until I was 32. My only regret, I wish I had done it sooner.
Id spent 13 Years working in the Games Industry as a QA Engineer / QA Manager and got made redundant.

I dont think Age is a factor. If you show you are passionate about IT, want to learn and improve your skillset, then I dont see an issue.

As Jim says, start with the CompTIA A+, Network+ and then see where it takes you.

CF is a fantastic forum, really helpful and plenty of knowledgable people around.

best of luck to you.

 

Im the same as Jaron, I came late to the IT game, I just made a decision to jump in as I was always curious and wanted a different career to the one I had and on the scope of it, it has turned out to be a really good decision. I thought age was a factor at first but if you show the willing and drive to a potential employer then you will get the foot in the door so to speak. You may not get a job first time, I think it took me a while to get my first IT helpdesk role, now I work at a big university who do look after their employees.

Just keep chipping away, if you can, get more voluntary work under your belt and it wont be too long before you get your rewards

Ed