IT: Goals Vs Reality

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.

And to you Si,

I notice your getting your way through your certs and the job situation seems to have come on leaps and bounds for you as i remember when i first joined i don't think you were too far ahead of where i am at the moment.

It just goes to prove how thing can move along nicely with the right attitude.

Hats off to you matey.

 

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.

Kev,

Thanks mate.

At a guess, when you joined i was about to take the N+. I felt *ready* for a while, but due to personal problems never sat the exam.

I studied like mad for the 270 and passed on the first attempt. I am now going for the MCDST before the rest of my MCSA studies.

As I say, practice, patience and persistance is the key.

Best Regards

Si

 

Wow, didn't think I'd get such a great response as this

It really is interesting to see how people made the switch to decide one day 'that's it, I'm gonna bloody do it', particularly if they are already settled in a career path. I thought I was in a minority in that I have been in a trade for about 8 years and now wortking towards switching, but obviously I was wrong. The impression you get with IT is that people in it have been doing it since they could crawl and that it will be too late to start, but it never is.

I love telling people that I'm studying for IT too. Since starting a few months ago, I now get loads of call from mates of mine 'My laptops slow, can you take a look' or 'I've just bought a PC, keep hearing about something called a firewall, what is it?' and now in a very short space of time I'm able to solve these problems for them, which is all good practice for me. I even applied what I have learnt to my guitarists (I'm in a band) effects pedal the other day when it conked out, just simple connectivity and power issues I'd never have thought of before that I've picked up since studying.

It's places like this that alow that to happen to the average guy (or lass, of course) like me, so I tip my glass of rum to you all (well, it's a mug of tea, but I can dream, can't I)

 

Well i never saw myself going into IT when i was at school, i was always going to go to Uni...

However when i was 16 i started helping out with the computers at my school during my free periods whist studying for A Levels. I was a volunteer level 1 and 2 technician i suppose. So i did that for the 2 years while i was doing A Levels and towards the end of my studies the IT Network Manager who i helped out was making the transition to teaching role so his job became available.

Anyway by this point i was a little tired of studying and applied for his job during my "gap year". I got it and suddenly i went from student to staff! Ended up working there for 3 years until i was 21 and never quite made it to Uni!

I started studying and made the move to the business sector and worked there for about 2 years. I absolutley loved working in the school but the money was very poor as was the training. Not that the payroll company i worked for was much better!

So 2 years later i made the move to my current role as a 3rd Line IT Technician. So i've been in IT around 7 years and i've replaced that amibtion of Uni and a degree with certs, courses and experience.

Although my role now is as a 3rd Line Tech i've taken on responsibilities and made the role my own. I'm in charge of other teams whenever their supervisors are away and i'm given 80% of the new project work for systems because i've shown good planning and organisation skills.

So although i never planned to be in IT that first oportunity and working with my first "Mentor" really shaped my career path. Sadly my mentor died about 2 years ago of Lukemia but i'll never forget his influence on where i am now.

As for the future? Well i either want to do some contracting for the experience, get a lower level management role such as senior tech with a team underneath me or go into some kind of management -

Hence all the certs... i'm trying to become a rounded IT pro!! But i'll start specialising next year if i dont make a move, Cisco or something like that!

Thats my story!

 

Erm, I'm in a totally different place to where I started out!

My parents were both teachers - Mum at a gramma school and Dad at a comprehensive with an excellent reputation - so all though they never "forced" me to do anything, I always felt a pressure to do well academically.

I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do, so did A-levels in Biology, Psychology and English Lit, then went on to Uni to do an HND in Health and Beauty - landing my first job in a laser (light sheer diode) vein, hair and tatoo removal company - excellent money, but hated the job - and the smell of burnt skin...well it still haunts me to this day - eeeuuugh!! I just had to get out, so despite a drop of about £10,000 in salary, I took on a regular beauty therapist job - lasted about 3 weeks and couldn't take any more - it's just sick what people want done and expect you to do..then there's the falsity of it all, and the conversation - well there was none...

Luckily in my HND, the mini dissertation we did was in business -using spreadsheets to generate business profit and loss accounts etc. There was quite a focus on IT in general too... so somehow I managed to use this to blag my way into a first line support role at a well-established corporate company. I stayed there gaining knowledge and enjoying the job (but not all of the people)/ experience, then built up enough to get where I am - which is great as the people are totally on my level and they're training me according to where I want to go (within reason) and I'm now a happy bunny!!

Interesting topic this - is there anyone there who is doing what they set out to??

 

Well I know I have set out to do exactly what I wanted...work in the IT sector...after 10yrs of learning PCs and practicing on them and helping out friends and family and that, I am finally where I am. Its fresh start really for me, and from here I know it can only get better...I hope one day to have my own PC shop...but thats like about 5-10yrs away...so for now just getting established in the job and see where one ends up in 5yrs or so...

 

Interesting topic this - is there anyone there who is doing what they set out to?? [/QUOTE]

The only thing I ever wanted to do when younger was join the fire brigade, unfortunately getting hayfever for absolutely no reason at all at the age of 20 put paid to that, which I didn't know until I got the application pack for the Royal Berkshire service.

C'est la vie, I suppose

 

well what can i say in response to these posts??

Life gave me oranges when i wanted apples and all i've made from them so far is a big messy squash.........

I started doing something i hoped would lead to what i wanted... turned out i was wrong thru no fault of my own... then i just made a load of wrong choices and bad descicions since then and i'm still making them...........

I started a BUM and i'll die a BUM.. but what a ride in between!

 

hopefully its not a messy ride lets hope you see the light at the end of the tunnel? your not on crack are you?

:sorry

 

Not no crack lol nope... maybe i should be?

Nah think im just having a bad time this week...

Unfortunaley i try not to look back at my life as i only ever see the bad things.. And in 20 years of employment i can say that only 1 job for 7 years was really enjoyable and that wasnt even in my goals or dreams when i started work. It was something i never thought of until i did it. Just a pity it had to end

Now if i can get a good job in IT with a good company then i'd be happy.. but it still wouldnt be what i set out to do when i left school. I wanted to become an Avionics enginner..... But now what with ceircumstance and experience and the stuff life throws at you my goals have changed and adapted... i now want an IT role as above.

 

This is an interesting thread and I haven't really had time to read every post in full but it strikes me that a lot of people started off with different career goals. However, I always intended to work in IT but my route there was quite round the houses. I did A-levels in physics and maths (did two A-levels in maths in fact) because I wanted to do a degree in Computer Engineering. However, when I got there it bored the arse of me. I think also I had had enough of education by that time as well so after a couple of false starts I knocked uni on the head. I stayed in Cardiff living with my student mates and just did a couple of crappy jobs for beer money (which is very cheap at uni by the way ). As it came round to the time I should have been graduating (and all my mates were) I decided to look for something resembling a career.

I got a job in Legal & General in Cardiff, I could tell I was on the fast track there (got a promotion within about six months) and really enjoyed it. I was beginning to think about a career in the finacial sector when I made the mistake of taking a few days off to visit a friend who'd just started at Oxford uni. My GF and I went for three days but ended up being there for nearly a week. We were so wrecked every day we didn't get up in time for the train (couldn't get a train in the evening because the pubs were open ) and work didn't hear from us for several days. Whilst we were pondering what excuse to peddle them my friend, who had been travelling hence the late start at uni, convinced us to go and do a bit of travelling ourselves seeing as we were unlikely to have jobs anymore. A month later we'd bought a car and were driving across France with no idea where we were going except for a general idea of heading towards Greece, camping in picnic areas by the roadside and generally smelling bad. Boy did we have a good time but we never made it to Greece though. Three years later we arrived back in the UK via South-East Asia and Europe again with nowhere to live, no jobs and no money.

Whilst staying with my Dad, I got a job as a lab technician in a secondary school and seriously thought about doing that long term but there really is no career progression and the money is crap. I toyed with the idea of doing an OU degree and getting into teaching but I got friendly with the network admin there and did a bit of work for him in my quiet hours which reignited the IT flame in me. So after nearly a year I decided to work for some certs and quit my job to look for an IT job.

I've been back in the UK for just over two years now, I've just hit the one year mark in my first IT job and I've got no regrets whatsoever.

 

Excellent Thread Cockles Keep them coming