Please help!!

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.

Hi everyone.

My name is Darren and I am a ICT Teacher in Cardiff.

With the teaching industry like it is and over 50+ applicants for one job I have decided to come out of teaching and go into industry.

I have an Business Information Systems degree and I have managed to secure a Tech Support (1st line support) job at Logica.

However, the wage is only 12k and coming from a teaching wage I am going to struggle.

What i'm trying to find out is:

1.) How quick can I progress from first line support and is this the standard wage?

2.) I don't have any experience of first line support but I am eager to compliment my ICT degree with other qualifications - Can you recommend any?

3.) What comes after first line support and job prospects for the future?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Darren

 

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.

Stay in teaching.

Teaching is a difficult industry to get into, when you consider the qualifications required and CRB checks etc.
It is also fairly recession-proof, to the extent that, no matter how bad the economy, we generally have the same number of kids going to school...

 

Hi Jonny,

It isn't at all recession proof. Unfortunately there are next to no jobs out there and you are faced with day-to-day supply where the kids show you total disrespect and you got to deal with all the s**t.

I am very confused where to go with this - I have secured a first line role and I could go there and progress. Or I could stay in teaching and do day-to-day supply and hope something comes my way?

The issue I also have is there is another 25,000 teachers qualifying with the hope of getting jobs aswell??

 

I think you are just bored with your job.
Go for holidays, rest, and come back to your job. Especially if it is paid much more than 12k a year.
There are no super jobs, and on the end of the day you work for money, if you get over 20k then don't be fussy mate. Teacher's job is quite safe, your future employer who wishes to pay you 12k won't guarantee you that safety, and think what will you do when you loose your 12k job.
get some holidays, find yourself relaxing hobby (gym, martial arts, cycling etc), and stay where you are if it is not some nightmare place, and think that many people are jealous about your job

 

1 - if you excel, go the extra mile and are good at what you do then progression is more likely, but there is no magic answer to this, it all depends on how hard you are willing to work and sacrifice your time to put the study in.

2. The A+ if a good cert to show basic hardware competence, then the network+ for showing some basic ability to do network diagnostics, you should also look at the MCDST, but this expires at the end of June, might be worth looking at the Windows XP client exams (70-270) and the Windows 7 client exams (70-680 and 70-685), should be a good place to start.
Maybe ITIL foundation also

3) Lots of hard work and study, you need to prove yourself to be a knowledgeable and dependable to progress, id say the pool of IT techs out there is comparable if not exceeding the 25000 teachers so there is competition from people with more industry experience, and to be honest, and no offence is meant by this, but being an ICT teacher is not the same as working in IT by a long stretch.

We joke about the ICT teachers in our place, and the courses seem so out of date as well, so it is likely you will be starting at the bottom, there is no shortcut in an IT (or any other career), unless you are friends with the boss, or engaging in rendezvous's ;)

Good luck

 

Not being funny here but the public sector in colleges and schools at the moment isn't this airtight safe where your job is guaranteed, far from it, cutbacks are being made in all sectors.

If someone wants to change career then i'm all for providing advice and not judgement, having worked in a very good college for 2 years now i see some students and think that theres no way id want to be stuck in front of a classroom of them, and as i said we are a good place!

In fact many teachers are leaving the profession due to many reasons, my concern is that companies will see ICT teacher, and think public sector, and no real life experience, which are 2 factors that will count against him for now.

 

I think in the long run people will probably value all the other soft skills you get from teaching. You will probably find it tough to start with though.

 

Have you not thought about relocating to where the jobs are? e.g. the rest of the U.K.I know of schools in the local area I am in who struggle to find a decent teacher or get the right applicatins. There are history, business studies and pe teachers teaching ICT wtf.