Some help for an Industry newbie. Advice appreciated.

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Hi,

I'm just after abit of advice if possible, as to what to do with my resume, and what sort of job i could 'realistically' aim for.

Basically, i'm 35, from London, and left my last job at the end of 2010 (not in the I.T industry), with a fair bit of savings behind me, to primarily focus on getting my Microsoft Certifications that i had been wanting to do for a number of years but never had the chance. I've since been studying my absolute socks off, having passed 4 Windows 7 exams (70-680/681/685/686) aswell as Active Directory 70-640. I'm taking the Network+ exam next week, but feel that time is of the essence, and i now really want to start looking at getting into work.

I expect to take a job at the bottom of the ladder, that doesn't bother me in the slightest, i just want to get my foot in the door of somewhere. Is Helpdesk the way forward, or are there any other job titles i could go for?

Also, regarding my resume, i've been deliberating over it for a few weeks now, and i'm still unsure how i should lay it out with regards to my certifications, work experience (lack of), and covering letter. For someone coming from a completely different field of work, i want to get my covering letter as good possible so that it gets noticed and doesn't end up being filed in the bin.

Any help on this matter would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

BIOS.E.C

 

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First things first (and believe me you will be asked this in an interview) what have you been doing for the last 15 months or so, I ask because it doesn't take 15 months to study for 5 odd exams and in that time you could have gained some decent experience working for a non-profit \ charity if you didn't actually need to work.

As far as qualifications are concerned, I for one would steer clear of someone who only has certifications on their CV and no actual real world experience, it's the honest truth but companies want someone with experience over someone with certifications, obviously getting someone with both is a bonus but at the end of the day it's the chap with the experience who will get the role.

If I were in your shoes I would limit the amount of certifications you put on your CV for the moment, build up some experience that masks the certifications you have, after all the idea of certifications is to prove your existing experience rather than as an aid to actually getting a role in IT (if you look at Microsofts recommendations for some of their certifications they require 12 - 18 months commercial experience using those technologies and as it stands you don't have that experience).

Don't get me wrong here, having the certifications is a good thing but at the moment you only know the Microsoft approach to IT rather than the real world and the two are VASTLY different.

You mentioned you're expecting to come in at the bottom of the ladder and let me tell you, the bottom of the ladder doesn't pay well at all, the thing that would worry me about a 'mature' person coming into IT is that their salary expectations are going to be far different from what I would expect to pay a PFY just coming onto the job market and as such I would have concerns on the longevity of your placement and wouldn't be surprised in a relatively short period of time that you decided to move on, not just because of the salary but also because of the experience you want to gain perhaps won't happen as fast as you want it to.

I would also want to know why all of a sudden you're changing your field of work and what makes you think that IT is where you want to be.

Lastly the usual career path for someone coming into IT would be as a Hell Desk analyst, moving to 2nd line after a period of time, perhaps getting some project engineering experience, moving into 3rd line and consulting.

To give you an idea of my career path have a quick look at my attached CV, it gives you an idea on timescales and layout as well, just to let you know it's not been updated for a bit does have missing qualifications \ job information from it but it does give you some idea.

 

Thanks for the comments, i appreciate the feedback. It's been taken on board. Thanks for the upload of your CV, i'll have a look at that now.

Thanks again.