Starting out in IT

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I know this topic is talked about on here alot, but i was looking for some specific advice?

Basically i have just finished my A Levels. I did ICT at A Level, and GCSE and obtained good grades in both. I have worked in PC World for a year now as a customer advisor, and this has given me good customer facing skills, and some hardware/technical skills. I am very keen on hardware troubleshooting etc.

I was just wondering if anybody had any advice on first jobs?? i have had a few interveiws at some local schools for ICT technicians and have been unsuccessful due to lack of experience.

Was just wondering if anybody had any advice/tips etc??

cheers in advance!!

Matt

 

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sorry if I'm confused but.. wouldn't PC World be your first job?

 

PC world is not like any other company lol

I think it will look good the experience and also the fact you worked and studied.

Id look into onsite support, but other than PC world there are no PC hardware jobs only in IT (unless its an IT shop)

 

i dont really see working in pc world as a first job. I only worked there part time, and it hasnt given me that much experience from an employers point of veiw!

I really want to eventually go into support, and then into network support. What would the next logical step be from here?

Thanks

 

Have you thought about University with a sandwich year in industry? If not it would probably be worth doing. It is not the end of the world if you don't want to go but a degree may put you ahead of other candidates especially with a year out working. Alot of people I know on my course worked for the big 'bluechip' copmpanies such as J.P. Morgan/chase, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle etc which is bound to look great on your cv should you get into their internship scheme and they may even offer you a job. Additionally uni life is great for most people (not me) you meet loads of people and you get to think about life, that little bit longer.

I also suggest you look at graduate schemes which offer lots of benefits should you graduate with a good degree and have the right attributes.

If you don't fancy degrees, have you thought about a HND/Foundation degree or any other type of further education? Perhaps you could ask your manager at PC world if you could shadow the tech guys for free, or even help out for free. Also I would look at getting your Network+ A+ and MCDST. Self study is the best, just buy your books on ebay or amazon. Apply for low level first line support jobs, apply to help in charities, set yourself a practice lab up to try different troubleshooting scenarios.

Anyway as with most things, pay your dues,work hard and your get where you want to be. Don't leave your job untill you have a job lined up.

 

I have thought long and hard about uni over the past year, and have come to the conclusion that it is not for me. I would much preffer the 'on the job type training, and to progress myself from starting at the bottom.
I have already started to do some self study for the A+ course, and im getting through it ok, most of the stuff i know already!

In terms of PC World, sometimes i have to support the 'tech guys', but its only ever for a couple of hours a week, so i cant really call that experience, and even when i do support them, its only doing simple software installations, and hardware installations!!

I was also looking at project managment roles within IT, what would you people say the best sort of path into project managment is??

cheers again guys!

 

Your PC World experience is more than some of your competition will have... so don't knock it.

I'd recommend that you get some sort of desktop support job, preferably one where you can eventually assist the server admins with server administration so you can learn from them... thereby picking up valuable server admin experience.

 

Its all about how you market yourself. My last job permanent role (before I did contracting for a bit) was in a similar role (not for PC World but for an independent) and now I'm doing Server Administration - IIS, MySQL, AD, etc.

 

A sandwhich year at University would let you work in a proper IT company whilst learning. Plus, University is supposed to be one of the best experiences of your life!

 

you got that right



Grim

 

O Grim you did make me laugh hard

 

Was Just wondering how exactly you got there from you original permenant role??

Would be great to hear a little more detail??

 

I started out in an independant PC store, doing sales and a few minor repairs. Got my A+ Cert, then moved on to a Tier 2 Remote Support job. I've been very very lucky in that I knew someone in a financial company looking for an on-site IT guy and I've been in this role since March.

My advice to you (you have the same interest in hardware that I have) would be to start out with CompTIA's A+ offering and move onto Network+. That should give you a bit more clout going for basic roles.

 

Managed a small independent shop for 15 months or so. Quit and spent 4 weeks applying for jobs, pimping my CV and speaking to agencies, almost got a job as a field service engineer, had quite a few (false) leads from agencies fall through, but one or two decent ones.

Started a contract with a large IT-solutions/support provider for a local authority. I quite enjoyed the work - and the people were decent and easy to get on with, apart from a certain contractor who had a bit of an attitude! One of the problems with the contract was the sheer lack of organisation within the local authority and how the project was managed. We used to get on site and find out the the planned work had been cancelled and so us contractors spent a lot of time sitting or walking around doing not a lot! Getting paid to do sweet F.A. is OK but after a while it begins to grate. We also weren't learning a great deal on the job, just a few nuggets of knowledge here and there but it was mostly pretty basic support. The other major problem was that the lack of organisation within the project ultimately led to loss of income as we were constantly being laid off as a result of things being cancelled or postponed.

So I started applying for other jobs and on one Sunday night I fired off a dozen or so applications, most of which I never heard back from. I wonder if they were actually real positions or just CV-baiters? Anyway, the very next morning, I received an email from one of the companies, asking if I wanted to come in for an interview, so I did! And it went quite well. A week later I went for a second interview and was offered the position of 1st/2nd line support engineer.

I've only been there for a short time but it's great. It's all quite new to me - a lot of Server 2003 Admin - so quite a learning curve from the start, but a great opportunity to build up my skillset. The people are nice too, which really helps