What to do next?

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The last 3 months i have been working as a field engineer in my first IT job and i really hate the job due to working conditions. What can i do next and use this experience for?

 

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fix microwaves, clean streets, get a McJob. Any of these (and more) could be available to you today.

Seriously though, you give us absolutely nothing to go on. You have 3 months experience as a field engineer. Doing what? Field engineer could cover simply replacing pcs with new ones, or fixing photocopiers, or any number of roles. What experience have you got besides that? What do you enjoy doing, and what dont you enjoy doing? No-one can advise you on a career path without knowing where you want to go.

Personally, I would say that with three months experience (assuming that thats all you have), you would be looking at precious little, except maybe the same job at a different company. Most employers looking to hire a step up from entry level are looking for, at the bare minimum, 6 months experience. But that also depends on where you live, how much you want, what jobs you are looking for, etc.

Details, man, details!

 

oh, and welcome to the forum, by the way.

 

it has been repairing/upgrading pc's and laptops, i dont mind doing this, its just the conditions of the job im in, i prefer networking but its been to difficult in the past to get into netowrking or any other IT job. Is there money to be made in maybe setting an advert in the local paper for pc repairs as it covers quite a wide area.

 

First of all, don't quit your current job. You can begin to look for other work, but I'd recommend another PC and desktop support position at this stage in your career (3 months isn't very long). You might be able to find another position that will give you this valuable experience but have better working conditions (not sure what your current conditions are, though).

"Networking" can be a lot of things. Setting up a PC and making sure it can connect to the company's LAN and authenticate against a domain controller could be called "networking". I once was tasked as a desktop support person, with tracing all the cabling in the server room, labeling each end, and documenting the "nest of snakes". That could be considered "networking".

A lot of times, if you distinguish yourself at a simple IT job, additional responsibilities open up (no, they won't put you in charge of configuring their switches and routers right away). Also, as you get to know the more experienced people on the job, tell them that you're interested in learning more...particularly about networking. They may have you assist someone in a networking task. I was once asked to assist the lead tech in setting up a WLAN at a public library (I worked for a city IT department). *That's* networking.

Experience takes time to build...whether it happens to be at your current job or some other position. Give it more than 3 months.

 

Exactly...
In my opionion, don't be quitting a job with only 3-months overall experience. By all means apply to other jobs that interest you, but with less than 2-years IT experience you'll find many doors that just won't open.

 

You won't be able to just automagically jump into networking... it's something you work up to. And that's industry-wide, mate... you won't likely fix the "problem" just by switching jobs.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but PC repair is oversaturated here in the US. You can certainly make money doing it... but competition is cutthroat. Building a customer base just to be able to make enough money to survive is pretty difficult. But with the proper motivation and mindset, it can be done.

 

What makes the working conditions so bad? I stuck a job out for 16 months before quitting. I hated the conditions (working alone every day and a boss from hell - totally soul destroying), but I did it to build up my experience. It wasn't easy, but I did it, and my CV is now getting noticed where as before I was getting nowhere.

Stick it out for a while longer, you never know it may get better, and such opportunities can be rare.

 

the main problem is not being paid properly, iv been applying for other jobs and iv got a telephone interview for a technical advisor role tomorrow.

 

i managed to get a new job doing technical support for a broadband company, the pay isnt to good though, would it be easy to get into a better tech support job with better pay if i did this until january, i dont think there are many chances to progress in this job