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Breaking in

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by medinats

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I was a Net Admin for the Marines for 4 years and a year before doing free be stuff at college. I have been trying to break into the field but, have not been getting any responce. This led me to doing telecom for some professional experience. I havethe skills that companies want but, none want to give me a break to get in. Is there something else I could try or do to get back to what I like doing the most?

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by netdrake

Hello,

I am a former Marine myself and an IT Manager for a manufacturer. If you want to send me your resume, I can take a look at it and possibly forward it to some of my professional contacts.

sean@decristo.com

by kkb

There are a lot of companies outsourcing their desktop support. If you want to break in and are willing to do that type of work to get in - do it. Once you're in - you can move on to your specific area of interest - server administration. You will get to know a customer base by doing support of this type, build credibility with your customer interface skills (sometimes the a weakness of the backroom/admin types) and demonstrate you are willing to work to get to your ultimate goal. There are differences in the types of firms that do this work - so be a bit picky if you go this route - get one with benefits, etc. Anyway, I have seen people with less experience than what you describe really flourish and gain lots of experience and move on to bigger and better things so I am sure you could do this is a short period of time. Consider it just a different path to your end-goal.

by penguinsrule

I would say try contract work for a while, it's easier to land a contract assignment than it is to land a full time job anyday.
You build up a good reputation by doing these contracts well, and you'll land an even better full time job later on.

www.ceweekly.com
www.dice.com

by penguinsrule

I was just telling you this, because I had trouble breaking in too. I then worked as a contractor for 8 years. I started with lower level, lower pay assignments and each assignment was progressively more challenging with higher pay and responsibility. Then I was able to land a Lead Technical Analyst position. The hard part was that I had to be willing to go wherever the work was and my wife and I travelled on the road for 8 years and we moved 17 times and lived in 8 states..

There is work for people who are willing to go where the work is. There are lots of jobs that nobody wants to do. I can think of several right off.

by amoeba1

Another option is to work for a University/ College. They are usually always highering because they can't always meet the market value of an experinced IT professional but it is a good break-in place. This is how I have landed a job as a Computer Systems Analyst I (also similar to System Administrator). I started out as a Computer Tech working on users desktops and teaching myself on the job the other aspects of what I do now. Good luck.

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