IT Employment

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a beginers roll

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by john.mackett

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i was wondering if this country realy needs IT profesionals or if it was just a big farse by the goverment to make the bulding trades more atractive.

ive been out of the building game for three years looking after my sick partner know shes on themend ive been trying to get into IT ive done sevral courses and im most of the way through my CCNA but cant get a junior position for love nor money. I mean when do you stop being a junior anyway i mean if i had two or three years experiance i know iwouldnt be looking a jobs for juniors or traineee's.

i keep looking but aint getting any further than that can somone tell me what a bloke is surposed to do. im not asking for much just achance to start a new career.

thanks john.

12 replies

by madroxxx

If I were starting a new career I would look in the heath care field right now. The tech market sucks. Yes people with 2-3 years experience are happy to get "junior positions" now.

by tomsal

The reason the IT market is so bad has to do with several factors -- the economy; in hard economies companies don't spend on IT, or if they still do they make big to massive cut backs in spending. It's just that simple. Competition is rough in the IT field, I would say that in IT the competition is rougher than most other professions. Keep in mind that in today's world its not uncommon to for someone like you trying to get his/her foot in the "IT Door" to be going up against folks with 4 year degrees...even for an entry position. One time years back, when I was going for a junior network engineer position -- one of the guys also applying for the job had his Masters degree in Comp Science. At the time I only had one little Microsoft Cert under my belt and a single Associate's degree. So I know how rough it can be.

Many years later - I've been at my current employer for almost a decade and I've learned a lot over the years, through good ol' fashion experience and trial and error ---and plenty of supplemental book learning too. Now I'm an IT Manager -- still no masters degree. ;)

Hang in there, never give up you'll get there.

by oz_media

"Competition is rough in the IT field, I would say that in IT the competition is rougher than most other professions."
Whatever gives you this idea? Rougher than most other professions? Like what?

This guy is studying for his CCNA, NOT MCSE (which I agree is an inundated field because everyone thought that MCSE was the best cert.)

by timwalsh

Worldwide (mostly), the IT sector is still in a slump from when the dot com bubble burst. The fact the world economies are still hurting further depresses the market.

The good news is that world economies seem to be recovering. The job sector in general will follow suit. The not so good news is that the IT sector doesn't appear to be recovering as fast as other sectors.

The number of experienced job searchers in most areas of the IT sector still outnumbers the available jobs in most geographic regions. This makes it pretty much a buyers market as far as employers are concerned (i.e larger talent pool to choose from, lower salaries, fewer and/or lower benefits).

So there really isn't a simple answer to your question 'What's a "newbie" to do?'

Part of the answer is don't give up if IT is our passion.

Part of the answer is to be willing to look beyond your present location for jobs.

A large part of the answer is luck - being in the right place at the right time.Look for volunteer and/or intern-type work to build experience. Look for jobs in other parts of the IT sector (like help desk/support) instead of concentrating on network administration (if that's what you're presently doing).

The bottom line here is that certifications by themselves won't get you a job anymore. Employers want experience.

Good luck in your job hunt.

by oz_media

If you're NOT trying to find work via the newspaper or job center, you're on the right track.
Qualify your prospects, try making several different resumes and seeing which is more effective.

There is a LOT of work in the IT field and it is easy to come by if you're patient.

Never email a resume, never SPAM mail your resume.

Pick a prospect, call the prospect, state your case, visit the prospect (resume in hand) and close the prospect (you'll need some presentation and sales skills here).

"Done deal, we'll see you for work on Monday!"
Don't worry, be persistent and you'll hear it soon, Good luck.
OM

by oz_media

Man, listening to some of the poor hard-done-by opinions here makes me want to throw in the towel and either go back to work full time or commit suicide!
When someone is reaching out for a little support and positive reinforcement, you guys know how to really bring gloom into the world!

Just because YOU can't find work that you want, doesn't mean the entire IT sector is hard-up too. This guy is a CCNA, NOT an MCSE he has a better shot than most MCSE's because his market sector isn't inundated with new MCSE grads every two weeks. If he goes into the Netware market and studies for a CNE or MCNE he has a huge market to indulge himself with.

Maybe it's the mind-set of many IT staff that if they don't have the skills to find work, it must be a crappy market. Put away the Trading pages, stop reading about dot com woes and work instead, there's lots of it.

Have you never heard the Hot Dog stand story?

by oz_media

Of course I have a job, I created one. I get bored with most jobs too easy and go on to do other completely unrelated things all the time.

I can't see myself working as an IT contractor for more than a few more years. It's just plain boring.Who knows, maybe I'll become a lumberjack or long distance truck driver. Perhapse I'll just go back to touring with the bands full-time again.

Life's just too short to put all your eggs in one basket.

The ONLY reason I have a job is because iused to teach a job finding club and learned how to keep myself working. If I decided to go work for one company tomorrow, I guarantee I'd have MY CHOSEN IT career in less than two weeks (OK maybe two weeks exactly because I learned a 14 day program to guarantee a chosen career [and payscale] in 14 days).

The ONLY time I've seen people have such a hard time finding work is when I got into IT, it is not due to the lack of work available but the lack of qualified job finding skills IT peoplein general have. There is a long drawn out sociology reasoning behind this but it has been confirmed in this forum time and time again.

I am NOT trying to shoot down IT people, I think the skills and abilities required by IT staff are hard earnedand well deserved, it takes a special breed of person to achieve success in the IT industry. In many cases, that same 'breed' though has many social drawbacks that make the person ideal for this field.

Salespeople are NEVER unemployed, if they are, they aren't salespeople.
Retail staff are in this same group of permanently employed people.
MOST management staff are also rarely unemployed.

Continued

by oz_media

A good IT skillset also requires good sales and presentation abilities as well as above average social skills. I know many of you wil disagree but the fact is how many TOP IT people do you know who finish work and go home to compute, game or read books, in my world, MOST of them.

This is what creates the people who are seen by others as geeks due to their lack of social skills, some guys feel tagging along for a quick drink and a show of face at company get togethers is sufficient as a social activity, however sitting quietly in the corner waiting for people to ask you about their pc is not a social activity.

Antisocial IT "Geeks" (sorry about that)are the type of people who qietly conform and do what they are told, a motivated employee will push to the top with ideas and scream blue murder when their expectaions of the company are not met.

Moving out of your comfort zone and demenading the best for you is not hard but uncomfortable. Once you get used to it, the world is your oyster.

by lordinfidel

The market is really tight unless you have a extremely rare skill set, like VMS admins or HPux - AS/400 admin.

I know that even in my skill set, security admin, that I have stopped getting hits and calls on my resume. You know it get's bad when the recruiters are not even calling.

But honestly, every IT job I have ever had has been thru word of mouth. I have never been offered a job thru an cold interview or by aswering an ad.

As much as I hate saying it. If you are new to the fieldand you have no contacts. Enroll in a school that does job placement and work from there.

by thechas

As the global economy recovers, so will IT jobs.

3 years ago, IT people commanded top money as there were not enough to go around with the DOT-COM industry sucking up everyone with any skill at all.

Since the DOT_COM bust, the market has been flooded with talent.

As things improve, companies will need to hire more IT staff as they increase other staff.

Chas

by coucherdusoleil

i think if you really love what you're doing, people will see it. and maybe the companies you are applying for don't see it in you. maybe you should ask yourself if this is the right career path for you to take. i have a friend who has been trying to get into IT for more than half a decade. but he's still trying up to now! while here i am in IT for more than five years now. i started out reluctantly but i guess experienced IT people who hired me knew better. ;-)

if you really want something BAD enough no one can stop you from getting it. =)

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