By employed I mean get a job in the industry either offline or online. Ideally something that would highly likely remain in-demand in the near future.
Entry level networking technician. You can get a bunch of useful Cisco certifications for free on their website. Try to get yourself an old switch from ebay to practice setting up a small network, vlans etc., and you’ve got a solid start.
Try to get yourself an old switch from ebay to practice setting up a small network, vlans etc., and you’ve got a solid start.
This is what (older) millenials had to do when they wanted to play video games with their friends, no broadband internet, we moved the computer, set up a lan. Good old time. But this is how 20-25 years latter, I have basic knowledge of network, and look at puzzled Gen Z kids when I tell them to set their IP adress and ping the hardware
Sure as hell wouldn’t know what port forwarding is if it wasn’t for playing lan games online
Pretty much anything if you’re willing to crush out some certs. 365 is in-demand and you can learn everything on Microsoft’s training modules. Alternatively, programming pays well if you’re willing to learn the languages.
Once you get your foot in the door, focus on upward mobility by job hopping. Always take a better job title over higher pay if you want the big bucks later on.
Also bear in mind that most IT jobs favor personality over skill set, even if they deny it on paper.
Thanks for the solid advice! What do you think of cloud computing in general? Cloud dev, cloud admin, or cloud architect? Good idea to invest all my free time into?
Honestly? Pretty much anything. Not a senior level position unless you’re willing to really fudge your resume but entry or mid level - sure. If you put your nose to the grindstone you can learn to do pretty much anything in a year… that’s a long fucking time.
What kind of IT were you looking at? System administration? IT Support/Help Desk? Development? Networking? Ops?
I went in with a 4 year degree, the other grad next to me went in with a 6 month kinda masters. You can pull it off if you try hard enough and know your shit, wish I’d known that before I wasted so long at uni.
6 month kinda masters
What’s that, diploma mill?
What do you think of cloud computing in general? Cloud dev, cloud admin, or cloud architect? Good idea to invest all my free time into?
Yea, I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon.
Any specific place you’d recommend to start with? Perhaps a specific course?
Self study here, but I’ve been in IT for almost 30 years now.
For someone that is determined most of the certifications out there can be attained through self study. That’s how I got my MCSE, CCNA, Red Hat Linux, and CLP (Certified Lotus Professional, yeah I know, no one has ever heard of it). I studied while working a helpdesk job and was hired by the sysadmin department of the same company. I attained the CLP, because at the time 2002 or so, there were not many Lotus/ Domino admins and there were a lot of companies, particularly insurance companies and Coca Cola, used it extensively. Being a Lotus/Domino admin got me a lot of attention at the time, but today it is worthless.
Knocking door to door with a cert and no actual experience will be a much tougher route to take, but it is definitely possible.
If it is what you want to do, there is no reason for you to crack a book today and start learning.
Thanks a lot for putting in the effort to answer thoughtfully!
So since right now I’m not in the field at all (I’m just an English teacher in Asia), what would you do if you were in my shoes? I’ve got some understanding of how computers and networks work but it’s all pretty basic with no programming knowledge. Would you still get a cert or would you first try to get a help desk job online? Or something else? Feeling really stuck here…
If you feel proficient it the usual windows environment, I’d re ommend to start at a helpdesk job like at an MSP.
Smaller MSPs also make it possible to aquire more knowledge in other fields if you are advancing and showing proactive interest.
That’s how I started my job career.Though this heavily depends on the work place and culture at the company.
At a minimum it helps to show interest. :)
Thanks! Any good place to find a job globally, as an international applicant, remote only?
Maybe you are better suited to be at a global company that can provide support in a language of both the host and your mother tongue?
Moat MSP corps have telephone helpdesk.But I am really not suited for advice regarding your unique position.
I just saw my last sentence and cringed. I meant to say there’s no reason for you to NOT crack a book and start learning. Sorry about that.
Programming, or Software Development is not Sysadmin work. While becoming a Software Developer will give you some Sys Admin skills, that’s the long way to go about it, if your primary goal isn’t to be a Developer.
Experience sells in Information Technology. Next in line are Certifications. Getting a helpdesk job would be your first step. While working on the helpdesk, start studying for certifications. It is said that Microsoft Engineers drive their Chevy’s, Network Engineers drive BMW’s, and Linux engineers fly their private jet to work.
If you have no experience, then start looking for low end help desk jobs and start studying ASAP. There are many online study guides and courses.
Thanks for an insightful answer. Any specific course you’d recommend for a beginner these days? And a specific industry?
It really depends on where you’re coming from. I’ve known several people who made a rather successful transition from a more business oriented position to business intelligence. It’s like data science’s older and less sexy brother :) General domain knowledge of business processes and finances are always a positive and IT knowledge for a junior can consist of as little as SQL knowledge and experience with a reporting and ETL tool.
You don’t get to do a lot of programming, but there’s always demand for people capable of building a proper data warehouse or able to translate an information request in a properly build report. Internal positions are often an option because companies like to retain people with expert knowledge of the inner workings of their information systems.Source: I used to be a BI specialist for ten years or so :)
Thanks for replying with valuable info!
What’s the first step in this direction you’d recommend now?
Learn SQL and data modelling. The Data Warehouse Toolkit by Ralph Kimball is a good introduction to data warehouses and dimensional modelling. It’s not a universal model for data warehouses, but the core concepts remain the same among different implementations. This should give you a good basic understanding of the basic concepts of data warehousing.
I know Reddit isn’t exactly popular here, but their business intelligence community is quite active. It might be a good place to lurk and gain some insights.
Best of luck! :)
Thank you! Is SQL and data modelling the most in-demand IT-related thing I can learn these days to get employed remotely?
Oof, I wouldn’t know about that. I was purely talking from personal experience. I don’t have a good picture of the job market in total, let alone in whichever country you live. If you want to get into the data-related IT fields (data analist, data engineer, business intelligence specialist, etc.) then SQL and data modeling skills are a must-have. But it’s just a small part of a much bigger discipline.
If possible, find some professional career counseling. Someone with better knowledge of the job market where you live might give you some good advice on which steps to take first.
I’ve been in search of a career counselor online but couldn’t find anything worthwhile. Any advice on who I could talk to?
No, I’m sorry. I wish I could help but I’m a bit out of my depth with this one. You might try a local career counselor, but that really depends on where you live and who’s available.
I wish you the best of luck though, I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Actually a good piece of advice. Haven’t thought of a career counselor before.
I think mobile development is best for this. Very technical, but still a lot of products and companies and not quite so spammed with bootcamps.
What’s the starting point for that? What steps would you take if you were to start out on this?
Mate IT is not lucrative anymore. Get into plumbing that’s where the real money is. $200 for 30mins and then $40/15mins.
Thanks for the advice. But then how can I immigrate to Europe from a 3rd-world country using this skill? I plan to study for a Bachelor’s in IT to get the initial study visa to then proceed into employment and hopefully permanent residency. And I’m also much more into computers than pipes, been my whole life.
Plus, the IT skills might allow me to work online for any company in the world, regardless of where I’ll end up being.
Can’t commen t on immigration but not all IT jobs gets you work from home option. IT is really broad- IT operations which include service desk, desktop support, sys admins and other engineers like wintel, storage, devops etc then there is software where you can be either tester , product owner, developer etc and I guarantee you not everyone gets remote work.
What do you think you can recommend for a future digital nomad to study now? What to really dive into to become successful in the near future?
AI
What course would you recommend to begin with?
Another criterion might be to be self employed. I have little experience with that and it probably has it’s pro’s and con’s but depending on what corporate culture you’ll face as an employee. But it might be worth keep it in mind when choosing your profession.
What path would you recommend to take for that?
A few years ago, I’d say web dev. I’d hire a junior web dev fresh out of a boot camp with only 6 months of experience at 60-80k.
Today, my company won’t allow it, and I’m fighting to get new devs. We won’t even take a junior without a bunch of core competencies, things that will take at least a year to pick up. But even if we did, there’s a huge pool of applicants who want in.
Appreciate the response! What do you think of getting a Google Cloud Certification? Would that be worthwhile in your view?
I started programming about a year and half ago with the Odin Project, about 9 months in, I got employed by a agency, focused mostly on Wordpress and shopware. Everything I did, I uploaded to GitHub and used this to show my knowledge.
Iam by far not the fastest learner, nor am I the most intelligent. I feel overwhelmed most of the time and in comparison to the people that studied something related to IT I had to catch up to a lot of the basic stuff, especially the first few months. At the beginning, even thought I got employees as a junior, I wouldn’t have called myself that, felt more like a apprenticeship.
What I want to say is: in my opinion it’s definitely possible to get a job, even if your self taught. But it needs commitment and you have to get used to a lot of rejected applications. In my area (Germany) most of the companies are looking for well educated people with a degree or work expierience 4 years+. The self learning wasn’t easy and I did it full time, including the weekends for about half a year.
If you want it, do it, commit yourself and I think you will be fine, but don’t expect it to be easy or companies fighting for you. For me the hardest thing was following that goal, even when friends, family and some posts told me I wouldn’t make it.
Have fun, and good luck!
Additional context: Iam 32 with no IT background at all.
I’m in a very similar boat. But I don’t have the luxury of applying locally, only remotely, online. Any specific industry and course you’d recommend to start with?
It took me 6months of playing around my organizations M365 tenant to become very proficient in the Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps) to the point where my last 2 jobs have all been related to solutions and training with M365.
All I do is use these tools and show other people how to do their work in it and all of a sudden I’m employable and in demand.
It’s not even really IT.
Where would you suggest starting out? Is there a good course?
Just sign up for a free 3 month M365 tenant. You can set it all up yourself and have access to the full suite as global admin.
Thanks. Is this the most in-demand IT-related thing I can learn these days to get employed remotely?
Nope. I’m sure there are more in demand things one can learn that are IT-related. I just don’t know of them so I can’t say.
