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I am looking to get my first IT job without any degree and no job experience. I am self taught when it comes to any of my knowledge. I have built my own pc and fixed family members computers for them. I am sure that this has been everyone’s starting point.

I am looking at getting my certifications to help me land an IT job and work my way up. Currently I working for Mediacom and provide support over the phone for our cable boxes and modems. Before working at Mediacom I was a contractor technician for COX where I would go fix coax lines and cable boxes and modems.

My current employer, Mediacom, is willing to pay for my A+ cert and Network +. Since I can take the exams and have my employer pay for them would this be a good starting point? Or do you have another recommendation? I don’t know the direct path I want to go done just yet. I love working with the actual hardware part of computers but I want to go down a career path that will pay good also.

Thank you for any help or recommendations!

9 Spice ups
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Definitely have them pay for it as it sounds like you are a hands on guy…

While you do that, see if you can expand the scope of your work at Mediacom either directly through your manager giving you the opportunity or by possibly shadowing a mentor in another area of IT at the company like their internal helpdesk/network team

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Good luck and welcome to Spiceworks!!

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Stop thinking about money. You’re not nearly close enough to where you can start thinking about pay rate in IT. This isn’t meant to crush your dreams or sound like an ass, but to keep your views within the bounds of reality. You need to get the experience first before you can start determining the pay you think you should get or targeting a salary range. $$$ isn’t the only thing of value in an IT career path.

What doesn’t pay “good?” The kind of jobs that an A+ will get you: swapping out RAM, replacing a hard drive, cleaning out more malware on a suburban soccer mom’s home PC for the 4th time this month.

Focus on getting your foot in the door first, regardless of pay. Just having an A+ and Net+ won’t get you anywhere because of your lack of experience. Todamax provided the best possible advice you can take: work within your company because they clearly want to provide professional development for you. If you want to get into the IT world, try to talk to the IT group there. Have lunch with them, ask to shadow them a few times a month, and study on your own so you can develop good questions to ask them. The advantage is that you’re already inside the company. You’re a coworker, even if you’re in a different department.

IT is about as broad and as deep as medicine and law (two professional fields I like to use as analogies often). One doesn’t just become “a doctor.” Well, a doctor of what?

Clinical research in genetics?

Family practice?

Pediatric oncology?

Cardiology?

Orthopedics?

Same in law. One isn’t just a lawyer. You may have an attorney at a local, dusty, dingy office who offers everything from divorce to traffic/criminal to bankruptcy, but chances are that they do none of those three very well. On the other hand, you can have attorneys who specialize in real estate. Contract. Labor relations. Corporate. Finance. Medical malpractice.

IT is equally wide. Get the experience first, then begin considering a specialization. Don’t discount the non-technical aspects of IT either. Not everything in IT involves being locked in a windowless server room for 9 hours a day, without any outside human contact :slight_smile:

3 Spice ups
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Make sure you understand what strings are attached if your current employer pays for any training or tests. Often you have to pay it back if you leave the company within x number of months/years, etc.

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TOODAMAX - Thank you for the advice I didn’t even think about trying to shadow the IT department before. I will be asking about this on monday.

WeirdFish - Thank you for your advice also. When I was speaking in the terms on money I meant that I didn’t want to go down a path where I would be fixing pc’s in a shop making only 10-14 dollars my whole life. I believe I am going to study for my A+ now and start to try to get in a program to either shadow my IT department or maybe try to do an internship or something along those lines.

Da_Schmoo - The strings that come attached for me if I have them pay is that I have to stay with them for 6 months once they pay for the exam or I have to pay it back.

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Hardware isnt really a hot market right now. With virtualization and cloud computing, youre looking at working for a Datacenter or Desktop Support if you really like hardware.

Otherwise, the A+ is a great starting point.

1 Spice up
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Hey there!

Welcome to the wonderful and hair loss wonders of IT!

Experience Experience Experience.

That is key.

Home labs, Hours and hours of tedious reading. The only way to get better is to fail, learn from your mistakes and grow.

It gets very frustrating at times, but the end goal is worth it.

My advice, learn everything you can. My goal is mainly in networking, but I try to learn everything I can.

I pulled together a few links for your reading pleasure.

Google is your friend here, and home labs. Want to learn the basics, grab an old computer you no longer use, set it up and play around.

Best of luck, and welcome to Spiceworks. These goons here are pretty cool!

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Speaking as someone who reviews resumes for IT people as potential hires. As it’s been said above, experience above all else honestly. I’d hire someone with experience over someone with alphanumerics all over their resume. Being selective with what in IT you like to do is important as being a jack of all trades might not work where you want to end up. But having specialization may be more important at a larger company than a small one. Best of luck!