Hi Chase!
I live and work in London, UK. I graduated from University in 2010 after studying Computer / Business Information Systems & Psychology. Since graduating I have worked in and moved into various IT jobs at different companies.
I now work as an IT Systems Support Analyst for a global professional business-oriented social networking website and I very much enjoy my job.
IT is a very broad field with many areas and specialisms, requiring different skill sets both hard skills (e.g. technical, analytical, problem solving, mathematical) and soft skills (e.g. customer service, interpersonal). Because of this, it can be hard and confusing at first when you decide to enter the field.
There are Service Desk / Help Desk Analysts, Hardware Technicians, Desktop Support Analysts, Systems Administrators, Systems Analysts, Network Administrators, Database Administrators, IT Trainers, IT Sales Consultants, Telecom Engineers, A/V Engineers, Software Testers, IT Project Managers, Software / Web Developers, Security Analysts, IT Solutions Consultants, Business Analysts, Enterprise Architects, Data / Information Scientists, Data Analysts, Change Managers, Incident Managers, Problem Managers, Release & Deployment Managers, and the list goes on!
Some areas of IT are more technical or analytical, while other areas are more business, service, or sales focused.
When starting a career in IT (and even throughout your career as part of ongoing career development) you'll want to consider a few things to really help you be successful, most importantly:
- What IT jobs are currently the most, and will continue to be, in demand?
- What IT jobs are becoming hot and what is in decline?
- What area(s) within IT are you most interested and want to work in?
- What IT career path(s) can you take to achieve this?
- What is your current skill set both hard and soft skills, and what are you good at?
- How do your current skills match up with the job / area of IT you are interested in?
- What skills do you need to gain or develop, and what college / university or professional qualifications do you need, or can help you, achieve this?
There are quite a few questions there and you might not have the answers to them right away. When I was 18 I wouldn't have been able to answer any of them - all I knew at that point was that I wanted to work in IT. But at the very least they should be on the mind when deciding what path to take.
If you haven't already, keep researching on online job boards and maybe even use
LinkedIn (because it rocks and you can find many job listings posted directly by companies without having to deal with recruitment agencies) to see what types of IT jobs there are, where they are located, how much they are paying and what skills or qualifications they are asking for from the candidate. This will give you insight into the current IT job market, help you scope out your career path, and provide you with indicators on what skills you need to have for certain roles.
If you're unsure, Desktop Support is a good starting point. Many IT professionals start out their careers within IT support on the Help Desk / Service Desk or Desktop Support. It can keep things broad while allowing you to develop your knowledge and experience, and you can later decide to specialise and gain professional training / qualifications to get there if required. Many entry level jobs in IT support may not pay well at first, especially without prior work experience, but naturally over time as you build on experience and maybe even move jobs or companies, there is the potential to be earning a substantial salary. It can be a specialism in its own right!
If specifically interested in something and you are, or you think, you'd be good at doing it (e.g. software developer, database administrator, security analyst) you could specialise from the beginning. Many of these types of IT jobs will pay more even at entry level due to supply and demand. However, most specialisms require in depth knowledge and experience gained through degree study or professional courses if not from work experience. Sometimes self taught knowledge and experience can be enough in certain fields such as web or software development, if you are able to demonstrate this. To specialise at the beginning you will need to be very focussed and decisive from the start, and know what you need to do to get there.
See the
CIO.com - Tech Salary Guide for 2014 - a very useful comparative of all the average IT salaries in the US broken down by tech job.
This post is rather lengthy, so to break it up a bit, see my next post for my IT career story! I hope this helps.
IT Average Salaries
- If you want to find out what the real-world, real-time average salaries are for certain jobs / job titles, check out:
PayScale - Salary Comparison, Salary Survey, Search Wages . PayScale contains information on people's job titles, locations and salaries submitted by the millions of people who use the service, used to provide you with accurate information on current salary market averages.
Useful links about the IT job market in the US:
1.
CIO.com - Tech Salary Guide for 2014
2.
CIO.com - Top 10 Recession-Proof IT Jobs
3.
CIO.com - Red-Hot IT Jobs
4.
CIO.com - Top 10 States for IT Jobs
5.
CIO.com - Top 10 Highest-Paying Tech Cities for 2014
. But anyway... my point is: college is great for the experience as well. I met a lot of people when I went (just graduated with a BS in CS in December... been at my current job as a software developer since January), and made a lot of friends/connections in doing so. So I wouldn't put down the idea to go so quickly.
