Can you read Sanskrit?
Our “shiny object” of the moment is ITIL certification. (I work for a government agency, in IT support.) PMP (Project Management Professional) certification is also an “ooh, ahh” on the curriculum vitae.
Whatever you do, pick an area that is difficult to outsource overseas or in country to foreign workers.
- Read and write and speak with expert fluency in the English language.
- Get very good at Microsoft Excel - it's the default business software tool in America and it's always worth studying in depth.
- Understand databases and SQL.
- Take college classes in statistics/business analysis if necessary.
- Try to get a job that uses Excel and other IT tools but does not come with an IT-specific job title.
Otherwise, you will be outsourced/replaced within a decade. Don't listen to people who say their specific IT speciality is untouchable. They are wrong, but FR's history indicates they will not be told otherwise. :)
“IT” is a pretty broad brush. What exactly do you want to be doing? Tech support? Programming? Systems administration? Management?
Narrow your focus, then it’s easier to get advice tailored to that focus.
I would get an accounting degree.you’re gonna need it to figure out how much you wasted on college...: )
It’s not so much what you do but that you enjoy doing it and that you become the best at it or one of the best. You have to practice every day long hours every day to become good.
If you have a great service or product (even if it’s you) the world will beat a path to your door
I retired a couple years ago from the ministry so my question has no help for your change of vocation, but as I have observed in 40 years the church as a whole and my denomination in particular seemed to move more an more to the left politically and more into social gospel than the Gospel of Jesus. So if you wanted to give me some input as your reasons for leaving I would be curious. You can Freep mail me if you dont want to post it in here.
My sense is the church as a whole is full of hurting people who are getting fed stuff to make them feel better but lack of solid Bible teaching and maybe dealing with some of the hard stuff has gone out of vogue.
Blessings on you as you make this move
Freegards from a retire and peaceful saint. Man,its great to not get a call at three in the morning and i have to go inform Mr and Mrs Jones that Johnny is not coming home becuase he warped his car around a pole!
Lex
Get a Clearance. CLEARED jobs cannot be outsourced to India.
Easiest way to get a clearance ? Join the Reserve or Guard. . .
What are you looking for in the IT field? satisfying work? better income? steady work?
My first instinct it to advise you not to do it. Since I’m sure you won’t listen to that, a CCNA/MCSE is a good combo; with a VMware Cert. VMware knowledge/experience will increase your value, and will allow you to heavily emphasize “The Cloud” on your resume which will impress the stupid HR people, given how it’s such a popular corporate ‘buzz term’. A working knowledge of Linux, and a certification there would be great too. A ‘Security +’ cert is also fairly easy to get, and can put you over the top if you’re up against other candidates with similar skill sets.
Certifications and experience is where it’s at. Degrees are nearly useless, but the HR types and some managers like to see them on the resume, so they have their place, but do nothing for you in the real world. (that’s the worst kept secret that no one likes to speak of out loud)
Keep on the path but lower your expectations.
The outsourcing of IT jobs has now moved to hardware design so contract $$$ is no longer in the price range you are looking.
Who can say where the future lies.
The broad direction of the industry looks weighted on cloud-based apps and virtual servers, which puts an emphasis on network infrastructure and security, but the other jobs (systems administration, apps programming) aren't going away anytime soon. Database programming/management jobs - Oracle/SQL mostly - are going to be around long after the servers running them are being managed by some guy in Calcutta who calls himself "Bob" anyway.
Me, I'm retiring this year from a 35-year career in IT that didn't even exist when I started out, so you can't really hope for a crystal ball for guidance. I have found that the broader the skillset, the more likely you are to find work where and when you want it, but YMMV. Best of luck!
What you've referenced is in the network world and the certificates that go with that.
There is also the CPU world, where either you develop faster CPUs, develop multi CPU chips or gang computers to work together for sheer processing power and/or redundancy.
There is the Storage world, where Discs and solid state Drives are being ganged together and shared between systems and users (the latest term is Cloud). Various Certificates are helpful in this arena.
Then there's the software world, including web software, business software, operating systems and the like. There are certificates to be had as well.
Beyond that, there are folks who support all this. Much support has gone to places like India, but specialized applications still need support. Someone is needed when things don't work out properly.
So the real question is where do you wish to focus and what functions or businesses do you want to work for. Making contacts in these functions and/or business is crucial these days (they generally do not come looking any more). You will need to get on the hiring managers mind with skills they may need in the future so the next time around they will think of you.
IT generally hires within, so getting on the hiring manager's mind is crucial for when they think of expanding and handling changes.
And did I say changes? Staying abreast of the lastest changes is a must in this industry, not only to get hired but also to stay in the business.
The best of luck to you.
Knowing the business is huge.
The new outsourcing place is the Philippines.
The first question to ask is exactly what are you interested in for the IT field? Networking? Programming? Database Administrator? QA?
It’s a very large field. I am a programmer and the key to getting a good programming job is:
1. the degree (perhaps a certificate in Information Systems?)
2. More importantly, what languages do you write in. You can be a programmer and have expertise in say COBOL and your options are going to be very narrow.
If you think you can write programs, play around with Python and Pycharm. It’s free and works on Windows and OSX and Linux.
As the previous guy said, learn all about databases. If you can get MSACCESS it’s the easy way to get started. You will need to look under the hood at the SQL it generates.
Excel is a must. You can play around with VBA in Excel and learn a little bit about API’s and Objects with that macro tool.
Then again you can memorize a lot of gibberish and be like most of the IT Professionals I run across. Probably about 1 in 3 have any appreciation of what goes on down there.
One way to look at it is you will end up writing programs or running programs.
Here is my honest advice. Wish I had done this early on. I am an IT professional, and have been for the past 25 years.
Learn a trade skill. HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Carpentry/Masonry. These CANNOT be outsourced. They must be performed on location.
I have been in IT for 15 years now on the System Administration side of things. Some random thoughts in no particular order...
Going into IT is no guarantee of success or $ that it seems it was 15 years ago, times have definitely changed. Might/probably be an indication of the economy more than anything else.
Dont waste time or Money on College degrees unless you want to go into management. Certificates are much more valued in the working industry. I barely graduated from High school, but sure I am in the top earners of said class now.
Big companies pay more, but look for more specialized training in your back ground. More specialized competition for the job.
Small companies pay less, look for more generalized knowledge.
Companies rarely have a full time in house system administrator any more, they farm it out to consulting firms. These same consulting firms are ALWAYS looking for competent staff.
Working for consulting firm can suck... You are often in a different work place, given the worst work area, expected to work miracles.
I work harder/more hours, now than I ever have in my life. And I did manual labor for a number of years before I got into IT. Make more money now, but I earn it.
If you dont live near a large city, it can be hard to get a sys admin job, programmers can telecomute, but you need a proven track record before most companies will let you.
IT been bery bery good to me, I would change in a heartbeat if I could find something better, unfortunately dont think I can at this point in my life.