For those of you out there wondering how to break into the Information Technology world:
There is ton’s of stuff to learn in IT and to be successful you have to be willing to be a lifelong learner. Technology changes all the time which means that you always have something to study and learn. If you like computers and technology then all the learning can be fun. If not then let money motivate you because if you become good at IT you will get paid well. Plus a good IT administrator is a lazy IT administrator. What that means is that if you are good at what you do then your stuff won’t break. If your stuff doesn’t break then you have a lot of time to do other things like study.
Generally when you start out in IT you start out at the bottom with a help desk position. It’s by far the busiest job because you have to deal with customers calling you with their problems. This is where you can learn a lot and cut your teeth so-to-speak. That’s not to say that’s where you have to start, but if you don’t really know anything about IT then you would have to really study hard and learn a lot before bypassing this phase. So it’s really up to your motivation level as to where you want to start. Below is a general list of areas that you can study.
A note on certifications: Get them! I’ve herd people argue that certs are a waist because you don’t need a piece of paper to proove you can work on a given system. While there is no magical piece of paper that will impart knowledge to you, it can be seen as a milestone in your career. Certifications are a great tool for getting your foot in the door of a prospective employeer. You may not have worked for a large company in the past but a certification can go a long way in showing you have the aptitude to do the job.
I could go on at length about certifications, but I’ll save that for a later post. For your purposes of breaking into the IT market just follow my advice – Get them! And get them honestly!
Help Desk / Desktop Support – this is where many people start their IT career. You focus on troubleshooting people’s problems with their desktops, printers, etc. Typically this job includes installing/troubleshooting software (Microsoft Word for example), installing/troubleshooting peripheral devices (printers, monitors, mouse, keyboard, etc …), troubleshooting connectivity to network shares, fixing Java … the list goes on. It’s a good place to start but definitely not where you want to stay. During your time on a help desk you should be volunteering to work on any special project you can that will increase your knowledge. Working with the Server Administrators is a good way to do that.
Starter Certifications for Help Desk / Desktop Support:
Server Administrators – operate, manage, and maintain a number of Windows servers. There are a number of different kinds of servers that a business uses in day to day operations. Domain Controllers allow people to login to their workstation securely, Exchange Servers allow people to send emails … in a corporate environment people don’t use gmail, live mail, or yahoo (there are exceptions to this rule but that’s a latter discussion). Needless to say there are a lot of different kinds of servers and many completely different job fields as a server administrator. Some Server Administrators only work on Active Directory servers and some only work on Exchange servers.
Starter Certifications for Server Adminstrators:
Network Administrators – these guys work on the routers and switches that allow computers to talk to servers, computers to talk to computers, and servers to talk to servers. In my opinion this is a good route to go because you don’t really have to deal with the customer too much. However you have to really know what you’re doing. You won’t get a network job if you don’t know what you are doing. You can get away with not knowing everything as a Help Desk guy or a Server guy in the beginning, but you have to be decent to good to get a Network admin job.
Starter Certifications for Network Administrators:
- Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician
- Cisco Certified Network Associate
- Cisco Certified Design Associate
VMware Administrator – most businesses today use vmware to run their servers. A long time ago if a company wanted a server they would have to order the hardware and then install the operating system and everything on top of that hardware. The problem with that is that a company spends a lot of money on hardware that has a big processor and lots of memory. Useually the software that is installed on the hardware can’t use all of those resources. With VMWare the operating systems are virtualized so that you can run several servers on the same hardware and get more bang for your buck. I love VMWare but it takes a lot of studying. Without a solid IT knowledge base to build on top of, VMware will be a challenge.
Storage Administrator – every business has a lot of data. Everyone has lots of data. If you have a lot of movies, music, and pictures on your computer then you have a lot of data too. So what do you do when you run out of space on your computer? You buy another bigger hard drive and plug it in. Business use Network Area Storage devices, a big collection of hard drives, to provide their users more space to store their stuff. This is another area of IT that requires a good IT knowledge base to built on. If your up for a challenge then check out the road maps for some of the more popular storage venders:
Ok, so that was a very very brief introduction to the different kinds of IT jobs. It’s not a complete list but those are the big catagories. You can make the most money if you are good at VMWare or Storage at the moment. After you’ve been an administrator for a while and you study you can eventually become an engineer, which is what I am. Engineers know a lot about a lot. We don’t know everything but we have a solid foundation in the things I’ve listed above.
Take some time and look online for more info on the job categories I’ve listed above to see what you’re interested in. The least amount of studying would be the Help Desk / Desktop Support position, but it also pays the least amount of money. But again, you would use that position to kick start you while you are studying for other things. And when I say study I mean – get certifications.
You will have to get certified in the things you are supporting and it’s how you show that you’re ready to move up in the world. For example, I started off as Desktop Support but I wanted to get paid better and didn’t like dealing with people face to face. I studied on my own and eventually got certified as a Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE). That allowed me to get a position as a Server Administrator. From there I kept studying and learning and getting certified with different technology which allowed me to apply for harder jobs that paid more.
A good way to start is with some CompTIA certifications. They are the lowest of the low as far as certs go but it’s a good place to start. Search the web for “CompTIA A+”, “CompTIA Network+”, “CompTIA Security+”, and “CompTIA Server+” and see if any of those catch your eye. I know this will be a lot to digest so I suggest taking a few hours to first look up info on the various “Administrator / Help Desk” positions that I’ve listed. Then do the same for the CompTIA certifications that I’ve listed.