Career advice please

[Nocturnal]

Basically I'm customer service right now. I spoke to the hiring manager for tech support again today. She basically said it doesn't matter if I have an A+ certification, it's not about certifications. So basically she said that I should be familiar with networking, security, each and every operating system inside and out.

I can accomplish this by going to school at a local community college and persuing a degree in Computer Electronics Networking Technology which is an associates degree or I can try to figure it out on my own by building my own lab and continuing my education and persuit of an Associate degree in Computer Science from another community college.

The thing is the classes and scheduling conflict with each other.

Also my entire goal and dreams of the future is to land a job in IT somewhere some how. Right now I just feel so discouraged and I feel as though it's a lost cause in even trying to get to the point of becoming a tech support rep for this company I work for. I know for a fact others do not have their degree and the lady I spoke with today admitted that none of them even have a certification.

Should I just give up on this IT dream of mine? I'm 23 years old now and am just going to school part time trying to get an Associate in CS degree.

Please advise.

 

[Hyperblaze]

FYI, in this day and age...there is a huge surplus of IT workers out there. Unless you have lots of experience in that area already, i wouldn't recommend anyone to join the field.

 

[Analog]

Sometimes when you work for a company, you're pigeon-holed. You almost have to look elsewhere to make that leap. Are there other companies that you can tap?

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Basically I'm customer service right now. I spoke to the hiring manager for tech support again today. She basically said it doesn't matter if I have an A+ certification, it's not about certifications. So basically she said that I should be familiar with networking, security, each and every operating system inside and out.

I can accomplish this by going to school at a local community college and persuing a degree in Computer Electronics Networking Technology which is an associates degree or I can try to figure it out on my own by building my own lab and continuing my education and persuit of an Associate degree in Computer Science from another community college.

The thing is the classes and scheduling conflict with each other.

Also my entire goal and dreams of the future is to land a job in IT somewhere some how. Right now I just feel so discouraged and I feel as though it's a lost cause in even trying to get to the point of becoming a tech support rep for this company I work for. I know for a fact others do not have their degree and the lady I spoke with today admitted that none of them even have a certification.

Should I just give up on this IT dream of mine? I'm 23 years old now and am just going to school part time trying to get an Associate in CS degree.

Please advise.

You shouldn't get discouraged based on what 1 person said. I agree with YellowFiero. Look around to see if there's any entry level IT positions open to get your foot in the door, since it sounds like this is what you want to do for a career. :thumbsup:

 

[BEL6772]

Are you loking for other people to tell you how to live your life?? If you follow other's advice in this you're likely to be disappointed with the results.

Why do you want an IT career? What types of problems are you good at solving? Is programming something you enjoy, or are you more interested in the set-up/maintenance of hardware? You are the only person that knows what makes you tick. Once you find something you enjoy, go for it. If you enjoy it, you will probably be good at it plus you will have the motivation to overcome whatever obstacles are in your way. If you're trying to do something you don't like to get somewhere you don't want to be because someone else told you to, you're wasting time.

 

[DurocShark]

If you truly like the idea of tech support, there are a few things you can do to get "in the door". Note that none of them include staying at the company you're at now...

Aside from building your home lab (almost a requirement for a savvy Help Desk manager), fire off resumes to tech agencies. You don't say where you're located, but ARC and TekSystems (dunno the website, too lazy to look for it) are great ways to start. Make sure your resume highlights your customer service skills, your A+ cert, and your willingness to start at the bottom. The salary won't be amazing, but it'll keep you eating while you work on promotions or education. But make sure you stress your customer service skills because right now that's pretty much all you've got.

If you want to do more than tech support, as BEL6772 said you need to decide what you want, a tech support or Help Desk position can get you in the "biz". You can attend whatever necessary classes you need while you're working on the Hell Desk (oops? I think I misspelled... ). That experience will often be enough, when matched to education, to get you on the career path you want.

Or, do what I did. Start a business in something not related (in my case, aquarium maintenance), then sell it for $50k. Go hang out at a local ma&pa computer shop so often that they hire you, since you're there anyway. Work there a year or so until the owner sells the place, then answer an ad in the newspaper for a Help Desk tech. Bounce around a few companies until you settle in one that promotes you like mad. In less than one year, the company I'm with now promoted me 3 times. I'm currently a Business Systems Analyst. Please note that I have no degree, only one Win2k class, several customer service certifications from the Help Desk Institute, and ... no HS diploma. And I'm making more than my wife and I both made total before I started here. :Q (Of course, now my wife's disabled, so it's a wash. )