How Did you get into the I.T industry?

How Did you get into the I.T industry?

How old were you?

Did you have any qualifications?

What was the experience like?

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msteinhilber

What eventually lead me into working IT was my first job in high school doing PC sales and repair for a local computer chain. Started there when I was 17 and spent about 10 years there after working up to branch manager. Used my contacts from doing outside sales to small to mid sized organizations undercutting CDW and landed the job where I was doing strictly IT work rather than contracting my services through the local PC store as needed.

I really started with practically no real world experience other than taking apart and reassembling a couple old 386 and 486 PC's my mom salvaged from her employer for me when I was 13 or 14. Landed the job at the local computer store in high school through a relative of a friend of my fathers who vouched for me. It took that and a lot of persistence to the point where the manager finally figured he would take a chance on me. It was a great experience overall. While the initial 10 years of my career were not as hands-on with IT as i wanted (I also had to deal with the retail side of things at the store I was running) I don't regret it. I picked up a lot of other valuable skills since they ran the stores like a franchise, I was able to make just about any decision regarding my store as I wanted and was able to perform my own advertising, product procurement, inventory, even was able to facilitate expanding the store to one twice it's size and planned for and executed the move. Really taught me a lot about how to run a business which is helping me out on my own endeavors now.

RouteThisWay

How Did you get into the I.T industry?
My old man is in IT. He is a Project/IT Mgr for an oil company down in Houston,TX. Used to be a software developer in the military, before retiring after his 20 yrs service. Anyhow, it was kinda ingrained in me from then. I wasn't sure if that is what I wanted to do or not. Well, one day while washing cars for minimum wage, I decided I wanted to do something that made me happy and I was good at. So I started taking night classes, and here I am.

I got my first IT job from a "promote from within" method. I found a local PC retailer, and was hired on in the warehouse doing shipping/receiving. Worked my way into building their branded PC's, then to doing service calls to repair them. All that happened within 1 yr of working there.

Was offered my twice my pay to take a help desk job, ended up getting a security clearance, working on my certs now and getting some good hands out networking experience as well. This was a yr and a half ago.

How old were you?
I was hired on at the retailer when I was.. 20. I'll be 23 next week

Did you have any qualifications?
Once I obtained my A+, they gave me a chance to build desktops. My current job offered me the money, clearance, etc once I had my A+, Net+, and Associates degree.

What was the experience like?
I think everyone holds their first IT job close to heart. I know it was mixed emotions for me. At first, I thought it was cool. Then I very quickly became bored. Looking back, I learned alot about customer interaction/soft skills that I would say helped me get my current job. Invaluable.

L0gicB0mb508

I was 15 years old and started working on computers for some pocket money. I always had the ability to pick up technical things quickly and loved to tinker, so it was the perfect fit really. I started building up my client base, and had pretty good word of mouth advertising going on.

Since then I've worked as a tech, systems admin, consultant, and finally as a security engineer/analyst (I guess it depends on whatever they feel like calling me that week.) I have also had the chance to work in both the private and government sectors. I am almost 24 years old. It seems crazy I've been doing this stuff for almost 9 years now.

NinjaBoy

ipconfig.all wrote: »

How Did you get into the I.T industry?

5 years of studying and sending out CV's, introduced to IT (not a job, but qualifications and what you could do in IT) by a mate who was a programmer, then IT trainer in the NHS (National Health Service).

ipconfig.all wrote: »

How old were you?

Early 20's...

ipconfig.all wrote: »

Did you have any qualifications?

I had my HNC in Computing, C&G's in Programming, the C&G's in PC support, the NVQ 2 in Software Creation and a handful of user qualifications (RSA IBT2, C&G's in Word/spreadsheets, etc). However I was also studying for my BSc in Computing part-time in the evenings.

ipconfig.all wrote: »

What was the experience like?

It was like being dropped in the deep end. I was job shadowing for a few weeks, then placed on a rota (like the other tech's) between helpdesk, Workshop and field service.

However it was good

-Ken

mikej412

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