What was your first IT job?

I'm asking this question because I find it really difficult to get a basic IT job (Help Desk, Technical Analyst, and etc). I'm a recent grad with very little experience (sort of) related to IT but haven't done serious troubleshooting kind of jobs.

Employers are not giving me a chance. They want someone who already knows how to do it. I find it interesting that there are grads out there who had never troubleshooted before and somehow land a job in IT through family referrals.

Do I really have to start off in a call center environment? Or are all employers looking for something specific? My skills and knowledge fit between business and IT = IT Management.

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nice343

My first gig was a PC technician/ Helpdesk got tired of the abuse from customers which motivated me to be a CCNA and a CCNP. Now I'm a network engineer for a gov contractor. You have to do the sh#$ty jobs for a year or two before most employers will give you a chance. Also try to get advanced certs while you are at it

veritas_libertas

Help Desk and Desktop Support for me right now. I am going to be knocking off some more certifications this year, probably MCITP:SA (as well as others) as a part of my WGU studies. Hopefully that will help me land a Junior Admin job this year, or next. I know it's frustrating since colleges give you a lot of great expectations, but like the military most of the time college grads start at the bottom Help Desk / Desktop Support.

nice343

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Help Desk and Desktop Support for me right now. I am going to be knocking off some more certifications this year, probably MCITP:SA (as well as others) as a part of my WGU studies. Hopefully that will help me land a Junior Admin job this year, or next. I know it's frustrating since colleges give you a lot of great expectations, but like the military most of the time college grads start at the bottom Help Desk / Desktop Support.

The problem is most colleges don't tell people the truth. Is amazing how many "lies" I see when going through some college catalogs. Unrealistic expectations!
If you graduate college with a computer science/engineering degree expecting to make $150000 a year good luck!

veritas_libertas

nice343 wrote: »

The problem is most colleges don't tell people the truth. Is amazing how many "lies" I see when going through some college catalogs. Unrealistic expectations!
If you graduate college with a computer science/engineering degree expecting to make $150000 a year good luck!

Oh, I completely agree with you. I was fortunate enough to have a Networking Instructor that told me the reality of the situation, which is a rare blessing.

laptop

I see how you guys got help desk jobs in the beginning. but, the problem is that there are barely any entry level help desk jobs out there. with such high expectations and such. i have never troubleshooted during my 4 year studies. except learn the theory.

veritas_libertas

laptop wrote: »

I see how you guys got help desk jobs in the beginning. but, the problem is that there are barely any entry level help desk jobs out there. with such high expectations and such. i have never troubleshooted during my 4 year studies. except learn the theory.

Where do you live? I had to move to find work.

Essendon

I landed a tech support gig at an ISP after my MS in Engineering. I too had grandiose expectations of a 6 figure salary after the degree, in fact I didnt have a job for 6 months after me Master's.

Employers want experience and some cert(s). Without some experience, you wouldnt get past the HR filter. And to make matters worse, the economy sucks.

RouteThisWay

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Help Desk and Desktop Support for me right now. I am going to be knocking off some more certifications this year, probably MCITP:SA (as well as others) as a part of my WGU studies. Hopefully that will help me land a Junior Admin job this year, or next. I know it's frustrating since colleges give you a lot of great expectations, but like the military most of the time college grads start at the bottom Help Desk / Desktop Support.

Hey man. I noticed you are no longer going for the CCENT/CCNA route this year? What happened?

I also saw you are selling your switches.

Wanna make a deal?

veritas_libertas

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Hey man. I noticed you are no longer going for the CCENT/CCNA route this year? What happened?

I also saw you are selling your switches. Wanna make a deal?

PM me and we will talk

My college studies this and year the next (hopefully only this year and the next

) will be getting in the way. I figure I will just upgrade my routers in a couple of years anyway.

RouteThisWay

And to answer the OP...

Long story short... I had to get a job in with an IT company doing non-IT work. I worked in the warehouse doing shipping/receiving as a clerk. Then started building desktops, then doing service calls. Did the IT stuff there for a year before finding a more traditional corporate helpdesk/desktop support role. Done quite a bit of AD experience here as well.

Unfortunately, starting out at the bottom is what most usually have to do. But keep studying, do what you have to so that you can get ahead.

This kind of details a bit about what to do once you land your first IT job

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/49249-exit-strategy.html

tpatt100

My first IT job was doing Helpdesk. Got referred by a fellow student.

sambuca69

laptop wrote: »

I'm asking this question because I find it really difficult to get a basic IT job (Help Desk, Technical Analyst, and etc). I'm a recent grad with very little experience (sort of) related to IT but haven't done serious troubleshooting kind of jobs.

Employers are not giving me a chance. They want someone who already knows how to do it. I find it interesting that there are grads out there who had never troubleshooted before and somehow land a job in IT through family referrals.

Do I really have to start off in a call center environment? Or are all employers looking for something specific? My skills and knowledge fit between business and IT = IT Management.

My first gig was back in 1999. I was working for Verizon and there were always tons of advertisements about IT. The whole Y2K "bug" was starting to gain some traction as well, as people were starting to look at it more seriously.

For shits and giggles, I put a resume out to a few places. I never thought for a second I would get a response, but I did.

I still remember that day, standing outside the building which was on Wall Street, nervous as hell, about to walk in for my interview

Me and the manager clicked right away and I was hired as a dektop support tech. I was lucky.. very lucky, and I know this.

L0gicB0mb508

I think the first time I made money at IT was doing computer repair when I was in high school. I worked at a college and that was definitely the first real job I had.

bwcarty

1998 - started as tech support for a regional ISP (~20,000 subscribers).

I found out about the job almost by pure chance. An acquaintance from a gaming group my wife and I hung out with happened to spot us at a restaurant one night, and he asked her if she was looking for a job. Just a week or two earlier, I had quit the job I had for four years due to lack of additional opportunities, so she told him that I was interested. One interview later, I was in the IT field. I was more than qualified for the position, and I ended up taking over the tech support department in a year or so.

My previous job - hotel front desk manager (having started as a front desk clerk). The guy who got me into the ISP job previously worked at the gas station on the corner by that same hotel. Ah, the joys of being underemployed in a college town!

MentholMoose

When I was in school I was into video editing. I also had solid Photoshop skills and knew the basics of web design (knew some Flash, Dreamweaver, etc.). There was a multimedia-oriented computer lab on campus, so when there was an opening for a lab assistant, I went in, filled out an application, and handed it in. I never heard back!!

A few months later there was another opening, so I decided to try again. This time I picked up the application, scanned it into Acrobat, filled it out digitally, then printed and submitted it. This time I got an interview. I clicked with the manager and she hired me on the spot!! I was one of two people hired out of 50+ applicants. From this you should learn to 1) be persistent, and 2) never hand-write an application, at least if your penmanship is as horrendous as mine!!

The job was a bit more than the typical school lab monkey position... yeah I managed print jobs, but I was regularly supporting people with multimedia projects, which was cool. I also had to provide the occasional tier 2 end-user phone support for the LMS (WebCT and Blackboard), and I helped out with the lab machine maintenance and imaging.

After a year at the lab I landed a desktop support internship at a bank. Six months later I got a jr. sysadmin job at a mid-size business, which was my first "real" IT job, and I was later promoted to sysadmin.

ipconfig.all

It is typical for most graduates and unemployment to visit job websites to find employment and they think that it is the only way to find a job. Social skills and communication helps a lot, I suggest you grab your phone book and phone or email some I.T companies and ask if you can work for them, even for free.

Aldur

My first job was working in JTAC on the SSL/VPN team. I was just into my BS degree and had no IT related experience. The pay was ok, the job was stressful, but the experience was great.

If anybody lives in the northern Utah area I'd be happy to recommend them.

phantasm

My first IT job was at a medium sized health care company. I mostly did PC repair and password resets. After a little bit of time I got into the networking, PBX, and server admin roles. There was 3 of us in the IT dept. and 15 buildings to support. I ended up doing it all from Tier I work to Network and Systems Engineering. It was good. Lasted 1 yr and was laid off due to budgetary constraints.

My second and current position is as a Network Technician in a NOC for a national ISP. I interact mostly via CLI with various Cisco devices as well as big iron frame relay and ATM switches. I also work in a multitude of GUI's for the same devices (although I prefer CLI). I work on x25, Frame Relay, ATM, MPLS, Metro E, VoIP and a few other technologies. The job is great and the experience is priceless.

Someday I hope to end up doing LAN administration, I'd like to get into that aspect a little more. Also, away from the abnormal shift work. lol. But we all start somewhere.

t3ch_guru

My first job was a PC Technician. Now I am a LAN Administrator.

ipconfig.all

I was a I.T network junior

mikej412

Here's another recent thread that also has links to some older threads -- http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/49904-how-did-you-get-into-i-t-industry.html

I got my first IT job by impressing a Professor enough to get recommended for a job with one of his industry contacts.

VAHokie56

Mine was and still is working in help desk for an ISP run by diabolically evil trolls. On the sunny side however I think I got a new job this week, woot!

networker050184

My first IT job was the military. It was the best choice I've ever made!

ally_uk

Started off in helpdesk did a Two year Supporting I.T apprenticeship, supported about 300+ users on in a Windows Server 2k3 / XP environment, I had to grind the money was awful but I stuck it out and gained the knowledge and saw my apprenticeship through.

I'm now working for a Social Enterprise that helps vunerably housed adults, My Job role is a IT Technician but it's pretty varied, I provide 1st line support, Refurbish and Recondition donated computer hardware belive me I have seen it all, some interesting kit has been donated over the years. Train and mentor volunteers, maintain repair service on a day to day basis and I also head sales. so can be pretty all over the place at times, It's at this job I was introduced to Linux and the obsession hasn't stopped since lol

I'm now 24 years old and have gained 6 years experience in the I.T field havent undertook any examinations yet, It's on the cards though with my strong interest in Open Source technologies and Windows it makes sense for me to combine the two and I am most interested in learning about networking and getting both technologies to coexist in harmony. I recently updated my CV and am looking for a more technical role possibly a move back into helpdesk.

laidbackfreak

mikej412 wrote: »

Here's another recent thread that also has links to some older threads -- http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/49904-how-did-you-get-into-i-t-industry.html.

A few of these around and crops up fairly often, worth a sticky maybe?

My start in IT came as my third career change. I was working as accountant at the time and pursuing those qualifications. I got a call from a friend who knew I was interested in IT asking if I was looking for a new job. As it happens I was, he told about a role there and if I was interested I should apply.
I was first line support, but not what it is today. I was working on HP9000 systems, Informix db's, Novell 3.x servers, we migrated to NT4. Supported Thin and thick clients. Rolled out a Bay network wan, this was my introduction to networking outside of dial-up and I fell in love with it.
All of my work was hands on with minimal support. My learning curve was immense as my previous knowledge was limited.
For the company it was cheaper to take me on and train me up than it was to find an experienced guy, but that was back in the good ole days. :-/

jmanrta

My first gig was unpaid internship at a farily large school district, can't remember exactly how many users and desktops though.

After I got my degree,I had some trouble landing my first gig so I started volunteering for an after school program doing IT work. They eventually brought me on part time, I made 9.00 an hour but the experience was very valuable as it allowed me to move into a more exciting role.

qwertyiop

My 1st gig was a workstudy helpdesk position at local college, after that I got a job at a paid internship doing mostly sektop and server support. I now work a as a jr net admin and from what I hear I may be getting hired as sys admin for the company that I interned for a few years back

shodown

I got all my IT training in the military doing various desktop support and NOC roles. My 1st real job was 2nd level VOIP support(something I knew nothing about) for a Cisco Partner. I Embelished my resume just like companies make unrealistic job requirements and got hired. The job was very rough for the 1st few months since I was so far behind, but the military state of mind comes through and soon I was doing very well at the job and knocking out CCVP exams. But once the economy got crappy and a few rounds of lay offs and lost of several big contracts I felt my day was coming and took a Tier 2 NOC job since I still had my clearance.

unsupported

My first gig was technical support for a wonderful outsourced call center Software Support, Inc/aka Matrix Marketing/aka Convergys Corporation. My technical interview consisted of some basic PC troubleshooting walk throughs. I worked in the "Country Club" queue, where we supported all the accounts which did not fit anywhere else. IBM remote office workers, Excel Graphics, Seiko Label Printers, SyQuest removable hard drives, Segasoft, Gateway 2000 (NT 4.0 Workstation support), and eventually Dell Windows 98 support. Basically, I kicked ass in my talk time and call volume, but it never got me anywhere. But hey, they had $.35 Mountain Dew!

I did my requisite time and then followed the standard career path going across the street to Seagate Software. Aahh.. the memories.

Forsaken_GA

My first rodeo was working the helldesk for Mindsping back in the day. I left shortly after the acquisition by Earthlink. As far as first jobs go, the work sucked, but the company was awesome to work for, which is why you'll find an awful lot of employees who became disgruntled after it became Earthlink