Your first IT job?

Priston

What was your first IT related job, what year was it, and what type of education/certifications did you have when you got the job.

MrAgent

Military (US Navy) in 1995. No certs or anything. Just what they taught me. I later got an MCSE in NT while on a deployment.

gosh1976

My first job in IT was in 2000 doing helpdesk for DSL customers and I didn't have anything more than a high school diploma and some good customer service/management experience. I did helpdesk and desktop support for 4 years and then left the industry. I really regret the decisions I made back then. I am having a much more difficult time getting back into IT now.

brianeaglesfan

I started as a COBOL programmer in 1998. Had an AS degree in CIS but no certs at that point. Wish I had stuck with that line of work but was young and dumb, disliked the company so I quit thinking another programming job would fall into my lap, have not worked in that capacity since.

Hypntick

Help desk? Kinda. I was kinda the gopher between the floor (call center) and the IT guys. Simple reboots, hardware replacements and filling out tickets for the higher end stuff. Started that in 04. No certs or formal training.

Last job was network help desk, port/wap resets, mac filter issues, simple OS connectivity and some basic vpn stuff. No certs then either.

Currently looking for my next job as the previous went ahead and outsourced to another company.

Bokeh

USAF, 1982. No certs, 6 week tech school, then years of OJT as each base seemed to have different computer equipment.

katierose

Fry's Electronics represent! I got to organize the iPod isle. No certifications. I was still in high school back in 2006.

I guess my "real" IT job was shortly following that. Got into a call center that will hire anybody doing DSL modem tech support. I worked this job most of 2007. I wasn't A+ certified until 2008 and by that time I already had 3 technical jobs under my belt.

erpadmin

It was 1997 when I got my first real IT job. Barely out of high school (Almost exactly 2 years) getting promoted from a part time "page" at a library to a full-time IT position, because I was maintaining the PCs in my division for about a year and a half. No one asked me to, and I wasn't trying to join the IT staff...just wanted patrons to leave me alone. LOL. That position was a jack-o'-all-trades...got to get involved in helpdesk, desktop support, servers, routers, switches, the whole nine. Left college not too long after that, and continued on...I have since trippled my initial salary. Oh, and I had no certs...in fact, I wouldn't get A+ and Network until 8 years later, and Security+ (and CIW v5 Foundations...lol) 5 years after that...

I definitely hit my ceiling...that's why I'm at WGU...

rogue2shadow

Computer sales specialist in retail. I started working (in total) during my second year of college. No certs, just relevant knowledge :P

eansdad

US Army 1998...Unit commander decided he wanted a web page and asked for volunteers. 3 of us were volunteered, myself by my squad leader on the basis of I owned a PC. Nothing like old school web design. After that our unit started getting more PCs and running wire so I volunteered for that. When I left the military I got a job with Compaq (before the HP merger) working on server configurations. Fun times....great people.

jmritenour

Repair technician at a small mom and pop computer shop. No certs, straight out of high school. It WAS supposed to be a part time job while I went to college for programming, but I realized I liked the job way better than school, so I dropped out and started working full time as their head tech. I had way more fun at that job than you should be allowed to have while you're getting paid.

networker050184

Another for the military route. Joined the Army in '02 and had 22 weeks of tech school. Learned on the job and was sent to a few Cisco training classes through the years. First job out was TAC/Implementation for a small VoIP company with my CCNA.

MechaniX

Worked for a small repair shop for about three years while in High School. I did a lot more then computer repair there, spent most of my time doing Network/Server Tech kind of stuff.

My first "real" IT job after College and University was at small consulting company as a Senior Network Technician. Had my A+ going in, picked up my Net+, Sec+ and Linux+ while there.

cyberguypr

Back in 1998 did 1 year at a Kinkos/UPS Store type of place helping with computer training room setup and small computer issues. In 1999 got a real IT ob with a small IT services firm providing onsite support at a Fortune 500 company.

SteveLord

IT guy for a textile company in Jersey. All of the servers minus 1 were Novell. Thankfully, the other guy knew Novell. Had to learn a little telecom and manage the PBX which was totally foreign to me. Business was a sinking ship combined with cheapskate owners meant I almost never bought anything that wasn't used and on eBay.

After that, I moved here. First job was part time at a small repair shop...where the owner was a transgender and manager was homoesexual. I didn't mind, but I couldn't help but laugh at my first job that I landed after moving.

Essendon

Started in IT late 2004 as a Support Centre technician at a much-maligned ISP. Graveyard shift (midnight - 9am), remained there for 4 months.

wweboy

During my last quarter of college I was brought on as an intern at a medium size print company in July 2005. I was doing grunt work and doing help desk. I got a full time job offer after graduating with my Associates Degree I had no certs but I was eager to learn.

I worked as help desk but because the company was so small I was getting experience with so many different technologies such as Cisco firewalls, Barracuda spam firewall, Exchange, running cables, imaging all kinds of different things.

veritas_libertas

Computer guy for a Thrift Store that also fixed up PCs and sold them.

eMeS

There's about a millions threads on here about this very topic, but I guess it's been a while and it's time for another one...

I started in 1988, the day after I graduated high school. My first job was the care and feeding of several large mainframe attached printers for a large insurance company. My job was at night, attended college during the day. Traveled quickly up the ladder (and various ladders) from there...

The rest is history.

MS

Heero

Intern in Network Services for a fortune 1000 company. Got the internship while in college finishing up my bachelors in IT. It was basically some tier 2 support and other network changes and requests since support didn't fill up my time.

citinerd

My first IT job was and still is Desktop Support at a hospital. I started 12/2009 so I have been there a year.

Turgon

1997 - Systems Administrator - Masters degree. No experience. No certs. Became MCP
1999 - Network Manager - MCSE NT 4.0. CNA 5 CCNA
2000 - IT Manager - CCNP, CCIE Written
2003 - Network Specialist - independent
2004 - Network Designer - independent, CCIE written twice more
2010 - Network Architect - independent
2010 - Lead Technical Architect - Permanent

skyline

1st job was working Helpdesk for Time Warner Cable (Road Runner internet)

jmanrta

First job was an unpaid internship at a school district, moved on up from there

Anonymouse

I'd like to say working on my schools webpage in highschool. First IT job that paid? I was pretty much an IT mover. First IT job I will actually tell people about? Desktop support at a college.