In need of serious help!

Hi All. Just registered. I'm going to try to keep a long story short!

I was a band director for 12 years but left that career to sell investments for Edward Jones at the end of 2007. The recession hit and the people in small town midwest stopped spending money. Jumped to Chase as a banker, but HATED that company. I'm now working two part time jobs to make ends meet.

I started messing around studying for A+ certification recently and found a real passion for computers and technology. I know enough about computers that my wife felt I should just enroll for the tests. We all know better than that!

I need your advice. I have excellent customer service skills and experiences. I would like to combine those experiences with IT. I felt that A+ would be the most obvious place to start. I also plan on volunteering to repair computers for free just to get experience to put on a resume/cover letter.

Am I headed in the right direction?
How hard will it be job searching without 3-5 years of direct IT experience?
Should I be working for other certifications at the same time?

I thank you in advance. Any advice you have will be most helpful!

Sincerely,

D

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Comments

computer g33k

A+ is a great place to start, also you can also work on the network+ cert while working on the a+ cert. Once you get those certs you can look into getting a help desk or pc tech job. Most jobs want you to have experience, so repairing computers for family/friends is great place to start. I hope this information was helpful to you. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

pham0329

computer g33k wrote: »

also you can also work on the network+ cert while working on the a+ cert.

Personally, I don't think this is a good idea. Focus on one exam at a time, especially when you're new to the industry. Learn one thing at a time, and learn it well before moving to the next.

N2IT

droberts70 wrote: »

Hi All. Just registered. I'm going to try to keep a long story short!

I was a band director for 12 years but left that career to sell investments for Edward Jones at the end of 2007. The recession hit and the people in small town midwest stopped spending money. Jumped to Chase as a banker, but HATED that company. I'm now working two part time jobs to make ends meet.

I started messing around studying for A+ certification recently and found a real passion for computers and technology. I know enough about computers that my wife felt I should just enroll for the tests. We all know better than that!

I need your advice. I have excellent customer service skills and experiences. I would like to combine those experiences with IT. I felt that A+ would be the most obvious place to start. I also plan on volunteering to repair computers for free just to get experience to put on a resume/cover letter.

Am I headed in the right direction?
How hard will it be job searching without 3-5 years of direct IT experience?
Should I be working for other certifications at the same time?

I thank you in advance. Any advice you have will be most helpful!

Sincerely,

D

You can go in a lot of directions. You can go into tech support, break fix, help desk, application support etc

Do you have a degree if so what is it in? How comfortable are you with finance and accounting? Do you understand general and sub ledgers? Do you understand simple P&L statements and GPM? If so I would focus more on application support for a financial industry.

*****Forgive me for any run on sentences or typo's. I had two Macellen 15's and 2 Fuller ESB's.

Where were we?

Oh yeah you hate being a banker and you like IT

I digress.......

First figure out what you are good at and what you aren't.
Next you want to figure out what you enjoy. Try to synch up what you are good at with what you enjoy. Obviously this can't be perfect nor will it be.

Once you figure that out decide which industry you want to be apart of.

Financial
Health Care
Biotech
Manufacturing
Retail
ETC........

Here is why this is important. The people making the decision are usually on the business side. Any knowledge of their business will bring you crediability and value add. This is critical.

Example If you are working in the financial sector and have taken a Sarbanes Oxley course your chances of landing a job with that company is a lot greater. Why? Because you understand the business and you are less of a risk, which brings value.

So with all that said focus on a field you are comfortable with and leverage the skills you have obtained to break into that field. You obviously have 0 health care so I wouldn't apply at the hospitals as much as Wells Fargo, AG Edwards, Delotte and Douche (sorry)

.

Next think about what technology interest you. Don't just do A+ because it's "the way things are". Believe me a lot of people think that way and a lot of people with more skills than you are looking for jobs.

Find a mentor and do research. Come up with a plan. Don't just jump on the first certification that comes to you. From what little I know, I would love to leverage a guy like you into a financial support role. You wouldn't being dealing with the numbers, but you would be supporting the financial users.

Circle back to the "what industry are you best familiar with"? Financial it seems

Here are a laundry list of applications and certifications I would focus on.

Excel 2007, 2010, 2010 Advance
SAP R/3
Oracle Payroll and Financial modules
ITIL V3 Foundation
ISO/IEC 20000 Foundation
ISACA COBIT http://www.isaca.org/Knowledge-Center/cobit/Pages/Overview.aspx [This is a really good one in my opinion]

Remember to get into IT doesn't mean you need to know how to switch out a systemboard or know the difference between and LCD or an Inverter board.

IT and business are merging at an alarming rate. Think of business and IT as the same.

Good luck I wish you the best.

computer g33k

pham0329 wrote: »

Personally, I don't think this is a good idea. Focus on one exam at a time, especially when you're new to the industry. Learn one thing at a time, and learn it well before moving to the next.

Excellent point pham, thanks for pointing that out.

droberts70

Thanks for all of your advice and input. It has given me a lot of food for thought. What makes my job search slightly difficult is that I live in an area with very few metropolitan jobs. The closest would be a 45 minute one way commute to Dayton, OH. So if I want to stay local there are very few "big" corporation jobs.

I'll continue to consider your advice!

droberts70

I've been thinking about the advice posted above. I don't really have too many opportunities in the area for IT in the financial industry. But I do have a masters degree in School Administration (not an MBA, but still an administration degree). I should probably leverage that and decide which certifications would fit me well.

Any other thoughts?

joehalford01

I think you're on the right track. Start with the A+, it's a great intro to desktop support. I think the above suggestions might really be good ones for you. Getting some advanced excel experience and working in some sort of support role in finance could be a good way for you to leverage experience you already have.

Devilry

droberts70 wrote: »

I've been thinking about the advice posted above. I don't really have too many opportunities in the area for IT in the financial industry. But I do have a masters degree in School Administration (not an MBA, but still an administration degree). I should probably leverage that and decide which certifications would fit me well.

Any other thoughts?

Sounds good to me, maybe go back for a masters in IT at WGU, plus some certs that mix well with your skills.