How many of you here got your first job in I.T without experience or certs or degree?

Akaricloud

MrRyte wrote: »

Maybe in the early mid 90s when IT was still establishing itself. But now-far less likely. I've gotten a few contacts from some IT staffing companies but once I tell them that I've never actually worked in an official IT position (the local IT staff are cool enough to let me assist them with little projects here and there but that's about it ) the conversation ends rather abruptly. The way I see it, unless you're good friends with the HR or IT staff at a company then you're pretty much SOL.

Yeah most staffing companies are going to toss you aside. They have ton of more qualified resumes on file that they'd rather use first. Interviewing at companies directly has seemed to work better for me.

It can be done, you just need to sell yourself based on the skills you have and your ability to learn rather than your experience.

Joshsevo

I have 3 certs CEH, CHFI, Sec+ and soon to have 2 more CPT and Net+ but no job......Boooooo

genderdude

i guess some ppl have experience and education and still cannot get their first job, and others get hired by luck and by not much hard work (easy road)

SteveLord

genderdude wrote: »

i guess some ppl have experience and education and still cannot get their first job, and others get hired by luck and by not much hard work (easy road)

That's the overall conclusion you draw from this thread?

Akaricloud

Experience and education are just two of the many factors that contribute to getting offered a job. Good resume and interviewing skills can also play a huge role. If you don't possess any of these then you're very unlikely to get an offer.

networker050184

genderdude wrote: »

i guess some ppl have experience and education and still cannot get their first job, and others get hired by luck and by not much hard work (easy road)

While luck (being in the right place at the right time) may have something to do with it there is way more that goes into getting a job than just experience and education as Akaricloud pointed out above.

someuser23

It's best to start young before you have a family or move out on your own. I'm not in I.T and im a little under 30k but I don't live at home anymore so contract work and leaving a permanent position isn't really wise. In this economy and with I.T in general if you start off its gonna be a crap load on temporary jobs.

You can get a job with no experience or certain but most likely from a friend you know, I don't think many companies will hire you without some sort of qualifications.

genderdude

SteveLord wrote: »

That's the overall conclusion you draw from this thread?

it is true isnt it

SteveLord

genderdude wrote: »

it is true isnt it

I didn't see much of anyone here talking about how they got where they are because of luck and nothing else. A good chunk of members are well educated, whether it be via schooling or self studying/achieving certifications. There's even threads where people laid out their previous jobs and salaries. Several have done well and surpassed $100k salaries. There's no easy way to that no matter who you know.

I can tell you this (and this isn't directed to you specifically.) I didn't get where I am by sitting on internet forums whining about how there are no jobs/better jobs out there. Avoid that mindset and others who display it.

joehalford01

I got my first IT job with zero IT ambitions. Right place, right time. I slowly became more and more IT, then realized I love it and I've been jamming on my education since. At first I didn't want anything to do with it, there just wasn't anyone else to do the job, I'm glad it worked out for me. As far as my current title goes, I did earn that, by taking on more and actually learning this stuff. So for me, it was a combination of luck and ambition. You're best bet is sticking to small companies, they will pay you less but they'll give you a chance. Once you get the experience, you can move on if need be.

tpatt100

genderdude wrote: »

i guess some ppl have experience and education and still cannot get their first job, and others get hired by luck and by not much hard work (easy road)

Well my "easy road" was due to my attending college at night taking an "intro to computer hardware" class that taught the A+ material. The guy sitting next to me I assisted in passing the class and we studied for the A+ together numerous hours on the weekends and took the test together. A year later when an opening at the company he worked for came up he called me ASAP and asked for my resume.

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have”

Slowhand

I spent about seven years in retail hell before landing my first IT-related gig, (PC tech at CompUSA.) It was very low pay, even for McTech type of work. Over the years I've had jobs as a helpdesk monkey, NOC technician, mid-level sysadmin, and the last job I had I was one of two people running the IT department for a video game company.

In each case except the last, (the first IT admin was a friend and former coworker who asked me to come work with him,) I had been passed over for countless other jobs and was lucky enough to get a chance to interview at the places I did. At each company, they put me through the wringer of technical questions, and sometimes even had me do aptitude tests. Because I didn't have a degree and I had limited experience for each position, I took a hit on my salary. In some places, I was making as much as 35% less than my counterparts due to these factors.

While it's been a much better path than staying in retail, I would have had a much, MUCH easier time in my job-searches if I'd had a degree and more advanced certs when starting out in the enterprise-IT world. There isn't a whole lot you can do about experience, you take what you can get and move up from there.

There are a lot of factors that play into whether or not you get an interview, let alone get hired. Having a degree, certs, and/or experience doesn't guarantee a job. However, not having one, many, or all of these doesn't automatically disqualify you either. I still recommend a degree as well as getting certified, though, why would you want to leave things to chance and make it harder on yourself?

518

Was a prior service as a logistics specialist, attended 7-month vocational school afterwards. First job in 2000 as a Junior PC Tech. Got the job thru job placement agency, was offered full-time six months later. Spent the next 8 years with them [Lockheed Martin].

SixRomeo

MrRyte wrote: »

+100.

Sad to say; humility seems to be a dying trait nowadays.....

Here's the thing about that though. Humility is definitely key and will get you far. It's the main pillar of my success let me tell ya. But let's also face it boys and girls, our profession kind of requires a bit more confidence in yourself and your abilities than most other positions in our salary range respectively. It takes a certain level of self confidence to walk into work every day knowing you could face a problem you've never seen before and not being concerned whether or not you'll be able to figure it out. Especially if it's a problem that could prevent others from doing their jobs.

I made this point to say this... definitely show that you're not a jerk and will be an easy person to work with. Just DO NOT make the mistake of overdoing it and selling yourself short. At the end of the day, employers want to know that you'll not only be a valuable, loyal team member but that, more importantly, you can do the work!

dead_p00l

I dont know if you'd actually consider it IT or not but I got lucky and started out in a computer store building cookie cutter machines. Willingness to learn and plenty of self study and I became their networking guy. Ive worked for different companies in different capacities constantly moving up the ladder so to speak to where I am now as senior network engineer. I still have no certifications but that is mainly due to lack of time.

dustinmurphy

I started at a consulting firm... started on desktop support, then moved quickly to server support in 2006. I started at 35k/yr and moved up to 42.5k within a year. Next job was sys admin at 50k... now, I'm an underpaid IT Manager at 65k.

w_w_w

~$50k, first job, InfoSec. BA, no certs, no real experience. Right place right time I suppose.

MrAgent

I got my IT experience in the military. I joined in 1995 and knew some basic IT fundamentals. When I got out in 2000 I had no certs, but 5 years of intense IT experience, and a clearance. So I think I was able to get a job as soon as I got out because of my clearance and experience.

Flash forward to now and I have a few certs, a lot more experience, and a bachelors degree. I still get offers quite often.

W Stewart

I got my first IT job 6 months ago doing Dell tech support with no certs. You weren't required to have any certs but you were required to have A+ level knowledge. Actually I technically got my A+ the same day I got the job but it wasn't required. It was a great day for me. 6 months later I landed a linux tech support job with basic knowledge of linux and plenty of computer hardware and networking knowledge. Based on my anual salary at Dell i'm supposedly making less at my new job but I wasn't really making as much as I was supposed to be making a year due to the fact that it was a call center and I pretty much never worked my full shift and a lot of times got sent home 3 hours early on a daily basis. My new job pays me salary so I wil actually be making the amount I'm supposed to be making a year and I see it as a step up. That 13.05 an hour looks nice on paper but without the hours I'm barely making enough to get by.

instant000

MrRyte wrote: »

Maybe in the early mid 90s when IT was still establishing itself. But now-far less likely. I've gotten a few contacts from some IT staffing companies but once I tell them that I've never actually worked in an official IT position (the local IT staff are cool enough to let me assist them with little projects here and there but that's about it ) the conversation ends rather abruptly. The way I see it, unless you're good friends with the HR or IT staff at a company then you're pretty much SOL.

When are you going to get Security+? Unless you have adverse actions in your past, I'm sure I can get you pointed in the direction of some work. We always have people leaving here (shift work). So there's always an opening every so often.

EDIT: Just saying, there's lots of military contracting opportunities in this area. Get a minimum of Security+, and you should be able to get on-board somewhere.

Lots of companies appear to be looking right now. You are in San Antonio, right?

CodeBlox

instant000 wrote: »

When are you going to get Security+? Unless you have adverse actions in your past, I'm sure I can get you pointed in the direction of some work. We always have people leaving here (shift work). So there's always an opening every so often.

EDIT: Just saying, there's lots of military contracting opportunities in this area. Get a minimum of Security+, and you should be able to get on-board somewhere.

Lots of companies appear to be looking right now. You are in San Antonio, right?

On the helpdesk where I'm working now, the supervisor verbatim said he's "not hiring anyone who does not have security+". Its on a government contract.

MrRyte

instant000 wrote: »

When are you going to get Security+? Unless you have adverse actions in your past, I'm sure I can get you pointed in the direction of some work. We always have people leaving here (shift work). So there's always an opening every so often.

EDIT: Just saying, there's lots of military contracting opportunities in this area. Get a minimum of Security+, and you should be able to get on-board somewhere.

Lots of companies appear to be looking right now. You are in San Antonio, right?

I'm now a part of the IT dept with AETNA. No previous experience but I was blessed to be pretty tight with the IT staff. They were willing to give me a shot and I'm gonna do my darnest to be the best I can be for them. I'm learning as I go along but at least they are willing to help me find the right answers or point me in the right direction.

Legacy User

This year with only a tech school diploma, mcp xp, a+, ccna and no professional experience I got my first I.t. job as a on call field tech with a company that there modo was earn while you learn it was actually a shady deal that paid cash. Pay varied per call min was $25/hr from clock in at client site to completion $175max per call. Had me going to client sites posing as him. But the few gigs that i accepted (new office deployments, pc/printer repair, etc) was still experience no matter how you slice it which got me alot of interviews and a job offer with a small consulting company.

I turned that position down because I just got hired as a cisco engineer for a cisco reseller building/config/testing cisco racks and refurbishing cisco/juniper equipment to resell by clearing configs, testing, etc. Funny part the main reason I got hired because when I wanted to start playing with 3550 switches i bought the wrong one from ebay with optical inputs. I had no use for it so I decided to upgrade to the emi image for layer 3 routing then resell on ebay.

Long story short I made some good profit on that deal and when i was in the interview i explained that story i embellished a bit saying I sold a few of them. They laughed and said so your our competition. Well I was offered and accepted the position a week later at $35k first year $40k second yr. They will train me on the technology im not familiar with. Moral of the story you never know what personal experiences may come in handy especially in interviews.

nava87

I'm glad I came by this thread. Actually gives me hope. I just got hired as a Field PC Technician with a healthcare company. No certs (besides military), the only real experience is communications through army and I think the only reason I got the job was because they said the other guys before me bombed the interview. But its a good opportunity that I will improve with.

Turgon

dmarcisco wrote: »

This year with only a tech school diploma, mcp xp, a+, ccna and no professional experience I got my first I.t. job as a on call field tech with a company that there modo was earn while you learn it was actually a shady deal that paid cash. Pay varied per call min was $25/hr from clock in at client site to completion $175max per call. Had me going to client sites posing as him. But the few gigs that i accepted (new office deployments, pc/printer repair, etc) was still experience no matter how you slice it which got me alot of interviews and a job offer with a small consulting company.

I turned that position down because I just got hired as a cisco engineer for a cisco reseller building/config/testing cisco racks and refurbishing cisco/juniper equipment to resell by clearing configs, testing, etc. Funny part the main reason I got hired because when I wanted to start playing with 3550 switches i bought the wrong one from ebay with optical inputs. I had no use for it so I decided to upgrade to the emi image for layer 3 routing then resell on ebay.

Long story short I made some good profit on that deal and when i was in the interview i explained that story i embellished a bit saying I sold a few of them. They laughed and said so your our competition. Well I was offered and accepted the position a week later at $35k first year $40k second yr. They will train me on the technology im not familiar with. Moral of the story you never know what personal experiences may come in handy especially in interviews.

Well you did have the CCNA even if you are short of experience. So once again, it pays to get this certificate!

rsutton

No Experience, no certs, no degree. Technical Support $14/hour. 1998. My resume had a long list of skills from tinkering since a young age, that combined with a good suit and good people skills got me a good first job.

Legacy User

Oh definitely they were looking for a ccna and having the certification along with my knowledge helped me get the position. For all the people wondering if they should get such and such cert. all I have to say if that is what interests you why not. I see so many bashers on boards saying dont bother without real world experience you wont get anywhere. From my experience with interviews i've been on I missed out on opportunities with server positions since I didnt have server level certs. Bottom line as long as you do not brain **** and you really know the material all the cert can do is prove your knowledge.

Because the reality is alot of IT professionals dont have all the mcitps or ccnx certs and they dont need it but the hiring managers are always impressed when they see it. Which opens a perfect opportunity to mention how you prepared running several virtual machines for testing and you tried such and such. It all makes you look determined and eager to learn.

RomBUS

Had a degree and no certs and didn't get my first IT gig till almost about a year after I graduated (no one wanted to hire me...went to a lot of interviews), I got lucky because my college friend who I graduated with, his mom was my eventual boss' accountant for his IT consulting company, so a bit of networking there. Started out at making $27.5k...got some certs once I got more experienced. Had to leave the company because my hours were cut and sometimes I wouldn't work for a whole week. I am still hovering around the $40k area but I feel like I should be making more but whatever

FloOz

i was lucky enough to get an internship the beginning of my senior year at school. Im still interning and have recently passed my A+. I make 11/hour

CodeBlox

Well of course a first IT job is obtained without IT job experience for anyone.