How to get started on the path to an IT job?

lingling1337

Hey all, A little about me first, I'm 20 and have been kind of meandering through community college on a liberal arts transfer degree path. Now I've decided to focus on what I think I have the most aptitude for, which is computers. I've been in front of a computer much of my life, unfortunately messing around playing games rather than learning a programming language or anything. So now I want to gain the skills needed to start on a path to an IT job.

I just registered for the two foundational IT courses at my community college, which I don't think I'll have a problem there. I am very comfortable with computers and I generally understand the "logic" of a computer. From there I can take classes such as databases, virtualization, different networking classes, and a few different programming classes. I am open to learning basically anything so any suggestions on different courses that would be valuable to me would be great.

I have also looked at Khan Academy which seems interesting. I will have to re-install windows on my laptop so I can follow along with him on the videos. Self study is difficult for me though, too easy for me to blow it off. That is why I'm not really currently looking at WGU either. Anyway thanks for any thoughts and opinions from you IT pros out there.

UniqueAgEnT

School is important so I would try to finish a BS in Comp Sci if you are a programmer or CIS/MIS.

I would definitely recommend obtaining your A+ cert, and then possibly Net+ or MS Windows 7. With the certs and pursuing education, you should be able to land an internship or part time job in help desk. This would be the ideal starting location for your career, and then you can branch into a section of IT that you enjoy (DBA, Networking, Server, etc)

Master Of Puppets

CompTIA certs are a great start. It will be good if you choose a direction - programming, networking etc. From then on, you can make up a better development plan. IT is pretty broad and there are a lot of things with computers you can do.

Rosco2382

I was in your boat not to long ago. I decided to go the help desk route, to get my foot in a door. I'm going to school for Computer Science and Software development is my ultimate goal. I figured I could start where I am at, network with our programmers and hopefully move into that department. So far its working for me. Personally without really working in the field its hard to decide what you wanna do just from class work. i would take some intro classes and see what really interest's you.