Coming Back to IT - where to start?

After taking off 4 years to pursue a BS degree in Biology (and thus a new career that did not work out as I planned), I find myself coming back to IT.

Before I left IT, I had 10 years experience in various Desktop roles. I love Desktop, it is where I did quite well and even though it has been 4 years, I would like to come back.

I'm spending my time getting re-acquainted with the latest tech, but I was never really away from it all even when I was going to school.

My question to y'all is where should I start?

I figure I will re-do my very outdated certs, but will that be enough to get a job after being away from the industry for so long?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

Karen

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Comments

Rosco2382

I suppose it depends on your certs you have. If you are looking to get back on a desktop support role I wouldn't get A+ again, assuming you have already, but maybe the N+ and work from there.

Side note, I see you are in Chicago, I know of a few MSP's hiring level 1 tech's in the Western burbs.

KarenO

Thanks for the response, Rosco.

I do have my A+ from way back in 1999 as well as my MCP. I agree pursuing the re-certification for A+ is not necessary, however the N+ looks promising.

The only reason I figure I should re-certify is in order to prove to hiring managers that my skills are up to date since I have a the 4 year gap. I'm taking the next month to study and play around with some newer tech I am not as familiar with.

If you saw a resume from someone with 10 years experience, a 4 year gap and new certs, do you think that would be better than no new certs, but new supported techs listed on the resume?

Thanks for the heads up...it does seem like Chicago isn't lacking of IT gigs lately. For me, it is just a matter of getting my foot in the door. I figure I will need to take a Level 1 role in order to get back in the swing of things, but I will still try to apply for some mid level jobs as well and see if I get any takers.

Thanks again!

kohr-ah

Check out SWC in Oak brook. If you are looking for entry to mid level they are a pretty good sized MS MSP and been rated top place to work for for about 5 years now.

SixtyCycle

KareO, I'm just curious why you left IT with a considerable experience under your belt. Did you not consider moving up to a more advanced role at the time? Did you lose interest altogether?

gbdavidx

SixtyCycle wrote: »

KareO, I'm just curious why you left IT with a considerable experience under your belt. Did you not consider moving up to a more advanced role at the time? Did you lose interest altogether?

he said, "After taking off 4 years to pursue a BS degree in Biology (and thus a new career that did not work out as I planned), I find myself coming back to IT."

markulous

You should be able to get an entry level help desk position pretty easily. I'd think you would not need a renewed cert to get one since you only took a 4 year break. What are your goals? If you like the help desk, I'd think if you are able to renew a few certs, you could probably move up to a level 2 fairly quickly.

SixtyCycle

gbdavidx wrote: »

he said, "After taking off 4 years to pursue a BS degree in Biology (and thus a new career that did not work out as I planned), I find myself coming back to IT."

I read that very clearly however what I'm asking is why after 10 years in IT did she decide to pursue Biology. I'm sure anybody who has worked that long knows what is ahead career and money-wise. The fact that she stated she loved Desktop and she still left made me curious. I hear of people going into IT from a different field (like me) but I rarely hear of IT pros jumping to a different field.

Cert Poor

Trivia time. Who said this?

"I think a lot of the breakthroughs will be made by people who were trained in biology and computer science."

Answer in white: Bill Gates

If you're actually thinking big enough, you'll observe that many innovations come from the fusion of ideas from disparate disciplines. And you'll also observe specifically that the fusion of biology and computer science can leads to breakthroughs in both medicine as well as computing technology. Always. Think. Big. Dichotomous thought processes would lead people to think in all-or-nothing, black-or-white paradigms. That is, IT vs. [some other field]. They may appear to be different fields or different career paths on the surface, but life is strange, and thinking outside the box will absolutely lead to some awesome pioneering.

Good luck OP. To address your original question, I think you should be able to hop back in pretty fast. I'm sure you've kept up on IT trends with cloud, virtualization, big data, Bring Your Own Device, tablet and smartphone computing. And of course the generic Windows 7 transition in the enterprise.

SixtyCycle

Cert Poor wrote: »

Trivia time. Who said this?

"I think a lot of the breakthroughs will be made by people who were trained in biology and computer science."

Answer in white: Bill Gates

If you're actually thinking big enough, you'll observe that many innovations come from the fusion of ideas from disparate disciplines. And you'll also observe specifically that the fusion of biology and computer science can leads to breakthroughs in both medicine as well as computing technology. Always. Think. Big. Dichotomous thought processes would lead people to think in all-or-nothing, black-or-white paradigms. That is, IT vs. [some other field]. They may appear to be different fields or different career paths on the surface, but life is strange, and thinking outside the box will absolutely lead to some awesome pioneering.

I don't see it as IT vs some other field. I agree with this. I can even say that anything is relative depending on your perspective.