Career change advice

Lowdef · January 2017

Hi all,

First post here so apologise if I've put it in the wrong category.

No doubt this question has been asked several times before but I thought I'd ask regarding my own situation.

As per the title, I'm after some advice regarding changing career, preferably into IT.

I'm currently 38 and work as a Test Analyst for a HR&Payroll outsourcing company. I basically write test scripts and then carry out the process in agresso and sap ,highlighting any defects.
However, I'm looking to push myself into a more technical role as I've always loved messing around building pc's etc. Maybe something Network related?

Would going down the route of the Comptia A+ / Network or a Microsoft cert be the best place to start?

Also, how many years would it take me to get into a decent paid position?

CyberSecurity · January 2017

Hey Lowdef, I'm going to theorize a bit about your post; let's say decent paying = $70,000 and a Hardware/Network Admin role as the position you're looking into that involves everything from installing computer systems, server racks, to building and installing cables and fiber. With an A+ and a Net+ cert, dependent on what I see that you don't have much of that experience in the hardware/network side, you're looking at starting in the field making 40-50k (maybe) and then after a few years being in the 60k range if you really push your worth by negotiating or jumping from job to job until you get the increases in pay you are looking for. The 70k range probably won't be reachable without higher-level certifications and a savvy technical role or managerial position, but there are rarer opportunities that would pay that much with the A+/Net+.

Also a big factor is to determine if you want to work in the private sector vs. government sector since both have different requirements. For example, the government side of things (whether it be a contractor for the gov or a civil servant) typically lines up certification requirements based on the jobs. For a Network job they may ask that you be "IAT II" which according to the DoD 8570 requires one of the listed certs, and also not shown on that chart is the requirement that you need to also have the operating system certification that you work with (linux, windows, etc.)

I don't really know the in-detail requirements for the private sector since I've never worked outside of government but hopefully someone here can give you some info on that. Hope this helps.

Lowdef · January 2017

Thanks for the feedback Cybersecurity. I'm just putting the 'feelers' out to see what could be a viable career change that will give a decent salary.

As a Systems Tester, £30k will usually be the maximum, depending on area, so I'm looking for something I could move into which will pay me more.

As I have no previous job role experience of hardware or networking, maybe I should concentrate on other areas - maybe within the SAP environment....which I do have a working knowledge of. This would take me down the road of training to be a Consultant, which would pay well - albeit the courses are expensive in the UK.

In the meantime would learning something like SQL or Database Administration prove useful?

DatabaseHead · January 2017

SQL most certainly wouldn't hurt. You could move into a system analyst position, which is a hybrid position. Data (SQL), sometimes scripting depending on your environment, dashboarding and reporting. Those types of task.

Here in the midwest if you have tableau, power bi or some other enterprise dashboarding tool you can make 90,000+ USD. That one skill alone is HUGE

Lowdef · January 2017

Thanks Databasehead for your feedback.

I'll look online for some SQL courses as a starting point and then go from there.

Career change advice

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