Career Change from Business (Finance)

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the forums and completely new to the IT industry. Just some background about myself:

1) I'm 27 years old and from Texas.

2) I currently have a BBA in Finance and had also taken Accounting courses (CPA eligible). I have about 138 academic credits.

3) I graduated back in 2007 and have been trying to work in the Finance/Accounting industry for about 3 years now.

4) I have worked as a "Financial Analyst," but my positions don't seem to last over too long. I've unfortunately been laid off twice and can't seem to hold a job past a year (most lasted about 7-8 months).

5) While I have a degree in Finance and understanding for basic Accounting, I feel that it's been a lack of motivation, which has led to me getting laid off. I found the Finance curriculum to be interesting and the Finance industry, especially investments was really booming back when I was studying the subject in college. I feel that I don't really "enjoy" my position and have always wanted to pursue a career in computers.

6) Prior to studying Finance, I was a Computer Science major (only took about 2-3 CS classes), which I found challenging.. but I also enjoyed it. I'm not really *huge* on programming, but I do enjoy figuring out the logic behind it all.

7) I have always been really very much into computers from a young age. From upgrading the hardware, to reading the latest reviews on components, to installing & learning new kinds of useful software.. I have loved it all. Also, I really enjoyed computer gaming as hobby.

I feel that I would really like to go back and enter the IT industry. Will this be a huge challenge for me? I'm a bit lost as of right now and would love some guidance as to which IT area I should pursue.

Job security is a huge thing for me (since my previous positions haven't allowed for that). Also, flexible working hours or the ability to work from home would also be a huge positive.

I was doing researching on the Job Outlook of the IT industry (Computer Network, Systems, and Database Administrators) and I really seem to like what I read about "network systems and data communications analysts." The article said "This occupational category includes network architects and engineers, as well as Web administrators and developers. Demand for network architects and engineers will increase as organizations continue to upgrade their IT capacity and incorporate the newest technologies. The growing reliance on wireless networks will result in a need for many more of these workers. Workers with knowledge of information security also will be in demand, as computer networks transmit an increasing amount of sensitive data."

So my big question. What is needed for me to make a transition? Would I need to go back and get a degree in Computer Science? What about something like Management Information Systems (since I already have all the Business courses covered)? I can also go for an MBA at this point since I have a lot of undergraduate hours & also have some experience in the workforce.

Also, what about thoughts on attaining certificates? What should I tackle first? CCENT? MCSE? CCNA?

Lastly, are entry level jobs in these fields extremely hard to find/attain?

Apologies for the long post. I just wanted to get everything out there.

~ Im2bz2p345

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Comments

veritas_libertas

What kind of IT role interests you? The MCITP:EA (the new MCSE) and the CCNA are very different.

CCNA: Routers and Switches, cables, etc.

MCITP:EA: Servers, OS, etc.

phantasm

What Veritas said. The MCITP:EA/SA is systems orientated while the CCNA is network orientated. Both sides of the house can be rewarding, but keep in mind that the rewards do not come over night. Nor do they come the following week. The IT industry is tough, very tough. Coming into the field as a new hire with no prior experience you'll be faced up against candidates with experience and certifications more than not. What this means is that you need to put your nose to the grind stone, just like college and start over.

MCITP:EA/SA: Systems orientated. Helpdesk and System Admin positions.
CCNA: Networking. NOC and Network Engineering positions.

Either way you look at it, the Engineering or Admin positions will require experience which is usually paid for in the help desk and or the NOC. These jobs seem menial but they serve a good cause and most of us cut our teeth in one of these positions.

Everyone

Changing careers isn't going to help your lack of motivation. If you can't hold down a job in 1 career field, what makes you think you'll be able to in another?

If you constantly jump ship whenever you feel like the career field you're in is no longer "booming" you're not going to make it any career.

afcyung

With your background in Finance maybe a career in PCI compliance would be good for you. You might not find it as difficult to break into.

Im2bz2p345

Thanks for the responses thus far. I seem to like what I read about "Network Engineers."

Considering I already have the Business foundation/degree, would it be wiser to pursue an MBA (with a MIS concentration)?

Or would I better off getting certifications first? From what I read, CCNA seems to be the best "bang for you buck" certificate. How would I go about getting this? For someone like me (without an IT background), should I take the CCENT first and then the CCNA?

What are your thoughts as to which certification is it easier to find jobs with? MCITP: EA or CCNA?

Lastly, from my understanding, you're saying that it would be best to get a certificate first.. then work as a Helpdesk or NOC technician.. then in the future apply to get my MBA (MIS concentration)?

Just need a step by step guide at this point, because I'm totally lost as to what would be the "best" route.

~ Im2bz2p345

Everyone

MBA with MIS concentration if you want to be management. You go about getting certs by learning the material and taking the test. Certs and degrees may help you get a job, but they won't help you keep one. You need to fix that problem 1st. No magical piece of paper will do that for you.

Im2bz2p345

Everyone wrote: »

Changing careers isn't going to help your lack of motivation. If you can't hold down a job in 1 career field, what makes you think you'll be able to in another?

If you constantly jump ship whenever you feel like the career field you're in is no longer "booming" you're not going to make it any career.

I think that interest has a lot to do with why I want to transition. I mainly took up the Finance field because I thought it would good career for the future (upon the big IT bust that occurred & talks about outsourcing were prevalent). As stated previously, I found the studies interesting, but the field/career itself hasn't kept my attention. I still constantly see myself as more of a "techie" than anything else. In fact, in all of my previous positions, I was trying to figure out ways to automate our financial reports (using technology i.e. advanced Excel techniques/pivot tables/macros/etc). Also, while growing up I noticed that I could pick anything related to computer a lot faster than most others.

afcyung wrote: »

With your background in Finance maybe a career in PCI compliance would be good for you. You might not find it as difficult to break into.

Could you provide some more information about this career path? I did some Google searches and didn't come across really consistent information.

PCI = Plastic Card Industry (Credit Cards & so forth)? Would this be related to preventing attacks from hackers, trojans, worms, etc?

Thanks for the help & guidance!

~ Im2bz2p345

SamLea27

You have a good degree and experience in a career path (although obviously not in IT) and the most requested/required cert when getting started is actually A+ so this will probably do more for your career than jumping right into a Microsoft or Cisco cert.

RobertKaucher

Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Relational Database Management would be a good choice as well. It would put your background to work.

Im2bz2p345

Everyone wrote: »

MBA with MIS concentration if you want to be management. You go about getting certs by learning the material and taking the test. Certs and degrees may help you get a job, but they won't help you keep one. You need to fix that problem 1st. No magical piece of paper will do that for you.

Surely holding onto a job has been an issue, but it's never been due to a lack of performance on my part. I've always done what was asked of me and looked at ways to improve/streamline operations.

But like I said, it's just been difficult without a lot of interest in the field. Imagine is someone made you clean teeth for the rest of your life (nothing against dental hygienist). Would it be something you could get up every morning and be excited about doing day in & day out? Might be a bad example, but trying to get the point across.

You mentioned "MBA with MIS concentration if you want to be management." But could I really jump into a management role when I've never had experience in a database specific position?

Thanks for your assistance sir,

~ Im2bz2p345

cyberguypr

Im2bz2p345 wrote: »

What are your thoughts as to which certification is it easier to find jobs with? MCITP: EA or CCNA?

Wrong approach if you ask me. I don't pay attention to what's easier to get. I am gonna go for whatever moves me and I find challenging. I did MCITP Enterprise Admin to fill a few gaps in my knowledge. I'm now going for CCNA because I find it interesting, challenging and the chicks dig it (OK, last one not true). My 2 year goals are VCP and CISSP but not before learning some flavor of Linux.

If you dedicate a lot of hours you can achieve an MCITP or CCNA fairly quickly. However, as someone said in another post the other day, no intelligent person will put a network in the hands of a CCNA with no experience.

Due to your lack of IT experience, an advanced degree should not be the absolute priority right now. In your situation, this is what I would do: start with the basics. Many here recommend A+ as the first cert and agree Help Desk is the logical starting square for those with no experience. This role varies per company. Some jobs are 100% Tier 1 phone support, kind of what you get when you call your ISP. Other companies do desk side which is a little bit more dynamic and less mind-numbing than being on the phone all day long resetting passwords. While riding out Help Desk I would keep studying on my own. This will definitely give you an advantage over your peers and who knows, may even lead to an internal promotion. If not, after a year of experience you'll be in a better position to aim for better IT jobs. Just keep in mind that as phantasm said, things don't happen overnight.

RobertKaucher's suggestion about business intelligence, ERP, database admin or something along those lines makes sense with your background, but again, only if it can hold your interest.

This board is an invaluable resource. If you need some direction please ask away, hear a few dozen points of view and decide what's best for you. Good luck!

ChooseLife

cyberguypr wrote: »

Wrong approach if you ask me. I don't pay attention to what's easier to get. I am gonna go for whatever moves me and I find challenging.

I agree absolutely.

But starting from basics would be a waste of time, IMO. Use your financial experience and try to find a shortcut into mid-level job market in IT - the opportunity to drop down to entry level will always be an option

Regulatory compliance, PCI and such are one possibility. But like said above, most importantly, listen to yourself and find what moves you.

RobertKaucher

ChooseLife wrote: »

I agree absolutely.

But starting from basics would be a waste of time, IMO. Use your financial experience and try to find a shortcut into mid-level job market in IT - the opportunity to drop down to entry level will always be an option Regulatory compliance, PCI and such are one possibility. But like said above, most importantly, listen to yourself and find what moves you.

This is important as working for $14.00/hr on a helldesk is not going to be much fun. This is the main reason I suggest the database path, not just because it's what I do. But at an entry level you could be making a real living and not struggling at the $30K mark.

chrisone

With your major in business finance, what are your thoughts on perhaps an IT Management role? it will be much easier to crack that shell than to completely get into a tech support or engineer role. Studying for IT management certs is that not that hard since its theory and project management based. It is not easy either but it is not rocket science in other words. Think about IT project management or management roles, your business/finance degree will definitely be a bonus for any IT management role.

You can start off as an assistant manager to like a director or VP of IT management.

afcyung

PCI is exactly what you said. They have some strict compliance requirements and I am thinking because you have working knowledge of the finance world moving to finance compliance would be an easier transition then starting all over at the bottom.

Im2bz2p345

ChooseLife wrote: »

I agree absolutely.

But starting from basics would be a waste of time, IMO. Use your financial experience and try to find a shortcut into mid-level job market in IT - the opportunity to drop down to entry level will always be an option Regulatory compliance, PCI and such are one possibility. But like said above, most importantly, listen to yourself and find what moves you.

The reason that I thought certifications or some sort of IT experience would help is because to get into Regulatory Compliance, PCI, etc. all require some experience.

Most of the job posting that I am checking out state you need to have a "BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or other Technical field."

How do I go about overcoming this? Would going back to school and getting a bachelor's in Computer Science help me?

RobertKaucher wrote: »

This is important as working for $14.00/hr on a helldesk is not going to be much fun. This is the main reason I suggest the database path, not just because it's what I do. But at an entry level you could be making a real living and not struggling at the $30K mark.

This is a key point. I was already making a good salary ($50K+), so going back down to a "help desk" position would be a large set back financially. If needed though, I have no problem going that route.

afcyung wrote: »

PCI is exactly what you said. They have some strict compliance requirements and I am thinking because you have working knowledge of the finance world moving to finance compliance would be an easier transition then starting all over at the bottom.

I can't seem to find many jobs for PCI compliance. Could you provide an example (job posting) of a type of position that I should be searching for? Unfortunately, all the compliance positions that I have searched for require many years of industry experience.

Thanks for all the continuous help & support guys! I'm at a crucial junction in my life and all of this guidance is so beneficial to me.

~ Im2bz2p345

Everyone

You're taking the degree part of the job posting too literally, or looking at the wrong types of jobs then.

Computer Science degrees are all about programming. If you want to do programming, sure it could help you. Otherwise no. A Masters would probably help you a lot more than a 2nd BS.

Of course you could jump into an IT Management roll without database experience. I'm not sure why you chose database experience specificly, that's a very small part of IT. You need to know what things like databases are, and have a basic understanding of them, but you don't need in depth experience in them to manage a handful of DBAs.

If you don't have any management or leadership experience, that is what will make it hard to get into that type of position, not lack of technical experience. However if you have an MBA from a top tier college that people recognize, they may be willing to look past that. It's not just going to fall in your lap either though.

Like some others have said, staying in the Financial industry but switching to IT may be your best bet if you're bent on doing it. The Financial Industry tends to like IT people with a Financial background. Financial institutions may be more likely to hire you for an IT position because you already have Financial experience, than they would an IT person with more IT experience but no Financial experience. I worked in the Defense industry for most of my career, I had quite a few interviews in the Financial industry, all of them told me they were very impressed with my technical skills but wanted someone who had Financial experience.

Im2bz2p345

Everyone wrote: »

You're taking the degree part of the job posting too literally, or looking at the wrong types of jobs then.

Computer Science degrees are all about programming. If you want to do programming, sure it could help you. Otherwise no. A Masters would probably help you a lot more than a 2nd BS.

Of course you could jump into an IT Management roll without database experience. I'm not sure why you chose database experience specificly, that's a very small part of IT. You need to know what things like databases are, and have a basic understanding of them, but you don't need in depth experience in them to manage a handful of DBAs.

If you don't have any management or leadership experience, that is what will make it hard to get into that type of position, not lack of technical experience. However if you have an MBA from a top tier college that people recognize, they may be willing to look past that. It's not just going to fall in your lap either though.

Like some others have said, staying in the Financial industry but switching to IT may be your best bet if you're bent on doing it. The Financial Industry tends to like IT people with a Financial background. Financial institutions may be more likely to hire you for an IT position because you already have Financial experience, than they would an IT person with more IT experience but no Financial experience. I worked in the Defense industry for most of my career, I had quite a few interviews in the Financial industry, all of them told me they were very impressed with my technical skills but wanted someone who had Financial experience.

Thanks for your help and advice. I would definitely like to "progress" and some have stated about getting a A+ certification/starting in Help Desk Support seems a really far set back, especially for someone like me with so many academic credits and about 3 years of experience.

I wish that all my experience was with one company and that it was all progressive. Unfortunately, due to company downturns, I've had to move from one job to the next. I started off in the investment industry, but then got more into learning about budgeting/financial analysis through 2 jobs. My latest position was still a Financial Analyst I role/position, so unfortunately I don't have the managerial experience.

I like what you suggested by getting my MBA with a IT concentration at a top school. My concern is just upon completing it, there might be largest difficulty in getting my first position due to the not having any IT background at all.

Your thoughts? Any other comments/thoughts/feedback would be really helpful!

~ Im2bz2p345

Everyone

You could always try and get an entry level IT job WHILE you're working on your MBA. A lot of MBA programs are geared for working professionals. That way you will get some IT experience to "get your foot in the door" while finishing your MBA. It's going to take you at least 2 years to finish that anyway, might as well make some money to help pay for it while you're doing it.

FixOSGuy

Given your background in Finance, I would look for a job where you can leverage your financial background with an IT position. Auditing companies might have something like this.

Look for something that stresses analytical and problem solving over certification and/or break/fix. Don't get stuck replacing motherboards unless thats something you want. Basically you can start as an Analyst and then start learning how to move around the company.

While doing that take some IT courses, gets some certs and decide if you prefer Server or Network work.

Good luck

Im2bz2p345

Would positions like these be a good idea to apply in order to help transition into a more technical role?

Find Jobs - Service Desk Administrator I Jobs in Plano, Texas - Capital One

Compliance Auditor - finance company Job in San Antonio, Texas US

Professional Analyst I - Business, #1435 Job in Houston 77073, Texas US

I've had a hard time finding entry level (or positions that don't require too many years of experience) positions in TX that are more technical, but also don't require a BS in Computer Science/Engineering.

I'm trying to use my background & experience in Finance/Accounting and hoping that can give me an advantage (or at least won't be a complete waste).

Any help would be appreciate. What do you feel about those positions? If those aren't good, what other type of positions should I be searching for?

Thanks,

~ Im2bz2p345

Norrlands Turk

Most PCI compliance will require specific skills or certifications like CISSP or RDMS knowledge/experience plus multiple years experience in bankcard industry and regulatory knowledge.

MBA is a waste of resources in your case. MS MIS from a top tier school could be useful, but first you have to decide what you really want to do with that degree.

I would suggest you to learn about different aspects of IT, pick the one you find the most interesting, and specialize in it.

nhan.ng

cookesus wrote: »

an associate’s degree in computers would qualify you for opportunities as network administrator, support technician, hardware or a software trainer, etc. .

An AA wont help much, even if he try to apply a Support Tech job.

Network Engineer/Hardware/software trainer.....I highly doubt it. These positions all look for previous related job experiences...

joneno

If anything, Please dont listen to anybody that tell you to go for A+/N+.
I was an economics major at umd(didnt graduate), If I were u I would look into ITIL, SAP, CISA, Oracle E-business and other finance/Tech related stuff. At the same time work on my graduate degree.

griffinalice29

Since your interests seem to be both in finance and computer systems, you might want to try an MBA to enhance your job prospects. You can get an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems and Technology. Your scope of getting the right job will improve if you choose a reputed business school that has a high ranking. Bentley University has some good options which you may want to consider since they offer MBA programs that focus on equipping students to be ready and able to adapt to changing business trends and innovations in a global setting.