Getting into IT

HI all, I'm trying to get into IT(networking) at the minute but am having a very difficult time. I have no previous work experience in IT or any IT qualifications and my previous job history was in the motor trade.

I am currently studying for my ccna qualification but am having trouble finding a job in IT, even if one has ccna or ccnp or other IT qualifications employers still require a minimum of one or two years experience.

Can anyone recommend what steps to take to get a job in IT and what qualifications could help.

I am look in to get into the networking side of things.

Thanks

Pujan Kerai

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Comments

Kinet1c

Get your CCNA first. Without any experience or qualifications, you're not going to get a networking job. Look for customer support roles within ISP/Datacentres and if successful, work your way up via NOC and then network engineer. Expecting to get a networking job as your first IT job is not realistic.

636-555-3226

Everyone here will tell you to start out at the help desk, and they're right. A CCNA is nice, but you're going to most likely need some IT experience before getting into the networking team. Get into the help desk, network (socially) the other IT dept heads to figure out what is a good path, start learning that path, and convince them to mentor or hire you in that path.

ImThe0ne

636-555-3226 wrote: »

Everyone here will tell you to start out at the help desk, and they're right. A CCNA is nice, but you're going to most likely need some IT experience before getting into the networking team. Get into the help desk, network (socially) the other IT dept heads to figure out what is a good path, start learning that path, and convince them to mentor or hire you in that path.

Indeed, you gotta learn to walk before you can run. A CCNA is great and all, but it doesn't give you real work knowledge, it gives you Cisco's "real world knowledge" which doesn't match 90% of stuff in prod environments.

Mow

Finish up your CCNA, since you started it. Depending on your location, there may be many short-term contracts you can take to get your skills up to par.

techfiend

I'll go against the grain and suggest what I ended up doing. I started out studying for CCNA for 4 months and found it well above me. Decided to go back and spent a month studying A+ after passing the tests I had a desktop support role within 2 months. I probably would have spent at least 3 more months studying for CCNA and it probably wouldn't have turned into a job, almost no chance it turned into a job working with production cisco networks. OP wrote most CCNA jobs he sees require experience, that should be a big hint.

I'm a sys admin working exclusively with windows and unmanaged networks with a little less than a year of experience. Since I put CCNA on my resume the callbacks have increased but ultimately my lack of networking experience is holding me back. Since then I've decided to certify my experience as opposed to certify what I want to get into. Do you have experience working on cisco networks? If not, I wouldn't certify it. Do you have experience building computers, small networks, cabling? If so, certify it with an A+ so you can get some experience working in a production environment, the experience you get there you can certify.