Career advice... IT folks please chime in

[pantheist]

Originally Posted by BrettChaotix

In IT no manager is ever respected until they have the war-wounds of experience to prove it. An IT manager without experience will quickly drown or be out shined by his staff and replaced. I run an IT department and got here almost entirely on experience alone (my focuses in school were sociology related)

I don't know what your particular focus is on.... I'm assuming that since you aren't CompSci you won't be programming and maybe focusing more on infrastructure and/or engineering?

Here's my advise from experience..... get an entry level tech support job at a MID-SIZED company. Too small and you won't have enough variety, too large and they will pigeon-hole you into a boring routine wrapped in red tape. Lean EVERYTHING you can. VOLUNTEER for projects, especially new technology projects....

I think one of the most beneficial experiences of my career was volunteering to work all night from 5pm - 11am when we moved an enterprise level datacenter (dozens of racks of servers). Maybe 1% of the IT community gets to participate in a project during their career like that and it looks GREAT on a resume.

Anyway - expect to spend years, not months, getting that kind of experience under your belt. After that it shouldn't be hard to get promoted, or get hired as a team-leader/supervisor and you'll just move up from there.

Here's how it worked out for me:
1999 - 2002: was the only IT person for a small non-profit. I did everything on a shoestring budget
2002 - 2003: contract technician for mid-sized company
2003 - 2004: full-time technician for mid-sized company
2004 - 2006: senior technician (same company)
2006 - 2007: manager/team leader (same company)
2007 - 2008: IT Administrator (new company)
2008 - ????: I'm 28 years old on track to be made an officer of the company (CIO) before I turn 30


This is kind of the direction I'm heading in.

Started at this company straight out of high school just moving computer (2004)
In 2005 got hired on full time as a desktop support tech.
Been doing this till middle of 2006 and joined Remote support.
2007 got slotted into more of a tech lead posistion/travel (minimal).

Now I'm into the project part of things. It's a gov't agency so I'm doing multiple authentication and encryption **** now. Hopefully I'll get into a management spot soon where I can just tell everyone else to do the work. haha.

 

[dkzzzz]

Originally Posted by briancl

I wouldn't focus much on government work or clearance in security. The money is on the private side. Public security work is a joke in the industry.

The switch from Gov job with security clearance credentials to private sector is very easy. The reverse switch is close to impossible as it takes years to get through security clearance.
So the person who has it is in unique position on a job market.
Now, I am thinking of the future market 10, 20 years down the line (as he is contemplating his career). Where money are going to be in 5-10-15 years ?
I don't know.
But what I can anticipate is exponential growth of security professionals and thus gradual decline of salaries and number of jobs.
In the 90s all the money was in programming and QA where are those jobs now?
Thus my advice is: If you staying in IT try to get a small and knowledge-based niche rather than chase the highest paid sector/job just to find yourself in a dead end 5 years from now, competing against freshly minted security professionals with diplomas from Apu's Bangalor Computer Academy.
On a side note, a lot of people would suggest that switching specializations in IT is easy and normal way of things in "today's economy". You know those spiels about flexible work force and changing your carrier, midway, etc.
Well, don't believe them.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by dkzzzz

The switch from Gov job with security clearance credentials to private sector is very easy. The reverse switch is close to impossible as it takes years to get through security clearance.
So the person who has it is in unique position on a job market.
Now, I am thinking of the future market 10, 20 years down the line (as he is contemplating his career). Where money are going to be in 5-10-15 years ?
I don't know.
But what I can anticipate is exponential growth of security professionals and thus gradual decline of salaries and number of jobs.
In the 90s all the money was in programming and QA where are those jobs now?
Thus my advice is: If you staying in IT try to get a small and knowledge-based niche rather than chase the highest paid sector/job just to find yourself in a dead end 5 years from now, competing against freshly minted security professionals with diplomas from Apu's Bangalor Computer Academy.
On a side note, a lot of people would suggest that switching specializations in IT is easy and normal way of things in "today's economy". You know those spiels about flexible work force and changing your carrier, midway, etc.
Well, don't believe them.

I think that if you distinguish yourself you won't have a problem. The problem for most people is that there is nothing special about them or their capabilities. Most people are, after all, just average. You have to take a critical look at yourself if you're going to stay in IT to assess your strengths as mbc did. Not everyone will make a good technical expert and not everyone will make a good manager. It's only worth staying on the technical side if you're going to be VERY good, otherwise you'll just be some disposable tech for the rest of your life. I have an innate ability for these things, but I'm not convinced that I want to stay in the field which is why after next year I think that I am done.

 

[mbc]

Originally Posted by B1FF

This isn't 'passing the buck.'
In so much as the manager is passing the responsibility for dealing with the emergency on to his subordinate and then going back to sleep, yes, it is.

 

[GQgeek]

So how is the job search going? I was searching for something else and came upon this thread again. This book as a must have for someone in IT:

http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Syste...9534102&sr=8-1

 

[username79]

Find a skill in IT that is specialized and in demand. With that skill you will find there is no recession. Go independent and bill $200-$300 an hour being basically a glorified tech. If you can do this quick enough (by 25) you will not need to make any more than that. There are several things in IT that pay that well. Management is overrated and underpaid.

Originally Posted by BrettChaotix

I think one of the most beneficial experiences of my career was volunteering to work all night from 5pm - 11am when we moved an enterprise level datacenter (dozens of racks of servers). Maybe 1% of the IT community gets to participate in a project during their career like that and it looks GREAT on a resume.
Great advice..