IT Career Advice

zubheir

zubheir

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Im looking to make a career change into IT. Ive been learning A+ & N+ to get a foot into the industry.
I recently spoke to an IT guy and he said these wont carry any weight I should look into an NQF level 5 certificate.
Many people say CCNA is the way to go but Im not sure if thats the right move for me.

So the advice Im asking for is what are my options to get into the industry, software is not for me I feel the learning curve is steep at age 30. What certificates can I get that will help me staring off?

I also with like to know if there are any testing centres where I can book an exam and take the test rather than paying for a full course in Durban?
 
It is a waste of time, CCNA cost a lot of money and like MCSE it is going the way of the dodo. Problem with CISCO they are chanting gears and CCDP CCIE are perhaps something to look into. This is what they don't tell you, these certifications do lose relevance over time.

If you really want a future, look into Instrumentation. It is not IT, but it pays well and there is a reasonable demand.

Thing is, IT is overpopulated. If I was able I would have gone for Instrumentation, but it is not for the faint-hearted.
 
Romy_ said:
It is a waste of time, CCNA cost a lot of money and like MCSE it is going the way of the dodo. Problem with CISCO they are chanting gears and CCDP CCIE are perhaps something to look into. This is what they don't tell you, these certifications do lose relevance over time.

If you really want a future, look into Instrumentation. It is not IT, but it pays well and there is a reasonable demand.

Thing is, IT is overpopulated. If I was able I would have gone for Instrumentation, but it is not for the faint-hearted.
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nooblet , ccna is a core fundamental of networking.Its as important as 25 years ago.Fundamentals never go out of fashion ...
 
Depending on where in the field you are looking to start A+ and N+ most definitely are a way to get your foot in the door.
If you are looking to go the support/administration route I would start with an A+/N+ then suppliment these with something like MS900 and AZ900.
Then build your certifications and experience as you work through a 1st line position.
It does however greatly depend on what journey you are looking to take. IT is vast.
 
Also, remember software is more than just programming... Database administration, quality assurance, business analysis, project management, product owner, scrum master, user experience, implementation... all pays quite well too.
 
Deadmanza said:
Depending on where in the field you are looking to start A+ and N+ most definitely are a way to get your foot in the door.
If you are looking to go the support/administration route I would start with an A+/N+ then suppliment these with something like MS900 and AZ900.
Then build your certifications and experience as you work through a 1st line position.
It does however greatly depend on what journey you are looking to take. IT is vast.
Click to expand...
I would agree with this. I don't agree with those who dismiss A+ and N+ as worthless, with the caveat that you do need to retain something of the knowledge and have an idea to relate it to real life. I've interviewed intern candidates with these qualifications who cannot correctly identify the components of a desktop PC so you need to supplement this with stuff like building or upgrading your own PC, installing and setting up the OS etc.

30 is not too late to get into the industry. I generally wouldn't advise investing in more advanced and specialised certs like CCNA or cloud certs until you have some industry experience.

So your path would be A+/N+, get your foot in the door with junior technician, service desk support etc. then look at what your options are for advancement.

30 is not too late. Consider where you are at the moment and what additional experience you have to offer. For customer facing roles in IT require a lot of soft skills and interpersonal skills which in some respects are harder to teach than the technical skills. If you have worked in a call center or sales type role, this experience could have value in an entry level IT support position. You will also need to consider whether getting a foot in the door of IT support will require a pay cut compared to what you are doing currently - let's try to avoid that but depending on your situation it may be something you have to make a call on.
 
If you are going to pursue a career in IT, you have to constantly get certified and take courses to remain relevant, even if you're an experienced expert who keeps up to date with new technology.

This doesn't seem to be the case for someone who has a 30 year old BCom degree working a mid to senior level job in a big corporate.
 
InvisibleJim said:
I would agree with this. I don't agree with those who dismiss A+ and N+ as worthless, with the caveat that you do need to retain something of the knowledge and have an idea to relate it to real life. I've interviewed intern candidates with these qualifications who cannot correctly identify the components of a desktop PC so you need to supplement this with stuff like building or upgrading your own PC, installing and setting up the OS etc.

30 is not too late to get into the industry. I generally wouldn't advise investing in more advanced and specialised certs like CCNA or cloud certs until you have some industry experience.

So your path would be A+/N+, get your foot in the door with junior technician, service desk support etc. then look at what your options are for advancement.

30 is not too late. Consider where you are at the moment and what additional experience you have to offer. For customer facing roles in IT require a lot of soft skills and interpersonal skills which in some respects are harder to teach than the technical skills. If you have worked in a call center or sales type role, this experience could have value in an entry level IT support position. You will also need to consider whether getting a foot in the door of IT support will require a pay cut compared to what you are doing currently - let's try to avoid that but depending on your situation it may be something you have to make a call on.
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This is exactly what I wanted to do. Start with A+ & N+ then get a junior position to gain some experience.
I feel the basics are important to learn.
From there I can see which part of IT interest me & I can study further.
Would like to know what are some options going foward tho? such as network engineer.
 
Focus on public cloud. Skip A+ and N+.
Casually go through professor messer N+ if you want.
 
My career has seen me change course so often now that I am not sure where I will be in the future.
I am now working in what is technically a software house that makes a VoIP product. My experience in VoIP is what they wanted.
But for me I am looking to maybe pivot into more DevOps on AWS.
A jack of all trades IT guy is never going to not be useful, but you need to be in a job where you can get insane experience. After I left PCFormat I got a job at an outsourced IT provider and over the course of 6 years I went from knowing nothing about VoIP, Mikrotik, and Exchange (to name a few) to being the main VoIP & Networking guy, and the general go-to problem solver (I made very unhappy clients happy again).
And now I am the Software Support Manager for a company in the UK. I agree with @PPLdude, you need to look at AWS, Azure and Google for your future... just look at the job postings for roles related to these services and you will see a very bright future ahead of you.
 
It's your life, but IT is dead. These old timers think the statuesque is going to last, it is not. The future is in White Box deployment, cloud services and DevOps. That said, even DevOps is on a slippery slope.

I am not saying you can't be successful in IT, I am saying that traditional IT is losing ground fast. Obviously, it is in the name. Information technology. It is moving at such a rate and being automated at such a rate that alongside VM as a service for even the smaller businesses that very soon the only PC you will see in the office will be a client with maybe a browser installed on it. Software and compute as a service is the future. Networking is going to be dominated by white box deployment.

Just remember, South Africa might be behind the curve, but we are not off the road. We will get to that point, and considering fibre cost and role outs allows more high speed bandwidth than ever before. What I am saying is cloud compute and software as a service will be a thing. White Box network AND server integration will be a thing, and soon.

Do your research and ignore the tech Gurus, they only know what they learned and experienced. For any 14-year-old entering the IT space, I would focus on "the now" and not the has-been.
 
Romy_ said:
It's your life, but IT is dead. These old timers think the statuesque is going to last, it is not. The future is in White Box deployment, cloud services and DevOps. That said, even DevOps is on a slippery slope.

I am not saying you can't be successful in IT, I am saying that traditional IT is losing ground fast. Obviously, it is in the name. Information technology. It is moving at such a rate and being automated at such a rate that alongside VM as a service for even the smaller businesses that very soon the only PC you will see in the office will be a client with maybe a browser installed on it. Software and compute as a service is the future. Networking is going to be dominated by white box deployment.

Just remember, South Africa might be behind the curve, but we are not off the road. We will get to that point, and considering fibre cost and role outs allows more high speed bandwidth than ever before. What I am saying is cloud compute and software as a service will be a thing. White Box network AND server integration will be a thing, and soon.

Do your research and ignore the tech Gurus, they only know what they learned and experienced. For any 14-year-old entering the IT space, I would focus on "the now" and not the has-been.
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Giving IT advice from somebody thats never had an IT job :X3: :whistling: :unsure: :rolleyes: :oops::confused:
 
Bro just do what YOU feel YOU need to do, to get started. Every guy will tell you this and that but our journey's start different. From my point of view, Comptia A+ and N+ will be your best friend in starting out. A+ will basically teach you the fundamentals of software and hardware. N+ just dips within networking. Once you completed these 2, you can take any route within IT that sparks you're interests. These courses can range from 3, 6 months up to a year. Depends on how quick you want to get going. You can DM me and I'll send you some material from what I got from college. I just have to find my external drive somewhere within that pile of washing sitting on the couch in my room (don't judge, adulting got me bad) hahahah...
 
I am really skeptical that someone with no prior experience could pitch up with nothing but an Azure or AWS cert pass and enter the IT market solely on that basis. If you have some other qualification or experience as well perhaps but not just on its own.

Also, while The Cloud is 'The Future' in one sense, there are still a lot of real world circumstances where it doesn't make sense from a cost perspective or for some other business reason so I don't see 'traditional ' IT becoming irrelevant any time soon. If anything platforms like M365 and SaaS offerings are a more accessible form of cloud for non-IT companies than AWS/Azure/Google Cloud.

In terms of someone with no experience wanting to get a foot in the door A+/N+ then get an IT Tech or service desk job is probably still the way to go.

Something that I think would also be good for someone in this situation is the Microsoft 365 material and certs on Microsoft Learn - this is also a fairly low cost certification path that would have value in the workplace, given how widely used M365 is.
 
If I could give my personal 10c, I have been in IT for a good couple years and I would highly recommend doing the A+ and N+ to get the basics and as suggested by the other peeps and then go to Azure and a M365 cert. In whichever order you want. Azure really opened a lot of doors for me in terms of employment.

Personally you can only gain from it and it looks good on your CV.
 
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