I am a computer science student, and I love the program. I have learned so much over the past two years. I am now a junior and getting ready to go into my senior year. I realized I am leaning more towards IT. I've applied to countless IT internships, but they all want you to have experience already. I have heard people say that my chances of getting a job after college are slim to none unless I have an internship or some experience. I'm freaking out and need to know what to do so I'm not graduating with a "useless" degree. It's hard getting on LinkedIn and seeing people land an internship. I am happy for them, but it makes me feel like a failure.

To make a long story short, what steps should I take to get a job after college and land an internship?

Hi everyone,

Network Engineer for a very large VAR about 3 years of experience. I’ve been with this company a total of 8ish years since I graduated college. Not really sure what I’m asking here, but I feel like I’m not getting paid what I should get paid as I have a few large customers who specifically want to work with me on projects and drive steady revenue, but at the same time, my job is pretty cushy.

I work from home unless I have work with customers that require me to be onsite. Lots of PTO and sick time. My manager is pretty chill, although maybe a little too chill and does not give much direction on pipeline or career progression.

On the other hand, it’s stressful when I’m not busy because we have target hours we need to have each quarter. Base pay is $95k with $10k bonus. TBH I’m not even 100% sure what average pay is for a Network Engineer. I’m in a large city in Texas not named Austin.

I’m considering leaving Network Engineering for something in Customer Success Management or Data Analytics or just looking for a new job. I see many people who make way more for seemingly less work and stress, especially not having to do continuous learning. Caveat on finding new job is I’m due a mid-five figure RSU payout later this year.

Current certs I have are: CCNP (ENCOR/ENWLSD), CWNA, CWSP, CWDP, (working on CWAP coming up) JNCIA-Junos, Ekahau Design.

Any recommendations?

Hey All,

I am a network engineer with 8 years of experience. the last 5 years I have been working primarily in SD-wan for a large service provider. I have topped out in my current role and am looking for next steps, cloud engineering seems like it could be a good jump forward.

Current cert list is a CCNA, SEC +, and VNX-300.

I have done a handful of deployments and projects in azure, so I was thinking of starting there. Any recommendations on what certs to start with, and any suggestions on where I can get some hands on experience?

I’ve come to the point where I’m no longer into technical work. I’d like to move into more of management/strategy.

How can I start moving in that direction? I know it’ll take some time, but I’m just looking to put a plan together. (Yes, Google has been searched but I’m also looking to hear some anecdotes).

Background/Context — 6 years juggling bt/wn: Business Analyst, Data Analyst, BI Developer. Mostly the data side of things.

Degrees/Education — BA Liberal Arts, MS Health Admin. No certs as in data they’re not “needed”.

Long-term looking for to land a CIO position. but that’s the end goal down the line.

What advice/tips can you give me? Any personal experiences to share for encouragement?

I am self-taught in Python and JS. I am the same boat with most people where I cannot find any suitable positions in tech. I was wondering if there are any relevant suggestions on what content I could study( for degree) or what certification I could get that would compliment my skills and enable me to get a suitable position in tech.

Hey y'all,

I got a couple of questions for a project I'm working on, and I'd appriciate any responses!

1. Can you share any specific instances where you've encountered unique situations or circumstances during virtual meetings that impacted your experience?

2. How do you ensure effective communication and collaboration during remote meetings?

3. Can you walk me through your typical workflow when preparing and delivering presentations or content during remote meetings?

Thanks!!

Hi there,

a couple of years ago I decided I wanted to change my career so I joined an online university ( I work full time) for a bachelor degree in cybersecurity. I am due to finish my bachelor in one year and I am thinking about certifications. I am 40 and I have no working experience in IT and honestly I am not learning many practical things at the university so I am afraid I won't get a job without certifications. I was thinking CompTIA A+, Net+, and Sec+. What do you think? Or do you suggest something more cybersecurity oriented? I am located in Germany if that makes a difference.

I am 15 and still in high school but networking and how the internet works has always been very interesting to me and ive done some research on the topic but i havent been able to really find anything that isnt explaining stuff like switches routers open access poins Im really interested in networking but i cant take a class on it in school and so is there anywhere i can start learning on my own?

I’m looking for an entry level position. I know the market is brutal right now. I have a non IT bachelors degree. In this market I’m not sure listing the Master’s i’m working on will hurt my chances or help. I’m afraid resume AI scanners will pile me up with other Masters degrees candidates that have much more experience and sent me to the bottom of the pile. I have some certs too and applied for multiple internships and entry level jobs for months and not one call back. What would be the best approach here?

I accepted an IT internship offer a week ago from a non profit organization because I didn't think to get a different offer anywhere else it will be 10hrs/week for 8 months and will be starting tomorrow but Friday I got an offer with a Credit Union Bank for 3 months full time. What do I do now?

Note: I'll keep you guys updated on how it went. Thanks everyone.

With my free time, aside from gaming, I am curious as to what I could do to familiarize myself more with my pc that could aid me in entering the IT field. With spending little to no money, what are some programs or other pc related things that would be beneficial that could aid me in my understanding?

Hello all, I have been in helpdesk/service desk for almost 2 years now and am thinking about my next career move. At first I wanted to move in a jr sysadmin or network admin role and have been studying for the CCNA to make myself a stronger candidate. But I have started considering other paths as well. I am keen to know what the life of an IT business system analyst is like. We have a few of them at my company and was really interested in their role as it seems like a lot of collaboration and analyzing data.

I was wondering what is the best way to orientate myself towards this field of work knowing the skills I have now. Thank you in advance for everyone's insights.

Hello everyone, I have been trying to get into the IT field but don’t know where to start. I have an comptia ITF+ which is useless but I did it to enroll with WGU. I was studying general classes to get the credits and save some money and time. Now I want to focus on something specific but don’t know where to start. I currently out of work due to a surgery, so I basically have 4-6 weeks to spare and focus on learning. I do t know if I should study things related to comptia A+ or maybe network or even try to learn a programming language.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks.

Been working in the field for over 8 years now, I've been through the trauma that is 1st line, 2nd line and so on.

Currently I'm a Sysadmin (on paper) but have the tasks/responsibilities of an IT Manager and Jack-of-all-Trades for 50-100 endusers. I also commute for 3-4 hours a day, with WFH not being an option.

After getting burned-out after receiving too much responsibilities and drama with endusers that actively try to sabotage the network, I now have gotten the doctors advise to look elsewhere.

I'm feeling completely done with IT and really "hate" everything about it. So I was thinking of trying to do something completely different for a while until I can get the joy back.

Would it be wise to do so? Opportunities are currently still alright here, even though the available functions are all the same (helpdesk, one-man-army).

Has anyone ever taken a "break" from the field to get back in later? What was your experience with it?

I make $19/hr as a helpdesk as well as installation technichian. I work 35-40 hours a week. Am i being underpaid? For context i have no prior experience and no degree, but have been familiar with tech and computers since i was a kid. Im only asking because i want to move out, but i brought home $35,000 gross last year and i cant live ok my own with that. Should i look for other jobs in a year or so? Ive been working here for almost 2 years

A little backround currently work in federal law enforcement and wanting to break into IT. Would like to do it with the fed but hiring is a pain in the ass.

For the past year I have had secondary duties in my jobs that is the equivalent of like t2 help desk and Jr sys admin.

I hold A+, Network+, Secuirty+, and Cloud+.

Realistically what sort of jobs should I be applying for amd salary expections if I try and go work in the private sector.

Hi guys.

I’m trying to progress my career and move in more cloud/devops. Problem is I have no experience but I’m slowly learning bash,terraform, aws/azure.

Where would you build your portfolios? A lot of people say GitHub, but is there any specific way you would organise your portfolio to make it stand out? Some people have said that they just add screenshots to GitHub? Not sure how good that is or common that is?

Would you guys also think a website would be better?

One last extra question if people would like to answer this but what projects would you have in mind to a newbie like me?

Hello all,

i graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in writing and rhetoric in 2013, then did SEO copywriting. Then started doing technical seo mixed with front end development. Then full stack development for the purpose of SEO.

I have 20+ years experience with html & css. 4 years experience with php, javascript and sql. 15 years experience with java. 7 years experience with wordpress sites. 9 years google ada experience. 9 years google analytics experience. I spent about 2 years programmatically solving security issues for them.

I was just discriminated against by my work and their attorneys want to give a couple years worth of my salary to not sue them.

I plan to go back and get a master of science in cyber security. It will take me 1.5 years to do.

What kind of job titles should I target? Will it be easy to find a job? Can I do cyber security and web development? Can I do both Cyber security and software engineering? Will it be hard to find a job?

TL;DR: How should I spend $3k in grant money as an IT/Cybersecurity Student. It must be used on "technology, supplies, equipment, books, cert costs, etc."

I am finishing my Junior Year as an IT/Cybersecurity Student. After completing a program at my school, I was one of the group of students chosen to receive $3k for professional/educational development. This can be used for "technology, supplies, equipment, books, cert costs, etc."

My current laptop has an i3, and I've had it for 5+ years, so I could use an upgrade (wondering what type of performance/price range I should shoot for). I also had the thought to use some of the funds on a monitor and a few things for a basic desk setup at home (using the laptop).

I've been working part time in a small IT department while going to school, and I've started to take an interest in networking. I think I want to focus my career in that going forward. My current employer paid for me to take the Cisco U. Essentials courses (super fortunate, I know) so that is one form of education I currently have access to. I'd love to hear thoughts on what I should use this money for to help jumpstart my career.

Link to my resume

So I graduated nearly 3 years ago and had to do mandatory military service straight after, which was a total waste of time. Despite listing it as experience on my resume, I was definitely not doing those things everyday and due to no internet and limited infrastructure, I wasn't able to learn new skills and improve myself either.

Anyways, once I finished service, my mom got diagnosed with cancer literally the following week. I was depressed about it and I was staying at home helping her out. She was weak, couldn't use her left arm, and occasionally would just fall due to dizziness from the therapy and whatnot. However, she got better eventually and she's doing fine now. So I feel like I can't use "caring for elderly parent" as an excuse for my huge employment gap because she got better after like 6 months. And I dont think it would be a good idea to list it on my resume either.

Ever since then I've just been applying and trying to learn in-demand skills. However, I never get a call back; rather, it's always the default "we've decided to continue with another candidate" email. Getting a job in my country (Egypt) relies on nepotism for the most part, but no one in my family really knows any people working in tech. In the space of a year, I only got 2 offers, both through nepotism: one was for some Java developer role offering $60/month and an ERP consultant role for $200/month. Given these salaries were essentially unlivable wages and literally had nothing to do with the skills I know or related to the DevOps/Cloud career I'm trying to pursue, I declined those offers. I've been trying to learn new skills, but it seems to not amount to much as employers prioritize on-the-job experience with those skills, and not at-home projects.

So now I'm stuck with essentially a 3 year employment gap, unable to find any job. I'm sorry if this feels like a vent post, I'm just totally lost right now and feel like a burden to my parents living at home while they feed me on their retired pensions. I don't know what to do anymore.

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Hello everyone! I want to start learning for a career as a network administrator and I need some advice on what courses I should follow. I know that I need a Cisco CCNA certification, found a nice course on YouTube from "Jeremy's IT Lab". What course would you recommend and what other stuff do I need to learn/obtain besides the CCNA? Thanks!

Six years ago I quit my job for family reasons and to be a stay at home parent. With covid and three cross country moves for my wife's job, my break has turned into six years.

I was Tech Director at a large private school running the whole show with one other staff. Mostly Mac clients, iPads on mdm, Mac labs, Windows database server, PDC, and an RCD server. Our network was Procurve switches, Proxim wireless, Proxim point to point wireless joining two campuses. Plus all the other IT stuff - printers, etc. My career has been defined by being a jack of all trades.

BTW, I did the Microsoft MCSE back in the day. I did some Solaris way back when. I can get around a unix command line.

Anyway, after time off, my skills are woefully out of date but I'm a fast learner. I've got cloud nothing under my belt. I want to build a short list of certifications I can do. That is where I'm looking for suggestions.

I'm thinking CCNA - I never had formal networking training other than the TCP/IP class as part of the MCSE.

What about Microsoft? I'm finding their certification list incredibly large. I was thinking AZ-800/801 to refresh server skills. And maybe AZ-900 because I don't know anything about Azure. (Maybe just do the course to have the knowledge?)

Any others I should consider? Cloud stuff? AWS? Azure?

Thanks!

BTW, my goal: just getting back in the field. I don't mind going back to a good helpdesk or being a junior sys admin. But honestly, I'd rather work with servers or the network and not users. :-)

So I’ve been trying to shift my career into IT, specifically cybersecurity. All I keep reading is how experience trumps education/certs in most cases, which truly makes sense.

I’m currently working on my BS in IT and have Sec+, but I know I lack experience. I see a lot of people talk about side projects/labs to gain some real world knowledge. How do people even get started on that kind of stuff? Does anyone have any pointers on ways to get real world experience before I try to shift into that career field to make myself more marketable?

For reference, I’m currently active duty in the military and have roughly 2 years left before I plan to get out and start searching for IT/Cybersecurity positions. I would take entry level IT positions to gain that experience right now if I could, but obviously that’s not really an option for me for the next 2 years lol.

Thanks in advance for any insight/advice!

I start my IT Certificate course in about a month. I need to make sure my laptop is up to par for what I'd be doing. Class notes specify 16gb of ram. My question is, just strictly for class, what would I need? What level of CPU/GPU/RAM etc. Thanks.

Hello everyone! I've been applying to SOC Analyst/Security Analyst positions whenever I have the chance, however I'm unable to get a single call back for an interview.

Was wondering if I should attempt for junior sysadmin positions or helpdesk, and start the process all over.

Resume: https://imgur.com/a/ILJ9i08

My entire life I have messed around with computer hardware and software. I installed ubuntu on a chromebook just to play Minecraft during middle school classes. I am somewhat aware of the certifications and experience needed for this industry like CompTIA Network+ Security+ Server+ CySA+ and PenTest+ and internships but where do I start? For starters I come from a rather poor background so funding for these certs is a bit challenging and college was pretty much out of the question. I am taking the Google Cybersecurity classes through Coursea. I have a STRONG passion for all things technology and always found myself tinkering in someway whether it be my gaming computer, messing around w linux or putting friends computers together. Around 2016 I started messing around on the deeper levels of the internet and that taught me a good bit. I have a bit of experience using network protocol analyzers and python. Also forgive me if this post is all over the place I never come to reddit to ask questions. Moral of it all is I love computers software and networking but how do I monetize my skills and mindset in this industry that is absolutely brutal to "beginners" and entry level people?

Im going to university next year and Im deciding between these two degrees. Which one of these one be the best for a career in IT. The MIS degree is mostly 50% in business courses and has good amount of IT courses and is from a far more reputable university and I feel like it will help since its a more broad degree? The IT and Networking degree has far more technical courses, however is from a less known university and thus has a smaller alumni and connections. I live in Canada btw.

Currently, I'm attending college still as a sophmore in the field of computer science and want to put my skills to use. Is it possible for someone like me to land a job in IT or somewhere similar? The only languages I currently know is Python and C++.

So as the title suggests, I got a contract role working as a part of Executive support role. I previously had a role working in Desktop Support/Helpdesk for a financial/insurance advisory firm for about 5 years(before I got layed off at end of January). I worked with some executives beforehand but majority of those tickets went to the more senior technicians in my old role. I would be supporting the technicians that work directly with the executives in this role, but I anticipate that Id be working directly with the executives at some point. One thing to note is that I was told there were other IT teams in the company that I would be interacting with on a day to day basis. I would like to (eventually) move away from the support side to a more specialized role but I didnt have that interaction in my old role(since an msp handled the Networking and Security side of things in my old role). I would like to try and make this into a full time role for myself if possible. Any tips or advice anyone give? I would appreciate it.