Best paid jobs in IT sector?

Elessar

I'm currently considering some computer courses for college this year and I was wondering what the best paid business/IT jobs are?

I'd love to get into IT consultancy/support. Has anyone any experience in these sectors? What is the job like? What about pay? And as a consultant, specifically what qualifications do you need and what challenges does the job have (is it contract work, i.e. temporary with different businesses)?

Also, I know quite a few people getting into the IT area and I fear that within 5 years or so the sector will be flooded with professionals making it hard to get work. Anyone have any opinions on this?

Help is much appreciated.

WhiteWashMan

you can make money in any sector of IT, but what are oyu interested in doing?

support?
programming?
networking?
management?
projects?
development?
sales?

consultancy is well paid, but then again, the best consultants are the peopel with years of experience in the field, who know the realities of the jobs they consult on, and have a good network of contacts. you cant go to uni to be a consultant

however, any of the things listed above, can lead you there. in fact you can be a consultant in match sticks if you want, but you need to know a lot about match sticks!

so i guess, if you want realistic answers to some of your questions, it would be more helpful to know what you are interested in.


there are already too many IT prefessionals in the industry. the good news, is that 60 percent of them arent worth a toss. people with degrees who assume a piece of paper equals respect, or people who were experts in one job, go to somewhere else and realise that there are other systems out there. or just incompetent people.

one thing about all good IT people, regardless of what they do, is that they are very quick clear thinkers. but then again, this is a good trait for any business professional to have. just dont expect to get your dream job when you leave college.

Elessar

Thanks for the reply.

I would be interested in support, networking, IT management and perhaps projects(?). But I would need to know more about these areas first. Could you supply any info?

Idealy I'd love to be earning €100s per day by my thirties and driving a jaguar. I can dream

Are networking people paid well? I'm alread familiar with the concepts as well as general computer maintenance (I've had hands on experience at my work place[internet cafe]). I am trying to figure out if I would be waisting 4 years of my life studying Software Systems with business in NCI when I might do computer networks and systems in Colaiste Dhulaigh for 2 years and move on to another college to get a degree that way.

Or I could be waisting my time that way if work is scarce or pay is bad.

WhiteWashMan

ok, youre still a bit broad ranged there!

you are free to do what you want, but a good education never hurt anyone!

no one can tell you what you will be doing when you are 30. i am 30 in 10 days time, and i never thought id be in sales. until a year and half ago i was a hardware engineer. go figure!

you can earn good money doing anything. one of my friends is contracted to cornhill insurance and earns 115k a year. thats sterling.

i think the big divide is when it comes to being a programmer, or software developer type, and being a techie type (or you could be in management, but thats fairly generic)

i mean, do you want to program, debug, test and do all that fancy c++ stuff, or do you want to fix pc's, networks and servers?

try and talk to people who are already doing these jobs and figure out what sounds good to you. then try and get work experience doing some of the stuff that sounds good.

if you are serious, and dont fall into it by accident (a lot of people do, i did) the research some of the ideas that people give you.

people can give you a great view of what something can be like, but you may not agree after 4 years of doing support say. so if you want to do something, research it first.

you could also look at doing a Fas course in some stuff, or a generic computer apps course in DCU or something like that.

i mean, what do you want to do?

by the way, if you meet someone who is either a) happy in their career, or b) knows what they want to do even, congratulate them. they are one of very few

Elessar

Thinking about it, if I were to get into computers (which I probably will), I would want to fix pc's, networks and servers - is there a specific name for this area?. (Programming and all that C++ internal software stuff really bores me).

As I said I have a kind of "advanced" basic knowledge of that area, in fact I pretty much kept the internet cafe running while I worked there. So I think it would be easier for me to get into that area than most people.

I guess what I really want to know is would it be worth my while, pay wise? I think a good salary is what would really keep me going in that area.

zAbbo

dont be rude Baz, theres a good lad.

Elessar

WhiteWashMan check your PMs.

joePC

computer networks and systems in Colaiste Dhulaigh for 2 years

Dont do it, please dont, go to NUI, you'll thank me in the long run.....

Thanks joePC

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by joePC
Dont do it, please dont, go to NUI, you'll thank me in the long run.....

Thanks joePC

why?

give the man a reason

RicardoSmith

To get good pay in support/networking you'll need a rake of the major certifications an 5+ yrs experience. Its mainly the IT managers get the big bucks though. Unless your at that level you'll be on ok money, but nothing amazing. There is a lot of support guys out there too, so theres lots of competition. Programmers in general get paid better, earlier and theres more jobs available. Well until recently.

Agent Smith

I'm currently considering some computer courses for college this year and I was wondering what the best paid business/IT jobs are?

the guy payed to clean the office


lol

Töpher

Originally posted by agent smith
the guy payed to clean the office


lol

Doing UCD Comp Sci I'm beginning to think thats what I'll be doing in a few years...

Sposs

Forget about Money , pick a job that your intrested in then figure out how to make money doing it.

ambasite

Originally posted by Einstürzende
Doing UCD Comp Sci I'm beginning to think thats what I'll be doing in a few years...

.... or localization ....

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by ambasite
.... or localization ....

nice workmates though....;)

Ryaner

Support jobs range from the very low and easy jobs (like wat I currently do- ie. phone tech support for isp customers and no not eircom b4 neone says anything.) They bring little money and are good for collage students. The higher support jobs are the corp ones. I've seen support jobs for outlook and novell logins and 100euro an hour believe it or not. They are very far and few between and WILL drive u nuts very quickly.
Networking, fixing pc's etc. I'd suggest any computer course to get a degree and then while your there go do stuff like the A+ certs for hardware etc and for networks try the Cisco certs. They are quite hard. I'm looking to start them soon
Look at http://www.bct.ie - BCT Institute in Dublin. They offer the courses that should suit you.

rymus

Originally posted by Sposs
Forget about Money , pick a job that your intrested in then figure out how to make money doing it.

As someone who is currently working on switching career I'd have to say that this is the best advice ever!

Ohh and happy birthday WWM

WhiteWashMan

i agree, figure out what you like, and then see if you can get a job doing it, and then see about making money.

after a while in a job, its the challenge and love of the work that will keep you there. not the money. and job satusfaction is worth so much more than the cash, although, obviously its nice to get wads of cash every month

and thanks. i'll re read this in a week for my birthday happiness

luckat

The Sunday Business Post regularly runs supplements on the IT business (and other businesses) where they have tables of salaries in different types of work.

Elessar, I think you'd probably be best to do a general IT course first, in TCD or DCU or UCD if you're in Dublin, UL if you're in the west, UCC if you're in the south (others may correct me with more definite information); if you were doing a postgrad degree, Maynooth has an excellent one, though it's *very* intensive - basically a four-year degree done in one or two, can't remember which.

Please - can other people who are actually doing IT degrees now lay out what's available in the different courses for Elessar, and anyone else who has the same questions? In fact, if it might be possible to make a sticky with the answers, it could be a good resource.

When you're doing this degree, go to all the "milk rounds", when the big companies come around to show what kind of work they have to offer to the students, and talent-spot for the best students.

Go to all the career and IT shows in the RDS, the Mansion House and so on, meet people and talk to them.

In terms of what kind of work you want to do, you need to consider what kind of life you want to lead. You also need to think about the promotion prospects.

Fixing computers and networks may be nice work at this stage, and it may be a nice consultancy job now; but the promotion prospects are not good. Basically, you're the plumber.

(Not that I have anything against a plumber's job; one of the few millionaires I knew was a self-employed plumber, and he loved his work.)

Do you want to live in the country and work remotely? Do you love solving problems, fiddling around with code and maths? Then you might be a creative programmer - and you could make your fortune as a consultant.

Do you prefer the city, and are you great with people? Does it give you a buzz to get a group working on a job? Then you should be trying for a junior management job, and you should get a degree that combines IT and business.

You're going to change as you go through the degree in any case; not only that, but you're going to change during your working years. So the best thing you can do is get as good, and as broad, a degree as you can and listen carefully to what your heart says as you're studying.

ando

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
To get good pay in support/networking you'll need a rake of the major certifications an 5+ yrs experience. Its mainly the IT managers get the big bucks though

agreed, I'm working as a Network engineer now for 3 years supporting Windows and Mac OS, servers, workstations and anything to do with the network basically on aprox 80 sites around the country.

Went to college, got the certs, starting working, self studied while working, got the industry certs (mcse, network+ etc) but I'm still not on good money (might be good for most, but I should be on more for what I do). If things dont improve by my forth yrs work experiance, I'm off to look at something else.
Saying that, I don't hate my work, infact I do enjoy it quite a lot some times. I remember my first time going onto a site that was completely down and sorting it out for them in half a days work. It felt great walking out of that office and seeing all the ppl working again (*sorry*!! lol)

my technical director is doing pretty much the same as me but has 9yrs experiance. He's started a professional racing team that race cars and motorbikes and he lives in the Dublin mountains, has a jeep, truck and 3 other cars!!!! .... go figure

Elessar

Thanks for all the replies. I think at this stage, it's really that I'm not sure what I want to do.

I have a few other ideas in mind, besides computers, but if they don't work out I will probably get into IT. The things that worry me are the maths aspect of it (not too good at the ole' maths unfortunately) and job prospects.

Of course, I've always believed in doing what makes you happy. IT is something that would interest me, but not necessarily make me happy.

Anyway, if anyone has more info on the IT sector, please do share it here, I (or we) would be very interested and if there is enough, we could make a sticky.

neXus9

The IT industry at the moment is a disgrace. 2 yrs experience in networks, flash, programming, mcse qualified, multilingual, cisco certified etc.,...EUR22, 000.

Come on, that's woeful.

Labourers get more than that.

Ryaner

Originally posted by neXus9
The IT industry at the moment is a disgrace. 2 yrs experience in networks, flash, programming, mcse qualified, multilingual, cisco certified etc.,...EUR22, 000.

Come on, that's woeful.

Labourers get more than that.

I suggest you check the jobs section. cisco cert people are getting around 50,000 a year once they hit 5 yrs experience. By time ur at 3 your past the entry level stage for this kinda thing so go look at the job websites

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Ryaner
I suggest you check the jobs section. cisco cert people are getting around 50,000 a year once they hit 5 yrs experience. By time ur at 3 your past the entry level stage for this kinda thing so go look at the job websites

Which websites specifically? Personally I've found the Job websites pretty useless. Only about 40% of the jobs seem to be genuine and then of that 40% half are paying well below the odds. I've always get the majority of my work through word of mouth and contacts that I keep in touch with. In fact I read that 70% of all jobs are got that way and only a fraction are through the internet and job advertisments.

I also believe that if you are not being paid a decent rate in a job you should move on. I quit doing graphics a long time ago primarily because it was so hard to get decent money. Programming seems to have much better rates of pay and people seem to a lot more willing to pay you than they ever were when I did graphics. That said maybe I was crap at graphics. But honestly I think finding the right job, that pays decently has some element of luck to it.

Ryaner

www.monster.ie and www.jobs.ie are the sites I used to look at. I currently got a nice job for collage so I havent really looked lately. Most of the jobs are genuine. The problem I found was that most seem to get filled before they even get a chance to post them online. It has something to do with the HR dept and the way they work.
I agree that if your not gettin paid the money you should then move on. Programmers do get paid money, espec in the mission critical situations. Most of those people are more interested in getting the job done than how much it costs which is a good thing for us programmers Getting a steady job for programming is bit harder tho which why I think the network side of things (provided your good) is the way to go with programming.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Ryaner ...Most of the jobs are genuine...[/B]

How do you know that?

Ryaner

Because I've got calls from quite a few and I've also worked in a recruitment place on work experience and seen how it happens. They post and then make calls and fill the position before checking their emails which is why any jobs I'm really interested in I'll ring the person before emailing them.

RicardoSmith

In that case what you see on the website WERE genuine jobs. Which confirms what I have experienced that a lot of the jobs on websites, especially from agencies are not current vaccancies. Have to say my experience of those websites and agencies was pretty bad. Even though I do get work from them occasionaly. The majority of them seem to lack basic IT knowledge and post wildly inaccurate specs for the jobs they list. Unless a job ad is looking for something specific and even usual I don't bother applying to them anymore. They just seem to be CV havests IMO. Thankfully I don't need their "services" any more.

Mixie

Originally posted by joePC
Dont do it, please dont, go to NUI, you'll thank me in the long run.....

Thanks joePC

I spent a year in Colaiste Dhulaigh (CD), and just finished 3rd year in CSSE in NUIM. You won't learn an awful lot in CD in my opinion, at least not in first year anyway though it does have the possibility of linking to 2nd year DIT degree after the second year (NCVA level 3) of CD. That course to the best of my knowledge includes modules like accountancy as well as the computer science-y ones. Having not experienced the DIT course first hand and only heard about it from friends who availed of the link, I think I was wise leaving for NUIM when I did. If you have any questions either on CD/NUIM, or the courses - feel free to PM me for info.

Ryaner

Well I dont apply for most as I'm only in first year collage. I did help someone apply for diff job. Most company outsource the applications and put them on the website so just take loads of cv's. The specs tend to be fairly right but the ones that arent and obviously arent are the ones you dont bother with. I do think word of mouth is the best way to get the jobs if you can. Not all people are that lucky tho