Comp. Technician Job Prospects

Gordo84

I Just finished a months PC Repair work experience today having recently obtained my Comptia A+ Certification and am on the look out for PC Repair/ Building type work.

I'm slightly worried though as a friend who once worked for Gateway as a PC Technician and was layed off when Gateway closed down know longer works in the IT industry due to finding it extremely difficult to find work related to his skills. He didn't want to take on a crappy tech support job having spent 2 years working as a field service technician but these jobs were the only job offers he received so he became alienated and left the IT industry.

I am wondering if Field Technician work is scarce or if anyone can point me to Companies who might be interested in hiring a Technician with only 1 months hands on experience. If any of you guys have been in a similiar situation to myself i would be interested to hear what type of jobs you applied for and also what type of IT related work you have found with the A+ Qualification.

Cheers, Gordon.

HashSlinging

Seems to be picking up, if you dont get something here, go to the uk! better pay and plenty of jobs. make sure you've got a full driving licence. and get a few MCP's and the network+ exams to go with the cert.

Cake Fiend

It really depends on where you are. In Dublin, I gather work is scarce on the ground. The A+ isn't worth dick on its own, any monkey can get one - you'll have to show that you have more skill/experience/interest/whatever than the next chap (backing up your A+ with practical experience [chicken and egg, eh?] and related certs [MCPs, N+, etc]) to be in with a good chance. If you're outside Dublin you could think about doing the whole field technician thing on your own - either as a nixer or by registering a company name, sticking ads in the golden pages, etc. A mate of mine is making a living doing this, and all he has to his name is his A+ (which he failed the first time!). London could be a good place to try something like this as well. One way or another, you'd be hard pressed to find a sub-contract-type technical solutions company who'd take on someone with nothing but an A+.

Gordo84

Yeah, I'm beginning to think that the A+ is a bit of a joke to be honest. The exam isn't difficult and many of the questions don't relate to real world scenarios. The A+ doesn't prepare you for the real world. Only hands on Troubleshooting experience can make u a competent Technician.

I'll keep on looking for work and am going to start preparing for my Network + which seems to be gaining popularity with employers. Unfortunately it seems that most IT employers want trained staff but if nobody is willing to employ an entry level technician with minimum experience how do you get any real world experience.

Funny enough, when i was willing to work for free i had quite a few offers of work. Infact after my 1 months work experience was up i was told i could stay on for as long as i wanted helping the Technician once i worked for free. I would have done it out of desperation to gain experience but i couldn't survive on the dole money with bills etc.

RicardoSmith

Its seems that many places aren't willing to train staff anymore. They want a person who has exactly the skills and experience and start working at 150% from the moment they walk in the door. Of course they want to pay as little as possible and "do whatever is required to get the job done". Translation: work as many extra hours for free as is physically possible. Of course if you do this, you end up working all the time and never have a chance to keep your skillset uptodate. So in 2 years they'll replace you will someone out of college who'll work for for less money than you to get the experience, they'll have the latest certification and you won't.

Not all places are like this and personally I think you are better waiting for the right job in the right company than being miserable in the wrong place. If you are working for free then thats just completely wrong and the company will never have respect for it staff, no matter how long you are there.

If you can't get an IT job, get a different job, that pays the same or more, but keep working on your certs, and skills and when the right job comes up you'll be ready. If you stay in the crap job, you'll never be ready, as you'll never have time.

Hobbes

Most exams out there do not use real world situations. They are to prove that you have an overall general knowledge of your field.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Hobbes
Most exams out there do not use real world situations. They are to prove that you have an overall general knowledge of your field.

That maybe was the intention. Many of the computer exams I've seen, ask questions that you'd never need to know in the real world, or ask question that do not have clear "right" answer., then theres all the trick questions.

Gordo84

Unfortunately for me, i naively left a half decent Job to do the FAS A+ thinking that i would gain the relevant hands on training within the course. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. My Teacher was a lazy B*****D who wasn't bothered teaching the class hence the 60% failure rate within the class.

Guys and girls, you can study the A+ at home and quite easily pass it if you put a bit of effort in. Don't do it with FAS. The course is too relaxed with little in the way of real world training. Anybody can study a book and answer questions in an exam but i left the course without really being shown the nuts and bolts of troubleshooting hardware problems on a PC.

Having been offered a place on the following FAS Network+ course i turned it down while half the sheep in the class including those that failed the A+ jumped at the chance. These idiots will probably fail the Net+ as well due mainly to the relaxed attitude of the Teacher and the lack of hands on training within the course.

It says everything about the attitude of FAS when people who have failed the A+ are given the opportunity to do the Net+.

RicardoSmith

The FAS courses

RicardoSmith

Pity