Getting started in IT

soups05

Hi all, inspired by a thread in AH I figured I would seek advice here. That thread was about office workers but then moved to mostly IT jobs. Things like 30-35 K a year starting salary etc.
I have just completed my degree, got a 2.1 in System Administration. buoyed up with lecturers giving wages similar to above I set out to find a job.

First problem was all the jobs are in Dublin :mad: but fair enough I guess, big city commute for me then. But then the real problem starts, I expected to start at the "bottom" by working the hell desk, whoops, i mean help desk

But every jobs I see requires at least one years experience. I seen an entry level job wanting 3 years. (entry level was their description)

I am almost 47, not a young fella who never had a job, so any advice on how to break into the industry while earning a wage I can live on?

oh, one job in the north had a 14,999 starting wage, that's below minimum wage ffs. where are all these companies crying out for workers lol.

any tips would be great.

OMM 0000

Job specs are often aspirational. Apply for the entry level jobs. You have nothing to lose.

Are there are projects you could do at home which could impress an employer? Off the top of my head, something like building a mesh network, running your own Tor exit node, etc.

theteal

You might get a programming job starting at that, I imagine helpdesk would be closer to 25k although my experience is confined to London where helpdesk starters can be on <18k.

As for how to get that first break, I got lucky on the jobcentre site over here, small 2 man company that was close to where I was living. I wasn't having much luck getting interviews in large companies in the city because of no experience at the time

soups05

At the moment I have a virtual Lan set-up for a small company, web server, email, DB etc. its a second version of a project i had done for final year. I scrapped it and started again to keep myself busy and keep my hand in so to speak.

aspirational? as in they are asking for more than they expect to get? interesting idea, I had not thought of that. I applied to a few anyway more out of hope that they may have something going with no experience. But I think I will be applying for a lot more now lol. cheers.

OMM 0000

> aspirational? as in they are asking for more than they expect to get? interesting idea, I had not thought of that.

I see it all the time. It's what they are hoping for, but they often need to compromise.

islander222

Agree with the aspirational comments above. I see it first hand that the candidate that gets hired very very rarely meets even 50% of the spec..

My advice would be to aim for service desk role to start out with (looking back for myself I would have benefited from the same advice). It will give a very good broad base foundation then work up quickly from there... and don't discount your past experience no matter how irrelevant you might think it is. Employers are looking at the person/character skills also.

soups05

My previous exp includes 20 years in retail, so my customer service skills give me a leg up on the help desk role. Plus I love helping people and you cannot pay enough to replace job satisfaction like that. naive i am sure lol.