Transitioning to an ICT career

cestmoi2

I'm hoping to make a change from my current career in education to something in the tech field. I appreciate that "something in the tech field" is incredibly vague, but I love learning about technology and it's something that I would enjoy. Does anyone have any advice on where to start? I hope to do a Springboard course (it would have to be distance learning) but I don't really know where to start. I'd appreciate any guidance.

Stheno

You're right it is incredibly vague.

Have you any idea of an area that interests you?

cestmoi2

Stheno wrote: »

You're right it is incredibly vague.

Have you any idea of an area that interests you?

Thanks for your reply. Interested in instructional design and ICT for education!

Stheno

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Interested in instructional design and ICT for education!

Instructional design imo is not IT specific it's more training related. There are plenty of courses on it.

You could then see what the jobs market is like also I know a few Id's having worked in the field in the past

cestmoi2

Stheno wrote: »

Instructional design imo is not IT specific it's more training related.

Thank you. I'm open to anything. There's a Cert in computer programming (lever 8) on Springboard, would this be worth doing?

Stheno

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thank you. I'm open to anything. There's a Cert in computer programming (lever 8) on Springboard, would this be worth doing?

Ok step back a minute and answer the following:

1. Why do you want to work in IT?
2. What about working in IT appeals to you?
3. Are you willing to accept that you will need to constantly learn and possibly update qualifications as part of your job?

IT is an extremely diverse discipline you have development, project and programme management, service, process and governance management, infrastructure, cloud and apps management, relationship management, strategy, architecture and continual improvement to name a few areas.

You could work in a 9-5 role or one where you are on call, or on a project based role with stressful deadlines.

I've worked in IT over 20 years and never written a line of code. Not a year has gone by without exams or study, one year I had 15 exams.

You need to do a bit of research about IT before deciding a coding course is what you need to do

The Specialist

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thank you. I'm open to anything. There's a Cert in computer programming (lever 8) on Springboard, would this be worth doing?

Programming is a hard road and a hard career to be honest, you’d want to be 100% sure it’s something to pursue before you jump in.

cestmoi2

Thank you all so much. It's very much appreciated. I really want to learn more about ICT areas but I really don't know how to. I have been looking at a few online courses (Cloud computing, etc) so I suppose I'll work from there.

have a look at edx or on any of the daily courses that come into bargain alerts for online courses, there would be a good range of the various IT flavours available.

i did a level 8 springboard in the evenings in computer programming to build on my business degree, but id always gravitated to expert user/helpdesk/reporting and basic coding in my roles before i made that decision so it didnt come from nowhere all of a sudden

now that im qualified and working in an aligned role, id underline what's been said above- "IT" doesnt mean anything. ive done some pretty basic development but if im honest nothing i couldnt have done before.

my actual work now that i work in IT has covered helpdesk management, wrangling actual developers and working with end users to manage projects. self learning is continuous and the courses that you will do to further your actual usefulness coming to the gig late (imo) are more along the lines of ITIL and project management.

this is to ignore the other half of IT which is the networks and infrastructure and kit end, which may be what interests you. or the current hot one, data analytics.

i guess what im saying is that id definitely encourage you to explore further where your interests lie but at the moment it seems a bit vague and youd definitely want to narrow down (or at least think about your end goals) before committing to a springboard level 8.

arccosh

Stheno wrote: »

I've worked in IT over 20 years and never written a line of code.

Cool... can I ask in what area? If networking, do you see the rise of JSON, Python with SDN forcing you down at least some code path?

Stheno

arccosh wrote: »

Cool... can I ask in what area? If networking, do you see the rise of JSON, Python with SDN forcing you down at least some code path?

Service management - Itil/Devops/governance

No chance of me going down a code path

Stheno

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thank you all so much. It's very much appreciated. I really want to learn more about ICT areas but I really don't know how to. I have been looking at a few online courses (Cloud computing, etc) so I suppose I'll work from there.

You could do worse than answer the questions i asked

Slydice

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Interested in instructional design and ICT for education!

Are you looking to build and design stuff for education then?
eLearning is a big deal at the moment.
No-one knows the future but I can't imagine it disappearing anytime soon.

Probably a design based course would be useful then.
Do you have any basics in IT?
The web is currently the area where a lot of educational material is coming.

So a basic intro would probably be in web design and user experience (which you might see written as UX).

I see you mentioned Cloud Computing but that might be a side track.
Cloud Computing is a field in itself and there's lots of work there too.

Think of a house though. Cloud Computing would be like learning how to do the blockwork and foundations .. and then make loads of copies of that house as and when they are needed.
But.. You want to put educational books out on the table so you'll be wanting to focus on how to make the book (web dev) and how to make it super easy to read and understand (UX)

MollyZ

I worked in education for 15 years and then switched to IT. I started out doing a HDip in Computing part time in ITB. Got my first IT job three years ago working in networks/security and I love it. Many people around me thought I was nuts, but I'm really glad I followed my heart and took the plunge. So I'd say go for it, if you think you're going to like it. I'd echo what others have said about have to continually learn and study and do exams, but if you enjoy learning, that's a bonus. Best of luck to you.

cestmoi2

Slydice wrote: »

Are you looking to build and design stuff for education then?
eLearning is a big deal at the moment.
No-one knows the future but I can't imagine it disappearing anytime soon.

Probably a design based course would be useful then.
Do you have any basics in IT?
The web is currently the area where a lot of educational material is coming.

So a basic intro would probably be in web design and user experience (which you might see written as UX).

I see you mentioned Cloud Computing but that might be a side track.
Cloud Computing is a field in itself and there's lots of work there too.

Think of a house though. Cloud Computing would be like learning how to do the blockwork and foundations .. and then make loads of copies of that house as and when they are needed.
But.. You want to put educational books out on the table so you'll be wanting to focus on how to make the book (web dev) and how to make it super easy to read and understand (UX)

Thank you very much. Very helpful. I'd be interested in design, yes. Would anyone know of any design or web development course?

Tom Dunne

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Would anyone know of any design or web development course?

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Does anyone have any advice on where to start? I hope to do a Springboard course

Just throwing something out here, have you considered starting at the Springboard website?

Slydice

I googled Springboard and think I've found the website. It has an ICT section so I went in there. There was a refine button so I refined for the word 'Web'. A few courses came up around Dublin, Maynooth and Waterford. They are different by giving different qualifications and also by being part time or full time.

Any of those locations work? Does full time or part time matter?
Does Springboard cost money? If it does.. that might limit the choice.

OMM 0000

I'm in management but I'm hands on with the programming team.

I spent all weekend programming.

I have to continuously learn even after 20+ years experience and a masters in computer science. I cannot emphasise continuously learn enough. Programming moves so fast and is such a huge field that I have to study something every day. When I go on holidays I bring a programming book. When I'm on the train I bring a programming book.

If you don't enjoy programming (I enjoy programming) you will find life as a programmer hell.

It's also more likely than not that you will be bad at it.

Web development is probably the most fast pace area in IT. Be prepared for frustration when the framework you finally got your head around is now being phased out for something else. This will mean nothing to you, but here's a classic example. We're all using Grunt! I learn Grunt. No! We're all using Gulp now! I learn Gulp. No!! We're all using Webpack now! I learn Webpack. Wait!! Let's use Parcel!

So it's not just that you're learning things you can build on in the future. A lot of your learning is things you have to throw away.

QA is a decent enough position. It's thankless. And frustrating. Release is delayed because of bugs you found? That's somehow your fault. Release goes out in time but the customer finds the bugs? Well that's your fault too. BUT QA has much less learning than programming, and if you're good at it you can do it in your sleep. Automated testing is a very good job.

If you do go down the design route, you could become a UI/UX person. You would use something like Sketch to design websites. Then a programmer would take your design and implement it. This is a nice job. I have a few of these people in my office and they're the happiest. For this job you can get away with Sketch, and basic HTML/CSS. You could just learn Bootstrap and do everything with that.

trihead

Re Design / UX route - this might be useful (as a start)

https://springboardcourses.ie/details/7051

AndrewJRenko

Are there any opportunities to get ICT experience in your current job? Could you get involved in user training, or leading the implementation of an application within part of your organisation or writing content for a new website? Will your current employer support any training that you want to do?

Tom Dunne

Slydice wrote: »

Does Springboard cost money? If it does.. that might limit the choice.

Literally, from the front page of the Springboard site:

The springboard+ upskilling initiative in higher education offers free courses at certificate, degree and masters level leading to qualifications in areas where there are employment opportunities in the economy.

Slydice

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Literally, from the front page of the Springboard site:

More on that website

So it only costs for employed people:
https://springboardcourses.ie/faq

Am I liable for any costs associated with participating on a Springboard+ course?
A 10% course fee contribution for Level 7, 8, and 9 courses is applicable for employed participants. This is payable directly to the provider. There are no tuition fees for DEASP customers or Returners but any subsequent costs such as travel and course materials must be borne by the participant. All Level 6 programmes are free to all participants.

Anyone have any practical experience or know if there are other costs?

cestmoi2

OMM 0000 wrote: »

I'm in management but I'm hands on with the programming team.

I spent all weekend programming.

I have to continuously learn even after 20+ years experience and a masters in computer science. I cannot emphasise continuously learn enough. Programming moves so fast and is such a huge field that I have to study something every day. When I go on holidays I bring a programming book. When I'm on the train I bring a programming book.

If you don't enjoy programming (I enjoy programming) you will find life as a programmer hell.

It's also more likely than not that you will be bad at it.

Web development is probably the most fast pace area in IT. Be prepared for frustration when the framework you finally got your head around is now being phased out for something else. This will mean nothing to you, but here's a classic example. We're all using Grunt! I learn Grunt. No! We're all using Gulp now! I learn Gulp. No!! We're all using Webpack now! I learn Webpack. Wait!! Let's use Parcel!

So it's not just that you're learning things you can build on in the future. A lot of your learning is things you have to throw away.

QA is a decent enough position. It's thankless. And frustrating. Release is delayed because of bugs you found? That's somehow your fault. Release goes out in time but the customer finds the bugs? Well that's your fault too. BUT QA has much less learning than programming, and if you're good at it you can do it in your sleep. Automated testing is a very good job.

If you do go down the design route, you could become a UI/UX person. You would use something like Sketch to design websites. Then a programmer would take your design and implement it. This is a nice job. I have a few of these people in my office and they're the happiest. For this job you can get away with Sketch, and basic HTML/CSS. You could just learn Bootstrap and do everything with that.

Thanks so much for that..... food for thought. I've had a look at Bootstrap website. Would learning off the tools on website be a good basis here?

cestmoi2

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Are there any opportunities to get ICT experience in your current job? Could you get involved in user training, or leading the implementation of an application within part of your organisation or writing content for a new website? Will your current employer support any training that you want to do?

I do all the ICT stuff as it is and really enjoy it. I want to fully focus on that. I run the website, create the online prospectus, online videos, etc. Unsure where to go from here.

beauf

cestmoi2 wrote: »

I'm hoping to make a change from my current career in education to something in the tech field. I appreciate that "something in the tech field" is incredibly vague, but I love learning about technology and it's something that I would enjoy. Does anyone have any advice on where to start? I hope to do a Springboard course (it would have to be distance learning) but I don't really know where to start. I'd appreciate any guidance.

Do lots of courses perhaps something general like a diploma.

Though if you were genuinely interested in IT you'd already have done some projects in your own time.

cestmoi2

beauf wrote: »

Do lots of courses perhaps something general like a diploma.

Though if you were genuinely interested in IT you'd already have done some projects in your own time.

Thank you. I've completed around 23 courses relating to ICT in education.

beauf

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thank you. I've completed around 23 courses relating to ICT in education.

How have you applied this IT knowledge in real world projects. Which will give some indication of which part of IT you prefer.

OMM 0000

cestmoi2 wrote: »

Thanks so much for that..... food for thought. I've had a look at Bootstrap website. Would learning off the tools on website be a good basis here?

No I would learn HTML first.

Then learn CSS.

Then you can look at Bootstrap.