Careers in PC awesomeness?

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aionwannabe

147 posts

Master Geek

#428660 19-Jan-2011 00:40

@joe90 WoW really? thats a shocker for me on the Ames so they had the full course offering from them (a diploma I believe)?
also if the tracks looking like that what else is there under the hardware wing?

@xpd I'm in Hamilton East, but I have transport to more than 3/4 of the city for after-school I think people are mostly weary on how young I look for a 17 year old.

@Jaxson+LookingUp thats my plan im doing statistics and English for sure id never fully pull out of core subjects and just do work experience, my school offers that but it seems for more trade minded people.

@richms yeah I recently deleted all my stupid escapades from the last few years of facebook but thanks for the heads up.

@kawaii those are some decent questions only one I can say for sure is that as i am right now I feel I'm not the programing type, ive tried for fun and it wasn't fun at all, more frustrating than anything

j0e90

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#428704 19-Jan-2011 09:23

aionwannabe: @joe90 WoW really? thats a shocker for me on the Ames so they had the full course offering from them (a diploma I believe)?
also if the tracks looking like that what else is there under the hardware wing?

Yup. AMES courses are just Microsoft/Comptia/CCNA cert mills. There are no shortcuts to a decent career ( in any discipline ). Go to Uni, go to a DECENT polytech and invest 2-3 years of your life ( at least ). Find a part time gig while there in whatever you are studying.

A diploma from a commercial trainer does not carry the same weight as a full Level 6 National Diploma from a tech.

Most 'diplomas' from the commercial operations are actually Level 5 NZQA at best. If they have an actual NZQA rating at all.

ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#428712 19-Jan-2011 09:44

IlDuce: I have numerous tertiary computer qualifications, and have not been able to find a job in that area. There does not seem to be many come up. Thats probably due to living in a small hick town. On the rare occasion one does come up, I get turned down without interview as they want experienced people. I suppose if I lived in a larger city, there would be many entry level positions, but here you'd be the only one, and expected to walk into the job and own it straight away.

Dick Smith and Harvey Norman computing have had jobs in last 4 months here, I applied for both, and rudely neither even gave me a "shot down" letter.

A friend of mine has even higher computing qualifications than me, and he has been out of work since 2008. Wasted talent really as he has some amazing skills I have not seen anyone else capable of, or able to persevere with.

What field of IT are you trying to find work in?

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almaznz

89 posts

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#428720 19-Jan-2011 10:06

i have to say i got pretty lucky in getting a job in IT straight after graduating from unitec. i went down the network / systems engineer path but dabbled in programming throughout my course as well.

i ended up studying for 4 years instead of three, just because i failed a couple papers and also i did a few extra papers that i thought were of interest.

I applied for nearly every entry level IT systems engineer position i could find, i got blown off by nearly all. i did get offered a job with Woosh at the call centre but for a number of reasons i didn't take that job. but i did get given the chance by my current employer and its been really great being able to share and gain knowledge from a great group of individuals that i work with.

I definatley recommend going to a Tech. and deciding on what you want to do once you get out of there. i found that in getting my job there was a lot of emphasis put on personality as well as having the technical ability and luckily for me i did ok.

Geese

1028 posts

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#428763 19-Jan-2011 11:24

ScottStevensNZ: What field of IT are you trying to find work in??

Any. I didn't clarify before that my current problem of not being able to get a job, applies to ALL job areas I apply for, not just IT. I've got a "flippin burgers" style job, that I have had for 3 years, its been flexible and great while I have been studying, but really I'm wasting my life away doing that now that my studies have finished. All I am able to do is survive, I will never be able to get ahead, never be able to aspire to do anything.

I've applied for 6 real vacancies this week, and turned down on 2 by the next day without interview. In combined 11 months or so, I have had ONE (1) job interview in over 100 applications. I've long suspected my CV is to blame, and it has been redone twice by CV writers, no improvement. There are no gaps in my CV, except where it can be seen I have been studying, and in those situations I have had 5 figures saved in my bank account from previous work, so I have not needed to work, so I can concentrate on my studies.

So now finally I am broke, and cannot even seem to get a job interview, let alone the job.

Ragnor

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#428769 19-Jan-2011 11:38

IlDuce:

Any. I didn't clarify before that my current problem of not being able to get a job, applies to ALL job areas I apply for, not just IT. I've got a "flippin burgers" style job, that I have had for 3 years, its been flexible and great while I have been studying, but really I'm wasting my life away doing that now that my studies have finished. All I am able to do is survive, I will never be able to get ahead, never be able to aspire to do anything.

Where do you live / what region is this?

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ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#428770 19-Jan-2011 11:44

IlDuce:
ScottStevensNZ: What field of IT are you trying to find work in??

Any. I didn't clarify before that my current problem of not being able to get a job, applies to ALL job areas I apply for, not just IT. I've got a "flippin burgers" style job, that I have had for 3 years, its been flexible and great while I have been studying, but really I'm wasting my life away doing that now that my studies have finished. All I am able to do is survive, I will never be able to get ahead, never be able to aspire to do anything.

I've applied for 6 real vacancies this week, and turned down on 2 by the next day without interview. In combined 11 months or so, I have had ONE (1) job interview in over 100 applications. I've long suspected my CV is to blame, and it has been redone twice by CV writers, no improvement. There are no gaps in my CV, except where it can be seen I have been studying, and in those situations I have had 5 figures saved in my bank account from previous work, so I have not needed to work, so I can concentrate on my studies.

So now finally I am broke, and cannot even seem to get a job interview, let alone the job.

If I can ask, what has your career path been so far and what IT qualifications do you have (followed by where do you live)? IT has been hit by the recession, though only certain parts (project management has been one)

Geese

1028 posts

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#428813 19-Jan-2011 13:32

ScottStevensNZ: If I can ask, what has your career path been so far and what IT qualifications do you have (followed by where do you live)? IT has been hit by the recession, though only certain parts (project management has been one)?

No career path. Left school, went to uni, finished uni, took the first job that came along, kept trying to get decent jobs, decided that my inability to get a decent job was because uni is more academic and lab work and not "real life everyday job" type skills, so did a stack of more "hands on" diplomas.

Right now I'm concentrating on simply just getting a job, and when I get myself to the position I was before all this silly studying, THEN I will focus on a career.

I only have 2 IT qualifications, which are National Certificate in Computing, and Diploma in Information and Communication technology.

I live in Timaru, hyuck. South Canterbury.

Lias

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#428934 19-Jan-2011 19:09

@xpd I'm in Hamilton East, but I have transport to more than 3/4 of the city for after-school I think people are mostly weary on how young I look for a 17 year old.

Send me a PM.. I'm also from Hamilton and might be able to get you some unpaid work experience if nothing else.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

nick496

52 posts

Master Geek

#428997 19-Jan-2011 22:06

Sorry to butt in, but this is all very interesting for me. I'm in my final year of university, and wondering what kind of job I'd need to get to work my way up into some kind of networking job. I've figured out now that my university degree (at this stage at least) will barely give me a hand in landing a job, so I figured I'd need to get some experience this year, while being paid isn't exactly a super-high priority (Yay, being a student).

And I've sent you a PM Lias as I'm in Hamilton also.

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ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

Master Geek

#429192 20-Jan-2011 14:05

IlDuce:
ScottStevensNZ: If I can ask, what has your career path been so far and what IT qualifications do you have (followed by where do you live)? IT has been hit by the recession, though only certain parts (project management has been one)?

No career path. Left school, went to uni, finished uni, took the first job that came along, kept trying to get decent jobs, decided that my inability to get a decent job was because uni is more academic and lab work and not "real life everyday job" type skills, so did a stack of more "hands on" diplomas.

Right now I'm concentrating on simply just getting a job, and when I get myself to the position I was before all this silly studying, THEN I will focus on a career.

I only have 2 IT qualifications, which are National Certificate in Computing, and Diploma in Information and Communication technology.

I live in Timaru, hyuck. South Canterbury.

The career path I took was: graduate with BSc in Info Systems in 1999 (I think) and then graduate with a post grad diploma in 2000. I was lucky to get a dev job at Massey when I graduated which gave me a foot in the door (ASP 3.0 in IIS - thats how old I am). After that I moved to wellywood and worked for MoJ for 4 years as a developer in JSP. I moved into testing shortly after that by accident really - but once you're in you're never out. over the last 4-5 years I've moved into the technical testing area - specifically performance testing which I have to admit I really enjoy. Especially as it is a really niche market. Getting that first job is the hardest so I think there is always the issue of "where do I want to go" and the ability to be flexible enough with it. If someone is graduating as wants to be a project manager or senior sys admin from the get go, then they are going to be sorely dissapointed. Being the mantaince programmer sucks, so does being the systems gopher, but its where most of us start. The pay initially will not be great but its a start.

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dpw

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#429197 20-Jan-2011 14:15

I already had a bachelor degree and postgrad diploma by the time I considered getting into IT professionally. At the time the quickest way for me to get a piece of paper was to do a course at Polytech. All up I did 2 years to gain a Bachelor of Information Technology degree. The best bit for me was the final year project we all had to do. It was very much a foot in the door! I got offered a fixed term contract where I did my project work but ended up taking a full time dev role elsewhere.

I'm not sure if all Polytech offer a bachelor degree in IT - I don't even know if those who do offer it include a practical project work in it. From my experience that is an invaluable component which, if done well, can pretty much guarantee you a foot in the door.

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almaznz

89 posts

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#429200 20-Jan-2011 14:19

I'm not sure if all Polytech offer a bachelor degree in IT - I don't even know if those who do offer it include a practical project work in it. From my experience that is an invaluable component which, if done well, can pretty much guarantee you a foot in the door.

I went to unitec, and they still have the final semester project, i ended up doing a research project and not a industry based one, but i know a lot of the people that did the industry ones are working for who they did the project for

dpw

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#429201 20-Jan-2011 14:23

almaznz:
I'm not sure if all Polytech offer a bachelor degree in IT - I don't even know if those who do offer it include a practical project work in it. From my experience that is an invaluable component which, if done well, can pretty much guarantee you a foot in the door.

I went to unitec, and they still have the final semester project, i ended up doing a research project and not a industry based one, but i know a lot of the people that did the industry ones are working for who they did the project for

It's a win/win for everyone - industry gets a free trial period, student gets workplace experience and a chance to prove themselves!

Android user, software developer, a semi-typical (not a gamer) geek, and a Bernese Mountain Dog nut!

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