Career change to IT

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K8Toledo

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#2956156 18-Aug-2022 16:06

timmmay:

Contracting is for people with a lot of experience, rather than beginners. I don't know if $90K is achievable or not, you'd best look at industry salary surveys for that. A good experienced cloud engineer say 3 years experience with a technical background, who's proven themselves effective, could be up to $150K or maybe more. We can't find enough people to hire in cloud who have any experience, we're hiring people experienced with IT from other areas of IT and supporting their training into cloud. For someone new you really would need the industry certifications to get in, but once you have them, show a willingness to learn and improve including on your own time, have good communications skills, and people like you, you'd do fine.

Not true IME. The second ever job had in IT was working for Datacom as contract Field Engineer.

Sure I was new to the industry but not new to IT. They hired me straight after the interview.

I learned a lot on the job too at Datcom thanks to well written tech docs..

Supermarket scanner/scales, POS equipment, NZPost cheque readers.... I'd never touched that stuff before, but I could read technical documentation.

lookout

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#2956407 18-Aug-2022 20:48

Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. A lot to ponder!

lookout

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#2956422 18-Aug-2022 21:34

gzt:
The other consideration is salary. I'm not sure I could afford to drop down to a entry level help desk salary from my current teaching pay which is 90k

Just to be clear I'm not immediately aware of an opportunity but - what $ do you need on day 1 to meet your financial commitments? - how long are you comfortable taking to get back to 90k from there?

That's a tricky one. If I changed jobs right now, no less than 90k (with young kids and a mortgage to consider). However, next year I would be in a better position to take a lower salary once we are a double income household again. So one option is to perhaps start on some certs now while I am still in my current job.

Mod Edit MM - sorry messed up the formatting by editing this instead of quoting it.

gehenna

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#2956469 19-Aug-2022 08:31

MikeB4:

You could look at starting as an IT trainer in a larger organisation.

Depends on the reasons for leaving teaching. End users are just as dumb as teenagers lol

gehenna

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#2956470 19-Aug-2022 08:36

lookout:

So one option is to perhaps start on some certs now while I am still in my current job.

I've always found certs a bit "cart before horse". I've used them as a way to shore up knowledge and fill gaps, on things i've already been doing either in home lab or at work. Starting with a cert but having not much other contextual knowledge of the industry might be difficult for you, it certainly was for me in the early days. If it were me I'd still start with a homelab that I used to set things up that I know are in use in most businesses - 365, AD, DNS, DHCP, RBAC etc, etc.

timmmay

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#2956476 19-Aug-2022 08:47

I found certs a great way to change from solution architect to cloud architect, though I did already have 20 odd years of IT commercial experience. I got AWS professional certifications, that got me into the door for a cloud role.

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Shindig

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#2956503 19-Aug-2022 10:36

On the hunt for the next contract opportunity currently, there are heap of business analysts roles and postings that require integration skills (micro services, APIs). I would look at the future skills requirements, where is IT heading from a demand perspective.

The little things make the biggest difference.

MikeAqua

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#2956507 19-Aug-2022 10:51

During my career (presumably as some sort of Karmic punishment) I've experienced several ERP system roll outs.

There is always a person who is responsible for the human side of the role out - training, user testing and within team comms.

An ex-teacher would have transferable skills, and that might be a good entry point into the IT system.

Mike

CokemonZ

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#2956535 19-Aug-2022 11:46

MikeAqua:

During my career (presumably as some sort of Karmic punishment) I've experienced several ERP system roll outs.

There is always a person who is responsible for the human side of the role out - training, user testing and within team comms.

An ex-teacher would have transferable skills, and that might be a good entry point into the IT system.

Same :)

I have seen trainers move into Business Analysis, Project Management and Consulting roles.

Decent trainers - especially if you have a level of product specialisation - can do very well.

Partner up with the vendor of the software, and the implementors as well - you'll never be dry of work.

gehenna

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#2956654 19-Aug-2022 17:21

timmmay:

I found certs a great way to change from solution architect to cloud architect, though I did already have 20 odd years of IT commercial experience. I got AWS professional certifications, that got me into the door for a cloud role.

Yeah I'm certainly not knocking certs, just questioning the timing of them. You've gone from expert to super expert through your certs, my experience is it's just harder to latch on to the theory and concepts of certs until you've had some hands on experience first.

timmmay

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#2956714 19-Aug-2022 18:25

gehenna:

Yeah I'm certainly not knocking certs, just questioning the timing of them. You've gone from expert to super expert through your certs, my experience is it's just harder to latch on to the theory and concepts of certs until you've had some hands on experience first.

I think I'm going to put "super expert" on my business cards! ;)

I went from no knowledge about cloud to having a good base knowledge with certs, then I went from competent to super expert with experience.

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johna8

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#2960976 29-Aug-2022 20:45

My personal 2 cents - and everyone will have a different view.

Microsoft given they will go live in Auckland next year - will open up the canvas for more opportunities based on Azure workloads locally.

You can view a lot of the Microsoft teach/learning modules - as well as every quarter they offer you free Microsoft certification for the foundational courses (once you sit on the online course/modules you will receive a voucher to sit the official exam) - see here for example: Microsoft Virtual Training Days

Another link to see the schedule: Microsoft Virtual Training Days

If you look around/search they do have NZ time slots as well - or you can even do it after hours depending on your preference/time zone.

Happy to try help with queries - done it myself many years ago but had the opportunity when I was 18.

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