Career change to IT

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#299175 17-Aug-2022 21:30

Kia ora GZ, apologies if this is the wrong forum.

I’m a teacher thinking about a career change to IT. I’m not sure where I should start and not familiar with what is out there career-wise.

I have always led IT in the schools I have worked at and currently do all the systems admin / support type stuff. So I am experienced with:

- Microsoft 365 / Office 365 admin
- Azure and a little bit of AD
- Google admin (enterprise/education)
- MDMs (Meraki and Mosyle mainly)
- A little basic networking admin and hardware

I’m also a hobbyist so I’m comfortable building / repairing PCs. Fixing things. Figuring out how stuff works.

I guess my question is where do I start? I’m a quick learner and pretty good at figuring things out.

Do I need to get some certificates or is my experience enough to get me in the door? I am hoping the teaching experience could count for something too.

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.

Thanks in advance!

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#2955793 17-Aug-2022 21:54

You'd probably be useful to a managed services company, especially if they have customers in education. What's your location?

lookout

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#2955794 17-Aug-2022 22:00

gehenna:

You'd probably be useful to a managed services company, especially if they have customers in education. What's your location?

Thanks. That sounds promising. Companies like New Era or TTS?

I am based in Auckland.

lxsw20

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#2955796 17-Aug-2022 22:02

Pay is what traps most people in a career as they work their way up and then have to start at the bottom again. I wouldn't expect to be starting on 90k or close even with the experience you've got.

Something you could maybe consider is a New Era/ Cyclone type company where you might be able to do a hybrid PLD/IT type role if that was of interest.

K8Toledo

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#2955812 17-Aug-2022 22:47

I started with a 3mth contract at Cyclone Computers replacing/decomming AUT end of lease equipment.

My knowledge level then would be similar to yours. That was 2007.

Networking is still my weakness.

pih

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#2955813 17-Aug-2022 22:49

See if you can get some accreditation for the skills that you have, or at least objectively find out how much you really know. Try something like Pluralsight's Skill IQ tests to gauge your skills (free trial, CC required), or one of the various trial exams available from various providers. This will identify areas of knowledge you might need to focus on for a particular line of work.

[Microsoft Learn](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/) is a great resource for free online training and it can lead on to certification if you choose to go down that path.

Couple the above with a free trial Azure subscription and play with stuff to learn about DevOps: you might be able to get a junior IT/cloud admin or devops role if you're comfortable managing a range of Azure resources.

Yep changing careers can be hard at first and you may have to take a bit of a pay cut, but there are definitely opportunities for growth and plenty of vacancies.

Good luck!

timmmay

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#2955836 18-Aug-2022 07:15

Get yourself some industry certifications. Azure and AWS are biggest, Google is worth doing as it's up and coming, and they're all opening NZ data centers. Once you're certified you can apply for grad type roles, large companies will probably be better than small as they can absorb the effort to get you up to speed. Ideally you want more than the basic certificate - if you were doing AWS (as an example) you might want one or two associate certs, and if you want to stand out then a specialty or professional cert. However, the shortage of people in the industry is such that basic certs and enthusiasm might get you an IT job. Go straight for cloud, don't bother with anything else IMHO, demand for people is way outstripping supply.

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#2955891 18-Aug-2022 09:28

One of the main strengths required in IT regardless of role (to some extent) is communication. Coming from a teaching background one would assume has learned the effect approaches to articulate a topic in a clear and concise way.

Where this could lead to is IT technical training or Technical writing roles, rather than over saturated market that is IT support.

IT in NZ is a big industry, with alot of people involved, I take the approach of trying to separate myself somewhat from where the rest are heading, so to say. People always wants to learn and there could be scope plus demand in IT technical training.

The little things make the biggest difference.

gzt

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#2955909 18-Aug-2022 10:08

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?

gzt

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#2955915 18-Aug-2022 10:17

Working for a general IT education provider college or course thing you generally get to take the courses free, good for quals and getting an idea of things you might be interested in. Pay does not seem too bad for that in some places and should ramp for you.

K8Toledo

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#2955937 18-Aug-2022 10:46

Contracting seems to be where the money is (vs salary), from my own observations at least.

timmmay

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#2955940 18-Aug-2022 10:57

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.

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lxsw20

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#2955962 18-Aug-2022 11:57

Personally I think its an over promise to say you'd end up on 90k as a junior/grad with some certs. - Love to be proven wrong.

timmmay

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#2955964 18-Aug-2022 12:01

lxsw20:

Personally I think its an over promise to say you'd end up on 90k as a junior/grad with some certs. - Love to be proven wrong.

You may be right. I don't know really.

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#2955972 18-Aug-2022 12:14

You could look at starting as an IT trainer in a larger organisation. The IT support division I managed and an IT training team of three at head office and regional IT trainers around Aotearoa. They were responsible for training new staff as part of induction, preparing training materials, training on new applications and procedures, advising management on training issues, requirements and outcomes and training standards. I was more than happy for the team to self develop and consider moving to other units within IT and was happy facilitate this. This was for a large government department.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Shindig

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#2956045 18-Aug-2022 13:15

K8Toledo:

Contracting seems to be where the money is (vs salary), from my own observations at least.

The wave of contracting opportunities is coming to a close and most people are now taking permanent roles, with organisations or consultancies \ managed services providers

The little things make the biggest difference.

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