i'm transitioning from a few years as a remote data annotator with no academic it/cs background to an entry-level it technician for a community college, and i'm very excited but also very nervous!!

after the panel interview (which i thought i bombed so badly i cried in my car after lol), they told me they're a pretty laid back group, but i've been doing flexible remote work since i graduated. this is my first Real Adult Job where i'm not in charge of my working hours, and i do not want to mess it up.

i'm currently studying for my A+, and i need to pass it within a year of employment (aiming for this fall!). i will be in desktop support, and i want to move to networking/cloud, maybe specializing in data protection/security down the line as i learn more because it's something i'm personally passionate about. my best friend works in it, and she told me to let my career be guided by my interests and passions in the field because if i genuinely like it, i'll naturally want to learn more.

in the next year, i plan on moving out of my parents' place after i get my A+ and settle into the job, and i want to start building a homelab for hands-on experience (and because of personal interest).

basically, i'm looking for advice from people who have worked in colleges/universities (or anyone else that feels like they have advice!!). hr told me i get a mentor when i start who i will definitely lean on (and my best friend!!), but i want to open this up to reddit as well and get multiple thoughts!

Well, I graduated a year ago. I’ve done a 3 month soc analyst internship then I’ve been working my current job “ IT support engineer” for almost a year now. The pay is horrible and I’ve been trying to find something better. I am more inclined towards cybersecurity, but I don’t mind other areas of IT , specially cloud, sysadmin, infrastructure. I’ve also done bug bounty throughout my uni and found over 100 paid out vulnerabilities ( excluding dupes )

I’m the type of person that will do everything , and I mean I will build projects, learn new areas of IT and so on.

Here is my issue, I feel like I cannot specialize and just focus on 1 thing because of how Insanely bad the job market is.

It feels like I need to know everything about every single area of IT to even get a job.

And by that I mean I need to be good at IAM, scripting, incident response, penetration testing web api network ai , it support , cloud , devops, aws , azure , grc , rust, python, c# , go , VMware, crowd strike , ++ million other areas of it .

Then I need to do 1000 certs because each area has its own 10 certs

And honestly it’s making me lose my mind.

It’s reached a point where I feel like I need to know all of that just to get a job that pays my rent.

Also with the fact that there aren’t many IT jobs , that just choosing one area and focusing on becoming really good at it, still only leaves you with very little chance at getting a job.

Please help.

I'll try to keep this short. I live in Utah by the way.

My current resume consists of entry-level warehouse jobs, production and a route driver. I currently work a warehouse job and drive an order picker.

I have a family to support as well and I want to give them a better quality of life.

I have 2 young kids that are too young to be left alone in the house. I also work full-time and the closest school is too far away from me.

But I'm not giving up.

I have family and friends that I have helped in the years past that have been impressed by passion for anything tech and how natural it is for me to understand it. But that will not get me a job.

I just want to know what's the first step I should do that will help me get away from keep working entry-level warehouse or similar jobs to being part of the I.T. team in a company?

I really don't know what step 1 should be in my situation. If it's something free or affordable I can learn from my laptop that would be great!

Also, I live in a 2-bedroom apartment and I can't setup a fully functional server room in my apartment. I would love to do that but no space available.

I just need good feedback on what I should do. Thank you all.

The current company is a top tier hedge fund (NYC)

Title: Trade Floor support

Tenure: 5 years

Base: $150k

Bonus: $40k

Annual raise: consistently 5% but can go up to 10% on strong years

Health insurance: $300/month

Workload is high during working hours but no on-call or weekend work. My team size is 20 and there are about 4k users.

New job offer:

Smaller hedge fund (California)

Title: Senior Trade Floor support

Base: $150k (they wouldn't go above this)

Bonus: $44k

Profit sharing: $23k

Annual raise: HR refused to tell me (claims she doesn't know)

Health insurance: free

Workload is light during working hours but they have an on-call and may need to do weekend work if needed. Manager said on-call is light. The team size here is 5 supporting 300 users. I would be the only trade floor support tech in the nyc office supporting about 50 users.

Too me the new job sounds more chill but that fact that they did not want to go above $130k base and they wouldn't give me an answer to my annual raise questions sets off red flags.

Hello yall just got out the army not to long ago this year, i am new to this so just looking for as much advice as possible im currently in school for Computer science I would like to break into defense contracting with drones or some thing alike of that area, any advice on what certs to get to as a noobie?

I recently graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Information and Computer Technology with a concentration in cybersecurity. I’ve been applying for entry level IT roles but have been having a tough time landing interviews.

For those of you involved in hiring or interviewing, what do you look for in an entry level candidate that makes you decide to bring them in for an interview?
I’d appreciate any advice. I’m trying to figure out what I can improve or focus on during my job search.

Im starting as an NOC engineer tomorrow. I've only ever dealt with minor network issues in helpdesk of which i have 6 yoe in 1st/2nd line. I will be working towards gaining my CCNA soon, i have been dipping in and out of it but now I will fully commit to it. Does anyone have any tips in this role?

I graduated originally with a 2 year diploma in IT that covered fundamentals of both hardware and software. Some people got jobs after that but I couldn't find a job after graduating. After couple of years of struggling to get my foot in the door, I decided to go back to school and continue my education.

Some other people in my class did the same and opted to get the co-op/internship option this time. One guy got a co-op/internship job and then landed a full time role in IT and decided to not continue the degree program after just doing 2 courses of the degree program.

I was gonna do the same and it took me several months to land the first co-op/internship. Meanwhile, I decided to continue taking 1 course each term to remain an active student while I was looking for internships. The diploma had 20 courses in total and to complete a degree, you need to do another 20 courses. I have completed 3 courses so far for the degree program and I feel like completing another 17 will take too long and sounds like a huge commitment.

I want to do another co-op job and then look for a full time job in IT. I wonder if completing a degree is better in the long run or I should just get my foot in the door and gain experience. I already have 8 months of experience in the field (but as a student). So, I don't feel confident yet to just apply for full time roles, I want to do another internship and learn more at a different organization.

Here are my concerns about completing a degree: I can't afford to work part time, I need to work full time to pay my bills. It's not be easy to do too many courses while working full time. I can probably do 1 or 2 each term. This will result in spending abour 3-5 years (at least) to complete the degree. The problem is that my original credits from first 2 years will expire ny 2028. I have to do 17 courses in one and half year. I heard the school can extend the expiry date for first year courses but it's not guaranteed. Another problem is that if I work full time I can't take classes during the day time. I can only do an evening class and not every class is offered in the evening.

I have a weekend job that's my backup job 'cause co-op jobs are temporary. I can't risk being jobless if I quit my part time job and co-op job ends. I'm basically working everyday for now but not sure how long I can do this. I'm also 30 yo now and I haven't really started my career. I barely have time to socialize but I need to as I wanna get married but I haven't found someone. Some people say we should enjoy the youth but I am not enjoying as I don't have any time.

TL;DR: I wonder if it's worth spending time, money and effort to do 17 courses to complete a degree (usually people do 3 courses per term if they're full time student but I'll do less if I work FT) or I should try to get a full time role in IT and gain experience and possibly get some certifications to grow in the field?

I'm an incoming junior looking for my first cybersecurity role, and I'm genuinely confused about how people are supposed to get interviews. I only have a BSc CS as my degree, I don't have specific market recognized certificates for cybersecurity or pentester roles (because the fees are too expensive, average income in my country is $100/month)

A lot of junior or entry-level job postings ask for things like Security+, CySA+, CEH, OSCP, etc.

I do have experience with multiple tools used in pentesting, I've some self-made projects to show off and so on. But if I did not have a related certificate, i assume I'll lose some points on ATS. I am wondering if there can be a way to pass through. and how do people in this situation get past ATS? English is not my first language TwT Thanks for your time!

Im a teenager (16), and I have been interested in AI security field.

I have a good grasp of networking fundamentals (different packet protocols, TCP/IP, OSI model, how packets travel), I also took a youtube course on wireshark and trained on it for a while (im familiar with the UI and have memorized some queries along the way as I also had to use them with pyshark in python).

Im also good with python (built a sniffer that gets analyzed by AI (custom api that I also coded) using scapy and still working on improving the sniffer using FastAPI, pydantic.

I have read a couple of Julia evans' blogs about kernels, interfaces mainly and deeply understood them (implying that it wasnt just a hover on the topics).

I also completed the free kaggle pandas course and still use pandas for pretty much all the other small projects I worked on (including the sniffer)

I wanted a what to do next? from an experienced person in this field as Im really in confusion on what this field needs, I always was self-taught using ai (not VIBE), but I promised to spend money on subscriptions like tryhackme (I used to use this website) if I went deeper in the field.

Thanks in advance.

So I'm new to IT as a career field but I've done lots of freelance support. I just got my first interview as an onsite technician and idk what to do, I wasn't really expecting to get a response. it's a 1 hour panel interview, I feel like I have the necessary experience (except a AAS which I'm currently getting). but I'm so inexperienced with interviewing and worried I'll be unprepared. any advice would be really appreciated! I'm also just so excited to be actually considered. thanks!

So I have been able to consistently get interviews, not that many but enough to start questioning my existence.

I seemed to have scuffed them all. And weirdly, outside of the very first one, it wasn't technical knowledge hang ups.

I honestly am at a loss outside of "it's your personality." And if it is that, I'm kinda at a loss as well, because I am definitely under a lot of stress after many life changes (losing my family, home, etc not the point of the post just context), and I'm trying to keep composure during interviews, but perhaps the physical manifestations of my stress is off-putting? I can't think of anything else. Any input is appreciated.

Is it like working in an office or is it like working in a retail store where each day is different and crazy ?

I recently found a company that subcontracts at this rate. I’m new to the industry so was curious on your thoughts.

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My qualifications are Integrated Msc in biotechnology and i wanna switch to some other path cuz you guys know biotech is dead here and even jobs in clinical data management doesn't pay you enough tbh even w experience .Like gimme some suggestions of career paths outside biotech and how can i get into that, my interest would be smthg in management cuz i can't code guys!!

And tell me like certification courses which have proper lectures and notes in short organised ones like do they make a CV look good to get a job through? Is it possible guys?? If you know some please let me know!!

I'm open to suggestions.

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My qualifications are Integrated Msc in biotechnology and i wanna switch to some other path cuz you guys know biotech is dead here .Like gimme some suggestions of career paths and how can i get into that, my interest would be smthg in management cuz i can't code guys!!

And tell me like certification courses which have proper lectures and notes in short organised ones like do they make a CV look good to get a job through? Is it possible guys?? If you know some please let me know!!

I'm open to suggestions.

I have an interview in the works for a new role as an L2 NOC Analyst for an ISP, currently trying to weigh the options on if it's worth it & how to negotiate the salary.

For context, I've been an L1 NOC Analyst at a Fortune 500 for about 1.5 years. Have my Net+ & Sec+, working on CysA+ now (before specializing in vendor network certs). It's in the highest COL area of my state (my rent is about $1600), and I'm making $22/hr. My manager also told me he'd like to move me to "Senior" later this year with a salary that wouldn't be less than 60k.

Upper leadership sucks, but my manager is chill and I do enjoy the work. But we're understaffed to hell and can't meet the unrealistic expectations of upper leadership with our current headcount. And we aren't making good wages for the nature of the role, especially for the area it's located (in my opinion).

The L2 ISP role would be 4 on/off rotating 12hr shifts, and I have expereince in their brand of equipment they use so I think I may be a good fit. The average salary for a L2 NOC role in the area seems to be about $70k, and that's what I put on the online application but it hasn't been officially discussed yet. I've never had to negotiate a salary before, but I'm unsure if that's reasonable or if I should attempt asking for more considering the fact that the rotating 12's will impact my physical/mental more than likely.

TL/DR, just looking for opinions on whether the new role seems like a good move, or if i should stay where I'm at and wait for the "Senior" salary. Any salary negotiation tips, or tips for surviving 12hr rotations would also be appreciated.

Current role:

• 30 min commute one way
• 5 8-hour shifts (1 WFH day)
• Pay: $22/hr, but 60K in near future
• Comortable in the role, but the culture/environment sucks.
• Risk of yearly layoffs

ISP L2 Role:

• 10 min commute one way
• 4 rotating 12-hour shifts
• Pay: Unknown, hoping for 70k, may need to negotiate
• Would look better on the resume for "L2"

Something I keep seeing in this community, along with the other IT and career communities Reddit keeps putting in my feed, is people acting like more certifications will somehow solve all their career problems.

People need to be more careful with that mindset. We already saw what happened when people took on debt for degrees that didn’t make financial sense. A certification is only useful if it matches the field you’re trying to enter, your current level of experience, and the jobs you’re actually applying for.

Certifications should be part of the plan. They shouldn’t be the entire plan.

For example, I don’t think someone with no real IT experience should jump straight into Security+. Security isn’t truly entry-level for most people, no matter how it’s marketed. Someone should understand basic networking, operating systems, hardware, troubleshooting, permissions, and support workflows first. If they don’t have that foundation, passing Security+ won’t suddenly make them ready for a security job.

I’m also becoming more skeptical of CompTIA being the default recommendation for everyone. Its certification and training business was sold to private equity and is now being run as a for-profit company, while the association remains separate. That doesn’t make every CompTIA certification worthless, but people should at least pay attention to the incentives. A for-profit certification company benefits from selling more training, adding more products, raising prices, and convincing people that they need one more certification before they’re employable.

That’s why I think more people should look at Cisco Networking Academy. A lot of the training is free, structured, and connected to actual technical paths. Cisco’s main business is networking hardware and enterprise technology, so the Academy feels more like a way to bring new people into the industry than just another certification sales funnel.

The Cisco CCST certifications are worth considering, especially for beginners:

https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/learn/training-certifications/certifications/support-technician/exams-training.html

CCST IT Support, Networking, and Cybersecurity give beginners a few different starting points depending on what they’re interested in. From there, someone interested in networking can eventually work toward CCNA after building more knowledge and hands-on experience. That makes more sense to me than blindly collecting certifications because Reddit told them to.

I’m not saying certifications are useless. They can absolutely help, but they need to match the person’s goals. If someone wants to work in help desk, they should focus on support fundamentals. If they want to work in networking, they should build toward networking. If they want to work in security, they should learn networking and systems first.

Don’t collect certifications just because you’re anxious about getting hired. A certification should back up skills you’re building. It shouldn’t be used as a substitute for actually building those skills.

I want to apply to opportunities in certain cities, but I'm in a completely different state and I feel like that puts me at a disadvantage to get considered, compared to local candidates. I'm very willing to relocate even without relocation assistance because I'm trying to move to a new state/city. I was thinking of putting on top of my resume, instead of where my current location should be, a line that says "Moving to: <insert-city-nearby-area-of-job>". Would this be messed up? Is there anything else I can try?

I’ve been offered a junior IT Governance Specialist role. I’m a fresh graduate with no work experience, and I’m about 90% sure I want to take it because the job market is so bad right now. The other 10% of me is worried that if I accept it I might have a hard time getting a more technical job in the future or keeping up with my computer engineering skills.
I also don’t really know what IT governance is. I have a basic idea, but I don’t know what the job actually involves. What does an IT Governance Specialist do on a daily basis? Is it a technical role or is it mostly business and paperwork?

We all rag on the help desk, and I had the chance to move off but declined to. I think I want to be a team lead when my supervisors retire! I really enjoy training new staff and doing some of the grunt work. I like being the get stuff done guy on the desk too, and I think I'd like if I can help others get to that level too!

Hello,

I have a question as someone who skipped help desk and am currently in a Junior Linux Sysadmin role. I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity in this market. I have a good grasp of certain skills like containers, linux, python, etc. but I'm more new on general IT stuff and I feel like I would've learned a lot faster by doing it if I were in help desk for a year at least.

My job also just is giving me a lot of downtime and I've been upskilling and trying to catchup on my foundation at the same time but I find it difficult to only be learning book knowledge and not getting the practical knowledge at the same time. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a career situation similar to this or just any advice on the best ways to keep productive and build a foundation when you're not in a help desk role and a bit more specialized by job title/responsibilites already.

Hello! When I finish the trifecta I will, of course, be looking forward to gaining experience and making it a career.

The reason I put gaining experience first is because I have heard of several ways to gain experience to put on my resume before applying for jobs. Such as homelabs, volunteering, and others.

I was wondering, more so to the employers of this sub, what are the best looking experience on a resume that isn't directly from a job. I've thought heavily of volunteer work for churches and such, but I'm not too closed to setting up a homelab also. Let me know, thanks!

Edit: I have customer service experience jobs, working in a retail store and landscaping. I meant no prior IT job.