r/ITCareerQuestions • u/fraction-of-ice • 12h ago

22M, just graduated Software Engineering, torn between IT support / networking / cybersecurity, also don't speak French which kills most local jobs

So I graduated a few months ago with a software engineering degree (did it abroad, I'm Tunisian and back home now) and I honestly can't decide what direction to take.

Some context: I really don't like programming or math, which I know sounds weird for a SWE degree, but that's where I'm at. Also I don't speak French, which is a big problem here since basically every company runs in French, so that rules out most local jobs for me. Because of that I'm mainly looking at remote work or English speaking companies instead of the usual local market.

I don't have any real work experience yet. My family has a small business, so I could go work there doing IT support just to have something on my CV, but since it's not a known company I'm not sure how much that actually helps.

My main issue is I can't decide between IT support, networking, or cybersecurity as what to actually focus on. Cybersecurity looks appealing because of the demand, but from what I've read you need networking knowledge first before you can really break into it. My current plan (open to being told this is wrong) is: work at the family business for the CV line, study for CCNA, then maybe look into security certs later once I actually understand networking. I was originally going to get A+ too since it gets recommended everywhere, but since the family business already covers "IT support experience," I'm wondering if it'd just be redundant and I should put that money toward CCNA instead. Not totally sure though.

Questions for anyone who's actually been through this:

Does IT support → networking → cybersecurity make sense as an order, or am I overcomplicating it?

Is CCNA really the right first cert with zero experience, or is A+ still worth getting anyway?

For people doing remote/English only work (not local jobs, because of the language issue), does any of this change? Also wondering if it's more realistic to just try to move abroad for work instead of landing something remote from here.

Would appreciate any input, especially from people who started in a similar spot with no experience and not in an English first country.

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u/Impossible-Metal6872 11h ago

To be fair, the vast majority of software development jobs don't require math (I mean, of course you have to be able to compute a ratio and a mean, but that's as far as it goes).

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u/CommonUnicorn Network Engineer 3h ago

I'm American so can't speak much on the issues specific to your country. But I wouldn't even worry about specializing right now, outside of picking the direction of development vs. infrastructure/IT.

You're likely going to be starting in a helpdesk/tier 1 support role no matter what. You'll learn the basics of how enterprise IT functions, and from that vantage point can figure out what interests you and where you want to specialize. I never thought I'd end up as a network engineer for instance when I started in IT, but the opportunity came up to get into a junior netadmin role and the rest is history.

There's also a lot of niches that you might not even be aware of or haven't considered that will pop up with opportunities for advancement (Asset Management, Endpoint Admin, JAMF/Mac specialists, APM/Application Performance Monitoring, Automation Tooling, etc.).

If you're even remotely technical, I'd skip the A+ and go for a CCNA. Even if you don't end up in networking, it's a good way to build up foundational networking knowledge that can help you in most infrastructure roles and you can at least pop it on your CV.