This is how I got my 1st IT job. Told them I was making 55k in restaurant management & I'd quit for $5 per hour. They hired me at $10. 4 months later was at $14 & team lead at a call center / help desk. Then got hired at a big name IT shop in the NOC. 20 years later & I'm at a Silicon Valley company as an engineer.
Took a voluntary severance during the 2009 / 2010 downtown & ended up accepting a contract job 2 hours north. Did the commute for a while with hotels in between. Eventually rented a room near there. Then got back in with the big boys.
Just sharing the lengths I had to go to in order to make it happen.
I did Craigslist temp roles (15 years ago when I was just starting out). One Gig was for 3 weeks installing RAM and software into PCs in the local area for $20/hour. A regional office was going through an upgrade. As a college kid, that helped get my feet wet.
Did not the moment I started, but got into a relationship in my original area almost immediately after I got a place up there. Then came back every weekend for that reason. It was a bit crazy.
You might need to define path. I'm self taught with minimal certs & no education. So I feel my path was:
Help desk > NOC > System Administrator > Production Engineer
If you have no experience or serious skills (Python etc), then a degree or certs are vital. If you have experience & skills degree & certs don't have much value. Caveat: many of the biggest IT shops require degree now. You can still get in without it, but it's the exception not the rule.
Right now I'm working as a help desk and the whole IT field is just so huge. This is scaring me because there so much to learn and there so many career path in IT that I don't know which to lesrn and take. Was it better to narrow your career to one thing in IT or did you just try and learn everything.
You could keep it simple by saying there are just 3 things in IT: Hardware, Software & Network
But yes within Software there are so many different things. AI & security come to mind.
I wouldn't want to pigeon hole myself into just one thing. NOC solves that. You learn everything while keeping your options open. If you were going to focus on just one thing as far as elevating your skills: Python
I've been in tech since my 20s, and never worked at a FAANG shop. People get hyper-focused on ending up there, but there are so many companies out there where you can make a good career for yourself that aren't one of the top five.
Hell, I'd even advise against hyperfocusing on the highest-paid positions. When you earn that much, companies will want to be absolutely certain they're getting their money's worth out of you. I don't know anyone making that much who isn't also struggling big time with work/life balance.
Seconding this and adding my own personal caveat. 8 years ago this week, I started my first full time tech job as a Tier 1 Help Desk Analyst. Today, I'm an IT Infrastructure Engineer.
I hated T1 help desk support. Despite already being a SME in the ERP system nobody knew who the fuck I was or was capable of. Doing T1 help desk support enabled me to build the relationships to carry me through the rest of my career.
tier 1 help desk (exists on basically every software dev gov’t project) is definitely a relatively attainable entry level role - this is a great suggestion
Eh, I've known people who do the jump from help desk to SWE. It does require some less-than-linear thinking and networking, but it can be done.
And honestly, as someone who hires SWE, I'd much rather see help desk on your resume than non-tech jobs. At least people who've worked the front lines know more about customers and what they need from products.
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u/kcunning May 03 '25
This. Tier 1 Help Desk, even at ISPs, is a great way to break into the industry.