NineZeroNine

I graduated high school almost 5 years ago and have been in and out of various jobs in the IT field. When I was 13 I knew I wanted to work on/with computers.  How do I do this? I had no idea where to start (my high school was less than helpful).

Straight out of high school I enrolled in a near by technical college where I wasted about one year of my life. Let me explain. I was in a ‘computer repair degree’ program, basically two years to get the equivalent to an A+ but I didn’t know any better. About 8 months in, a computer repair shop contacted my instructor looking for someone to work part time. I applied and a few days later I was contacted by the shop for an interview. I was hired on the spot. A few months in I realized that this ‘degree’ I was working for is useless. Once the semester was over I didn’t go back and work at this shop started to pick up. I was soon hired full-time with benefits and started to work as a lead for some of our offsite contracts.My high life came to a stop abruptly when my company managed to lose EVERY contract it had within 2 months but that is another story. Two months later I landed a PHP/MySQL job in Atlanta, it was a temporary contract to help manage workload. I was making WAY more than my previous job. I was also working WAY more. 3-4 hour commute daily with 8-10 hour days. I was so miserable I quit after about 3 months. I had a feeling the contact was ending soon anyway and I just literally couldn’t take it anymore. But, to my avail, one of the contracts I used to manage needed a replacement and hired me just a week later. However, this was another temporary job and it ended 10 months later. Unemployed again. So after trying the whole freelance thing and attending a community college (again, another story) my funds started to dry up. So I figured I would start looking for a job again and about 3 months into my search I found an excellent job at a data center that I have been working at for a few weeks now and enjoying it.

So what does this have to do with getting you getting a job?

Well, through my ‘years’ I think I have found some key bits of information on obtaining a job in IT. You might be asking yourself,  ’How would he know how to land a job? He’s never had a steady job.’ Well my answer is, yes you are correct all the jobs I have held in the past were mostly contract or temporary but GETTING the job is different from KEEPING a job. My job terminations this far were beyond my means in every case so I don’t think my results are typical.

Don’t Suck

This may be the most obvious but I’ve had jobs where some of my coworkers just plain sucked and have been working the same job for years. Be good at what you want to do, in fact the Information Technology field is so competitive you have to be the best. Focus on the job you are applying for and intern to get the experience. Real life experience is what will get you the job. In ALL of my jobs I have been THE youngest employee. I was working with people who have been doing the same job for 10-15 even 20 years because they basically sucked. It also makes them bitter. So if you are young, expect a lot of flack but just outshine them.

Learn, a lot

As you probably know technology changes very frequently. Part of the reason some of the older people are suck is because they quit learning. I worked along side people who didn’t know the difference in different types of RAM,  interfaces, newer features, and loads of other stuff because their knowledge has aged and they didn’t keep it up to date. Read magazines, blogs, forums, never stop learning. Get certifications and keep them up to date. Learn everything you can about the field you want to work in. Unless, you WANT to be the old grumpy fart doing the same mid-level job for 40 years.

Branch Out

This kind of ties into the last point but this is some crucial information. If your goal is to be a desktop support technician, learn enough about networking so you can explain to your network engineer the problems or issues you encounter. This is one of the bigger things I find that people can’t do because they are either lazy or don’t know better and have to play catch up. Branch out, but don’t branch out too far.

Network

Network. Network more. Build up a huge contact list of people in your industry. This is ongoing and takes time so don’t feel like you have to have 100 contacts in a year. I might have 40-50 solid contacts of IT people in nearly every branch in the industry that I’ve been building for years. In between jobs (if you ever are) you can go through these contacts and put yourself out there and be hired in (hopefully) no time. Also, once you have a job you can earn yourself some serious brownie points if your current company is looking for a network consultant and you come up with one on the spot.

Don’t Give Up

My last point and conclusion is don’t give up. The job you don’t get is just more reason to better yourself and try even harder. I’ve left job interviews feeling very good but never hear anything back. The list of reasons are endless but getting better only helps.