Thanks for the advice. But then how can I immigrate to Europe from a 3rd-world country using this skill? I plan to study for a Bachelor’s in IT to get the initial study visa to then proceed into employment and hopefully permanent residency. And I’m also much more into computers than pipes, been my whole life.
Plus, the IT skills might allow me to work online for any company in the world, regardless of where I’ll end up being.
Can’t commen t on immigration but not all IT jobs gets you work from home option. IT is really broad- IT operations which include service desk, desktop support, sys admins and other engineers like wintel, storage, devops etc then there is software where you can be either tester , product owner, developer etc and I guarantee you not everyone gets remote work.
I started programming about a year and half ago with the Odin Project, about 9 months in, I got employed by a agency, focused mostly on Wordpress and shopware. Everything I did, I uploaded to GitHub and used this to show my knowledge.
Iam by far not the fastest learner, nor am I the most intelligent. I feel overwhelmed most of the time and in comparison to the people that studied something related to IT I had to catch up to a lot of the basic stuff, especially the first few months. At the beginning, even thought I got employees as a junior, I wouldn’t have called myself that, felt more like a apprenticeship.
What I want to say is: in my opinion it’s definitely possible to get a job, even if your self taught. But it needs commitment and you have to get used to a lot of rejected applications. In my area (Germany) most of the companies are looking for well educated people with a degree or work expierience 4 years+. The self learning wasn’t easy and I did it full time, including the weekends for about half a year.
If you want it, do it, commit yourself and I think you will be fine, but don’t expect it to be easy or companies fighting for you. For me the hardest thing was following that goal, even when friends, family and some posts told me I wouldn’t make it.
Have fun, and good luck!
Additional context: Iam 32 with no IT background at all.
I’m in a very similar boat. But I don’t have the luxury of applying locally, only remotely, online. Any specific industry and course you’d recommend to start with?
Self study here, but I’ve been in IT for almost 30 years now.
For someone that is determined most of the certifications out there can be attained through self study. That’s how I got my MCSE, CCNA, Red Hat Linux, and CLP (Certified Lotus Professional, yeah I know, no one has ever heard of it). I studied while working a helpdesk job and was hired by the sysadmin department of the same company. I attained the CLP, because at the time 2002 or so, there were not many Lotus/ Domino admins and there were a lot of companies, particularly insurance companies and Coca Cola, used it extensively. Being a Lotus/Domino admin got me a lot of attention at the time, but today it is worthless.
Knocking door to door with a cert and no actual experience will be a much tougher route to take, but it is definitely possible.
If it is what you want to do, there is no reason for you to crack a book today and start learning.
Thanks a lot for putting in the effort to answer thoughtfully!
So since right now I’m not in the field at all (I’m just an English teacher in Asia), what would you do if you were in my shoes? I’ve got some understanding of how computers and networks work but it’s all pretty basic with no programming knowledge. Would you still get a cert or would you first try to get a help desk job online? Or something else? Feeling really stuck here…
If you feel proficient it the usual windows environment, I’d re ommend to start at a helpdesk job like at an MSP.
Smaller MSPs also make it possible to aquire more knowledge in other fields if you are advancing and showing proactive interest.
That’s how I started my job career.
Though this heavily depends on the work place and culture at the company.
Maybe you are better suited to be at a global company that can provide support in a language of both the host and your mother tongue?
Moat MSP corps have telephone helpdesk.
But I am really not suited for advice regarding your unique position.
I just saw my last sentence and cringed. I meant to say there’s no reason for you to NOT crack a book and start learning. Sorry about that.
Programming, or Software Development is not Sysadmin work. While becoming a Software Developer will give you some Sys Admin skills, that’s the long way to go about it, if your primary goal isn’t to be a Developer.
Experience sells in Information Technology. Next in line are Certifications. Getting a helpdesk job would be your first step. While working on the helpdesk, start studying for certifications. It is said that Microsoft Engineers drive their Chevy’s, Network Engineers drive BMW’s, and Linux engineers fly their private jet to work.
If you have no experience, then start looking for low end help desk jobs and start studying ASAP. There are many online study guides and courses.
Like many others already said. Being self taught is ok, but employers need at least some kind of confirmation about your skills. So getting some kind of officisl certificate will make your job search a lot easier.
Microsoft offers a bunch of .NET certificates if you do their C# courses for example. You can also become a certified Linux professional.
Find something that interests you and then start learning by doing some tutorials. The most important thing is that you have fun and won’t burn yourself out working in a field you don’t enjoy.
Where I’m from there’s demand for Web Devs, Java devs, .NET devs, It Support, Network Engineers, Embedded systems, whatever.
It’s a really bad time to get into it as a noob, especially self taught. There are jobs, but there’s also alot of downsizing and layoffs in an already fairly saturated industry. Even lower end stuff right now you’ll probably be up against people with certs, degrees, job experience.
If you’re legitimately interested in IT and want to learn more on your own, you should! Find what interests you the most, and there will be a million resources available free and cheap. I don’t think it’s a good time to put all your career eggs in that basket though like it sounds you’re thinking.
Honestly, if you’re trying for zero to money, AFAIK trades are still hurting. Maybe look into trade programs at your local community College. It’s not a cushy lazy white collar job but you’d potentially make similar or better money because everyone for 20 years has been clamoring for cushy lazy white collar jobs.
Theres also serious though niche demand for people with trades knowledge and IT skills too. Plus knowing how to automate all your reports is always helpful.
Things to consider if you have that IT kinda mind and don’t mind playing in the mud. Instrumentation and Controls Technician, always need someone who can mess with comms and networking bullshit. And im some places can get into automation programming, called mechatronics sometimes? HVAC/building automation technician. Industrial electrician focussing on trying to get into commissioning and PLC programming/automation.
Another criterion might be to be self employed. I have little experience with that and it probably has it’s pro’s and con’s but depending on what corporate culture you’ll face as an employee. But it might be worth keep it in mind when choosing your profession.
I’m a self-taught sysadmin. It took me ~3 years to get comfortable, and I’m srill learning stuff that feels like if not 100-level then at most 200-level course knowledge…
I started making a pivot to self-taught pentesting in hopes of breaking into red-teaming, but I’m stuck at finding time to practice and learn and still invest some time in the parts of life that aren’t my job and/or future job. I enjoy doing it just for fun outside of the career potentials, but I’ve been burnt out for years from turning my current career into my hobby as well, I won’t make that mistake again
I guess the only answer I have is: depends on how much time you plan on investing in self-teaching. I wouldn’t say anything’s necessarily out of reach, but I would say that learning the skills is only half the battle of getting employed.
I do have a little advice with my perspective: don’t think of it in large timeframes, e.g. “I wan’t to get to this goal within a year,” do it in hours or less. Force yourself to sit down and do something that furthers that goal for X amount of hours each day; that way, you have a very clear metric and can start measuring progress by how much time you actually spent studying and applying for jobs and networking (as in building relationships with your peers and future employers… but also the other kind too).
Oh, another piece of advice: don’t just read, watch videos and listen to lectures—learn by doing. Set up a home lab for whatever it is. At least a solid 80% of what you’ll encounter in the field can be emulated with a good enough PC and the right software (yes, even cabling). And for everything else… Well, that’s just good fun to own all those tools and gadgets and gizmos galore and so, so, SO much cable of every kind.
Last bit: are you having fun? If it’s not fun to learn, it’ll be soul-crushingly, mind-numbingly dull when it’s your job. You don’t get to do the cool new stuff most days, most days it’s just replying to emails and forcing the users to restart while you observe because most of the time “Yeah, I already did that” means “I may not understand computers in the least, but I’m inexplicably dead certain that the thing the expert is telling me to do won’t work.” So make sure you’re enjoying even those bits now
Otherwise, get out now while you still can and the Sunk Cost Fallacy hasn’t kicked in.
Also: See what the enterprise sector uses and try to aquire NFR licenses to get the full spectrum of the tool set. (Veeam for example gives out 1 year NFR licenses by just giving them your name and an email).
I’ll answer this from my perspective, which is that of someone who started out in a tech support role 30-odd years ago, and now run engineering operations teams in data centres.
One of the best teachers is experience, but it’s hard to get that experience until someone gives you a chance. Support desk/helpdesk are great entry-level jobs that’ll get you started. To help with your self-study for something like this (and if you have the means) consider starting a small homelab and growing from there.
Perhaps you can find a cheap managed network switch - either new or second-hand - that lets you start playing with VLANs. Maybe an SBC or two (Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, etc) so you can start to experiment with Linux, and hosting servers. That’ll open the door to playing with other things down the track - Docker, nginx, etc.
The point is, when interviewing for entry level roles, I (and many hiring managers I know) will usually ask if a candidate runs a home network. By no means does that mean a candidate without one doesn’t get due consideration but, when I see someone’s eyes (and passion) light up when talking about their homelab, I know I’m onto someone who will grow and develop well in the role I’m hiring for.
If this sounds like a path you want to go down, a couple of useful communities where you can get info and advice on homelabbing are !selfhosted and !homelab.
Vue.js, it’s the simplest of the popular frontend frameworks
You can learn a hellton about sysadmin and DevOps by running a home lab and aiding that with some courses and maybe one cert or two but I wouldn’t splurge on certs that readily.
Golang, Express.js, Nest, Flask, SQL (a must), maybe Spark if you dare. Any popular and expressive framework/language for full stack/backend, except for Rails and PHP, those are dying technologies despite their still relatively high popularity in some countries.
Maybe Flutter, Swift or React Native if you want to get into mobile dev.
Just go to a job board, then to learnxinyminutes.com, pick something and start with building small, then medium sized, then maybe more complex projects or contributing to FLOSS written using your tech of interest (but please, PLEASE don’'t treat OSS contributions primarily as a way to get a job. Pick something you use instead. Try to figure out how you would implement something, do that and don’t let the impostor syndrome win if it uses a tech you’re familiar with whenever you want to open an issue on a git forge.
To add to all the other good advice in this thread. I just wanted to point out that the hardest part is going to be getting that first job. So pay attention to any advice about any positions that are currently actively hiring with little to no experience. An alternative is some networking/nepotism and leverage some connections to get you in your first job.
After getting some reasonable level of experience things get a lot easier. You still need to know what you’re doing and be able to prove it, but you’ll face less of an initial barrier and be more likely to get an interview.
Related, if you see a listing for an “entry level” job that requires 5+ years of experience or whatever, apply for it anyway. Odds are no one with experience is going to want to take the salary they’re offering, so you might get an interview.
The study process for these should, at least, get you understanding the language of systems. I’d also suggest spending time learning Linux and maybe even consider the Linux+ cert, even if your plan is to be a Windows admin. Learning Linux often means learning a lot about how Operating Systems work in general and you can carry that learning into the Windows world where so much is abstracted away and hidden. It’s also worth spending time learning about Kerberos, DNS (because it’s always DNS) and Active Directory. Even if you work with Linux, you’re very likely to have to interact with Active Directory (AD). Having basic knowledge of AD will be helpful for those touchpoints.
Also, if you plan to work in SysAdmin, expect to spend some time working a help desk. It’s possible to skip this, but businesses don’t like putting untested people in charge of servers. You’re going to fuck up as you learn, this is usually less damaging when done on endpoints than servers. Suck it up butttercup and get the experience.
For network admin, I’m not as helpful. As others have suggested, getting an old switch and seeking Cisco certs is likely to be a solid start.
For “Cloud” based engineering, the major vendors all have certification paths. Azure, AWS and GCP all have pages you can research their certs. I’d go with AWS or Azure, as I hear more about them. But, that may just be the bubble I work in.
If you want to go into cybersecurity, go work in either systems or network administration for a few years then come back and look at transitioning. While Cybersecurity is the new hotness, you’ll really benefit from a solid understanding of how the systems and network admin folks work. Sure, I have met some folks who went straight into security and did well. I’ve met far more who had zero clue about basic things like, “why is this sysadmin running psexec against this server?” I’m sure I’m pissing a lot of people off with this paragraph, but cybersecurity is not an entry level IT field.
Mostly, what you need is a natural curiosity and a willingness to try things and break stuff. Succeeding in IT is pretty easy, if you are willing to constantly be learning and trying stuff. The minute you get tired of learning or trying new things, it’s time to move into management.
IT Helpdesk/Support is definitely the most entry level position you can get without a related degree or experience. You can self study with a ton of free resources and learn enough to able to do good on a technical interview.
I came in via the support track, my advice would be to gather generalist skills like writing documents, editing spreadsheets, maintaining databases, etc. Once you get your foot in the door with that, grind hard to master all the systems a company uses, and keep expanding that software portfolio. Also look at automation software like Zapier that can bridge the gap between them (make them talk to each other). Operations is a great stepping stone from support, and there will always be a need for the person keeping it all going.
A few years ago, I’d say web dev. I’d hire a junior web dev fresh out of a boot camp with only 6 months of experience at 60-80k.
Today, my company won’t allow it, and I’m fighting to get new devs. We won’t even take a junior without a bunch of core competencies, things that will take at least a year to pick up. But even if we did, there’s a huge pool of applicants who want in.
A foot-in-the-door job is colo datacenter tech. I know a major national company that pays about $20/hr and will take what they can get at that price point. Not interesting, not promote-able, bad schedules. But a resume item. Exposure to enterprise-grade equipment. While there, get the advanced certs you realy want and work on networking with the customers and vendors.
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