Ask HN: How does a displaced IT professional get started in the software world?

2 points by Random_Person ↗ HN
Short story: I'm losing my job of 8 years on June 30th. Every tech firm I've applied for says I don't have relevant experience.

I've worked as an IT professional in my state schools for over 8 years now. In my job capacity, I've covered the gamut of IT related disciplines from desktop/server/network service and management, to software development/deployment. In the last few years, I've transitioned to more of a web developer as service needs were identified and providers were few and far between. I like doing this work and I'd like to continue to grow... the problem is, I live in West Virginia with no immediate plans (family reasons) of leaving. Opportunity isn't exactly within reach here.

So, I started looking at remote opportunities... and I've hit a wall. My jack-of-all trades resume isn't fitting for this sort of work, so I need to start training towards a more refined skill set that is more sell-able. I don't know where to start.

I currently work in PHP/JS/MySQL, I'm comfortable in Java/C#, and have a passing knowledge of many other languages and frameworks. If you were going to start over, right now, what would you be learning?

4 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 21.1 ms ] thread
I'd suggest aiming for a "devops" role, given your background managing deployments and infrastructure. Study up on the AWS platform and automation/orchestration tools like Chef or Ansible.

You can tell a plausible story about moving from managing real infrastructure to managing virtualized cloud infrastructure.

You sound like the sort of guy that would certainly get an interview quickly at the place where I am now, if not a quick job offer.

But that would be in downtown Austin, and remote could be tough.

Austin is nice and I have friends there, but moving isn't in the cards right now.