How to make a career change into the IT industry in 2020
I am an early 30s man. I am located in New England. I have a BA in Economics from about a decade ago but no experience in the field. I have worked predominantly low level jobs for various reasons since college. I am interested in getting into IT. Despite my work history I am an intelligent and capable problem solver. What are some of the most time and cost effective methods to get into IT? I am most interested in infrastructure and system administration like jobs. Like IT for a financial institution, college, hospital, factory etc. I am less interested in "web development" but am not excluding that from my options since that still appears to be a high demand sector of the industry. What is a reasonable price for a boot camp in the fall of 2020. A highly rated state college near me is offering a 6 month part time online program for "full stack" development for around $11,500. This seems a little high. What does HN think?
As I mentioned I am more interested in back end, like networks, servers, databases, etc, than designing web pages but I do understand that many web-pages have a back end too and are not just graphic design so maybe a bootcamp is a good option to get into IT.
Another option is self / directed study for certificates like A+, Network+ etc. What are the best certificates and what is the best approach to get them?
Last, I am flexible. What is the most in demand area of IT right now and for the near future? I am trying to determine what I should focus on studying to get the best bang for my time and buck.
2 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 10.5 ms ] threadThere are a lot of resources on the Internet like Udemy, etc to help you along the way. Training yourself is the most cost effective way, there is no need to spend 1000's of $$$.
You might want to consider looking at some Reddit boards.
Once you have a few certs under your belt, find a good contracting firm to get your foot in the door for some experience.
Regarding $11,500 - for six months of training, that seems to be a reasonable rate given the region and competitors costing anywhere from 0-25k$. If the school offers any sort of guaranteed job/interview after completing the program/has good graduation/hired rates i think that makes the 11.5k a bit more digestable.
Before you commit to purchasing a spot in class there i think you should be aware that there are free programs through schools like Platform By Per Scholas/freecodecamp in NYC/online.
Whatever educational institution you end up going with, here are some questions I think you should ask before jumping in:
-get a copy of the curriculum. Start asking IT people you know what they think about the curriculum in regards to your goal of becoming a FILL IN THE BLANK. Even if you don't care what these people have to say, you will get more comfortable with this kind of technical jargon stuff talking to people/awkward IT people who know more about this stuff than you. How does the curriculm stack up to free resources like Freecodecamp and others like that?
-how many people drop out of the program? what happens if you need to drop out (health reasons, money reasons, unexpected blah blah)/or you arent keeping up with the curriculum? Is there a way to prepare for the curriculum with pre-school starting work? Do they take your money and tell you to piss off if you have to drop out? Or do they offer money back/work with you if you have to drop out?
-Can they provide recent graduation/hired/how much money are people making rates out of the program with time since graduation info? You can compare this to other schools.
-What is your timeline? If you do a 6 month bootcamp for 11.5k, would you be happy if you had to continue to learn on your own/interview after the bootcamp ended for another 6 months? Would you only be happy with your purchase if you were hired within a month of the bootcamp? What really is your timeline? I think this timeline and salary expectations really determined whether my peers and I were happy after our bootcamp experiences.
If you are an average learner like I was, I found the bootcamp experience overall positive, but its no magic bullet, as some people, like i did, really needed 2 years to learn stuff it didn't matter that i worked my ass off for 6 months studying night and day longterm. Bootcamp for me 3 months -> studied/interviewed 2 months -> took a job for 8 months in the right direction -> did another school for 3 months -> got a job in the right direction for 1.5 years -> ultimately got a job i am happy with.