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Col. Gaspar

Col. Gaspar

The 47 Ronin
I have been a Nurse for about 5.5 years now and I have reached a point where the passion has left me and I am just here for a check. I absolutely loathe my job and I am wanting to peruse a dream by working in the IT field.

I have always been a hardware addict and have tinkered and built since I was 14. I know enough about most things to get my self into trouble with.

I don't know where to start when it comes to looking for good IT jobs that will pay a living wage of at least 45k.

I would rather spend my time working with networking and hardware or IT support. I'm not looking for a lofty OMG degree. Just something I could take classes for over 2-4 years and make a good living for my family.


I have always wanted to do something with computers, I would cry if I could land a good IT job.

I really appropriate your input guys, any direction is good.
 
I work on the consumer/business repair & build side of the IT world. It starts off at around 25-30k. Unless you live near a big pre-built company like Origin, Mainframe, Digitalstorm, etc there isn't much money on this side. Those guys that get to build the big machines can easily do 40k+ a year.

Next step is getting into help desk tier 1 which starts at 35k and can range higher. This is actually my next step myself, getting into a business help desk for a larger company. This is the basics of fixing some guys excel or bad hard drive. Not really exciting but it pays the bills.

After these 2 which can be done based off pure knowledge is where you need a butt ton of schooling.

Another thing to look into is the helpdesk roles with SQL scripting. This is something worth going to school for. Basically writing scripts, running them and importing data into excel. My brother is an exec for a large web company and they start people off at well over 60k. I would jump on this if I didn't want to leave Seattle. He said he had someone within a year jump to 120k a year for doing very little work.
 
BOT Yao said:
maybe you wanna spell career correctly first? :p
Click to expand...
Fuck you Yao, I would punch you in your fucking mouth if you were in front of me.

This is me being serious here as I would rather draw unemployment then keep working here as a nurse.

I'll look sql scripting and looking at rig building and repair.

Sent from my Nexus 6
 
My father works as an information technical analyst, and a bunch of his friends are network engineers that I've always hung out with growing up, I will say that I wouldn't ever want to trouble shoot a computer, I would love to work on network infrastructure though, the day to day life of a trouble shooter is just agonizing it seems, even though he makes over 100k a year now it still took him 25 years to get that far, I would say network engineer would be up your ally, they always work on mainframes which seem pretty cool! The money is a lot better IMO and you can always do computer trouble shooting on the side while making 100k a year, 25-30k a year is not going to fuel your passion of gaming rigs and supplying enough wealth for the family. If you really want to do something and enjoy what you are doing then you are going to have to work hard for it (obviously). But the pay off will be great for someone in your position, working and playing with computers all day!
 
read your steam message. I was just kidding.... you take everything so seriously! but ya, read it. I gave you a detail info how to look for a new job
 
At some point the money is the reason for grinding out five days a week. Being that you do not have a degree in computer science, network engineer or one of the better paying positions, you will be facing getting into an industry that is pretty saturated and pay has been going down for many of the mid-level employees.

You are moving from an industry that is about to explode with the loss of baby boomers the nursing industry is going to be needing plenty of folks filling jobs unlike IT industry. I have a few friends that work in Silicon Valley for some of the larger Co. Adobe, Applied Materials, Cisco and a few others, most are not that happy with their job at this time, heavy pressure with a lower # of staff and the expectation to get the job done NOW. Having listened to plenty of their gripes over the last couple years, it is not the dream job it once used to be.
 
first rule to IT: "did u try turning it off and on again?"

heheh i'm looking to leave my sporting goods job as well, selling bullshit insurance on soccerballs and other equipment is ridiculous i just don't know what else to do yet. Good luck with it though finding something you love doing as a job isn't easy!
 
I'd like to weigh in on this, as a former IT help-desk employee. I have worked for huge corporations like Tolt Service Group replacing all electronics and troubleshooting electronic equipment in huge department stores (Albertsons, Fred Meyers/Kroger, Costcos, Safeways, and such), Planar Display Systems troubleshooting monitors, TVs, projectors, 3D displays, and touchscreens for like hospitals, engineering firms, and government facilities, Burroughs doing troubleshooting of ATMs, safes, and KABA MOS locks, Microsoft Windows Vista launch for Microsoft (what a fucking headache and POS operating system), HP OEM support for their desktop line, and Comcast for their tier 2 networking (also headache dealing with end users and simple minded business people).

Let me start off by saying it is a very stressful industry and your return in salary is purely based on who you know, not what you know, and certificates/degrees. The industry is saturated with everyone and their mom trying to get into the field so it will be tough to find a decent company that is willing to pay good and not abuse you. For most of these companies I had to work outside of office hours and take home an on-call phone and laptop to assist after hours and it ruined my home life with wife and kids. I had no life outside of work...I got so sick and tired of it, I found a new job totally away from my craft of IT and am now working for Coca-Cola and love it. I made good money in the IT industry but it wasn't worth everything I was doing to achieve it and the corporations always find a way to push you to do more work without paying you for the extra work. Not saying getting a good job and pay isn't possible. My brother who is a Network Admin gets paid over $100k a year and he got there solely by working for an IT company who does architect software and on his spare time he would take certification tests and get certs and have his company pay outright for them or pay partial on them. But it took him years, and lots of sacrifice and time to get to that level, not to mention a lot of luck.

I would say find a job that incorporates a little of both, standing and moving. You will be driven nuts in a cubicle or office all day. You will always go nuts traveling everywhere to repair or replace things all the time as well. My favorite IT job was being a Service Engineer and traveling to sites for troubleshooting and equipment replacements. Also it is better for your health, you get lethargic and out of shape just sitting all day. Plus you get mentally fatigued. So I would say maybe check other avenues before going full on IT. You don't want to be stuck in a call center... Just my two cents, btw. Also if you have any questions or anything, hit me up. I would be happy to help or answer any questions.

Good luck with the new job search!

PS, no matter what field you choose...you will end up hating it and getting tired of it. Its the cycle of life. All my friends no matter what they do from making pizzas to being paralegals, to being micro-food engineers all get tired of their industry and want change. Sit in where you fit in I guess.
 
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