/itcg/ - IT Career General

#1: Dawn of A New Concept Edition

At any given time there are usually 3+ threads on Sup Forums about IT careers, steady jobs and freelancer work. They are usually varied and encompass many aspects such as ranting, dickwaving, crying about shit bosses/employees, career advice, "the chinks took our jobs!" and other work-related shitposting.

This is my attempt to unify those threads by making a general where we aim to talk about our previous, current, or soon-to-be IT careers. Anyone who has, is, or will be working in technology is welcome to share experiences, give/ask for advice or take a load off ITT.

If this works out, I'm hoping we'll find something more interesting than this to put in the first post, but as of right now all I can think to put here is an invitation to discuss you're career and get some feedback/advise if you want it.

>why not make this thread on /adv/?
Have you met those people? There's not one poster above 100 IQ there.

>how do you define "IT career"?
Any career where technology is at the core.

>so monkeys only then?
Nope, administrators, coordinators, project leaders, techies and anyone else that considers their main field technology are welcome here.

>what if I'm in college?
If you want to have a career in IT, this is the place to ask your questions.

Previous thread: as of yet, none.

As as a slight introduction OP works as a senior HR consultant with a company that specializes in filling IT positions. I'll answer questions about my job or how you can advance yours if you want.

Neat idea OP. I'm a techy working for a networking company at the bottom of the totempole. What language should I learn as my first ever programming language? I want to be a server side dev, but I can't afford more formal education.

By rule of thumb, it's always easier to hook a client up with work if they have formal education under their belt (college/uni). However, most new starter-companies don't care much about that. Instead, try building a portfolio that shows off your work.

In terms of language, there are several big ones that are relatively easy to pick up and learn, that offer solid career opportunity and make for excellent branches to other languages.

Java, C# and JavaScript all sound like they could work well for you in your current situation. JavaScript is probably the most sought after of those three overall, but if you're sure you want to be a server-side developer, I'd recommend Java. It's a simple and great language that (while not terribly well optimized) seems to be heavily needed in larger companies today.

As a first step, get a hold of an IDE (Netbeans or Eclipse comes to mind) and hit up some YouTube turtorials. Cover one or two videos every day and spend about an hour being creative and putting together your own little applications. Try to push yourself to do more advanced shit every day and you'll have something to put in your portfolio in no time.

I've been working in IT for less than 3 years, without previous experience or education (MsC in geodesy/land surveying) started with copy-paste user administration, went through short sysadmin period and now work as R&D engineer in medium size company. All the time I learn things I work on, my current position requires to research and test things that may or may be not implemented in software we're selling. While I work on some rad new things that are way above my knowledge I also miss basics (still have access to tools and servers). Is there future in this line of work? Things in R&D seem random but require in-depth understanding, on the opposite spectrum I could go through sysadmin or network admin ladder starting at junior and learning specific skills. What I'm afraid the most is I will be familiar with many new things but will never be an expert in one field. I got employed mostly because of my drive to learn new things and lower salary.

That's a very clever way of advancing user. I've had multiple clients that start off just like you do. Start small and work up. Good on you. May I ask how much you make now yearly?

I'm a girl, how do I exploit that for a free safe tech-job?

>familiar with many new things but will never be an expert in one field
Sounds like you're a fullstack developer in the making.

Good thread. I'm about to discuss offer details with some companies, and could use any advice. Currently have offers from one big 4 company, two unicorn startups, and a few relatively unknown startups. My game plan is to lay out my competing offers without giving numbers, and then work with what I get.

I'm part of small R&D team working with two people on specialist/senior level being around junior sysadmin level myself. Salary is around average for Junior Sysadmin in my country (eastern EU). I've been here only for few months, working on some tasks myself but mostly under my colleagues or asking them for advice. It's reading documentation, building environment and checking how things work. As mentioned before I have access to VMware, and other applications, physical servers etc but I feel that it will take me long time to be proficient with it. But work is fun, every thing I work on is something new... question is where will it take me in the future.

Have you considered fucking off and quit ruining the industry?

That's a very good idea, but if they request numbers it's usually a good idea to add a little to it. By rule of thumb companies competing for your attention will VERY rarely contact each other and discuss YOUR potential salary.

I say pick the one offering the most, add 20% that sum and tell the others that's what their competitors are offering. Don't be afraid to be a little ballsy.

Worst case scenario you end up going with the highest payer, and best case scenario I've seen people get up to 30% higher salary out of it.

Where do you want it to go user? I'm getting a lot of passion from you and us HR guys are willing to cut off limbs to find you people.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Maybe I can give some pointers.

Nice to see a thread like this, thanks.
I'm just started working as an intern now, doing unit-testing with JUnit, my first job as a 19 years old kid. I'm doing my best to hopefully climb up to something betterl, but ADHD is a prick.

> Have you met those people? There's not one poster above 100 IQ there.

Internships can be such fun! Is it a big company? What are you aiming for?

>19 year old kid

Warms my heart to see the young thrive. And unit-testing is a great way to learn!

What's your education level? I'm guessing straight out of high-school at that age? Self-taught?

Get yourself a linkedin profile and start poking around. 19 year old tech-kids are often seen as prodigies (despite what they might actually be) and a lot of companies are willing to pay good money just to secure young talent early.

>Sup Forums is making you realize you belong on /adv/

Yes it is a big company, they don't pay very well but the experience that I am getting is huge.
I'm aiming to be a developer or even a software engineer, but slowly I am seeing that I still have alot to learn and it will only come with experience.

> What's your education level? I'm guessing straight out of high-school at that age? Self-taught?

I finished my High-school at 17 but I was already studying a bit of programming, now I'm on my lsat year of Associate degree in Analysis and Development of Systems, I learned more in university than teaching myself.
I'm still new to LinkedIn, don't really know what to put there but I am getting a few tips from others.
I'm really liking IT career and I don't see myself changing, as soon as I finish up my university I'll start to go to gym or practice some physical activities.

You're not the only one. I sometimes think I'm too thick for this board.

Linkedin is like facebook but is actually useful. Worth looking into. What languages do you know user?.

A university in my city offers a BBA in cyber security. It's been approved by the dhs/nsa and was ranked as a top program a few years ago.

Is it worth pursuing?

>unrelated degree
>R&D
nope

So I'm in the home stretch of a program that teaches both a+ and network+, and passed my a+ certification this morning.

What path can you recommend for me to maximize my earnings?

Engineer, experience in engineer work, junior position and fraction of salary you would need to pay for specialist and team to check and review some of the work.

security seems to be one of the hottest things right now. play your cards right and you can land up in a really good paying job.

the hard part is keeping track of the latest security reports and threat analyses, but that shouldn't be much of an obstacle if you have a knack for those things.

Hey OP.

So I am planning to go back to school for something related to Cyber Security.

I know that's a broad area, so what branches off of that? For example:

Information technology, network administration, but what else?

I am curious what those jobs would entail. I am not as interested in the coding aspect, but I am wanting to learn C/C++ and or python.

I remember watching one y-t video about how degree in cybersec is a waste of time because they teach outdated stuff and you would do yourself better favor spending this time on landing a job and learning it at work. Take it with a barrel of salt but for me it's something to think about.

You're off to a great start, I got my first real IT job out of college (Java dev) 4 months ago at 26, and I'll rue all those wasted years before that till the day I die. They almost fired me in the first 3 months and they had to tech me quite a lot of new stuff, but one of my baby steps was unit testing. It was my tests for an old, pajeetly written legacy part of the application that made them want to keep me, or at least feel bad enough about firing me to not go through with it. Now I'm catching up and I have already committed some man-level tickets without making any serious mistakes in them. Self-study shit that you encounter on the job but don't really understand and treat as pretty much black boxes, such as application servers or various DBs. It will help you become a valued problem solver instead of a code monkey.

You're going to rue all the wasted years before graduation?

Absolutely. Do you enjoy that kinda stuff? Even if you don't the pay's through the roof!

Private sector. Aim big and go for a large company (Cisco for example is any network engineer's wet dream). They'll do a goodnjob feeding you the basics. Stay there for 3-5 years before considering starting your owl consulting firm.

Private consulting is where the peak of direct earnings are seen. Try to specialize in network security and maintenance for the best long-term contracts. Hit up goverment branches as they're usally easier targets than private companies in terms of being your paying customers.

You sound like you'd enjoy cybersec and information tech. Try to understand though that a good security engineer knows that what he learns at school are just principles.

By the time you graduate 99% of what you know will be irrelevant. But that's the nature of the field and that's why companies start you off at 300k.

One of the most frustrating parts of pic related for me was how poorly the protagonist was being paid. It's unrealistic and silly that he'd live in such a shit appartment when his position is one of the highest paying ones around.

>unified career thread
Might work actually. Good thinking.

I have a question though. I'm a 29 year old monkey who's been offered a chance to move up to IT coordinator. The pay's better and I get my own office, but is it a good career move?

Feels very middle-managey.

This. So much this. Experience > education. Every single time.

I don't think Elliot would be smart enough to live somewhere nice desu. It seems more like him to live where he does even if he was getting 200+/yr

24 year old poorfag with a general studies associates from a community college and currently taking online classes for an IT degree at a local state college while being a fulltime low wagecuck here. I'm still around 2 1/2 years away from getting the IT degree and wonder if it's possible to get a better job in between then by aiming for certain certs and building a portfolio.

Good OP btw (pls no bully)

>300k starting
Pls, junior security analysts get 55k-65k USD in the Atlanta area.

Become a helpdesk monkey. $15/hr, maybe more. Overtime at $22.50, more if they gave you a higher rate. Many openings, minimal qualifications.

Security engies in Norway can easily make 2 million NOK which is close to 300k USD. You'f need to be hired by IBM, Cisco or MS and be a real prodigee though.

poor bastards

Your strength in this case is in the fact that your courses are online. This gives you an edge that others won't be able to counter in the job marked.

Get a paid internship after Christmas. Most studies end in the summer, and that's when the marked is going to be booming with fresh new kids wanting jobs. Use your flexibility to apply for jobs during the down-season right after and before December. It's a really neat trick that a lot of people don't exploit.

In your spare time up until then, git as gud as you can at coding. Make it a daily ritual to watch a few turtorials on YouTube and try to experiment with what you've learned. Then make a thematic application that actually DOES something (doesn't have to be anything drastic, a Twitter-reader or something will do, learn to use external API).

What kinda' languages are you interested in?

What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? I always recommend every IT professional get SOME code under their belt so don't be afraid to start there.

im 26 with no talents...
how do i get an it job ._.

Evert post should have office anime-sluts ITT. If this is going to be a general we need content to work with.

Don't worry user. It's never too late. Are there any topics in tech you enjoy?

Like do you enjoy coding, testing, perhaps human interaction and sales, or management?

Do you have any formal education or any self-taught experience under your belt? Any work-experience?

i am trying to get comptia but its soannoying..ive been trying for like a year..im a brainlet i still work hard and try tho..i jusy want a decent job to not live on the streets tbqh..im doing code academy now just because im depressed idk..

Leadership is always sought after. Take the job.

Neat. I'm a red-teamer (internal pentesting) for a Big 4. AMA.

What education did you need for that? BS or higher?
Also what's it like in terms of corporate culture?

Are Norwegians literally the oil-rich Arabs of Europe or something?

Tell me about writing reports.

>red-teamer

This might sound retarded but what's a red-teamer?

(checked)
>oil-rich Arabs of Europe
Yeah kinda'. What that anol fails to mention though is that a single beet here costs 30 ameribucks so 300k isn't as impressive as it sounds.

>*user
>*beer
I need to go to bed.

Sup Forums is not the employment board and i just report those threads. you should do the same.

creating a general will only bring more retards seeking career/job advice.

every time this shithole is unbearable when the high school kids flood the board asking what they should study in college. go fuck yourselves.

fuck off

None really. I've worked with PhDs and HS dropouts. You either have the skills or you don't. I studied the classics at uni. Corporate culture (for the red team) is miles better than other teams from what I can tell. Most people leave us alone lol.
Red teams perform security audits (penetration tests) against company systems and personnel to make sure everything is locked up tight (or close enough). Basically legal "hacking".

Are you happy?

>30 USD for a SINGLE (1) beet* (beer)
Wew lad. Might as well give away to house, feed, and educate immigrants (like me, a burger).

Eat shit. Sup Forums is about every aspect of technology. The work that surrounds it and that makes it possible more than anything. And even if you don't agree now you can just hide /itcg/ and hopefully never have to see the topic again. Less clutter in the cataloge.

Sure, when I'm reversing a binary or picking locks or walking into server rooms dressed as a sandwich delivery boy. Unfortunately that's like 20% of the job and the rest is writing reports. Which blows dick.

Need help.

I have CS Degree.
The only job out of college I got was in a warehouse building servers.
Now I'm doing SQL stuff but I still have my warehouse title. They won't move me to for another six months.

Is it worth it get good with SQL and pursuing a career in it? It's a lot work and can kind of stressful. But the way I see it now it's either being a SQL developer or working in a warehouse.

I know, right? The housing market has been described as one of the worst on the planet...

Do what a guy would do and you'll have the advantage of diversity policies (at major companies). Focus on learning general things like knowing how to code (say, in Java or Python) and using Windows and Linux. The company will breathe a sigh of relief that their diversity hire is at least competent enough to learn.

From there, focus on a small but useful section of the work and expand your skills. Keep yourself general so that in layoffs / restructurings you can always be transferred elsewhere.

>walking into server rooms dressed as a sandwich delivery boy

Okay this sounds fun as fuck. Do you guys do a lot of stuff like this?

or you combine both and go into data warehousing

employment is not technology or technology discussion.

Thank you my dudes.

Yes all the time. 99.9% of the time the weakest link in a system is the meatware (humans). It's not that cool or novel but if I can walk in and stick a USB drive in something after a 30 minute walkabout, that beats spending 3 days prodding around in nmap and dirbuster trying to find software to exploit.

My last college semester is starting soon, but it's a shitty college. I got my CCNA this month, I've been told here that it ain't worth shit, but I'm not in USA and I think that it's valued more here. I have no job experience whatsoever but a guy with a top position networking job is willing to lie that I worked for him for a few months. I'm planing to get CCNA Security next and then CCNP R&S. I speak 3 languages.

Am I doing good? I'm turning 22 next month. Any advice?

Batchelor's or masters?

Bachelors

I've been applying elsewhere but nobody gives a fuck if you only have a bachelors with zero experience

will code academy help me with anything?

I am depressed and just going through it just because..

If i get a RHCSA cert will it help me get a job?

Im studying CS. Which path to follow after? Which comfy job should I seek for? I dont want something too hard and too demanding or something hit and miss that might get me fired any moment i make a mistake. want something steady for some decent-ish money. Is database manager/sysadmin comfy?
Also what online courses/certificates to do that might help when put in my CV. I heard google analytics is one of them right? what else?

It certainly won't hurt you.

Anons gotta be more specific with their questions and situations going forward if they're expecting actual helpful answers.

How's the pay compared to a similar level dev position at your company.

About the same as a regular dev. Been here ~2 years and I make 145k base + some benefits.

That's true. God a master's in mind?

>/lit/ has threads about how to be an author/publisher/writer
>Sup Forums has threads about how to be a director/producer/actor
>Sup Forums has threads about how to be a game designer/tester/game coder

Even /s/ and /hm/ have threads about how to be a model occasionally, but you somehow think Sup Forums isn't allowed to have threads about how to get into and advance within the tech industry? Eat. Shit.

This is actually a really good idea for that user.

Code Academy can teach you basic syntax and rules, but won't teach you problem solving.

The thing people keep forgetting about being coders is that 99% of the work isn't "how to write Java", but "how to solve problems with Java".

And Code Academy won't help you with that last part.

>I'm still new to LinkedIn,
Linkedin profiles are literally THE resource you want as a monkey (a "monkey" is the lingo used for a code monkey, or a coder).

If you get nothing else out of this thread; take your linkedin profile very seriously.

Tell us more about your education. The fact that you have someone willing to lie for you is very useful in your situation.

What languages do you speak?

Still for 22 you're well on the way. Give us more details and we'll give you better advice.

What do you like?

Like what would you prefer you working day look like? Hectic/relaxed? Administrative/hands-on? Interactive/quiet?

Also what are your grades like? Do you have a specialization?

How old are you?

I can think of a few places I'd put a recent CS grad.

Man what a cutie. I did't know i had a office/secretary fetish but I clearly do.

>that pic

If anyone has any skill with editing, we should add /itcg/ in little black text on her panties and use it for the next thread.

So I just landed my first big kid job at 27 and been here for a month now. It's a web dev position for $61k, which is pretty good since I live in a low CoL area. Unfortunately, I'm slowly beginning to realize that I don't enjoy coding in RoR and JS. The application's codebase is a fucking mess too and I'm just not motivated enough to learn it.

Should I just tough it out for a few months or just start looking for another job?

Welcome to the real world. Where nothing is as fun as you thought it'd be.

Still, you have a job, and this is the time to farm in on some of that sweet experience. I find that as an agent, it's much harder to sell in a webdev if they don't have at least a year of experience already. Whatever happens, I recommend you stay put in your current job for at least a full year. No one's going to look at your resume and be terribly impressed by your 4 months working at a place.

What degree do you have? BS/MS?

On the bright side, a lot of the tech industry is process of elimination. It's a big field and there are bound to be things you don't like as much as others. At least now you know that what you're doing right now isn't for you.

Having a look around at a few other positions won't hurt, and applying and getting some interview-experience under your belt is always handy (a majority of my candidates blow their interviews hard, so that's a spot where the tech industry is deeply suffering).

What do you THINK you'd enjoy?

This might have come across as a bit negative. Congratulations on the job, and at least you are now in a position where you can gain some experience! Which is very valuable for you right now.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll stick around for a little longer for the experience. Luckily, the work/life balance here is nice and I'm not putting out fires every other day.

I spent quite a few months job hunting and practicing coding interviews before I lucked out on my first offer, which is now my current job. I do have a BS in CS, so I could start looking at other places. There's just so many other new grad devs looking for positions as well and I suffer from impostor syndrome pretty badly.

I'm almost at my first year of professional experience in web development. Six more weeks.
I'm grossly underpaid. I'm self taught so I took a low paying job to get experience. I've learned more than I thought possible over the last year and now I think I'm ready to hunt down a new job. Is it too early to start applying?

It's very normal for new people to suffer from impostor syndrom early in their careers. You just gotta' remember that the company you're at now picked you out of all the others, and none of them could have done it as well as you.

People don't just stroll out of college with free CS degrees you know!

I wish you luck user, and come back here and give us a poke if you have any more questions about possible jobs or career ambitions.

Nah, when you start putting down the clamps on the first year, you are ready to start looking for other jobs as a rule-of-thumb.

The fact that you're self-taught without any real formal education and still managed to land a dev job means you're already passed the hardest hurdle. That being said, I'd suggest sticking around a little longer. Maybe 2 years total. Employers are going to see your lack of formal education a weakness, and the longer you stay in your current job the less of a weakness it'll be.

Still, start applying, but don't quit before you have something new lined up.

If I can give any advice; make your last few months at the company count. Work your ass off. These are the months your employer is going to remember, and when your potential future employer calls them for reference it's these months they're going to recall.

Do you see yourself applying for a webdev job? If so you're in luck, there are more out there than there are people willing to take them.

I'm glad we got a general for this. Have a cute anime office-whore.

I'm really enjoying web dev. Any tips on where to look? Should I bother with recruiters? A few have contacted me on LinkedIn but haven't gotten me anywhere yet.

Thanks for the advice.

Your're very welcome! And yes, recruiters can be a huge asset. They just usually aren't.

The up side to a GOOD recruiter/agent is that you can sometimes skip several steps in the recruitment process if they believe in you. 3 interviews can get cut down to 2. Background checks that could take months will take a week. Stuff like that.

On the other hand most recruiters send the exact same "you're special and I have a job for you!" emails to about 100 people just to see who bites. Have you been on the phone with any of them yet? That's usually a sign they're ready to invest time into landing you a job.

In terms of where to look for jobs, I advice linkedin. Linkedin gets a shit rep on Sup Forums but a lot of my candidates have most of the time had positive experiences with it. Don't be afraid to look into the private AND the public sector though. There's a stigma against the public sector for their slightly lower pay, but they offer a ton of other benefits.

Keep your eyes open and don't be afraid to drop a ton of resumes. Go for the shotgun-approach to job hunting.

I wish my supervisor looked this cute. Instead she's a fat old tumblerite.

Yeah, never happening.

How can I exploit the fact that Im a shitskin in order to make it in the IT field?

How shitskin? Are we talking ahmed, nigger, poo-in-the-loo?

Believe it or not you actually do have a strength in each of them. They all offer pluss points to companies who hire you, while white is straight white male is essentially a +0.

What's the ultimate pluss-points generator?

>black trans-female wheelchaired anykin
At that point you essentially get any job for free and are literally impossible to fire.

Shitposting aside, you can probably get a very low-tier tech job JUST by being a minority. The """problem""" is that the tech industry is filled with straight white nerdy guys (which is also incidentally why the tech industry is booming).

That means that the politically correct crowd will go for diversity-hires.

Go in for a technical support job and it's essentially yours for free.