Help needed.

[Mikeys]

Just wondering if anyone can help me..

I'm currently unemployed at the moment, but I've been trying desperately to get any job experience doing IT. I'm self taught, I can build computers, repair them and know a bit about networking yet every place I go to for volunteering etc they all say I need experience and be certified.

I'm currently revising for the CompTIA A+ exam (which will hopefully get my foot in the door) and looking at Microsoft certificates, as to be honest, I did not do well in my GCSE's.

Was just hoping if I can get anyone's opinion and/or helpful insights on this as it will be much appreciated.

 

[Sunflower49]

Needing experience, yet nobody will GIVE you any, is a catch 22 I'm familiar with. I'm no expert with I.T but I know a good handful of people who work freelance, by sorting out friend's and friend's of friend's computers, word of mouth gets around that they're good,they get more people who recommend them-etc, if you were to get a job maybe working for an I.T type firm but not actually where you required experience, whilst doing freelance work-it may be your best bet for now at least, you can always keep trying to find something better even though if you're good, you can maybe find you'll make a decent income from freelance.
You may find a lucky break as well, the more people experience your skills, the more people will talk and you may, for example bump into somebody about to begin a new business or something,who wants to employ you.

 

[entwisi]

here is a link to the job pages where I work, choose IT and UK/ cheshire

https://barclays.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl?lang=en_GB

There are some trainee roles ( look for IT8 in the title ) including some in my wider team( MIddleware ). for these you will need to do some basic research of the Middleware technologies ( hint look up Connect Direct, MQ, WebSphere Application server and LDAP as a good start) to understand what they do and how they plug together.


I'd also highly recommend you spending some time learning Linux as most industries work in Linux/Unix more so than Windows(which is mainly just used for desktops in the organisation) for the "real deal" systems.

Ian

 

[lancsdave]

Needing experience, yet nobody will GIVE you any, is a catch 22 I'm familiar with. I'm no expert with I.T but I know a good handful of people who work freelance, by sorting out friend's and friend's of friend's computers, word of mouth gets around that they're good,they get more people who recommend them-etc,

There lies one of the main problems. In the commercial world of IT people think that fixing a few PC's and an ECDL qualification gives them a platform to walk in to IT jobs. The real world is that there are very few jobs in commercial IT for fixing PC's. In reality they are a throw away commodity. As Ian says the commercial world of IT is a different animal altogether. General education and training establishments are a poor provider of IT staff. The real skills are only trained at specialist centres where money talks.

It's difficult enough with the right training and no experience to get in. A screwdriver and ECDL it's a million to one chance