How to get your foot in the door, "tech job"

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noobtech

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I've been messing with computer since my 286 system when I was 13 yrs old. Now 13 years later, i'm still having fun fixing everyones computer. (friends, family, etc)

I've been studying A+ but havn't taken the test... I took a lot of computer classes to fill in any gaps I might have not learned. So how is one able to get their foot in the door? I see tech shops here and there, but do you just get an application like other stores? I dunno... i've submitted my resume to different places, but no one acknowledges me. :-(

Just curious...

Thanks!
 
As much as I hate to say it, A+ and certs mean almost nothing now. If you really want to get into this field you are going to have to look at anything to get you some experience.

Of course on the other hand you could go back and decide to get yourself a college degree, as thats the only real answer, for companies looking for people nowadays.
 
if you've been studying for the A+, you just as well get it. although it doesn't count for much anymore, its a good thing to have as just a simple backdrop. especially with a lack of experience. it also depends on what type of career you want to persue in the long run. i suggest working your way into easier tech markets, even things such as best buy or whereever you can. ultimately the 4 year degree is the best way to advance in anything the way our society is going, but if you can land a few certifications and make sure you'll able to talk to the talk to get you to whatever test they give- then you'll be good.
 
At least certs serve a purpose - it gives you a reassuring status (sort of). If you have a 4 yr. degree, experience, with tons of certs, you're good to go really.

-J.
 
UltimaParadox said:
As much as I hate to say it, A+ and certs mean almost nothing now. If you really want to get into this field you are going to have to look at anything to get you some experience.

Of course on the other hand you could go back and decide to get yourself a college degree, as thats the only real answer, for companies looking for people nowadays.
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As an employer, I would say that while certification is not the be all and end all of proving or disproving your abilities, I would much rather have an A+ certified entry level technician than someone who just says
I've been messing with computer since my 286 system when I was 13 yrs old.
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A hobbyist who has 10-15 years hobby level experience, versus someone who has 2 years experience, but is serious enough about it to go and get certified leaves me very little choice as to whom I will or will not hire.

Additionally, it's the "Edging out" factor for a lot of the candidates I've seen. Two equal individuals, one with, and one without a security+ certification for example, and I'll take the certified individual.
 
Well,

I started in Tech Support in a growing company and worked my way up to working elbow deep in servers. It took me several years to do it but it was really the only way that I found to be able to break into the field.

Certs are important. The more you have the more interviews you'll get. That's all they are really good for in the end is getting you past some robot HR person who combs over resume's looking for letters in a specific order before forwarding them on to a hiring manager. A+ won't earn you any respect in the business from your fellow techies, but will show you are at least mildly determined to better yourself with education. Get as many certs as you can and really learn the material. It's the braindumb using asshats that are flooding the field with no idea what they are doing and making it hell on the rest of us.

One thing that I did to beef up my resume was to start my own PC repair business. That shows a lot of motivation and determination to prospective employers as well as some real world experience other than I fix my moms computer when her AOL acts up.

If you're serious about this field being your career you need to figure out what you want to specialize in and focus your attention on that one thing. Once you have decided on your goal, enroll in college. Get a Batchelors in something related to your field and you'll have an excellent chance of landing that job you are looking for.
 
UltimaParadox said:
As much as I hate to say it, A+ and certs mean almost nothing now. If you really want to get into this field you are going to have to look at anything to get you some experience.

Of course on the other hand you could go back and decide to get yourself a college degree, as thats the only real answer, for companies looking for people nowadays.
Click to expand...

This is partly true.

Two things will get you in the door...personal recommendations (it's who you know) and/or a degree.

It's all in the attitude, being confrontational and argumentative will get you an auto mechanics job, but not a computer job in a big company. A Degree may get you in the door, but it won't get you as much as your friends can. In either case, once you get in the door, if you blow it, it's all you and second chances are harder to come by than first chances. (then again, third and fourth chances are easy...because by then you have experience already on the inside).

:)
 
Laforge said:
As an employer, I would say that while certification is not the be all and end all of proving or disproving your abilities, I would much rather have an A+ certified entry level technician than someone who just says

A hobbyist who has 10-15 years hobby level experience, versus someone who has 2 years experience, but is serious enough about it to go and get certified leaves me very little choice as to whom I will or will not hire.

Additionally, it's the "Edging out" factor for a lot of the candidates I've seen. Two equal individuals, one with, and one without a security+ certification for example, and I'll take the certified individual.
Click to expand...

I would have to disagree but it comes down to specific individuals and intuition that would make the difference.

I can't tell you how many idiots I have seen come and go that had MCSE's. I'll hire a good experienced tech with a good reputation over ANY degreed certified lower experienced person. I found the degreed person will demand more money and the average can not prove their worth, where the good worker will start lower and have the motivation to prove themselves and end up edging out most certified degreed people. Of course, their are exceptions, but they are the ones who usually have certs, degrees AND experience already.

I think most other hiring managers would agree.

Then again, I am only in a position to hire and manage top level corporate server techs. I don't know if this reality holds as much truth for desktop techs.
 
blackrino9 said:
Well,

One thing that I did to beef up my resume was to start my own PC repair business. That shows a lot of motivation and determination to prospective employers as well as some real world experience other than I fix my moms computer when her AOL acts up.
Click to expand...

This is good advice.

As well, if you have been fixing PC's on the side, the spin should be you have ran your own small PC repair business on the side of your main employment and are now ready to make tech support your main employment.

Spin helps a lot.
 
You can't go wrong with the Geek Squad.
I am a CIA and it is the best job I've ever had.
I have so much fun and my fellow employees are really great.
We all are so alike and we get along really well, we even spend time together outside of work.

Just about every Best Buy store is looking for more agents, go to your local Best Buy ask some questions and then apply online.
As long as your personality is "a match" you should have no problem getting hired.

If you have some questions send me a PM and I will answer them to the best of my ability in exchange for letting me refer you.
 
Thanks for the input guys.. I like the comment about, I can get a job because I fixed my moms pc when AOL messed up. That should be something used in stand up comedy!! :D

Did you guys see a newspaper article with someone in the east coast posting ads on craigslist? He fixed womans computers... but not for money. He got paid by sex... haha.
 
mentok1982 said:
You can't go wrong with the Geek Squad.
I am a CIA and it is the best job I've ever had.
I have so much fun and my fellow employees are really great.
We all are so alike and we get along really well, we even spend time together outside of work.

Just about every Best Buy store is looking for more agents, go to your local Best Buy ask some questions and then apply online.
As long as your personality is "a match" you should have no problem getting hired.

If you have some questions send me a PM and I will answer them to the best of my ability in exchange for letting me refer you.
Click to expand...

I dont mean to be a pooper but I applied for that while I was taking my mcse and and they told me to eat dirt.( seriously they were pretty mean and I had already gotten my A+,NET+, and xppro). Its ok though I'm pretty happy where I am now. I agree with one of the others "you gotta work your way up". One place thats always a good start is techsupport. I started out in tier2 techsupport for internet issues when there were maybe 30 peeps in the hissi and now theres 150 people in that department. All of which's emails/phonecalls I ignore because my dept issues require my divided attention hehe.

On the certs issue. they are good. Theres people out there making so much money they dont have time for forums after they got certified. the CCNA and security+ is pretty hot right now.So is some linux/unix shell ability. By ability I mean serious experience being a linux geek isnt enough anymore. Schooling isn't worth it. this is something you can do on your own much cheaper. books are 50 or less a cert and the microsoft test run about 100-200.



hehe

On a side note if your looking for a job in the kentuckiana area and drive. We have jobs available in tier1,2, internet and TV support aswell as general tier1,2 CSR and billing support. Pm me if your seriously interested.
 
Start you own on-site support business.
My brother and I started our business "Computer Professionals On-site" about 3 years ago. I learned to market the business by working as a realtor for 8 months. Focus on Business clients who are big enough to pay you well but too small to have their own IT department. Stay away from home users unless they have lots of money. My brother and I both make good money and we now have 3 other guys working for us.

Do not charge less than $100 an hour.
ribs
 
BBA said:
I think most other hiring managers would agree.
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In my professional experience, dealing with hiring managers of my clients, they haven't got a CLUE as to what does, and does not, make a good technician.

bba said:
I found the degreed person will demand more money and the average can not prove their worth, where the good worker will start lower and have the motivation to prove themselves and end up edging out most certified degreed people. Of course, their are exceptions, but they are the ones who usually have certs, degrees AND experience already.
Click to expand...

Where were you when I was looking for a job? [No, I'm not looking for one now.. I'm retired and just looking for ways to waste my money]

I wasn't saying I'd prefer a fresh "bootcamp graduate" who doesn't know how to turn on a pc. I'm just saying that a degreed, certified tech who's also been banging around them for a few years is going to impress me more than some "old pro" who never bothered to get the paper. Not because the paper proves anything as to skill level.. but it proves something as to commitment and seriousness. Someone who invests $50,000 to get that degree isn't going to flight-out after 6 months cause they've decided that what they really want to do is become a musician, or a chef instead.


I personally am the over-experienced, under degreed type myself. Honestly, I don't think I'd have hired me if I was interviewing myself, say.. 5 years ago.
 
Laforge said:
As an employer, I would say that while certification is not the be all and end all of proving or disproving your abilities, I would much rather have an A+ certified entry level technician than someone who just says

A hobbyist who has 10-15 years hobby level experience, versus someone who has 2 years experience, but is serious enough about it to go and get certified leaves me very little choice as to whom I will or will not hire.

Additionally, it's the "Edging out" factor for a lot of the candidates I've seen. Two equal individuals, one with, and one without a security+ certification for example, and I'll take the certified individual.
Click to expand...

But to be honest, I have seen many many IT folks who would rather buy a new computer than change a power supply, or a hard drive. When the IT guy tells you that it is not important to defrag your computer because XP doesn't need it, then I loose faith in them really quick. They lock all our machines here so no one but a few like me are allowed to defrag, chkdsk, etc. They install towers in poor locations, they are never cleaned, the do not set the monitor refresh rate properly, and they buy computers that are not suited for the type of work it would be used for. So, really experience is something to consider too.
Why don't they teach this stuff in class ?

edit sorry just saw your reply above
 
The bottom line is, know what you are doing. Certs have become meaningless because too many idiots have gotten them. College degrees are sometimes tough to lean on, because many colleges only teach theory. I've done interviewing in past jobs,and to be honest, I don't give a crap what is on your resume. I want to know if you can do the job or not. Experience is the one thing that really matters the most, but it's also the hardest to obtain.
 
djnes said:
The bottom line is, know what you are doing. Certs have become meaningless because too many idiots have gotten them. College degrees are sometimes tough to lean on, because many colleges only teach theory. I've done interviewing in past jobs,and to be honest, I don't give a crap what is on your resume. I want to know if you can do the job or not. Experience is the one thing that really matters the most, but it's also the hardest to obtain.
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QFT.

But I find it hard to believe you wouldn't give a crap about resumes. A lot of resumes get tossed just because they weren't formatted correctly. Maybe that isn't the type of thing you do but sadly it holds true for the rest of the employers.

-J.
 
It's not so much of a secret but a common uneducated rule. Many leave the default 60 hz onscreen on the CRT's like they do at my school unfortunately. The optimum is 85 or higher to be easy on the eyes. 60 Hz would hurt the employees using the computers 8 hours a day.

-J.
 
Oh, okay. I have mine set to 75Hz. 60Hz would give me an instant migraine. I was confused because I thought you were talking about a certain method to be used to set the monitor refresh rate, and not the fact that it may need to be adjusted.

I was thinking, "What's wrong with setting the refresh rate through the Control Panel?"

If there was a 'hot-key' 2 second way to do it, I wanted to know :)
 
GeForceX said:
It's not so much of a secret but a common uneducated rule. Many leave the default 60 hz onscreen on the CRT's like they do at my school unfortunately. The optimum is 85 or higher to be easy on the eyes. 60 Hz would hurt the employees using the computers 8 hours a day.

-J.
Click to expand...


Refresh is not so much of a concern nowadays as all workstations where I am have been upgraded to LCD's...


BUT: Back in the day, the best refresh was around 70-72-75 Hz simply because a monitor would die and be replaced by the spare POS in the back room that would go blank with higher refresh rates...then you have to go into VGA mode...yadda yadda yadda

At least todays decent-average CRT's a re better able to handle refresh rates.

I'll stick to my guns on certs...you don't need them to get in the door. And depending on your personality and ability, you may never need them at all, but they are nice to get in your spare time. Just don't expect a huge pay raise once you get certified...it's the best way to be cut loose- I have seen more people loose their jobs because they got their MCSE's and "were worth more" ...no one wants to be bothered by keeping these people around.
 
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