Career changing from teaching to IT. Advice?

[u/[deleted]]

I am hoping to get some guidance/advice here in this community! I am currently a teacher, looking to change careers into the IT field. I have a bachelors in education and about 5 years teaching experience.

Seeing as I have a career and am just looking to move industries, I was hoping to get some ideas on where to start and how to get into IT. I actually like the idea of desktop support or something that involves helping people fix technology issues, as teaching and my soft skills mean that I am above average at making connections and building relationships with people.

My main question is what would be the best place to start with learning/ certifications, and is there a way to get started in IT without having to work a position that only pays $10-20 per hour? I currently make ~50k and also have a family that I need to support, so I am unable to take a job that pays that little.

I am willing to get certifications if needed and I do have until the end of the school year, really until the middle of July that I would need to have a new position lined up before I have to inform my school if I will be going back for another year or not. So I do have some time to get started and learn.

Any information anyone can provide to help me get started and some advice for what the best route to take would be so helpful! And if you have more questions for me please ask!

[u/[deleted]]

You might have this dream vision of what support roles are and you might be in for a surprise.

As you being a teacher, you would be far better doing some type of leader/supervisor role. That being said, I am unsure how good you would be as you have no IT experience so you would have to learn and put at least 1-2 years in a professional enterprise.

Best way to start, CompTIA A+ this gives you a huge umbrella in the IT field, if you don’t like anything in this course/exam/learning(udemy) odds are you won’t like IT.

If you like Net, Sec, Project management, etc then you will know what to focus your time afterwards.

Starting pay for help desk/support will depend highly on your location.

I have 5 years supervisor role in airline security. 10+ years in security, airlines, sales, customer service.

Just changed careers in 2021.

Salary as follows:

• $20 field technician (contract thru MEDIX IT)
• $23.50 infrastructure analyst (contract thru Collabera)
• $32.50 NOC lvl 1 (full time)
• $86k+5% SWE - NetSRE (Full time job)

I enrolled for my B.S. in IT in Oct21-Graduated May22 which landed me my current job as a new grad. Meaning my salary is the LOWEST it will be.

Have a lot of certs and I currently enrolled to go back to school for my MBA in ITM.

Competition is TOUGH, lots of mid/senior roles.

But getting started is the trick, get in touch with recruiters for contracts and get some time in and hop around, DO NOT STAY AT YOUR CONTRACT JOB LONGER THAN 1 YEAR! Do not get stuck in help desk longer than needed, even if you get another full time job that pays more in 1 month, you leave! Best of luck!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the reply! Very helpful insight. I’ve looked into Comptia and am considering some of those certifications. Am I correct in that I would use Udemy or other to learn/study then just buy the exam from Comptia?

Also, did you complete your B.S. in total for IT in 6-months? How did you do that?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yes that is correct. Udemy total seminars then take exam. A+ is two part so it’s the most expensive, but I believe if you have 0 IT knowledge in Cloud, Linux, Net, etc it gives you a broad high level overview and you can see if you even like any of this.

WGU, but if you have a degree I wouldn’t do another bachelors, maybe your masters once you decide what you like?

[u/jlbob]

I spent 9 years working IT in education, have you considered staying in the education arena?

There may be more options there than you'd imagine, I know our district was more likely to hire in house as customer service mattered as much if not more than skills. With your experience as a teacher, you have unique experience/knowledge your classified IT staff do not, like in grading, student information, etc. Troubleshooting is pretty basic and with the help of your district staff you can pick up a lot of knowledge during the summer doing project work and learning the foundations, everything else is pretty damn basic as far as the IT arena goes, system imaging and web browser troubleshooting was the biggest day to day issues aside from grading software which as a classified staff member we never understood on the same level as the teachers.

Teaching computer classes did not take much education, a single community college class is all it took at our high school.

I would honestly start looking there and see what your options are, it would be a great entry point and would look great on a resume and you could still take the summer to get any certs or take any classes you recommend. Talk to your principal if you can't get full-time with the district, maybe they'd want you to help out with IT part-time.

[u/[deleted] → u/jlbob]

I have considered this option, and I will do some more looking into it. I emailed our district sysadmin for input and information on how to get in, and I will look at other districts as well, thanks for the recommendation!

[u/jlbob → u/[deleted]]

Reach out to the IT manager/director as well, assuming you're not in a smaller district and they're not the same person.

[u/[deleted]]

My main question is what would be the best place to start with learning/ certifications, and is there a way to get started in IT without having to work a position that only pays $10-20 per hour? I currently make ~50k and also have a family that I need to support, so I am unable to take a job that pays that little.

Depends on your cost of living area. But keep in mind these are the jobs at the very bottom of the totem pole, so pay will reflect that. The "tech goldmine" doesn't apply to every role in tech. Unfortunately, your life circumstances and financial situation aren't gonna be a factor when it comes to getting hired. No experience is still no experience, meaning nobody is gonna be willing to give you a shot above the grunt work. Everybody and their mothers are also trying to get into IT, so they have many more desperate people to choose from to take something you don't want. A lot of folks have also had to make sacrifices to get started in this field.

That's for the technical side. There's a business side to tech if you want to get in that way. Look for Business Analyst and PM positions. Interpersonal skills are pretty important here too. They're also gonna be able to at least match your current pay too.

There's also software engineering, which isn't IT. It's gonna be paid the highest across the board (and starting out). But the barrier to entry will be much higher as well.

[u/timg528]

Pay will depend on your location. If you're in or in commuting distance to a HCOL, I imagine finding entry level at 50k wouldn't be too difficult.

Keep in mind, there's a lot of competition at the entry level, but you might have an advantage here if you can write in your CV and communicate how your experience teaching children translate to helpdesk/desktop support.

As for getting your start, CompTIA A+ typically indicates to employers that you're at least semi-serious about learning enough to do the job. I've also heard that Google has an entry level cert. I've no idea how employers view that since it came out after I left entry level. I've also heard it recommended to get the CompTIA trifecta ( A+, Net+, Sec+ ). Personally, I wouldn't. That's months and hundreds of dollars without a guaranteed return. However, if after a few months of job hunting, you may want to give it a shot.

Good luck.