Right, I presume you are fed up with your current job and you have already decided to try to get into IT. That’s a great choice, I did that myself too. And let me tell you something, it is not as difficult as you think and you don’t need to have a degree, the only thing you need to have is willingness and determination to learn and a little bit of free time to spare for studying.
In this article we are going to explain in 3 steps what you have to do to land your first IT job, so spare a few minutes to read the whole article. Thank you.
Step 1. Get certified.
The first thing that you need to do when changing career to IT is to get certified. In that way, you will show potential employers that you have the knowledge and the passion to do the job. And let’s be honest having a certificate stated in your CV boosts your chance to get picked up from the HR for job interviews.
Recommended certificates – CompTIA ITF+ and CompTIA A+
If you know a little bit about PCs, laptops, smartphones, and other such devices we recommend you go straight for CompTIA A+.
But if you are not so tech savvy we suggest you go first for Comptia ITF+, and after that for CompTIA A+. With Those two certificates, or only with CompTIA A+ you will be able to secure at least a few interviews for entry-level IT jobs such as IT Support, Helpdesk, Desktop Support, or Service Desk Analyst.
FREE STUDY RESOURCES.
Okay, let’s presume you are a bit tech-savvy and you are going for CompTIA A+ certification. But you might wonder where to find free and good materials to study for. So let’s go first with the free recourses available across the internet, There are plenty but we highly recommend these YouTube channels:
Professor Messer and DeanCyber.
Their content has helped many people pass their exams. DeanCyber’s practice tests and simulations are simply explained and easy to understand from anyone. And I presume everyone who got Comptia certified went through Professor Messer’s videos. He is one of the best professionals. Also on our website, we have free practice questions for most CompTIA exams, you can find them HERE. Of course, we are going to recommend our website. Just go to DOWNLOAD section and choose which practice exam questions would you like to buy for a few bucks. Okay, let’s say that you have passed your CompTIA ITF+ / A+ exams. Read more about the actual CompTIA A+ exam and CompTIA ITF+ exam.
Step 2. Experience.
Right, you may have noticed that most of the IT jobs, even the entry-level ones require you to have IT experience. So what you are going to do now? Don’t lose hope, there is a way to gain that kind of IT experience that will spice up your CV and give you a big chance to get hired.
The first thing that you can do to gain some kind of experience is to install VirtualBox on your PC and create VMs. Install Active Directory, create and join VM/s to a domain. Create users, assign Group Policy, reset passwords for the created users, and just play with Active Directory. Next thing be familiar with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube, but we highly recommend KevTech’s channel. He explains everything and you can follow along and do all these things and put them in your resume as an IT experience. That’s what I did and got me the first IT job. So don’t be encouraged when they require experience. You got this.
Step 2. Applying for jobs.
Great, we presume you have already amended your CV, you have some kind of experience, and now it’s time to apply for jobs. Here are some of the best websites where you can look for jobs.
LinkedIn is a great place to find IT jobs and connect with IT recruiters and IT professionals.
Indeed is one of the most popular websites for job seekers.
Totaljobs is another good website for finding jobs.
And a little tip for us – Amend your resume according to the position you apply for. Of course, we are not saying to fake it but you have to sell yourself, so have that in mind
Step 3. Get ready and pass your interview.
The last step is to prepare yourself for the interview. There is a misunderstanding here, lots of people think that they will be asked mostly technical questions in their interviews, but the truth is, that is not always the way.
In my interview for example, for an entry-level IT position I did not have many technical questions, most of them were about my previous jobs and what skills and knowledge I can bring to the job. Yes, I did have some questions like How I stay up to date with the tech news, what is the host file, what is SLA, what is Active Directory, etc.
Don’t worry I will make a post with IT interview questions and answers so please SUBSCRIBE for our newsletter and you will receive an email when we have a new post. And that’s it thank you and good luck on your journey.