My Advice for Breaking into IT

In the past I’ve hosted a ton of TikTok lives and the MOST common question I got was, “How do I break into IT” so here is the advice I would give to anyone.

Internship, Internship, Internship.

First things first, if you're in college THE MOST valuable thing you can do before you graduate is line up and give it your all at an Internship.

My career kickstarted off my Internshiping turning into my first full time job in the field. I didn't need to spend time hunting for a job, I was able to take those skills and relationships and roll it forward in this job.

Start with looking up local companies, think about industries you normally wouldn't think of, see where openings for Interns are and apply even if you feel like you're not going to get a shot at it. You never know unless you try.

IT Job Fields

IT as a whole is huge, don't feel like you need to know what niche you want to fill exactly. Here are just a few of the basic titles to get an idea:

Help Desk - Great entry point, lots of exposure to different technologies.
System Administration - In my opinion, a very well rounded and talented position. Has to be good at managing servers, infrastructure, etc.
Network Engineering - Everything rides on the network, it's the backbone in which everything communicates and personally my favorite.
Cybersecurity - This is not a typical entry level role. But people always ask, you usually want a foundation in another role before jumping into this.
Cloud Engineer - Lots of different cloud providers, lots of different roles and companies are looking for people with these skillsets.

Don't overthink this choice. You might find you like one position but hate another, it's normal.

Study & Lab It Up!

BOOTCAMPS THAT PROMISE YOU'LL LAND A 6 FIGURE JOB OUT OF THE GATE ARE LYING

So here are some resources I would recommend (not all of them are free)

YouTube - Free, Good Variety, Good Creators
CBTNuggets - Shoutout to CBTNuggets- I took their CCNA course in the past and it helped immensely with passing and getting my CCNA.
(For Students) - Cisco NetAcademy - Leverage this if you're in the networking space, utilize it to your advantage while you can.
Boson NetSim - If you're looking for simulated labs, Boson is worth the money in my opinion.

Patience and Persistence

Rome wasn't built in a day, neither will your skills as a up and coming professional in this field. Take your time, you'll get more rejections than you'll know what to do with but don't let that get you down. There are so many of hardworking people in this field who just have to keep working and working at it until they find the right place.

It is a skill to be persistent and it will benefit you in your career, your life, and beyond. If you find that you give up at the first sign of adversity you will never succeed. The job market is definitely difficult but rough waters create skilled sailors, so they say.

Pay

This is a tough one I got asked legitimately every single time I did a TikTok live. There is no perfect scale of pay as there are multiple factors (in my opinon)

Location
Cost of Living
Experience
Business Size
Budget
Total Compensation

If you truly want to know pay-wise where you stand, I suggest signing up for GlassDoor, and doing some market analysis. It is good to know where you stand but remember that chasing the dollar is not always as nice as it sounds, but don't ever let yourself be tremendously underpaid for the work you do. There is always a way to strike a balance.

Final Thoughts

I will try to add onto this post as time goes on when I think of additional things, if there is something specific you want me to write about next, please reach out via social media or use this lovely website. If you've stuck around to the end here, I thank you and appreciate you taking the time to support me.