First real job in I.T.

Well I just started on my first JOB in I.T. 2 days ago. I am the sole web designer in a 5 person (expanding) computer network and hardware company. I replaced an incompitant employee. Its quite amazing really, I am now getting paid to sit at the pc ;).. And a pretty decent wage too! .. I was chuffed with their offer. Especialy being my first comercial experience.

So yeah I am a web desginer / programmer. Kick ass! Today I had my first linux root access.. oh the joy of using nano. LOL!

Considering my last job was working on a building site, job before that working in a kitchen, I am happy to finally be doing what I was meant to do! Sit on a pc getting fat! lol.

Feel free to share similar stories and experiences, advice, etc.

Congratulations - it's great to get paid to do something you love. So many people slave away in jobs they hate. I did that for many years. Never again. Personally, working in I.T. is my idea of hell (one of the upper circles, of course. Game testing is the lowest circle.)

Well, I own the net. I rather think that will take some beating.

well done, hope you enjoy it! I'm never working in an IT company again (unless it's my own ;-))

Big congratulations.

Now tell me how you did it :) I keep thinking I should try to get a .net/asp dev job, but...

-I don't have a degree or certification
-I've spent so much time pursuing the game dev thing, and not really doing database and latest buzzword technologies..
-Like you, all of my previous jobs have been low pay, entry level things with nothing related to IT/programming.

I see the hiring requirements for a lot of these jobs, and see a bunch of "N-tier, Crystal Reports, AJAX, xslt, have 15+ years exp in 20+ different languages and a bachelors degree."

I just kind of get this self defeating attitude I guess, but really -- how does one get their foot in the door?

Well done. Just try to avoid situations where you have tight deadlines - they're very stressful.

I just left I.T (been a c# programmer for a long time)

Januar I start working as an ingenieer, is educated as an mecanical engenieer.

Well I hope that spelling wasn't one of his faults ;)
Good luck in the new job !

.

Orca wrote:



First of all I suggest that you go back to school and improve your qualifications - preferably a degree.

Congrats!



I must be doing something wrong... all these years and I'm not fat, don't even have a bulging belly or anything... *sob*

Well, not all maggots are fat.

:)

<quote>
First of all I suggest that you go back to school and improve your qualifications - preferably a degree.

</quote>

I disagree on this. I've interviewed loads of people for IT jobs, and the one's with degrees generally aren't any better than your common bedroom geek. ( Can't say garden geek, cause you never see geeks in them!)

Thanks all :)



I don't have a degree and I only have highschool qualification (secondary school). Didn't goto college or uni, spent those years recovering from my brain melting due to too much weed smoking. lol. Although in those years (2 - 3 i think!!) I practiced so many different aspects of art design and various forms of programming. (thanks blitz basic!).

Web design aspect of it really started as a side effect of the game design. ( http://www.acoders.com ) We, acoders, needed a website and well I learnt php on the back of the current one. Kinda found my calling at the same time. Web design is my job, game design is my hobby. Art is my passion.. LOL.

So errrr how did I do it ? Created a portfolio of work and checked local listings applying until I got a job. Took 3 months on the dole.

http://www.gumtree.com/

this site is excellent.



Hahahaha, good one.



Not eating enough pizzas.

.

> I disagree on this. I've interviewed loads of people for IT jobs, and the one's with degrees generally aren't any better than your common bedroom geek.

Might be true but, as a person looking for a job (especially a first job) a resume that does not list a college degree goes right to the bottom of the pile at most places.

.

True, but these days lots of companies emphasize on team environment work experience also. The average bedroom geek just doesn't work well with others(even those who get their degrees online are often question for reliability). We have several at my job place and while the guys are extremely adapt at doing their coding work, they just simple are horrible with working in a structure team (some of theses guy were hired during the dot-com boom straight from highschool) :

1 - they don't seem to want to accept authority of project managers or suggestions from other developers
2 - communication is almost non existent with any of them
3 - they don't even work well together
4 - they tend to break off from specific coding standards that the company uses (they often code in a way that only they understand...or rather makes it hard for other developers to work with)

So these guys are often given the tasks of updating and modifying code in existing older (and I mean VB, ASP era) apps, while the rest of the developers get to do all the newer more advance stuff on the team. Needless to say, no more "bed room" or highschool degree-only folks were hired.



I do too. They did however eventually settled for something less than what they expected. The problem with that is that schools are putting the idea in the heads of these IT students that they are worth tons of money out in the real world when the actual truth is...they're probably not. BUT however, having those high priced degrees did eventually get them a very comfortable salary job - but thats after getting their foot into the IT industry first. Thats the hard part....

I took up Aikido to stop getting fat on the computer, 10 years later and I'm teaching it!

hey, I do taekwon-do, outside right now!

Skn3[ac], don't underestimate yourself or assume others have skills and talents beyond yours. If they do, then they do but be careful. One of the main things that holds a lot of people back is their assumption that the people in positions above them are superior. However one of the main things that hampers the inexperienced is the inability to appreciate the value of experience in others.

I suppose what I'm saying is don't keep yourself down unnecessarily, try to listen to those who do actually seem to know something.

I've 15 years in the business, I'm responsible for 1200 users in 15 countries, I have board level access, budget this year £3.2M, size of business £440M, staff: 22, with a bit of luck I know what I'm talking about. ;)

Good Luck,

Darkheart

Using nano is like driving a DB9 compared to vi's Robin Reliant.

telesto: haha, see my skill is to talk you out of going outside, and if we do, you have to attack first and I defend - and I can by nasty or nice ;-) Having said that if Hwang Jang Lee was vs Steven Seagal, I'd bet on Hwang...

@Perturbatio

LOL

Grats m8! Hope you enjoy it :)
I wouldn't want to go back to it though, eventhough they pay was indeed pretty damn sweet. After all that time trying to get my foot in and actually getting a job as C# developer, I have realized it really isn't my thing. Keeping a hobby a hobby works best for me it seems.

@Orca:
Having Degrees in IT isn't the be-al end-all for getting a job as a programmer. If you can show your potential employer that you are very enthausiastic about the job AND are willing and able to learn quickly, this will go a long way for them. Ofcourse you should be able to show them you have *some* relevant experience/.It does not have to be professional though. Just burn some of your best homebrew code/apps on CD and bring it along.

It also helps to browse some Developer community sites like MSDN and familiarising yourself with some of the latest stuff. You don't have to be an expert at it, just a passing knowledge so you can react to a question about it without having to pull stuff out of your ass or presenting them with awkward silences (they are killers!).

If you have no idea what the hell he/she is talking about, don't be afraid to say so. They will likely tell you in general what it's about and you cna then present your own experiences with this topic, thus continueing the conversation :)

Specially if you are still young, you are cheaper and it won't be a problem for many companies to offer you courses to follow during jobtime if you require them. Many MS partners will let you get the needed Microsoft Certifications on their behalf. Some companies employ a fixed anual budget for Educational purposes for every employee. The courses and exams are payed from this. So even if the first job isn't all that you hoped for, it is an ideal stepping stone to bigger things as this is the plce where you gather the professional experience And the paperwork!

Now the above mostly applies to companies who specialize in programming/ICT and who allready have the required know-how. So don't be a wise-ass and contradict them unless you really are 100% sure they are wrong/posing you a trick question.

Oh, and a lil personal tip: If you are unfamiliar with design patterns, go read up on them asap and fiddle with em a bit. They *will* be used and it will score you points if you can tell them about it during the interview.

Nice one skn3[ac], I work on building sites too, and its good to see someone managing to get out of it and succeed in something eles.

Especially since the days are shorter, colder and just down right miserable! :)

Weldone

Dabz

Cool man. I've been working in IT for almost 10 years now, I've never built websites though. In fact, next year I'm starting at a new company where I can focus on hardware virtualization, mainly using VMware and Xen products. I've been virtualizing for three years now, but I'm looking forward to digging deeper.

One Tip: Start working out etc. to compensate for the lazy day job :) Works for me.