ICT Employment..

[nodgelyobo]

Hi all,
I am a 50 year old ex Bulider who had accident 5 years ago preventing me from continuing my trade.

About 3 years ago someone gave me an old PC and since then I have been to college and gained my A+, CCNA, and some other Web design courses. At the moment I have enrolled and intend to do my MCSA.
The only experience I have is shadowing an administrator (in one of the colleges)for 6 months, Where I learned Active directory, Exhange, ghosting etc. I also worked voluntary for a charity organisation installing and configuring hardware, while awaiting the MCSA course

As I have never worked in the IT industry before, apart from the minuscule experience above, I have to know if anyone would be willing to take me on, or basically would my CV be paper planed into the bin cos of my age.
I am genuinely interested and entusiastic about learning this side of IT and any genuine advice, encouragement, or even better...a job at the end of my MCSA course.........would be greatly appreciated.

Incidently I live in East London

Cheers Nodgelyobo

[Midget]

You'd be perfect for a lot of schools due to your building experiance as you'd be able to do the simple tasks instead of the school spending money on contractors.

As you are in London, give William from Special Agent a call on 08701 612 007 or email him at william@specialagent.co.uk.

[nodgelyobo]

Midget,
Iappreciate the comment, but I'm getting into ICT to avoid the building game.

[beeswax]

After 25 years in the music business as a photographer, and at the age of 49 I changed direction and went into IT. I joined the government sponsored Ambition IT project to meet the (then) IT skills shortage. I now work in a secondary school (we'll leave BSF out of this for the moment, but you may want to check out the posts on that subject) Don't rubbish your talent/cv. Because I didn't grow up with computers (very few our age did) their are huge gaps in my knowledge, and the only way to make inroads into that is to put in the extra hours.
You have many more relevant qualifications than I do (a couple of City and Guilds). You should find many more opportunities for work in London than in the regions. You may want to try volunteering to work for a primary school or two, as they can very rarely afford to employ an IT technician. While I appreciate that volunteering doesn't pay any bills, it does mean that you can actually fill in the "Any relevant experience" section on your cv. Good luck.

[mark]

I'm 48 next month nodgelyodo and I had no poblems. People just take you as you are primarily I think, so it's good to get your face known, try to get in to a school to get your face known first. I know Head Teachers around here work very much like that, they far rather work on recommendations.

Your qualifications and experience sound really good. And if you don't mind starting lower down, bigger schools would be good just to get your foot in the door. Once you're in, then other schools will learn of your worth and you can move around.

The college you worked at would be your best point of reference. Presumably they have nothing available nor know of any vavancies?

All the best!

PS - there's a job in mid wales coming up right now

[nodgelyobo]

Beeswax, mark.....great advice and encouragement, well appreciated....you know the score. sometimes you think you're barking up the wrong tree, and is this all a waste of time etc, it's only my enthusiasm and curiousity (hehe my thirst for knowledge of the unknown) that's kept me going.

lt was working with administrator during my placement with college that gave me the taste for working with servers, domains etc.....which is why I decided to do the MSCA, just to round things off....

again well appreciated......Nodgelyobo

[beeswax]

I forgot to add, I'm 54 next Saturday. ;)

[john]

Midget,
Iappreciate the comment, but I'm getting into ICT to avoid the building game.

Seriously in most schools you would be welcomed with open arms the fact that you know one end of a hammer from the other. I appreciate you said that due to your accident you couldn't carry on building, but small bits of work if you can still do that will be a + point to most schools.

[nodgelyobo]

John,
cheers mate.....I've never really looked at that way.......hehe....who would have thought I could I could gelled those 2 skills together. That definately deserves a rethink.............

[_Bat_]

Midget,
Iappreciate the comment, but I'm getting into ICT to avoid the building game.

Seriously in most schools you would be welcomed with open arms the fact that you know one end of a hammer from the other. I appreciate you said that due to your accident you couldn't carry on building, but small bits of work if you can still do that will be a + point to most schools.

I agree... give it a go, you'll probably be very surprised at how much they need you.

[witch]

As Midget said, Special Agent are worth a call

As for the building thing - you would be useful to most schools as you could offer a professional opinion about work that is needed so that the school has an idea of costs etc, doesn't get ripped off, and can plan future budgets

I was 42 when I entered this game - I certainly don't have the qualifications that you do in IT. I found junior/primary schools more receptive to the older IT Tech!

[john]

John,
cheers mate.....I've never really looked at that way.......hehe....who would have thought I could I could gelled those 2 skills together. That definately deserves a rethink.............

Good glad you can see that as well, I always list on my application forms my keen love of DIY, and when asked I list what i've done - 4 Kitchens, 2 bathrooms, various fitted bedroom furniture, carpet fitting, wood floors, the list goes on, and then say in the last schools I've worked in and then rattle off the non-IT type jobs such as room conversions etc and that normally impresses them and makes them realise that those projects like new IT rooms from old classrooms can be possible without the stupid conversion costs they thought would hit them.

[nodgelyobo]

John,
one more question (the most important one)....as a newbie to the IT Industry what type of salary should I be looking at........ taking into consideration my lack of experience (which is obviously more important than qualifications)........just hit me with an estimate to gimme an idea.....

Cheers

[john]

eeer salary well that varies, i'm afraid, in London it will be more due to London weighting etc, but maybe £12K for IT tech? I don't know I know that some places screw you and pay the bare minimum needed and you live with it for convienience of the job, but others on here will be able to say more.

[Midget]

In most places you'd be looking at ~the £15k mark, which'll be a huge difference after building wages.