ICT Employment..

the one good thing about your age is that your likely to put in 15 years of work, a lot of other age groups will be more flightly than someone of your age. Also a lot of schools dont really like having younger techs, its hard enough getting teachers to respect a tech let alone when the tech is nearer the age of the students.

in terms of pay i'd look at more than take home if you can, when i was looking i found the nicer jobs with better opportunities had smaller wages.

congrats on your qualifications as well, on paper your there or there abouts for most tech jobs, a little experience and you'll be ready to compete for the best jobs.

good luck although i'm sure you wont need it

Strawberry........your encouraging comments are well appreciated.......as you probably know youself...starting out in new career late on can be quite daunting, as old habits have to make way for new ones...although I do find it quite exciting....hehe....couldn't believe it when daughter said I was turning into a geek.....again thanks

As for the skills you can bring to the job, one position I applied for had as part of the job description that the post holder should see that the oil levels in the school bus are adequate and that the vehicle is kept in good running order. I wrote them a stroppy letter by return of post, but you get the idea of what you may be expected to do.
Good luck

hehe, sounds like our place that. Give those kind of jobs to anyone who knows what a vehicle looks like under the bonet, I don't mind them.

I used to have to open and lock the toilets at break times and do any heavy lifting

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Originally Posted by nodgelyobo

Strawberry........your encouraging comments are well appreciated.......as you probably know youself...starting out in new career late on can be quite daunting, as old habits have to make way for new ones...although I do find it quite exciting....hehe....couldn't believe it when daughter said I was turning into a geek.....again thanks

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i'm the other end of the scale mate, but moving from being a student to being part of the school team is equally, um, exciting!.

Most people don't stay in jobs long nowadays. I recon an employer wants and expects turnaround in about 5 years? In that light, there's no advantage of age in respect of a person expected to stay after they've learned the ropes. Depends entirely on the person I think.

And you don't have to agree to do everything. Depends on your line manager, but a good one could be 'encouraged' to value the skills you offer. Why employ someone as the valuable IT Tech and then get them to do stuff you pay other ppl less for (hopefully ;) )

Thanks to all for their recommendations

I would be happy to talk to you about work in schools and we wouldn't be talking building (unless its workstations etc)

will 08701 612 007 william@specialagent.co.uk

Again.. I am also in a similar boat.
Left uni in 2005 without the Computing degree I had aimed for. spent a year in retail and a factory and decided that this wasn't for me.

I have worked 3 days a week in a local secondary school for nearly a year, and since jan, i have added another school for the other 2 days a week (school 1 being 600 pupils, school 2 going through closedown procedures having only 250 pupils) both as a Junior ICT tech.
Having gone from lugging 30 monitors from the top floor of one building to another on my first day, I have now graduated to being allowed to do most tasks the network manager does. (currently having a running battle with a 3 year old RM laptop, that refuses to take a windows installation)

I came into this job, only having fixed and built my own computers (and those of my family) and having no real practical experience. I have loved the past 12 months.

Your building background will stand you in good stead, purely because most school holidays are spent working on network expansion (usually involving drilling through walls and ceilings and running conduit. (in fact at school 1 this holiday we have built an entire new computer room)
The fact that you have spent some time shadowing a network admin, and doing some free intern work for charities should surely make you an instant choice.

Good luck