How did you get into IT?

[unixman_again]

In 1975, my final year of high school, we had to do a science project, and I built one of the computers (JACKIE) from the book "We Built Our Own Computers" It could add, subtract and multiply with a whopping 8 bits of memory. Younger readers should note that building computers then, wasn't running off to PC World and plugging a few bits together. This involved getting your hands dirty with relays, wire and soldering irons. I really wasn't interested in computers; I liked fiddling around with radios and other electronics. I have obtained a pristine copy of the book and a retirement project is to make the computer again. Looking at the diagrams, I must have a lot more cleverer then than I am now!

 

When I went to university, I starting in Chemical Technology. It became obvious that there would be no job prospects for an industrial chemist. The wineries were replacing their chemists with lab technicians (cheaper) and farming out more complicated analysis. Ditto for pathology. So after a year, I made the biggest mistake in my life, and switched to the computing degree.

 

Sometime later, I tried to get out of computing and started an electronic engineering degree part time. Part of this was a subject in computing and about half of the intake felt they could get status in the subject. We had to see the lecturer in alphabetical order of surname. I was the last one.

 

Lecturer: "I suppose you've got a Commodore 64 too."

Me: "Yes I do, but I've also got a degree in computer studies."

Lecturer: "Fair enough. You're the only one who has managed to give me a valid reason for status. Would you like status in the maths subject too?"

Me: "No thanks. I think my maths is a bit rusty and could do with a brush up."

 

Sadly the degree course closed half way through.

[Kitkatninja]

For me it was a gradual thing... Did the C&Gs in Programming, the NVQ2 in Software Creation, the HNC in Computing, and I was doing my BSc in Computing (specialising in Software Engineering) - 5 years of trying to get a programming position (and not getting very far) before I started to slide into IT Support... And the rest is history.

[Smee]

Left school (and home) at 15 and worked in a bank. Had children and lots of part time jobs to work around child care. Children all off to school and I found a course called "women's returners to work" funded by the EU. 11 week course and ended up with a NVQ in Information tech. Bluffed my way into a tech job in a secondary school under a network manager who wasn't frightened by my lack of knowledge. Hubby relocated and I followed. 2nd career bluff was to be employed by a group of schools supporting the primaries with their computers. Read a lot of manuals, had a play with spare computers and made a few errors on the way but have no "proper" qualifications with regard to IT. Love a puzzle to solve and have quite a logical mind and most importantly I'm not afraid to ask for help when I need it. Still think someone will find me out oh by the way they didn't have computers when I was at school.......

[pooley]

Had an acorn electron when I was about 12 years old, then a 286 zenith pc (2 floppys) in my teens then mum bought me a Tiny or Time brand pc and I basically took it apart and put it back together a number of times updating/troubleshooting it. No-one to ask for help so had to work out how to fix it myself via dial up 1p a minute internet.

 

Trained as a SEN Nursery nurse but it didn't pay the bills, applied for a job with my LA around 16 years ago, the rest as they say is history.

[JATSO]

Left the Army in 2000 after 23 years as an Infantryman with no formal civilian qualifications, I worked with military comms and have a knack for problem solving and fixing things that can be fixed, computers had only just started being deployed in the 90's and to be honest I hated the things Mainframe, DOS, Win3.1 etc, on leaving I needed to find something that fitted in with my kids schooling so I targeted Education IT term time only, I trained myself from books on the working of the PC's/networks and really most of it has been on the job learning, landed my current job in 2001.

[Sheridan]

VIC20 -> Commodore 64 -> O Level Computer Studies - OND - HND - (mixed bag of non IT jobs!) - Programmer - Senior Programmer - IT Network Support. And still have the Commodore 64!

 

Sad to think this is probably my last job in IT, when the MAT redundancies kick in, I'll be looking for something different I think as IT opportunities seem to be thin on the ground in my region

[djm968]

Left school in 1986 did a YTS with Fords and bought a Sinclair ZX81 with a 16K RAM pack. Learnt basic and wrote programmes that the YTS instructors used to teach other students! Get a job in accounts for a local building contractor and spent more time fixing the computer than actually using it to process invoices etc. Company went bust and I was made redundant (nothing to do with me guv honest!) Applied for an ICT Technician job in an Independent Girls School and got it, promoted to IT manager and employed a Technician was there for over 10 years and loved every minute.

[mrbios]

Proper answer rather than my joke one before:

Started with an Amiga 500 when i was roughly 10 years old, loved it, mainly for games but curious about the more computery aspects of it, upgrading it and playing around with the other programs it could run.

 

Moved on to a 486 shortly afterwards, which was later upgraded to a P1 100mhz. I was using it purely to play games on (Dune 2 and later Dune 2000), but as i only had a 540mb hard drive, and windows 95 and then 98 took up most of that, i spent a lot of time learning about more intricate bits of windows in an effort to make space Eventually i took it apart, started learning about the hardware etc. I was basically hooked and fascinated with technology from that point, at this point the 486 and P1 was also massively out of date, we just got it off my dads friend second hand. I remember running down stairs at 12 or so really impressed with myself, with the computer in bits on my bedroom floor, showing my dad the processor haha

 

Later down the line my parents purchased me and my sister a computer each, we were roughly 14 and 18. Finally had what was at the time "modern" technology....it was a 900mhz celeron (fortunately i knew no better as to how bad celeron really was, it was a million times faster than my P1) struggled along with Windows ME in the beginning. Around this time i started getting friendly with the IT guy at school, he started teaching me and my friend the ways of the force, gave us a copy of XP each when that came out. I was finally free from windows ME. Started torrenting, and got into clan based gaming.

 

My learning stopped at that point as gaming took over, i found counter strike.... during the source days (2003-2005) I was playing in various high level UK teams, towards the end we were sponsored, went to insomnia lan (i27) unfortuantely we came 3rd, but it was nice turning up to a BYOD event with just my keyboard and mouse, ticket paid for and computer there ready for me. Eventually realised i was wasting my life, although if only i was born 10 years younger, what the e-sports scene holds for people now is a different world entirely....anyway, applied for an IT tech job, was the only person to apply so was given the job. Started off without even an idea of how to RDP to a server or what active directory was, i just knew how to fix and build computers. Learnt from some very smart external consultants and some very helpful people here over the years....15 years on here we are.

Edited February 27, 2020 by mrbios

[StormTrooper59]

Some very interesting paths in this thread, sadly mine is more mundane.

 

When I was in secondary school I realised that I enjoyed working on PC's and Laptops that we had at the time. I was part of the generation of kids when the first generation of interactive whiteboards was coming out into schools and I found them fascinating back then. fast forward a couple of years I managed to get some work experience during Year 12 at a local primary school which was just about to expand and become one of the first free school trusts in the country. I stayed in touch with the trust and was able to get an apprenticeship with them when I had completed Year 13. I stayed with them for 5 years or so with varying job titles before trying my hand of private sector work to gain more industry experience. Then around 18 months later I've returned to a smaller trust as an Assistant Network Manager where I have been since the last 7 to 8 months or so. Don't have any degree qualifications or any certs to shout about unfortunately yet but hoping to get some done in the next couple of years or so.

[caffrey]

I found computers fascinating from the day the commodore PET was wheeled between classes in my junior school, I was always first to finish my work so I could get to play on it.

VIC20 - C64 basic programming then Amiga. I actually started a career path of becoming an accounts technician but I didn't enjoy it. Got a job as a accounts dogbody and ended up creating databases in db4 for expenses and petty cash and stuff then my career just fell into IT - I have no formal qualifications in IT at all, not even any certs, I just enjoy solving puzzles and not necessarily in IT.

I don't enjoy IT as much as I used to, as it's all got very fragmented and it just doesn't feel as exciting anymore

[unixman_again]

I don't enjoy IT as much as I used to, as it's all got very fragmented and it just doesn't feel as exciting anymore

 

Have you tried running defrag career /u /v /x (I think that's the correct switches)

[LeMarchand]

Sad to think this is probably my last job in IT, when the MAT redundancies kick in

 

Sounds cynical; is (unfortunately) realistic .

[Zourous]

Liked computers and went to learn after school in a college for a couple of years. At the time (early 90's) they had such programs as Lotus 123, Wordperfect, Dbase III, Dos, Windows 3.1, VB 1 and Turbo Pascal. Anyway, found it hard to get a IT related job and ended up doing numerical input and admin. Then went I started a role as a 19 year old I wrote a program in pascal that did a good part of my job (some 60% faster). I didn't think they would take me seriously when I mentioned it to them having been there less than a month, but they did and paid me £500 for it. After that they made me their main IT person (as I knew more than their current person) and I went on from there.

[ICT-Joe]

I did a week of work experience when I was in Year 12 at the college where I studied, and in Year 13, rather than having blank lessons on my timetable, I volunteered with the ICT Team again. Not long after, another tech left and I was offered the job! Still here, six years later! Have always been into computers, starting when my mum got a Megadrive when I was 4/5 years old - we'd spend hours on Sonic 1, and later, Sonic 2's multiplayer mode.

[jcs808]

I messed about with computers as a kid but I was more interested in how they worked rather than how they were used. IT wasn't a job so I trained as an accountant, realised that was boring unless you wanted to be crooked. IT then became a job so I did some proper summer classes and then Uni. Applied for various jobs and got taken on a 9 month contract and I'm still here 20 years later. Started as a wet behind the ears technician and worked up to IT Manager.

[TechMonkey]

Surely the important question is how do you get out?!

[Syman_a]

i said i would cover the day to day faults until a replacement tech was found.

 

That was four years ago!

[Davit2005]

I found computers fascinating from the day the commodore PET was wheeled between classes in my junior school, I was always first to finish my work so I could get to play on it.

VIC20 - C64 basic programming then Amiga. I actually started a career path of becoming an accounts technician but I didn't enjoy it. Got a job as a accounts dogbody and ended up creating databases in db4 for expenses and petty cash and stuff then my career just fell into IT - I have no formal qualifications in IT at all, not even any certs, I just enjoy solving puzzles and not necessarily in IT.

I don't enjoy IT as much as I used to, as it's all got very fragmented and it just doesn't feel as exciting anymore

 

We had a Commodore PET at our secondary school, one IT room full of BBC model B on a local network, lol.

 

Same commodore roots Vic20 > C64 > Amiga then a 386SX PC with a Modem.

[JordanT91]

It was the only subject I was really interested in at school, other than history. The natural progression was to go to college to do IT. I never wanted to go to uni, but I didn't really have a choice because companies were laying staff off rather than taking them on. Applied on deadline day, got in, did a 4 year (including placement) course and finished that in 2014. I needed a job, so applied for the position of IT Technician at this school. Nearly 6 years later, I'm still here, though I no longer have an 'interest' in IT and it's a relatively small part of my job now. Edited February 27, 2020 by JordanT91

[HarryMonkey]

It's 1978 and I have a choice of two jobs ... trainee draughtsman for a heating company ... had to be up at 6 am to start or, dogsbody at the Oxford Regional Health Authority in the data control dept ... start 8am So the lazy option won. I moved into computer operations ... ICL mainframe and then went freelance. Eventually moved into network cabling, spent a year as a narrowboat electrician, got made redundant and then saw a part time job as a technician at the local school running an RM windows 3.11 and a small Connect 2 Win 95 network. Stayed there for a year, moved schools, finished there after a couple of years as Network Manager, went back to my original school as IT Systems Manager. Got made redundant from there and joined my current school as a senior tech and got moved up to network manager earlier this year.

[Cat_Jam148]

Always had an interest in the world of IT from a young age - helps that my Dad was always into tinkering with computers and whatnot. Early on, around Year 5/6, I was always the 'Teacher's Pet' type who would help to setup the computers for our lesson and pretty much decided then that I wanted to work in School with computers. Fast forward many years and my first job out of Sixth From was for an Apprenticeship at a Primary School working as a team of two. Seven years later, still working here, but now a team of one! Can't complain - I love the job, the 'no day is the same' work load, the fact that i'm pretty much my own boss and the atmosphere. Oh..and the holiday time is good (Term Time + 2 weeks here).

[MartinT]

In Sixth Form at school I was programming using a Teletype terminal and acoustic coupler into the City of London Polytechnic system. I then studied Electronic Engineering at University. Used punched cards for some of my modules and did my thesis on a self-built Wireless World Comp-80 computer with a Zilog Z80 CPU. Graduated in 1980 and started work as a computer service engineer, repairing to component level - often onsite. My first car was a company car. After spells as a Group Product Manager at NEC and Xerox, I reverted to running IT systems at Xerox and finally at my current school some 17 years ago.

[LTurner3692]

I use to enjoy breaking them and trying to fix them again for no other reason than I was bored. My uncle worked for Nokia when I was a young kid so I used to watch how he fixed it and then break it again so I could do what he did.

 

Tried doing IT in college and found it to uninspiring, so joined the RAF to do IT, Little did I know that IT was only a very small part of my job, so I left, after a few years out of IT I decided I wanted back in and got a job in a secondary school. It didn't take long to remember what I had forgotten.

 

Been doing this for the last 6 years!

[maark]

Went to uni to do computer science - course was boring too much engineering and hardware so spent time partying and got kicked out.

Was on dole and dead end jobs for long time.

Worked for library service. Did Open University degree in various technical subjects whilst working as a mobile library driver - yes it was quiet I could do half my studies at work :-)

This got me a foot in the door as IT technician and then on to network manager - 19 years in four schools.

Finishing in schools tomorrow and then having a career break and aiming to go into something different IT wise :-)

[Domino]

Just wondering, how did you all get into becoming an IT technician?

 

I assume I did something terrible in a past life.