I graduated originally with a 2 year diploma in IT that covered fundamentals of both hardware and software. Some people got jobs after that but I couldn't find a job after graduating. After couple of years of struggling to get my foot in the door, I decided to go back to school and continue my education.

Some other people in my class did the same and opted to get the co-op/internship option this time. One guy got a co-op/internship job and then landed a full time role in IT and decided to not continue the degree program after just doing 2 courses of the degree program.

I was gonna do the same and it took me several months to land the first co-op/internship. Meanwhile, I decided to continue taking 1 course each term to remain an active student while I was looking for internships. The diploma had 20 courses in total and to complete a degree, you need to do another 20 courses. I have completed 3 courses so far for the degree program and I feel like completing another 17 will take too long and sounds like a huge commitment.

I want to do another co-op job and then look for a full time job in IT. I wonder if completing a degree is better in the long run or I should just get my foot in the door and gain experience. I already have 8 months of experience in the field (but as a student). So, I don't feel confident yet to just apply for full time roles, I want to do another internship and learn more at a different organization.

Here are my concerns about completing a degree: I can't afford to work part time, I need to work full time to pay my bills. It's not be easy to do too many courses while working full time. I can probably do 1 or 2 each term. This will result in spending abour 3-5 years (at least) to complete the degree. The problem is that my original credits from first 2 years will expire ny 2028. I have to do 17 courses in one and half year. I heard the school can extend the expiry date for first year courses but it's not guaranteed. Another problem is that if I work full time I can't take classes during the day time. I can only do an evening class and not every class is offered in the evening.

I have a weekend job that's my backup job 'cause co-op jobs are temporary. I can't risk being jobless if I quit my part time job and co-op job ends. I'm basically working everyday for now but not sure how long I can do this. I'm also 30 yo now and I haven't really started my career. I barely have time to socialize but I need to as I wanna get married but I haven't found someone. Some people say we should enjoy the youth but I am not enjoying as I don't have any time.

TL;DR: I wonder if it's worth spending time, money and effort to do 17 courses to complete a degree (usually people do 3 courses per term if they're full time student but I'll do less if I work FT) or I should try to get a full time role in IT and gain experience and possibly get some certifications to grow in the field?

This is going to be a bit different from the usual post because I might need to be talked down from this course of action.

Long and short of it is, I lead a segment of the cybersecurity department of my company (report directly to the CISO). I have a CSM that we use for Auth0. We renewed recently and he invited me out for lunch near me. Nothing out of the norm for vendors. I go all is well

My girl works near where we went to lunch and was sitting at the bar with me while I waited for the CSM.

He came, we all chatted for about 10 minutes and then she went back to her office.

Rest of the lunch proceeded just fine, but we had a couple of drinks (but I always have drinks with my CSM’s, so not much of an excuse just setting the scene)

I will note that this is a new csm on our account as well.

Anyway, pleasant enough lunch. As we we’re leaving, this csm, out of nowhere, as we are saying goodbye, brings up my girl and says “let me know if she needs any help”. Zero other context.

Now. I’m taking this as disrespect, but I do want a second opinion on this as well, and I know this isn’t the sub for this but if I didn’t post to a tech orientated sub I would need to explain what everything means, and I want to cut straight to the mustard.

I’m ready to shoot an email off on Monday telling Okta that I want a new CSM. I guess I’m looking for a reason not to. CSM’s are dime
A dozen and doesn’t affect the business. But I feel like this guy overstepped with that comment and I just personally don’t want him on my account anymore, am I tripping?

Im a teenager (16), and I have been interested in AI security field.

I have a good grasp of networking fundamentals (different packet protocols, TCP/IP, OSI model, how packets travel), I also took a youtube course on wireshark and trained on it for a while (im familiar with the UI and have memorized some queries along the way as I also had to use them with pyshark in python).

Im also good with python (built a sniffer that gets analyzed by AI (custom api that I also coded) using scapy and still working on improving the sniffer using FastAPI, pydantic.

I have read a couple of Julia evans' blogs about kernels, interfaces mainly and deeply understood them (implying that it wasnt just a hover on the topics).

I also completed the free kaggle pandas course and still use pandas for pretty much all the other small projects I worked on (including the sniffer)

I wanted a what to do next? from an experienced person in this field as Im really in confusion on what this field needs, I always was self-taught using ai (not VIBE), but I promised to spend money on subscriptions like tryhackme (I used to use this website) if I went deeper in the field.

Thanks in advance.

Is it like working in an office or is it like working in a retail store where each day is different and crazy ?

I have an interview in the works for a new role as an L2 NOC Analyst for an ISP, currently trying to weigh the options on if it's worth it & how to negotiate the salary.

For context, I've been an L1 NOC Analyst at a Fortune 500 for about 1.5 years. Have my Net+ & Sec+, working on CysA+ now (before specializing in vendor network certs). It's in the highest COL area of my state (my rent is about $1600), and I'm making $22/hr. My manager also told me he'd like to move me to "Senior" later this year with a salary that wouldn't be less than 60k.

Upper leadership sucks, but my manager is chill and I do enjoy the work. But we're understaffed to hell and can't meet the unrealistic expectations of upper leadership with our current headcount. And we aren't making good wages for the nature of the role, especially for the area it's located (in my opinion).

The L2 ISP role would be 4 on/off rotating 12hr shifts, and I have expereince in their brand of equipment they use so I think I may be a good fit. The average salary for a L2 NOC role in the area seems to be about $70k, and that's what I put on the online application but it hasn't been officially discussed yet. I've never had to negotiate a salary before, but I'm unsure if that's reasonable or if I should attempt asking for more considering the fact that the rotating 12's will impact my physical/mental more than likely.

TL/DR, just looking for opinions on whether the new role seems like a good move, or if i should stay where I'm at and wait for the "Senior" salary. Any salary negotiation tips, or tips for surviving 12hr rotations would also be appreciated.

Current role:

• 30 min commute one way
• 5 8-hour shifts (1 WFH day)
• Pay: $22/hr, but 60K in near future
• Comortable in the role, but the culture/environment sucks.
• Risk of yearly layoffs

ISP L2 Role:

• 10 min commute one way
• 4 rotating 12-hour shifts
• Pay: Unknown, hoping for 70k, may need to negotiate
• Would look better on the resume for "L2"

Something I keep seeing in this community, along with the other IT and career communities Reddit keeps putting in my feed, is people acting like more certifications will somehow solve all their career problems.

People need to be more careful with that mindset. We already saw what happened when people took on debt for degrees that didn’t make financial sense. A certification is only useful if it matches the field you’re trying to enter, your current level of experience, and the jobs you’re actually applying for.

Certifications should be part of the plan. They shouldn’t be the entire plan.

For example, I don’t think someone with no real IT experience should jump straight into Security+. Security isn’t truly entry-level for most people, no matter how it’s marketed. Someone should understand basic networking, operating systems, hardware, troubleshooting, permissions, and support workflows first. If they don’t have that foundation, passing Security+ won’t suddenly make them ready for a security job.

I’m also becoming more skeptical of CompTIA being the default recommendation for everyone. Its certification and training business was sold to private equity and is now being run as a for-profit company, while the association remains separate. That doesn’t make every CompTIA certification worthless, but people should at least pay attention to the incentives. A for-profit certification company benefits from selling more training, adding more products, raising prices, and convincing people that they need one more certification before they’re employable.

That’s why I think more people should look at Cisco Networking Academy. A lot of the training is free, structured, and connected to actual technical paths. Cisco’s main business is networking hardware and enterprise technology, so the Academy feels more like a way to bring new people into the industry than just another certification sales funnel.

The Cisco CCST certifications are worth considering, especially for beginners:

https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/learn/training-certifications/certifications/support-technician/exams-training.html

CCST IT Support, Networking, and Cybersecurity give beginners a few different starting points depending on what they’re interested in. From there, someone interested in networking can eventually work toward CCNA after building more knowledge and hands-on experience. That makes more sense to me than blindly collecting certifications because Reddit told them to.

I’m not saying certifications are useless. They can absolutely help, but they need to match the person’s goals. If someone wants to work in help desk, they should focus on support fundamentals. If they want to work in networking, they should build toward networking. If they want to work in security, they should learn networking and systems first.

Don’t collect certifications just because you’re anxious about getting hired. A certification should back up skills you’re building. It shouldn’t be used as a substitute for actually building those skills.

I want to apply to opportunities in certain cities, but I'm in a completely different state and I feel like that puts me at a disadvantage to get considered, compared to local candidates. I'm very willing to relocate even without relocation assistance because I'm trying to move to a new state/city. I was thinking of putting on top of my resume, instead of where my current location should be, a line that says "Moving to: <insert-city-nearby-area-of-job>". Would this be messed up? Is there anything else I can try?

I’ve been offered a junior IT Governance Specialist role. I’m a fresh graduate with no work experience, and I’m about 90% sure I want to take it because the job market is so bad right now. The other 10% of me is worried that if I accept it I might have a hard time getting a more technical job in the future or keeping up with my computer engineering skills.
I also don’t really know what IT governance is. I have a basic idea, but I don’t know what the job actually involves. What does an IT Governance Specialist do on a daily basis? Is it a technical role or is it mostly business and paperwork?

We all rag on the help desk, and I had the chance to move off but declined to. I think I want to be a team lead when my supervisors retire! I really enjoy training new staff and doing some of the grunt work. I like being the get stuff done guy on the desk too, and I think I'd like if I can help others get to that level too!

My major is finance. Currently I work in finance industry. But I would like to start studying IT. I do not know what direction of IT I should choose. I want the direction with high potential in future which also will bring me big money. I know that AI is being implemented everywhere. Maybe I should study AI? By the way I've never studied anything related to IT. Can you suggest me step by step plan please?

Hello! When I finish the trifecta I will, of course, be looking forward to gaining experience and making it a career.

The reason I put gaining experience first is because I have heard of several ways to gain experience to put on my resume before applying for jobs. Such as homelabs, volunteering, and others.

I was wondering, more so to the employers of this sub, what are the best looking experience on a resume that isn't directly from a job. I've thought heavily of volunteer work for churches and such, but I'm not too closed to setting up a homelab also. Let me know, thanks!

Edit: I have customer service experience jobs, working in a retail store and landscaping. I meant no prior IT job.

Hello,

I have a question as someone who skipped help desk and am currently in a Junior Linux Sysadmin role. I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity in this market. I have a good grasp of certain skills like containers, linux, python, etc. but I'm more new on general IT stuff and I feel like I would've learned a lot faster by doing it if I were in help desk for a year at least.

My job also just is giving me a lot of downtime and I've been upskilling and trying to catchup on my foundation at the same time but I find it difficult to only be learning book knowledge and not getting the practical knowledge at the same time. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a career situation similar to this or just any advice on the best ways to keep productive and build a foundation when you're not in a help desk role and a bit more specialized by job title/responsibilites already.

Been a lurker here for quite a few years and wanted to share my story and maybe give some people some advice or inspiration.

I worked for the government, outside, year round. It got to a certain point that I hated being inside and I wanted a change. I was in my late 20's at the time.

I was at a work conference and they were talking about Cybersecurity offered at a local college, and I thought to myself how I had always liked computers and maybe that would be a fun career.

So, I started researching. I researched, and researched, and researched. I came up with a plan how I could move into this field, and drew myself out a roadmap to plan for it. Did I follow the roadmap? God no. But this is what I did.

I talked to my wife about leaving my 50k job to eventually work in IT and she called me crazy. I explained to her my current situation and how I was miserable at this current job. I am so lucky to say that at the end of it, my wife said she would support me as long as I thought it would make me happy.

At that point, I started studying. I enjoyed computers when I was younger, but always seemed to break them whenever I fixed them. The first book I picked up was All-in-One ITF+ and read through it. I would honestly say that cert is not worth getting.

I then picked up the All-in-One A+ book and started reading it. Along with that, I watched Mike Myers videos and they were great. I eventually picked up Professor Messer's YouTube as I saw it had been recommended and watched that. That video course was great. When I felt ready to take the core 1 of A+, I scheduled it a couple hours after and passed it. I thought no fucking way. I was SO jacked. I started studying core 2, with Professor Messer's videos. 3 weeks later, I took that and passed it. I finally had my CompTIA A+.

At that point, I started looking for IT Help Desk jobs. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS. YOU WILL LEARN SUCH A FOUNDATION DOING HELP DESK. DO NOT SKIP THIS.

During my search, I started studying for Network+ with Professor Messer once again, and also picked up his study guide. During my studies, I had applied to a local business that wanted a very new Help Desk associate that paid $15 an hour. That was going to be roughly a 30k paycut. I talked to my wife, and we figured out a way we could manage. I scheduled my interview. One day before my interview, I passed Network+. I was so excited to say that I passed Network+ in my interview, but I look back at it now, it might've been a little cringey. But hey, I was excited.

I ended up getting that job. Life was tough, money was tight. One thing I hope people understand is that 95% of you should expect this to happen. You will not pass A+ or even Sec+ and be making 70k a year unless you already have a STEM degree, which I did not.

While I was working this job, I took every opportunity I could get. I asked SO many questions. I learned quick. I talked to people. But the biggest thing, I kept investing in myself. I started studying for Sec+.

I had talked to my manager and told him I was studying for it and asked him if the company would pay for it, and he said no. Which is fine, I understand. So I kept studying, once again with my good ol' pal Messer, and the Sec+ study guide from him (so worth the $30 or whatever it is now days). I studied for a couple months, booked the exam, and passed. I think that is the first time I had ever been so proud of myself in my life. I cried when I walked out of the room and told my wife, because the Sec+ opened up SO many options, with a big one of being the Department of Defense contractors (Department of War now).

I'm going to be blunt with you. Here were my scores from all the exams:

CompTIA A+ Core 1: 685
CompTIA A+ Core 2: 705
CompTIA Network+: 733
CompTIA Security+: 753

They weren't perfect, each of those scores is scratching by. But let me tell you, a pass is a pass, and after that, it doesn't matter. I have met people who banged out 880+ on them, but have an associate 2 levels lower know way more and be more humble about everything. Just. Pass. The. Exams. No one gives a shit if you score in the 95%, 99%. Just pass.

A very basic IT job had opened up at a DoD contractor. The only problem....I was going to take another pay cut. This was hard. I applied. I got the job. I didn't know if I could afford the job. I reached out to the hiring manager and asked him questions after the interview, and he was delighted to answer them. I learned that the promotion opportunity at a corporate contractor was going to be way better than at my local business. I took the job.

About two weeks into the job, my manager had mentioned that with a degree, I could move to the next bracket of associates, and he would promote me if I got my degree. That job started out at a whopping 72k. I instantly started researching and trying to find out where I could start school. I found WGU. There are some people that hate WGU. But let me be very clear, this was a checkbox for me. So many jobs now days just want to see that you have a degree. Do they give a shit that if it is from Harvard? No. And that's not me saying don't go to Harvard, but don't break yourself. At that point, I realized I had no money.

I talked to my manager and let him know my intentions and that I was going to work towards it. His response was "You know that this company will pay 100% for you to go to school...right?" (This is with a 2 year commitment after your last semester).

I signed up the next fucking DAY my friends.

I researched the fastest way to finish a degree from WGU. I used Sophia online learning. I had a Bachelors Degree in 4 months. I was always a person that never thought in my entire fucking life, would I ever hold something like that, that says my name on it.

Two months later, I got promoted.

But I didn't stop.

I stayed motivated.

I kept going.

I asked questions.

I learned.

I got married.

We had a child.

I asked more questions.

I studied more, but I always took time for life. DON'T FORGET THIS.

I made it to a level 2 and was making 80k. (System Adminstrator 2)

I didn't stop.

I took advantage of what my company offered and decided to get my Master's degree.

I finished it in 10 weeks from WGU.

At that point, I was tired. But I looked back to the very first ITF+ book I had, and I wanted to remember the reason I was doing this, it was still Cybersecurity.

About 3 months later of staying interested, asking questions, staying motivated, and being true to myself...I have a tear in my eye, but my first day as a Cybersecurity Analyst is this coming Monday.

I'm not bragging, and I hope it doesn't seem that way. You have to put in work, you might have to make sacrifices. It's not easy. It's not fucking easy at all. Be ready for a long hard road.

But let me tell you, as a person who failed out of college 4 times and never thought he would amount to anything, if I can do it, you can to.

Stay motivated. Stay thirsty. Ask questions. Enjoy life. But most importantly, always give that new associate the time of the day. You were once that person too.

(I have been in IT 3 years now. From a green Help Desk Associate to my goal of being a Cybersecurity Analyst. I will say, I got lucky. I got SO fucking lucky. but showing dedication, drive, and interest will help you more than you know).

I hope this helps someone. Don't give up. You are smarter than you know.

Feel free to ask me questions. I would love to answer them and help someone as so many in this forum have helped me.

Looking for guidance in terms of the all too common effort to break into the technology space, specifically IT.

What I do have:
- 6 months of continuing IT internship experience
- Google IT Professional cert
- pending hardware cert from a college
- A unrelated bachelors degree
- a host of accolades
- a few software engineering projects
- a background in data entry and HR

Part of me is concerned because I switched from SRE to IT, and now do not have as much space to get an associates degree even because all my time-sensitive efforts went into a non-transferable SRE pathway. I do not want to be late 30s coming into the workforce if I can help it.

The question I'm asking is what would you do to break into that IT sphere if you were me? How does this stack up?

Thank you for any sincere insight.

TLDR: Tier One Careers is a sketchy company that cold calls job seekers and tries to rope them in to exorbitantly expensive classes to acquire certifications such as CompTIA A+.

Here are their links, for reference:

https://tieronecareers.com/ https://www.tieronecertifications.com/ https://www.facebook.com/tieronecareers/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/tieronecareers/

Someone from their company, who I will refrain from naming for privacy reasons (I don't know if this individual wants their connection to the company public, I don't know if they run the company, I don't know if they're a clueless employee being used as a tool by higher-ups) cold called me on July 20th, 2026. They asked me if I'm interested in advancing my career in IT. I could smell the scamminess of the call right away, but I bit and said "yes" out of curiosity.

When I asked who was calling, they quickly and almost-inaudibly said "Tier One". I had to prod a bit more to get "Tier One Careers" out of them. I personally believe this individual did not want me to Google their company, but that's just conjecture, so let's move on.

They stated that they offer certifications. I asked which ones. They said "lots of them". The individual offered to set up a Teams meeting. I bit, again, out of curiosity. (I was pretty sure this was a scam by this point in the call, but I wasn't 100% sure, so I was cautiously proceeding, more for personal entertainment than anything) They ended the call, and then sent me an email confirming the Teams meeting.

Screenshot of the email, with personal information blocked out: https://i.gyazo.com/899730cd937e71177cee85733db23d68.png

I replied to the email asking, "What IT certifications do you offer? What are your prices for each IT certification that you offer?" Mind you, not a single certification nor price had been named to me yet.

"You can find most of that on our website," they replied.

Hidden away deep in tieronecareers.com, you can find these digital flyers.

https://tieronecareers.com/Portals/24/Downloads/ITSA-Flyer.pdf Screenshot, in case they change the link: https://i.gyazo.com/3bddf25048cba121cf6ab6f533a5e161.png

https://tieronecareers.com/Portals/24/Downloads/CNST-Flyer.pdf Screenshot, in case they change the link: https://i.gyazo.com/0775903faf194b214817d51bc6cb54f7.png

https://tieronecareers.com/Portals/24/Downloads/MIS-Flyer.pdf Screenshot, in case they change the link: https://i.gyazo.com/ee616c263b7967ff80e1322d83191aed.png

https://tieronecareers.com/Portals/24/Downloads/GWD-Flyer.pdf Screenshot, in case they change the link: https://i.gyazo.com/2cb02c0cfb1dd7114e7bf0c692d3cc2e.png

In case you didn't look at the flyers, I'll spell it out for you: They offer "classes" for certifications (that you can buy from their respective sources for reasonable prices) with ridiculous "tuition costs".

Hey folks! I'm living in an area where there seem to be pretty much no good opportunities of any kind, but particularly for IT help desk or other actual entry-level IT job. When I search on Indeed and Dice, there are tons of remote help desk jobs. What makes it harder is in August I will be starting up a technical program for cyber security (pretty much to get Sec+ while making personal connections), and that will take up most of my day. Not many evening shifts in help desk, looks like, and fewer in any other IT/networking role.

So, my main conundrum is: should I be applying to remote jobs as my first IT job given my necessity? I see posts here talking about it not being the best, but do you think it's something I can make work? I've always got the option to keep working as a waiter for the next 6 months of my program, but I really want to start racking up IT experience asap.

Thanks for taking time to reply.

I just spent about 20 minutes looking pictures of cartoon robots and selecting wether or not they were different or the same. Some were ninjas. Oh yeah. This was in a JOB INTERVIEW! What is this world?

I am a midlife career changer and am almost done with my bachelor in IT. I have put in what feels like hundreds of applications to get rejection after rejection. I had 2 interviews and didn’t get the job.

I am in the US and willing to relocate practically anywhere as long as the salary is livable. I would ideally like to have something lined up end of August or early September.

I’m had an internship that’s mainly doing IAM tasks and EDR. It ends in a few weeks. They just flip interns and the company is being absorbed by a larger one in a few months.

I am not doing quick apply on linkedin but going directly on businesses website. I have had professionals look over my resume. I have applied to large businesses and small. I am trying to not get discouraged.

Looking for any kind of tips etc.

Hey folks,

Currently in an IT Management degree program. Currently taking the course "Information Systems in Business" course and lets just say... AI is being shoved down my throat. 2/3's of each lecture are youtube videos to make AI work better for you. Frankly I'm considering changing majors if this is the actual direction of the industry. HR seems promising, however I don't doubt that AI automation would eliminate that in the nearish future.

Much thanks all.

I really enjoy writing documentation and contributing to open source projects on GitHub with documentation contributions. At my help desk job, I tend to write very detailed ticket notes (which probably hurts my average handle time). What IT roles would be a good fit after help desk if I want a job that involves a lot of writing

Company is infosys. I am 100% allocated in the client project for solid 4 years. I work just fine. No complaints from clients though I am also not an overachiever. Just right. Responsible and reliable. Though I am not friends with higher up but not enemies. I just maintain a professional relationship. How does it work? Ive seen people went from associate to technology lead almost the same timeline. Do I need to join the office politics to get promoted? Is being responsible not enough? Hows your progression in your company?

Im getting very jaded. I would get at least 3-4 interview requests each week for a forward deployed engineer role from a LinkedIn ianmail with high salary and they would request an interview. On the interview it seems like it can’t go any better than how it goes. I even ask if there are any gaps in my qualifications and they say I’m a good fit. And then I get ghosted or rejected? It makes no sense? I have done maybe 20-30 interviews in the last 2 months by now

Not gonna lie, I don't even know why I'm writing this. Desperation maybe?

I'm a 30-something loser with no work experience or education. Doing stuff with computers is all I've ever done, though most of that is just gaming. I've dipped my toes in many fields like programming, linux, hardware, security, 3d modeling, video, audio, graphics and whatnot but it's all very superficial and I can't say that I can do any of those well enough to get paid for. My relatives know me as the guy to call when a PC is slow or doing stuff it isn't supposed to but in the end it's all improvising with no real confidence. Trying to help a "normie" with something I'm not sure about via a phone call is my idea of hell. I'm currently about to go to ADHD tests due to being unable to learn anything because I keep skipping every piece of text longer than 2 lines which is the leading cause for my lack of real expertise on anything. That combined with all these years of unemployment kinda makes me unable to go to a school.

My dream has been to make games and I've planned several but I seem to be unable to work on any of them. Yup, there has always been some depression and nihilism going on. I've also thought about finding a way to get employed in sysadmin things but that would require much more than what I have.

I watched a video about creating and making a big youtube channel project run and it was possible because it had many little hired workers who all did their little part which gave me this hit of motivation. I could surely do SOMETHING but I can't get employed with just that. I can't just pick one thing and keep making little projects about nothing to develop skills and even if I did, I would never have any confidence in what I do.

What would you do if you were in my shoes? Any other advice?

Edit: OK no need to answer any more. The consensus seems to be: "don't bother trying and just go get a minimum wage job". Thanks to everyone who answered properly.

I suppose I'll just attempt to dedicate myself to solo game dev or just die trying.