I Want to Start a Career in IT in My Mid 20's. Where Do I Begin?

kendoggs on 06/10/2018 - 20:06
Last edited 06/10/2018 - 20:51

tl;dr

I'm in my mid 20's and I want to work in IT, ideally as scrum master. What steps should I take to get there?

About me:

Within recent months, I’ve taken a lot of time to evaluate where I am in my life and have actively started to take an active approach in pursuing things that make me happy. While it was easy for me to make the change towards a healthier diet and exploring new hobbies, I feel there are limitations to my gung-ho approach when it comes to a major career change. For that reason, I’d love to thoughts and opinions of the people here who: work in the industry, have made similar career changes or those who feel like they have something to contribute.

My motivations for working in IT:

As a more emotional person, I find it hard to describe my exact reasons for wanting to work in IT other than “I feel like this is the only field that I’d be able to voluntarily get myself incredibly frustrated and then come in to work the next day for reasons other than maintaining my steam of income”. I am aware that my goals will change over time, but currently, I'm interested in leading my own development team as project manager/scrum master one day and hope work overseas for a while.

Coming from a more logical perspective:

I’ve constantly received feedback from both close friends and work colleagues that I always looked happier handling and talking about IT tasks
I performed incredibly well in the tiny number of units involving coding when I was at uni (when all my other grades were a bit lacking)
I’d always love talking with software developers about their work so much so that I’ve got a reasonable grasp on the industry jargon

What I am currently doing:

While I’ve been on and off in the past, with short online courses, I’ve started making a routine of working through them gradually within the past weeks.
I’m currently working on the following
https://www.theodinproject.com/
After this, I’d be looking to attempt something in data analytics.

I'm considering if I should return to university to complete a masters or complete a short intensive course at General Assembly.

My questions:

Within the industry, how much value is placed on a university degree when it comes to hiring practices?
While I've heard of people gaining employment through the UX course at General Assembly, has anybody heard of graduates from the web development course or data analytics courses getting hired? https://generalassemb.ly/education/web-development-immersive (I ask because it does cost a small fortune, $15,500)
What do you do in IT? Why do you hate/love it?

Poll Options

0
Keep going with online short courses, build a small portfolio
3
Do one of the courses at General Assembly
21
Go do a masters of computer science

Education & Work

Comments

yk300 on 06/10/2018 - 20:38

I have been rather confused with the role of scrum master. A "mature" team should not really need a scrum master and a scrum master is more of an (technical?) admin role. A scrum master in Accenture is an experienced person with around 10+ years of exp.

University degree? For yourself, not really needed but many large organisations like it. It ticks another box. If you are thinking of web dev, it is not really worth it. A nice portfolio would be much better.

Never heard of generalassembly. Head to https://www.freecodecamp.org/ and go through their tutorials. That would be a great start and they have a nice community to help you get started.

I have done a range of things in IT but more focused in application development. For me, the most frustrating part is how bureaucracy and work politics impact the ability to deliver the IT solutions. The part I like most is the variety of technologies around - there is so much out there to learn.
- kendoggs on 06/10/2018 - 21:09
  
  I might be little insane here, but I'd honestly love to try and tackle the issue of bureaucracy and work politics to make sure my developers stay developing. However; I don't think those kinds of responsibilities are passed onto juniors at a company. More than happy work my way towards it though. (hopefully I won't get too jaded along the way)
  - moar bargains on 06/10/2018 - 21:20
    
    +4
    
    If you actually find that sort of thing interesting it might be worth looking into Project Management within IT. A lot of developers just want to develop, but they get caught up in politics, bureaucracy and other crap, so they're usually happy to palm it off to someone else like a project manager.
  - R-Man on 07/10/2018 - 00:29
    
    However; I don't think those kinds of responsibilities are passed onto juniors at a company.
    
    Not true in my experience, junior should be fine. Scrum master role is sometimes rotated every sprint so everyone gets a go alongside their usual role. Also there are a lot of graduates as scrum masters too, as you said it's more of a people person job (with background knowledge of software delivery).
moar bargains on 06/10/2018 - 20:40

+1

In my opinion (as a data analytics professional), you will need more than an online course or two if you want to be taken seriously in data analytics. Other areas of IT don't necessarily require a degree, so if you're hesitant to do more study, look at more developer style options.
- kendoggs on 06/10/2018 - 21:11
  
  Thanks for the input, have heard similar things from other data analysists. One of the reasons why I haven't considered the data analytics course too seriously at General Assembly.
Kiminoth on 06/10/2018 - 20:51

In July this year, I graduated from a Master's in IT, well, Masters of Commerce (Information Systems and Technology), composed of the same units as a Grad Dip. + Masters in Information Systems and Technology.

Just over two years ago I left my job in OH&S, after completing a two-year graduate program with a mining organisation, after a three-year OHS undergraduate degree, to pursue a career in IT. A career change not dissimilar to yourself.

I'm not sure I 100% agree with your rationale regarding "motivations" for deciding upon IT as a career, however, your logical reasoning isn't bad. I was always interested in Computers and IT, I just understand them better than most.

I applied to approx. 26 grad programs upon completion, got to the final stages in some and offers in others. Obviously, if you're looking at entering through a graduate program, you need a degree. Good thing about graduate program's is that your treated as an entry level employee. No one expects (or at least they shouldn't) you to know everything, you're still building your knowledge, university gives you the foundations and a fancy piece of paper.

I was lucky enough to be employed by a Software Development company in a very minor role at the beginning of my degree (almost beginning at the same time), in a very entry level role. I basically formatted spreadsheets to a format to import the data into the system. It was only over time that I built up SQL skills (luckily coinciding with a university unit) and began furthering my role. I did my Master's full-time whilst working full-time (often 8:30-5, uni 6-9).

In your options, you say you want to do a Masters, but you don't mention an undergraduate degree? Have you completed one, or are you looking at doing both?

Edit: I should clarify, the role I am going to be employed in is the in a Data Insights team. I decided upon this team with my history of SQL in my current role, and I find it enjoyable.
- kendoggs on 06/10/2018 - 21:24
  
  Its great hearing from somebody that's been successful in making the change.
  
  How did you go about landing a job at a software development company at the start of your degree? I'm hoping to do something similar; however ideally working part-time and studying full time.
  
  As for my undergraduate, it is in something quite different, Pharmaceutical Sciences.
  - Kiminoth on 08/10/2018 - 17:36
    
    Somewhat similar to me then, BSc. So I understand why you're going for the Master's then, probably the same reason as me. I made the decision to do the Master's as it's only two years in contrast to another 3-year bachelors, and you'll come out with a "nicer" looking degree anyway.
    
    As mentioned, the role was very basic. I pretty much was hired because I "knew" excel, I was initially a glorified spreadsheet formatter. But it was perfect, as it was a shoe-in to the industry, and allowed me to build myself up from there.
    
    I just saw the role on Seek and applied, had the interview and was hired a few hours later. The role itself sounded so much higher level than it initially was, so if I had a tip, I wouldn't let the job description scare you away.
[Deactivated] on 06/10/2018 - 21:04

+1

You are young. Chase your dreams.
brokeunistudent on 06/10/2018 - 21:05

+1

Degree then Grad Program as the above poster said
cypher67 on 06/10/2018 - 21:12

As someone in the industry, if you want to be a scrum master .. Get your PSM and a lower level job like a Business Analyst, Project Officer or the like and get experience and look for opportunities so show your worth. I would never hire someone into a Scrum Master role with just a piece of paper
- kendoggs on 06/10/2018 - 21:33
  
  I have always thought of a scrum master as a goal of sorts, expecting to work my way up towards it. Would never have considered a pathway via Business Analyst role. Thanks for letting me there are more paths out there.
  - nubix on 07/10/2018 - 00:06
    
    +1
    
    I haven't heard of anyone that aspires to be a scrum master. In my experience, it hasn't been a full time job, rather a task that a member of the team does (doesn't need to be senior nor technical).
    
    On GA and other boot camps, I have hired (or at least attempted to hire) at every job I've had in the last few years. But it's not so different from other education paths - there's a few motivated ones that smash through their course and choose where and what they want to do
elgrande on 06/10/2018 - 21:44

+1

I was in IT, but changed as long term I do not see alot of IT jobs staying onshore.
- Colosus01 on 06/10/2018 - 23:10
  
  That's concerning. As someone who was planning to start a diploma of IT and move on to a Bachelor of Business Information Systems future job prospects are concerning.
  
  Do you expect all entry level jobs to move offshore?
  - moar bargains on 06/10/2018 - 23:21
    
    Personally I think it very much depends on the field. Sure, there are some (many?) IT jobs that can be done remotely/overseas. Helpdesk is a prime example, but I can't see Government departments outsourcing their Sys Admins to India though.
  - Gandalf the Thrifty on 07/10/2018 - 07:42
    
    Offshoring is very old news. The cloud with paid services has more likelihood of reducing need for certain job roles.
    
    Ultimately AI can replace some IT (along with other industries) but that still a few years off.
    
    Security always seems to be in demand and new IT areas pop-up, you just need to be adaptable.
  - Pables on 07/10/2018 - 09:43
    
    I would not be concerned. Anecdotally we always stretched for entry level support personnel, and it's incredibly difficult to get by without IT people in the building able to respond asap so it physically cannot be off-shored.
    
    Look for industries that follow very fast deadlines and rely heavily on tech (media, broadcasting, medicine).
    
    These industries always require entry level support personnel for day to day operations, they require developers, sys admins for their often unique networks, and engineers/techs for rapid assembly/disassembly of systems.
[Deactivated] on 07/10/2018 - 07:25

General Assembly been getting good job outcomes lately. I have been to a few of their promotional presentations hosted by different companies, they are a good crowd, fun, creative and clever. It is probably best to do a Computer Science degree if this is your career choice though, good foundations for the future and such.
bremo on 07/10/2018 - 08:28

Network and Security Engineer here… during the times that I've been part of the hiring process, if we were hiring someone younger (e.g. junior to mid level) I would be looking for a university degree. Usually Bachelor of Engineer or Comp Sci. (or maybe even just a bach of science.)

What I REALLY look out for, is Industry certifications. So I work in the infrastructure space so would be looking for CCNA/CCNP or any other vendor professional certifcations from Palo Alto, Checkpoint, VMWare, Microsoft etc, etc.

I can't speak for coding/developing/agile directly but that is my experience in computer networks. Also, I can totally recommend Network Engineering as a profession, but some people find it very dry. The pay is great and I actually love the work I do which is a win win.
Clear on 07/10/2018 - 09:19

What do you do in IT? Why do you hate/love it?

I work for a national MSP and multinational ISP. I'm currently specialising in healthcare and it's the best decision I've made. There is no shortness of work and there are always new innovative solutions coming out that need to be learned and deployed. The clients are also awesome (excluding grumpy old doctors) and work ranges from the simple GP in an old house to a hospital with an emergency department.

The closest I come to coding is SQL databases and web development so I can't really comment on the programming industry. When I was at university a few years ago there were heaps of 30+ getting their CompSci degrees to get further in the industry so I'd recommend a bachelor at the bare minimum.

Who you know is a very important as are industry certifications. Prior to entering IT I had already obtained network and security certifications like Cisco and continue to do them while on the industry. I scored my job interview mainly by knowing the right people.

And despite what people say about offshoring. My MSP job will never be offshored. A good portion of the ISP work has and costs businesses significantly more.
moar bargains on 18/10/2018 - 08:13

Hey OP,
Saw this job ad this morning, and thought it might just give you an idea of what (one company) is looking for: https://au.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=5d1ed3336720ec6e&advn=846…