Career Change: IT Action Plan (Web Dev? Infra? Data?)

Lkanij on 22/08/2020 - 22:52
Last edited 22/08/2020 - 22:53

Hello All,
I had been working for a company for about 5+ years. Changed roles over time. From process worker to admin support to IT Support and back to admin support. I finish studies (masters in IT) long back in 2014. Now I am looking back to work into IT industry. I am looking to get a suggestion on what action plan should I take. What is the ideal field to walk in and worth spending time to learn #melbourne
Background and skills:
I have learnt those all old programming language which are now outdated C, vb etc. Well still the funda like data types, loops, array gonna be same.
I have good understanding of basics and can write few SQL queries.
I thought I will learn php ( incl HTML, javascript, css)
I have learnt it in school before and if I brush up my knowledge I am sure in a month time or 2 I can make a basic website.
⬇️: why learn php now when we have platforms like wordpress, opencart, shopify etc that can be used to design website add modules and we good to go.

Should I go to infrastructure? Do some certifications MCS or Amazon or do CCNAs and set the career.
⬇️: I am not really good with the soft skills. I dont want to end up being a call centre person as IT Support guy. Is there any other path were certifications like AWS or something where I do not stuck myself in call centres. I know all jobs start with IT support, i am sure there should be something to learn to bypass some of the steps. Between I do have knowledge of creating profile in AD and basic IT support stuff

I do have database skills. I have learnt RDBMS and those cardinality, relationships and stuff like that in uni, never got chance to implement in real work environment. I used to do data cleansing on db using some basic SQL query (update, where, wild char and subquery use) in my current job
I have design some reports in powerbi too obviously all RDBMS was initially set up at my current workplace.

I know it totally depends on individual interest to what career path to select. For me, I believe I am smart enough and the extreme passion to learn will make my way easy in whatever field I put myself into. It is more like I dont want to go into something which takes long time to learn before I can get an entry level job.
TIA🙏

Education & Work

Comments

  • trustnoone on 22/08/2020 - 23:09
    +2

    It is more like I dont want to go into something which takes long time to learn before I can get an entry level job.

    How long is your commitment, and how much commitment (full time study?) do you have?

    Some sort of CCNA/NOC/IT Support would be the fastest into the industry I reckon. Or you can go data analysis (less IT) with PowerBI/Qlik/SQL sort of thing if you enjoy data.

    Things like front end and back end development will take much more time I feel and will be much harder. Its not just about the study as well but also experience. For example if you want to get a job in front end HTML/CSS/JS would be assumed, and they'd want you to know frameworks and the like, like React or Anguar or .net. But you're also competing with recent graduates and international overseas people who have come to australia with pre-experience, so you need your own experience or a good portfolio there.

    Edit— I have noticed IT security is quite popular at the moment, though I don't know much in the area.

    • kanij on 22/08/2020 - 23:40

      I love programming but I am afraid I may not be able to compete the newly graduates and overseas exp migrants. #true that when u say I should know framework. I have learn .net but again it was vb.net :( now its all python and I am 0 in that. So as react and Angular.
      Unless I brush up my php skills and work onto one of those shopify or wordpress shit.
      I agree on your IT Security. I am just scared at the fact that cyber security jobs I looked emphasise more into next level written skills. I guess you have to make those security policies and hell of those documentations. When it comes to writing I may not be the best. This thing always holds me back :(
      Thanks for your time!

    • Clear on 23/08/2020 - 07:11

      Edit— I have noticed IT security is quite popular at the moment, though I don't know much in the area.

      The government is pushing really hard for people to go into Cyber Security and they're subsidising the cost of courses at universities and RTOs. It has backing from big companies like ANZ and a lot of graduates are hired into these companies or do internships.

  • AustriaBargain on 22/08/2020 - 23:14
    +2

    You sound like you want to work with Wordpress when you talk about PHP. "Why learn PHP when we have Wordpress", I don't really understand that. If you work with Wordpress you will want an understanding of what PHP is.

  • Clear on 22/08/2020 - 23:26
    +1

    SQL is such an under utilised skillset by software companies in Australia. The amount of hours this week I've spent on medical software databases because of poor dev work is just too damn high.

    Are you wanting to move into like software or web dev? Or perhaps on the ground support like networking as you mentioned CCNA?

    • kanij on 22/08/2020 - 23:54

      The down part for me to go to software or web dev is there is lot to learn. I am 30 now can’t afford to go full time study :( perhaps something that i can learn in few months and get entry level job and then continue learning with the work at home or something like that. Cheers!

      • Clear on 23/08/2020 - 07:14
        +2

        These days it seems a lot of webdevs are more about slapping a WordPress site together and calling it a day rather than actual development.

        I started off doing general tech support in an MSP and after a few years moved into a more specialist role that's higher in demand. What I do now is completely different to what I did 6 years ago and no extra qualifications were required either.

  • conan2000 on 22/08/2020 - 23:34
    +2

    I think we'll be seeing a lot more demand for AWS and Azure skills in the next few years, and there are many certifications available and a lot of these roles aren't support roles so I'd be looking at those.

    • kanij on 22/08/2020 - 23:47

      Thanks Canon,
      I guess that is one of the part I haven’t looked in detail. I will look into that. Thank you!

  • [Deactivated] on 23/08/2020 - 00:16
    +1

    Just going to say it, you sound outdated and have no idea whats current in the industry.

    You should be looking at 'hands off' management with a masters.🤦‍♂️

    There are bound to be some legacy positions out there for your technical skills.

    Im older than you and studying IT full time 🤦‍♂️

    • kanij on 23/08/2020 - 00:23

      Very outdated as I said I left uni like 6 years ago.
      Thank you though!

  • ian1095 on 23/08/2020 - 01:52
    +5

    Does not matter if those are old programming languages that you know, as the basic concept are still the same.

    I have been in the industry for more than 5 year, working as a software developer(Mostly backend) for a pretty reputable company that follows a very good engineering practice. (On CI/CD, DevOps, automated tests ..etc), all our services are deployed on AWS.

    But anyway, I started as a graduate, all I pretty much learned in Uni was basic programming/database like you mentioned. I had no clue what, AWS, CI/CD DevOps, Unit test, Agile..etc all those jargons were. I did lots of Udemy courses and also had good mentors along the way so I can say I was lucky. But I don't think you will have any issues against fresh graduates as what is taught in Uni and what done in real work is different, I have mentored quite a few fresh graduates in my company.

    Even today I am still doing online courses around some of the topics I think I am lacking (Eg: Security, Networking so don't worry. You don't need to know everything…as you learn along the way or when its needed for the job.

    My advice is do a couple of online courses for some of the topics (Front End, Cloud, BackEnd, Security).etc and see where your interest is.
    For example maybe you totally hate CSS (That was me) or maybe you love it as some people love making stuff pretty.

    For myself I started as a backend developers (4 years) and only recently moving started moving to front-end (React/Typescript) and now I am kinda enjoying CSS. I don't really enjoy Cloud (AWS) but I know enough around the concepts to spin up side projects, but not a full on expert.

    This is a good guide: https://roadmap.sh/ .

    • trustnoone on 23/08/2020 - 06:38

      This road map is great, thanks for this

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