This is a tough time to enter the IT field. Post-Y2k the industry took a huge hit and many tens of thousands of IT professionals were on the street looking for work. Things recovered somewhat a few years later, then took another hit in the recent past. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that you will have competition.
Hands-down the best place I've found for entry level jobs is university campuses. Departments can't always afford to pay competitive wages, so professionals in the field who have some years under their belt tend not to apply for those jobs. It's a good place to work with a mentor, and eventually to be the person in charge of everything. University sites tend to be small, so having more than one systems administrator at a given site is rare. It's a great chance to be exposed to almost every aspect of IT, and get paid to do it.
The exception to this is when the university has a university-wide IT infrastructure. Typically they will have the funding to pay more competitive wages, so they often have higher hiring requirements. Even so, if they're expecting to hire student help they will tend to have entry-level positions where you can learn.
A computer science degree is not necessary to work in IT. Ten years ago there were almost no IT degree programs available, so people came from a wide variety of backgrounds. This is changing, but it is still common to find people who got their degrees in other fields. I've known people in the IT industry with degrees in sociology, economics, astronomy, english, business administration, and many others. It is also not necessary to have a college degree to work in the IT industry, but in the past this has sometimes led to payscale caps. Personally I think this is unfair. One of the best software developers I knew had no more than a high school diploma. But it's something to find out from an employer during the interview process.
There are a number of career paths inside the IT industry. I've been out of it for the last ten years, though I keep touch with my friends who are still in it. As of 2001 it was typical to find software developers who write software, systems administrators who keep the servers running, network administrators who maintain the network infrastructure and often the data centers as well, deskside support who keep people's desktop machines running smoothly, backup admins who maintain backups on large data centers, user accounts, web developers, web admins, database developers, database admins, etc. Lots and lots and lots of paths to choose from. In a small organization a single person or a small group of people may have to do all of these jobs. In larger organizations you may have individuals or groups of individuals handle each task independently. It depends on the size of the company.
The more experience you have, the better. I've run into a few employers who insisted on-the-job experience was the only kind that counted. They're rare. Most of the employers I interviewed with wanted to know if you could walk the walk as well as talk the talk. They didn't care if you learned it on the job or at home. One of the strangest interviews I ever had was a conversation where the interviewer reminisced about older systems, told stories about what they were working on, etc. He wanted to see when the interviewee laughed, when they winced, when they nodded and smiled. It's not a bad way to test someone's knowledge, even if it is unconventional. Another interview I had consisted of a written exam. The exam was graded and handed back as part of the interview. The results of the exam itself mattered to some degree, but what the interviewer really wanted to see was when they called back, had you researched the questions you missed to see if you could find the right answer. If not, that was the end. If the interviewee had researched the missed questions, they were asked back for a second interview. The point was to see if the interviewee was inquisitive. Yes, I researched my missed answers.
To answer another question and to go back to a previous point, no they won't teach you everything you need to know in school. And yes, it will help if you know what open-source means. It will help if you know what a thousand other terms mean. The only way to learn is to read about them, use them, find out what they mean. As far as open-source goes, kc8ufv is right: some organizations simply won't use open source, some insist on only using it. Each has their reasons. I've worked at both kinds of places.
It's hard to pin a salary range on IT jobs. A lot of it depends on experience and longevity at a company. When I started with zero experience I made about $12k a year. This is in the mid 80's, so inflation will play a role when looking at that number. Even so, I ate a lot of rice and noodles during that time. At the last USENIX conference I went to in 2001 the highest salary I heard discussed was a systems administrator for a Wall Street firm who was pulling down over $120k a year, but who told me the stress was enough to take several years off his life. Not worth it in my opinion, but if that's your thing go for it.
To really make it in the IT world you have to love the stuff. Really really love the stuff. One of the reasons I decided to get out was because the people I was working with were staying up all night jamming while I was going home to sleep. To be fair, when I first started I stayed up all night jamming, too. It's the best way to learn. And I really did love it. But toward the end I just didn't have it in me any more. I wasn't competitive.
Sorry for sharing so much. There is no short answer to your question. I'll end by reiterating something peterd said: Don't be discouraged just because it's hard to get started. If you like the work, stick with it. When the opportunity to jump in does come along, be ready.
04 May 2011, 8:05 am
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