Isaiah McCommons ⋅ Fort Worth, TX Mastech Digital ⋅ 26 years experience

I agree with Brian Burress. Cary, the thing is about the IT industry is that it is a moving target, meaning it is constantly evolving as the market demand shifts. This will continue to be the norm in the decade to come. The trick for you is to investigate what will be in demand in the next decade. For example, analytics, cloud computing, big data, IoT, AI, coding, fiber optics, 5G, etc. If you have a troubleshooting background, you can leverage this as a service tech with the phone or cable company to build hands-on experience. You also need to get good at networking with other IT folk already in the game. The IT field is filled with people who got their job position from people that knew people as opposed to applying for a job position directly. However, not saying you should not apply directly, please continue to apply directly along with networking with others. My final thought, look into contract companies. It's one of the fastest ways to ramp up your skills and move around laterally career-wise. Let us know how things go for you.

cary chiasson ⋅ Beaumont, TX U.S. Navy, Seaman ⋅ 4 years served

Mr Burress, I would not give someone a fixed laptop with duct tape on it. That is my laptop and it has that cause I had anger issues with the keyboard that I do not have anymore. I am in a Web design boot camp trying to learn how to build webpages. I guess I will just go back and try to find a retail place that is not wanting to hire me cause I have knee issues. I cannot get any help with with unemployment cause I stupidly quit my last job. Now the saving that I had built up is not disappearing and well I need to work and cannot find the jobs that they say are out there. I know I am a nobody. I am trying to get out there. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and now I am paying for it.

Brian Burress ⋅ Cincinnati, OH The Byte Stuff (self employed) ⋅ 26 years experience

Cary,

You appear to have some background and interests that are "across the board" given a degree in IT/network admin and your interest in taking apart and fixing a laptop issue. While I am confident that most places will expect more than duct tape on a repair, I have a healthy respect for someone willing to dig in and learn.

IT is a broad field. Do you have a sense for what in IT you want to do? Are you looking to be in system administration (OS patches, network admin, etc), coding (web page design could be a first step into the coding field), User Interface work (web page design works here too), hardware maintenance and upgrades (leverage that laptop work into something more, maybe even something in robotics?). You may not even know what you want to do yet which would be a reasonable situation. Back to the question, are there specific things about IT that interest you? If so, you can look into learning more about those things as well as start to network with people in your area with similar interests.

If you have some thoughts feel free to post here for additional comments. Megan's suggestion about connecting with an advisor in your area is a great idea as well. A lot can happen through networking!!