Ethan Margalith ⋅ Los Angeles, CA Starving Students ⋅ 48 years experience

Hi Tamarris
Suggest you gain some experience to put on your resume as follows. There's a number of websites you can get short term freelance gigs for hourly rates. You might offer services at a discount in exchange for a good reference - then do an outstanding job!
There will not be a shortage of jobs for people educated in IT so you made a wise choice!
And thank you for your service to our country!
Best regards,
Ethan

Victoria Heck ⋅ Ashburn, VA Deloitte ⋅ 9 years experience

Hi Tamarris,
I'm happy to assist. I work for Parsons Corporation and we have entry level IT roles. Please let me know if you might be interested.

Best regards,
Victoria Heck
victoria.heck@parsons.com

Coach Russ ⋅ Las Vegas, NV https://military.microsoft.com/programs/mssa/?WT.mc_id=ClearedTalent ⋅ 10 years experience

Please check out: https://military.microsoft.com/programs/microsoft-software-systems-academy/

Susan Kastrinos ⋅ Winter Springs, FL IBM ⋅ 30 years experience

Hi Tamarris,

You have 21 years of experience! It may not be in IT specifically, but you have a wealth of experience that would lend itself to different roles in IT. If you have organizational and leadership skills and appetite, you might look into project management. You would need to investigate. The Project Management Institute has a web site which offers some free training, and you could investigate whether this path might appeal to you: https://www.pmi.org I am not endorsing anything. I am just tossing out ideas. :)

I found a site where you could explore software development at not cost. It appears you only pay if you want to receive a certification. There appear to be many tutorials.
https://www.w3schools.com/ Again, I am not endorsing anything. I am just poking around on the internet.

The other option is for you to pursue an entry level position at a company Help Desk where little IT experience is required. With your experience, you should be recognized as someone who would learn quickly and advance depending on your appetite for your next step.

Robert Jurasek ⋅ Hollywood, FL Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ⋅ 45 years experience

Dear Tamarris,

At www.usajobs.gov, I used “IT Specialist” in the field for Keywords, and Cherry Hill, NJ for the Location. I also added filters for jobs that were open to the public and to Veterans. The search results returned 94 job announcements.

Not all of the job announcements required hands-on IT experience. And some of the announcements showed a salary range of FG 5-15, which means an individual could start, with little or no experience, at the lowest pay grade but eventually reach the highest pay grade, as they gain experience. By looking through the various announcements, you will be able to determine the requirements for each position.

One other resource for you to consider is www.cybrary.it, Cybrary is a website that can sometimes better define career paths and the certificates required for specialized positions within the IT field.

If you decide to apply for a Federal position, you will need a Federal resume. Let me know so I can help you with it.

Good luck with your transition, and thank you for your Service!

Sincerely,
Bob Jurasek

Gerald Mannikarote ⋅ Houston, TX dMann Training Technologies ⋅ 20 years experience

Hello Tamarris,
This is understandably a tough situation, but not something you can't handle. There are several things you can do.
- Update your resume to include and highlight projects you have worked on at school, not just your education.
-Update your LinkedIn to reflect the projects
- If you have any certifications, be sure to highlight those
- There are many LinkedIn, Google certifications you could consider completing to augument your education and make your education look more attractive
- NETWORK. Join a local Toastmasters, local church group, local IT group, local whatever and get your name out there. Networking is the best way to meet people that know about job openings and get you connected. Leverage LinkedIn to network as well
- Volunteer your services- at church, local neighborhood, etc to create new experience. If you do a project related to your education at a church, school, neighborhood association, you can put that down as experience.

I hope this helps. Wishing you success.
Warm regards,
Jerry