IT Career people

[ramsey]

I'm a VMware and Linux guy. I worked at Rackspace for 7.5 years. You are spot on with the salary comment Tony but there are many perks that you get being a Racker. It's a great place to work and a great place to get really strong skills. However, I recently left for more money so that my Wife can stay home with our soon to be born child. Virtualization is a very hot job right now and there's a lot of money to be made so I had to do what was best for my family.

RayAllan, You may want to consider systems administration as well. I know some people enjoy networking but I always found it boring. System administration is a lot more fun IMHO. The hardest thing though is getting your foot in the door somewhere. I would recommend trying to get a job at Rackspace as a monitoring tech or even a receptionist. Then learn all you can and get to be good friends with people in the specific IT area you want to work in. Going to school will help, but it's optional. I went to school and started at Rackspace as an intern making $8 an hour and it worked out very well for me.

[SoLiD]

I've been in the IT field since 1994. There has been some extreme advancements in all areas of electronics, computers, and software. Tony hit the nail right on the head when he said to learn it "ALL" (which is impossible) because connectivity, integration, and the meshing of multiple software and networks is the main reason why computers have taken off so fast as of late. With that said, "One Very Important Point" has not been mentioned yet. When I comes to computer hardware and software, "Most People" find all the required knowledge very overwhelming and very boring. You have to have a "Basic Love of Computers" and most of its aspects to enter this field, or you will just get frustrated with all that can go wrong in this field and give up. Reading all these books can be awfully boring at times, but it is required to build your knowledge. Well, I've always said this when it comes to computers.

There are 2 types of Technicians.

Those Technicians who can follow instructions to make "It" work... and Those Technicians who "Know How It Works". If you are the second of the two and you know how it works, you will always have a job because when something stops working, and it will, you will be the guy who has to "Save The Day" and bring everything back up on line.

[Mr Cob]

the google degree comment is funny because its true

the key in IT is not knowing everything, noone does. the key is being resourceful along with quick thinking

Yep! An IT mentor I had once, told me; "If someone asks if you can do something, say....sure, then go home and learn how to do it and DO IT". Obviously that doesn't apply to everything in IT and isn't meant to sell the professionals short of their skillsets that they've spent the last 10 years perfecting...but it is part true for most everything IT related. Software is a great example of this. If you are resourceful you can learn most any program overnight at least to the point that you can wing a few projects and learn the rest on the fly.

But, some people just aren't technical and would find the above scenario difficult. I kind of think if you can't teach yourself something related to the IT field then it probably isn't for you.

I should also add that it's not advised to start applying to jobs you are not qualified for since the quote kind of implies that. I have seen so many people claim to know something on resumes but never perform. If you are going to claim it then be sure you can perform when the time comes.

[ramsey]

Yep! An IT mentor I had once, told me; "If someone asks if you can do something, say....sure, then go home and learn how to do it and DO IT". Obviously that doesn't apply to everything in IT and isn't meant to sell the professionals short of their skillsets that they've spent the last 10 years perfecting...but it is part true for most everything IT related. Software is a great example of this. If you are resourceful you can learn most any program overnight at least to the point that you can wing a few projects and learn the rest on the fly.

But, some people just aren't technical and would find the above scenario difficult. I kind of think if you can't teach yourself something related to the IT field then it probably isn't for you.

I have to disagree with you here. I guess it depends on the software but there is a ton of stuff that's complex and even the smartest people can't learn it overnight. For example, if you don't have any experience with SQL, you're not going to be able to read an Oracle book overnight and go be a DBA the next day, even if you try to wing it. Same with Linux or UNIX. If you've never missed with Linux, I don't care how fast you read and how smart you are, it's going to take you more than a day to learn. It's not just a matter of learning where to click in these apps. There are a lot of concepts that need to be learned and that takes time.