Getting a career in IT

CFLarsen said:
Tell your friend to settle for a nice, easy job, with less stress than in IT.

E.g., mine removal, or the bomb squad.
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Depends where you're at. To say all or almost all IT jobs are high stress is ridiculous.
 
I know your asking for more "general" advice that this, but I've fielded this question quite a bit, recently. I'm a programmer, and what I tell people is do what I did- just smarter. If you need a Certification, get A+ software/hardware/networking. All very simple, and very easy, and A+ hardware once meant you could crack a case without voiding a warranty.

The important thing, though is experience. Do pro bono for everybody who will let you, write every small program you can do in a weekend for every small business that wants one. Volunteer your tech skills to local charities- Ronald McDonald House, and things of this nature are in lots of cities. Lots of companys like "community leaders" and that means people who volunteer. The main point is, get experience on your Resume.

Every job I've been hired for is more concerned with my work experience, than the schooling I had. (To be clear, I have no degree, and only a bunch of programming classes from a tech/ripoff school).

Experience had gotten me further than people with 4 year degrees. And I'm in a city with a very lack-luster Programming industry.

Again, pro bono and volunteer until you have a resume that can get you hired.
 
I'll just throw my probably irrelevant 2 cents in here. I'm in engineering, not IT, but I have been led to believe they're similar.

Anyway, it was been pounded into me that the best offers come as a result of who you know. My current job (which totally rocks) I got because I served as president of the university's chapter of ACM. This got me well known by the chair of the computer science department. When my current employer asked the school of engineering and computer science for pointers to the top students, I was on the short list.

Volunteering is well and good; just make sure you use it as a way of meeting people. A company is more likely to take a chance on you if someone there or someone they trust knows you.
 
My husband got his first IT job after just a few free online courses through me at the company I was doing front end web design contract work for. Since then he's slowly moved up to the point where he's now a Lead Developer for a large scale project for a major international company as well as having a book deal on advanced programming in a distinct field of concentration. He just has a GED (dropped out at 17 and got the GED that year) and one year of two-year college. None of which got him to where he is today. What brought him to this level is a) working on his own projects to hone his skills and b) having a wife who knows how to write CVs and cover letters and do follow up calls (well knows how to recommend how to handle them). He's moved up the ladder at a good pace since 2000 and I'm damned proud of his capabilities. The book deal was not him searching, but somebody head hunting him on linkedin.com so using networking tools has helped as well.

My $.02.
 
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