Need opinion by people working in IT especially UK!

Started by Retro Wolf, Sun 25/09/2016 16:38:47

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Retro Wolf

https://www.itonlinelearning.com/

My wife is trying to get me to sign up for some of these courses but I'm reluctant. I rang them up asking about https://www.itonlinelearning.com/product/new-to-it/ the woman on the phone immediately discounted by £100 if I signed up today... :-\ Just being nice or just wanting me to not think about it for them to take my money?

My wife seems to think that I can walk into a £30,000 a year job which I find extremely doubtful. The company promises a job at the end of it, but I can imagine being sent to some call centre or something.

I did do some a levels in ICT after school but I didn't care or try then, got a C/D. I've always been interested in computers and am always helping people with theirs. If I had applied myself then no doubt I would have scored a higher mark. But I was young and stupid then.

I've dredged through Google looking for people talking about the site, lots of 5 star reviews which is always suspicious. The odd forum post where older IT blokes talk them out of doing it.

I'm concerned that these qualifications aren't worth the paper they're printed on, the site doesn't exactly scream that exams are extra, around £150 range each I think.

My wife is giving me a really hard time about getting a new job with more family time, I work weekends and my oldest has just started full-time school. I do like my current job (Baker - completely unrelated to IT).

That lady's going to ring me back Monday.

Jack

Not sure how the price compares, or what the situation is now, but MS' MCP/MCSE courses used to be far more valuable than any other IT courses.

Depends heavily whether you'll be wanting to do windows-based support, but after you pass the first one you're a certified MCP. If you pass almost all of them, like 6 or 7, you are an MCSE. The modularity really helps a lot.

Radiant

I am an IT professional, albeit in the Netherlands; I think that's a comparable job environment to the UK.

My first question is, what are your qualifications? Do you have a bachelor and/or master's degree, and if so, in what? Do you have other certs? What about relevant job experience?
My second question is, what kind of jobs are you interested in? IT is a pretty broad field, after all.
Finally, I must say that I've never heard of this particular cert before; I would suggest looking over some job sites to see what qualifications they're asking.

cat

What kind of course is this? Do they just shove over a bunch of overpriced online resources and then you have to do the exam anyway? You can save time and money and buy those preparation books available for all the certificates on Amazon. However, I doubt this will get you a job. Anyway, I'd have a look at specific CISCO or Microsoft certifications, depending on the field you want to work in.

Besides, are you really interested in the IT business? You have a job that you like and want to put quite some effort and money into a job you maybe don't like? It's not that in IT you don't have to do lots of overtime, depending on the specific job you might also have to work on weekends and in the evening...

Retro Wolf

http://homepages.shu.ac.uk/~edsjlc/ict/specifications/aqa/2004/AVCE/AQA-8251-8254-8257-W-SP-04.pdf I got a C/D in the double award, like I said I didn't apply myself then.
I do not have university level education.

My wife kind of sprang this on me, she sees me farting about in AGS and assumes I'm some kind of tech wizard.
I know more about computers than the average person, when my Uncle-in-law somehow manages to install an adware toolbar, or Aunt can't play flash videos on her Chromebook I'm your guy, but I'm pretty sure if I went for a job they'd hire the next guy in the queue.

She's giving me a rough time about spending more time with kids. Her Dad's a twat who was barely in her life when she was little, I would never leave my children like that. There's been tears and awful things said.

As far as what area of IT, not a clue. I am interested in maintaining, setting up computers and programming. I can make a procedurally generated RPG in AGS or in GameMaker but these aren't real languages.

I honestly don't want to do it. But my wife will see me as the bad guy if I don't.

Slasher

Wives are particularly good at nagging you to do something which is what they are good at.

Sometimes this is good although sometimes this is not so good. Sometimes they are unrealistic although they think they are.

She just wants you to progress and for that you must compliment her.

You may not like her attitude and wish she would stop, but she won't.

Sit down together and look at all your options. You will need to show a positive attitude towards improving your prospects.

Maybe you can come up with your own ideas that she will be in agreement with.

I myself was in a similar situation.. I done lots of IT courses as well as 6 months NVQIII administration course. I passed all exams and got a 16 month contract on the channel tunnel rail-link... Nothing after that.. but it kept the wife quiet....

Suffice to say that this could be an important landmark on your relationship. I wish you all the best and hope you do find something you really enjoy and have a very happy wife and family life (nod)

Good luck ;)



m0ds

As an alternative, why not go self employed? Do some smaller jobs locally, and in time you'll be able to offer it out to more distant clients or do things remotely. Do some hands on stuff now and some programming courses (that lead to certs) on the side. I think you'd be hard pushed to find a 30k job AND maximize family time, though the IT sector does certainly offer lots of home opportunities (but for that pay rate, I don't know..)..and you'll probably need them certs. So yeah why not start small, help the local nursing home or primary school with some of their IT, get hands on with some folks that need that kind of help, understand what it is people need, then sell those skills to people who are happy to pay for it (basically not the old people at the nursing home, that'd be tight!! ;)) My friend is or was self employed, fixing people's PC's... he had a constant stream of clients and certainly made it work for a good few years. Ultimately, I think he desired a better wage in the end. But if nothing else it proves the world (us in the UK certainly) need computer repair, experts and peripheral whizzes out there. You can probably materialize what you know already into a job, and people only need one ball (or none if you're a woman) to already have enough balls to be a self employed person. UK IT jobs you can "walk into" will be like any other, you'll slog it, satisfaction not gauranteed. Data entry, maybe some junior programming gigs.. honestly I can't think of anyone who's stuck it with an IT company for more than a few years. But I can name a lot of self employed IT people who've stuck it for decades.

Danvzare

#7
Funnily enough, I've seen this exact same scenario play out before, only with my father and mother. So I feel as though I have nice outside perspective. Now here's hoping I can put it into words.

If I'm right (and I might be wrong, but I doubt it), your wife just wants you to improve yourself, and succeed in life. She probably thinks that you want to be more than a baker, and she's trying to be supportive of that. She's seen your talent in computers, and is trying to be a good wife by trying to make you pursue what you're good at, as a career.

If you don't want to do it, or you want to do something else, then I suggest you tell her.
Personally if I was you, I'd find a more credible course, probably one of those Microsoft courses people have been mentioning on this thread, and then do that. It's always a good thing to learn something new.
Whatever you do though, I'd recommend you actually do something to improve yourself. So your wife doesn't feel as though you're intent to stay doing the exact same thing for the rest of your life (whether or not you actually do decide to do the exact same thing for the rest of your life).

After all, it's always a good idea to have something to fall back on, in case the place you work closes down.

Jack

If you don't want to work in IT, what about getting a certification in a field you are interested in? Maybe something game making related that could also be a job?

Or if you don't care for that approach, it would be best to research which jobs are currently available and their requirements, and then get that. AFAIK companies advertise their ideal candidate, you don't necessarily have to fulfil all requirements to get the job, if you have a willingness to learn.

Radiant

Quote from: Retro Wolf on Sun 25/09/2016 18:48:33I can make a procedurally generated RPG in AGS or in GameMaker but these aren't real languages.

Yes they are. If you can make a procgen in AGS then you can become a professional programmer without too much trouble. The questions are (1) do you want do be, and (2) how do you convince a company to hire you (note that you can absolutely put homemade game design on your resume!)

RickJ

First of all if the goal is more family time then probably the last thing to do is to go into computer programming.  ;)  Hours and days have a way of going by in a matter of minutes.  The same could be said for self employment.  Although I have noticed over the years quite a lot more contract work offered in the UK and in the US. (http://www.indeed.co.uk/IT-jobs)

Quite a few people offer basic computer repair services over craigs list (http://london.craigslist.co.uk/search/cps).  You can post an advert for free so it doesn't cost anything to test the waters.  They usually charge $50-$100 to reinstall windows sort of things.

The other thing that may be a match for you is some sort the web design business.  It kind of combines aspects of game making and programming, you can work independently, or if you are able to demonstrate skills you may be able to work with a web design company.  There is a guy in California who seems to do quite well making wordpress sites for businesses.  He has nice tutorial videos on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/user/Conutant

I you want to do PC repair/support then the A+ and Net+ cert would be helpful.  The MS certs used to be (an I suppose still) valuable.  Also the CISCO certs still seem to be in demand as well.  I would do some research there should be authorize testing centers near you.  If you are a good self learner then just by the books, study, and take the tests when you are ready.  But again it requires a lot of time.

One last thing that may be useful to consider is technical sales with an established company.  A company I am aware of in Ohio for example, manufacture automated machines used in the bakery business (http://theperfectscore.com/).  You know the bakery business, know how to talk with other bakers, and have a knack for technology so you would probably be a very effective rep.  Just an example.

Perhaps you will find something useful above.

tzachs

Quote from: Radiant on Mon 26/09/2016 12:32:43
Quote from: Retro Wolf on Sun 25/09/2016 18:48:33I can make a procedurally generated RPG in AGS or in GameMaker but these aren't real languages.

Yes they are. If you can make a procgen in AGS then you can become a professional programmer without too much trouble. The questions are (1) do you want do be, and (2) how do you convince a company to hire you (note that you can absolutely put homemade game design on your resume!)
+1
I know a lot of professional programmers that would have a real hard time programming a procedurally generated RPG (and in AGS it's even harder to do than with fully fledged languages).
I disagree with RickJ, I think you can have normal work hours when doing computer programming, just need to pick your employer carefully. I never worked weekends myself and haven't stayed in the office past 6PM in years.
Also, 30K is probably the lowest wage you can get: http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-programmer-salary
Now, if you want to go down that route the biggest issue is how to get a job, as with no experience or relevant degree you are kind of in trouble. I would do some Coursera courses for education instead of investing money in one of those plans like the one you posted. Coursera will give you quality courses for free (and for some courses you can pay to get a certificate). But the most important part is to get actual experience, so you can go freelancing as Mods suggested (but something you can show in your CV, so like create an app/game/website) and a lot of companies today recruit based on open source contributions so start contributing to an open source project (or more than one) on Github. AGS, perhaps? Getting into big open source projects can be overwhelming at the start, as it takes time to understand the code, so you can start with taking a very small feature request that sounds 'easy' and start fighting with the code.
If after having both some education and experience you still can't get a job in programming, a good stepping stone into the industry is by doing software QA. That's how I started. The wages are lower and the hours longer, but after you put some time in QA it's easier to get promoted to be a dev (when you're doing QA for some time you get to be the most knowledgeable person in the company about how the software works, more than the developers themselves, and so companies won't want to lose you so you can demand a promotion without blinking).

Retro Wolf

She's forcing me to do it, I've told her I've been talking to IT guys... I try talking her out of it and she thinks I'm just being negative.

The money isn't a big deal, we have the money, but I'm not happy about wasting it. I've told her I think it's a waste of time, but she wants me to do it. She says even if I screw it up at least I tried something.

I've told her I'll look for other jobs, so maybe I'll find something that doesn't involve working every weekend.

Thanks for the input guys, I've got a lot to think about.

Cassiebsg

Pushing someone into something they don't want to do, is not a good idea.

And even if money is no problem, wasting it isn't the solution.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

m0ds

LOL. I agree with Cassie. Grow a pair and tell her it's stupid then ;)


Retro Wolf

Just to give you guys an update, I've been employed by one of the biggest bakery companies in the country. Much better pay, benefits, and I won't be working every weekend. ;)

Stupot

Nice one. You are in charge of the next AGS Bake Sale, then :-)

Cassiebsg

There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Hobo

In honour of this news, I shall bake a pie today!

Retro Wolf


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