IT Career Advice for an Aviator

[Green Bottle 2]

I am always looking to keep my options open and although employed in helicopter aviation, I am considering a career change to IT. I have always had an interest in computing and have a diploma in computing.

As part of my job I have had some IT exposure, sidelining as a system administrator for a couple of years managed small IT workgroups mainly using Win 98/NT4/ Win2000. I have recently made a foray into Linux and am considering what quals to work towards whether Linux, Windows or indeed any other quals.

I would appreciate any advice from any gurus on what courses would be useful, salaries, areas to specialise, qualifications to work towards. I am in my early 30's but am not in a hurry to change careers.

Thanks in advance for any help.

GB2

[UK-Kiwi]

I'm the other way around, in IT considering changing to aviation.

First up, if you are doing any sort of IT role in the company, try and make it somewhat official, ie don't just be the guy everyone comes to in order to fix things, get it in the job description/cv that you were the xyz... for the company. It might even advance to them providing some basic courses? Either way it would be a great bonus on the cv when looking for a job.

IT can be like aviation (I guess), plenty of courses to take you from zero to hero, but how good can you do the job?

I'd say stick to industry certification / training, ie a technology or product field, grads come out of 3 years university, computer science, information technology whatever, but often are of no use to an IT department because they can't do anything, if their lucky they might have enough practical knowledge and plain english to work on a helpdesk.
Get into Microsoft or Cisco qualifications and you're dime a dozen, but then again just about every company use these companies, well at least microsoft.
KNowing the Office suite is worth something as often your only break into the industry might be on a helpdesk. If you want to do the physical stuff, ie fix build hardware, then it's different, but then there's a limit to how far you can go. As it is a lot of 2nd/3rd line systems engineers will often build their own servers anyway (depends on the size of the company), kit like compaq is so standardised and designed as modular these days that it's dead simple. I wouldn't recommend going into hardware.

On the plus side, I find it's not just what you know, but how you can apply it. You can easily find guru's or pay for somebody to gain the knowledge. But it's damn hard to find people who are "good". If you want to get into developing then if you are methodical and have an eye for detail then that;s a great skill, I get sick and tired of sloppy developers who leave all sorts of inconsistancies in the product, leave out the most basic things such as error trapping. On the support side if you can problem solve effectively you will be a great asset. time and again you can get guys with all the know how but they are only good for design and set up, put a crashed system in front of them and they can stuff around with it all day never getting anywhere.

I think I'll stop there for the moment, just realised it's midnight and I think all I'm doing is waffling, I'm not sure I've actually made sense :)

Cheers

[BlueRobin]

Well, eek! :eek: The IT support market has to contend with an awful lot of erm...amateurs. In the last five years, every builder, plumber and his dog reckons they can make serious amounts of dough from support jobs. The shear weight of CVs that are binned by personnel depts is outstanding. As a supposed IT pro, naturally I should discourage your career move in small part to further mine! ;)

Seriously though. Having exposure to Linux is good as Windows-only is limiting somewhat (I should know). You'd probably end up with a 1st/2nd line support job for about 15-18k. After 3 years, you could get up to around 25k if your lucky and has gained enough skill through exposure to the job.

Industry qualifications (microsoft, cisco) etc are ten a penny. If you know your stuff/are a birhgt spark, then get one. Unfortunately for some, a portion of people who have successfully gained these quals, still won't be able to diagnose an IT problem.

With some employers, these quals are a necessity for application. But with others, for the aforementioned reason, these quals are something to be wary of! That is, having one does not mean you are any good.

I touched upon diagnosis. If you have the ability to communicate with a normal user in simple English terms, diagnose and fix the problem in a jiffy, then you've got it made. Nevermind what you know, it's more important with how you go about doing it.

Be sure to apply this in the "transferable skills" mention for any interview. Being in a cockpit, you would often come up against tech probkems which would have to be solved in a similar manner as above.

Good luck! I also hear that NZ are crying out for proper IT pros. :)




=Neil=

[DistantRumble]

Competent Database people are hard to come by; especially good Oracle administrators.

In fact it is so hard that the qualifications oracle offer are not recognised :p by most employers (OCP) like MS and CISCO are.

[Green Bottle 2]

Thnaks for the advice guys it has been useful. I think I have problem solving and communication skills but lack some of the detailed knowledge required to apply them effectively so a few well places courses and some relevant experience would appear to be in order.

I think development is out of the question as I don't have the patience or eye for detail.

Is there anyone with advice about teaching IT skills - thinking more about Office applications etc.

Many Thanks

GB2

[Farke]

I am in exactly the same boat, but at the job application stage. As mentioned, you need experience on your CV so make the most of your time as an administrator and of your 'transferable skills'. Get certification to be seen but you need experience to be picked up for more than a helpdesk job at £12-15K. My background is very similar to yours and I am getting nibbles in the £25-30K range.

MCSE is the obvious choice for certification but it is really only a starting point. Many employers are asking for UNIX/Novell/Linux as well. Also backup and firewall skills are listed in the 'essential' part of the ad.

I can recommend an excellent training school for MCSE/Cisco and Linux, just email me if you want details or any other training advice.