Junior IT role/job

Hello I’ve recently in the past 2-3 months applied for 3 IT vacancies having become a graduate and on all 3 occasions I’ve made it past the interview stage although I am yet to obtain a Junior role in computing. Does anyone have any advice as to where should I start off do you think experience is key and essential or do I just keep on applying for Junior roles. I am interested in becoming a 1st/2nd line Technician.

It's great that you've got that far already, and it might just be bad luck that you've not obtained it yet. It's always worth continuing to apply anyway.
I would say, even for junior roles, experience is relatively important, especially as a technician (though not necessary): if you've not already, it might be worth asking family and friends to message you if they ever need technical support, because just being able to say that you have helped people is worth a lot, and can be a major talking point in interviews.
Again, if you haven't done so already it might be worth doing some online courses. I'd especially recommend professional IT course providers: it might be worth checking out CompTIA and their CompTIA A+ course: it's really well respected, especially for that sort of help/technician side of things.
Non-technical courses are also good though, such as those on effective communication.

I hope this helped at least a bit, hopefully some others with experience directly in this field will arrive. It definitely seems that you're doing well, so I think the most important thing is to keep trying and just try and get some certification or experience if you can. Best of luck

Hi moss excellent piece of advice and thank you very much for wishing me luck and your definitely right I have considered doing a CompTia certification as these are necessarily some requirements on a brief just wondering what’s the pros and cons of doing it does that mean splashing the cash towards it or as well as other factors such as the duration and completion of it. But your brilliant piece of advice and it’s definitely worth me considering about

Hey, thank you very much, any time . Yeah so, definitely the major problem of CompTIA is the pricing. I think at the moment there's a sale, so you can get an exam for about 100 pounds, as opposed to about £200 normally. Luckily there are a lot of resources to help you, such as YouTube videos, etc., which can help reduce the dent in the wallet. I'm not sure whether as a recent graduate you might be eligible for some money off, there website is a bit geared towards America which is bothersome.

So, the cost covers the assessment centre as mentioned (that's basically what you're paying for I believe? Might need to check that.) and there are a few in the UK, so that shouldn't be a problem. Essentially you revise for a series of multiple choice questions I think, and do them there.

The CompTIA website says that it takes '20 days of instructor-led online training, 60 hours to complete the course', but obviously this differs depending on how much time you have to spend, and whether you use a proper instructor or YouTube, etc.

So, for pros and cons:
- Pro: it looks really good on a CV and is handy to talk about in an interview. If you're looking at graduate jobs especially (incidentally, if you haven't already, I'd recommend signing up to Prospects, you can get personalised emails for graduate vacancies) that's going to give you a major edge over competitors. Definitely a major pro.
- Pro: it would actually be really useful just by itself, to give you some knowledge and make it easier too start anyway. Also, I'm not sure what you're a graduate of, but depending on how much you've done already regarding that line of work it might be worth looking at other CompTIA courses based off that. They have a good roadmap I believe.
Pro: It doesn't take overly long to complete, and there's a lot of free resources.
Con: you often need to redo the exam every 3 years in order to keep it on your CV. That said, you might not even need to, as you could use it just to get a booster into work, and then your experience would look good enough anyway.
Con: it is expensive, and can be hard. That said, it is well-respected by many employers, so it kinda balances out.

By the way, here's the stats for length and such: https://www.comptia.org/blog/comptia-live-online-training-your-questions-answered

So in my opinion it would definitely be worth a thorough look. I think the major benefit is that it's so well known for those in the industry. As mentioned previously too, definitely worth getting some practical experience though, and just applying anyway because you might strike gold.

I've not considered every angle, but hopefully this is enough to give you a general overview. Once more, my well wishes to you! Obviously feel free to message or PM with other questions, more than happy to help

Legend 👊🏼💯 . It’s the price thats the sticking point just got off the call from a provider who provide the training of the course at £3900. Price expected to go up 10/15% next year and the fact the exam needs to be done every 3 years to keep it I don’t know what to do Moss 😭😭

Ooooh jeez, yeah that's mad. I mean to reiterate, it's obviously not necessary and the fact you've got interviews and stuff is great and shows that you're in the right direction.
Might be worth taking a look at some of those YouTube courses and such to see if their worthwhile? Even if you only pay for the exam itself and just use them, it's probably still doable?

I guess also if you manage to get a job with it, you could probably just leave it without renewing again because of the new experience: certification like A+ is common for entry level jobs but decreases in need as experience increases.

That's horrifying though, for something that's meant to take a month or so, pretty thought provoking. Definitely recommend checking out the free videos maybe?
Can't really justify spending near enough 4 grand for that as you say. It's hardly the end of the world if you can't of course: there are so many options out there and as said, sounds like you're near enough anyway .
It's worth noting too that CompTIA provides knowledge, and mostly just looks good. A lot of jobs list it as wanted for some reason, and though that's not necessary it's always good to be able to tick those boxes.

There are also loads of other certs out there that you can look at, CompTIA may be respected but is as mentioned not needed (and it's not magic too, obviously you'd need other things to be able to complement it, it doesn't work by itself). Any kind of course (e.g. from EdX or Udemy even) that could give you a bit of knowledge or show your passion are worth it.

And Hopefully a way through or around will be seen! Here for you if you need anything 👊🏼

Edit: as seen below too, and as I said, it's good for ticking a box and learning a bit more, but to really get you into a job you need to show your skills practically and that you'd be a good fit.

What I'm really trying to say is that it's not the end of the world either way, and it's definitely worth keeping your options open for other beneficial things.

I did the CompTIA A+ about 18 years ago and it served no purpose whatsoever in getting me a computer job. It did set me back 1200 quid, though.

My mate did it about 5 years ago and directly after got a gig fixing shop self scanners. But he wanted to be doing other stuff and found it didn't really get him where he wanted to be, either.

Be careful with it. It's a feather in your cap for sure but it's not that much of a boon.

I guess I won’t do it then I don’t know what’s my next paths forward then

Sounds like your best bet is to just keep trying then I guess, maybe try helping out close ones and just taking a look at any opportunities you can find. Sorry for not being of more help, good luck