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IT graduate

Thank you to all of those who reply and for your advice.

Hey, I would really appreciate the help here. What are the perspective career paths please with an IT degree. It’s been almost 20 months since I graduated and I have found it difficult to find my first graduate job. Whilst I can programme and network in preference terms I feel I am more tech savvy because I love technical support. Asides from working within 2 retail jobs I don’t have any Tech or IT related job experience…although as willing as I am I would love to just volunteer where a place would be able to offer the opportunity to gain Tech or IT experience but yeah please also suggest what are the types of roles I should be applying for, where even to be able to get into IT Support or IT Admin or something even Entry Level.

Thank you once again.

Reply 1

Original post
by Mohammed_2000
Thank you to all of those who reply and for your advice.
Hey, I would really appreciate the help here. What are the perspective career paths please with an IT degree. It’s been almost 20 months since I graduated and I have found it difficult to find my first graduate job. Whilst I can programme and network in preference terms I feel I am more tech savvy because I love technical support. Asides from working within 2 retail jobs I don’t have any Tech or IT related job experience…although as willing as I am I would love to just volunteer where a place would be able to offer the opportunity to gain Tech or IT experience but yeah please also suggest what are the types of roles I should be applying for, where even to be able to get into IT Support or IT Admin or something even Entry Level.
Thank you once again.

An IT degree by itself only helps if you want to apply for postgraduate courses in my book. In terms of careers in tech, you're only slightly more advantageous than someone with zero tech knowledge.

The tech industry is huge, and there are probably 101 different roles people can go into. You would need to be a lot more specific about what you want. See the following for example:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-categories/computing-technology-and-digital
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/information-technology/overview-of-the-uks-it-industry
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/list-of-technology-careers
https://skillcrush.com/blog/41-tech-job-titles/
https://gtscholars.org/understanding-the-different-careers-in-technology
https://www.techelevator.com/tech-jobs/types-of-tech-jobs/
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/tech-jobs-list-explanation-common-roles

In my opinion, anyone with the right skills and portfolio should be able to get a job in tech. Whilst the relevant degree is nice to have, it's not mandatory (this includes any course that you did at college).

Should I approach this, I would do a professional certificate relevant to the specific role (if I intend to work in cloud computing for example, I won't get a certificate in cybersecurity - a bit obvious, but it goes amiss with a lot of people) that I intend to apply for and then try to put together a portfolio of work to showcase during the interview. The portfolio of work should be closely aligned or imitate the sort of work that I would expect to see in the specific role e.g. if the role requires me to put together webpages that are fluid in Java and do complicated functions, then I would try to include something along those lines in the portfolio. In the interview, I would be expected to test my skills and be able to do a lot of the tasks proficiently, which is why I would do months of practice test prior to going into the interview (as well as doing it from now until I get a response from interviewers).

If you intend to go into IT support, then I recommend you read the following:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/it-support-technician
If I was trying to apply for an IT support role, I would learn to fiddle around with computer hardware leading to the interview whilst trying to get an CompTIA A+, Google IT Support, or CISCO CNNA certificate in the meantime.

I don't know what sort of career path you intend to move onto once you get experience in IT support, so I would stop there and let you decide.

Do note though, I don't work in IT so you might want a second opinion from someone who does regarding the above.

Reply 2

Original post
by MindMax2000
An IT degree by itself only helps if you want to apply for postgraduate courses in my book. In terms of careers in tech, you're only slightly more advantageous than someone with zero tech knowledge.
The tech industry is huge, and there are probably 101 different roles people can go into. You would need to be a lot more specific about what you want. See the following for example:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-categories/computing-technology-and-digital
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/information-technology/overview-of-the-uks-it-industry
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/list-of-technology-careers
https://skillcrush.com/blog/41-tech-job-titles/
https://gtscholars.org/understanding-the-different-careers-in-technology
https://www.techelevator.com/tech-jobs/types-of-tech-jobs/
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/tech-jobs-list-explanation-common-roles
In my opinion, anyone with the right skills and portfolio should be able to get a job in tech. Whilst the relevant degree is nice to have, it's not mandatory (this includes any course that you did at college).
Should I approach this, I would do a professional certificate relevant to the specific role (if I intend to work in cloud computing for example, I won't get a certificate in cybersecurity - a bit obvious, but it goes amiss with a lot of people) that I intend to apply for and then try to put together a portfolio of work to showcase during the interview. The portfolio of work should be closely aligned or imitate the sort of work that I would expect to see in the specific role e.g. if the role requires me to put together webpages that are fluid in Java and do complicated functions, then I would try to include something along those lines in the portfolio. In the interview, I would be expected to test my skills and be able to do a lot of the tasks proficiently, which is why I would do months of practice test prior to going into the interview (as well as doing it from now until I get a response from interviewers).
If you intend to go into IT support, then I recommend you read the following:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/it-support-technician
If I was trying to apply for an IT support role, I would learn to fiddle around with computer hardware leading to the interview whilst trying to get an CompTIA A+, Google IT Support, or CISCO CNNA certificate in the meantime.
I don't know what sort of career path you intend to move onto once you get experience in IT support, so I would stop there and let you decide.
Do note though, I don't work in IT so you might want a second opinion from someone who does regarding the above.

The degree itself is known as Computer Networks and Technology (Digital Technology) so it’s a mixture of Programming, Networking, Software and Hardware. As stated I would love to get a role as an IT Support or IT Technician even working as part of IT Helpdesk or ServiceDesk even IT Administrator.

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