this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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Why the rudeness? My post says I enjoy managing my home stuff and am considering it as a backup job opportunity other than my PhD. Nothing unclear there.
It probably the fact that the industry is getting flooded with people who think working in IT is a easy get rich job.
In reality it sucks and the pay is mediocre. It is something you get into because you love it. There is no easy button like a lot of people want.
Thanks for explaining their response.
I hoped my post was clear, I’m really enjoying self hosting and managing servers. Just thought I would see what else I could do to educate myself and provide another opportunity
work on how to explain things to users. I'm good at layman's terms, but not at writing out technical stuff for documentation and billing.
It certainly was 20-25 years ago. Zero formal education besides high school would land you a job 5 times the minimum wage working mostly in air conditioned comfort. Upward mobility was built in, and many of us have leveraged that for even higher paying positions with the gained experience and continued learning of the tech on our own.
Don't mind my jaded fellow IT pro. The job eats at you if you're in a bad position, which I'm guessing he/she/they/drag is.
In a small way I can see they're trying to help (even if the delivery stinks), as IT isn't just something you can dabble in and then pivot into it at this point in time. If you want to work in IT you really have to want it and make it a priority simply because the competition is fierce and getting started is grueling and will potentially burn less dedicated people out.
To support that point it's worth pointing out that the entry level of the industry is both very saturated and generally very unsatisfying help desk work. Without dedicated experience in system administration and/or formal education in IT you're most likely only going to get a help desk position, and that's if you're lucky.
That's not the end of the road though, at that point you'll need to absorb as much knowledge as you can, get some certifications to show you know what you're doing (which certs will definitely change by the time you get there.). Once you have them you can leverage those certifications into a better position. That position might be a junior sysadmin if you're lucky, but in my experience those positions want years of experience in sysadmin tasks.
As the saying goes: The hardest part of getting into IT is getting a helpdesk position, the second hardest part is getting the hell out of helpdesk.
That's the general roadmap. If you have more specific questions feel free to ask away.
I’m on mobile so it’s hard to respond to everything you said. Thank you for a detailed response and for being kind!
I am totally unaware of the field other than my uncle describing how difficult it can be. Thanks for explaining more.
Sounds like trying to find work at my libraries help desk might be a good step? I lost some hours on another university job so that could help and be a learning experience.
Maybe I can ask what could I be teaching myself at home that could transfer to a desirable skill?
I’ve worked with some languages (Java and python), docker, VMs, some managed switch and vlan stuff, and I guess generally managing multiple servers on and off site (house).
Thanks again! Their response as the first one I get in the community was upsetting and you made it better :)
I'm happy I could help, I hate to see current industry workers forget what it was like to wonder and be uncertain before taking the plunge. Gatekeeping is an unfortunately common part of IT.
It sounds like you have a solid start in terms of homelab work, I'd definitely talk to your local library and get some real workplace experience. Homelab experience is easy to disregard when hiring unless you can show your work too, so network diagram charts or a splashy data visualization page on a server you can access remotely will help in interviews. The library experience is actual workplace application of knowledge so that's much harder to ignore and should be a priority.
I wish you all the best, I'm sorry your first encounter with the community was a territorial greybeard. As ever, I remain happy to help if you think of more questions.