What should I do?

**Autokad** · April 7th, 2009, 05:53 PM

Hey everyone,

I have decided not to go to college for reasons I won't state here. However, I would like to make a living doing something in PCs but don't have a clue as to what with out going to college. I'm more of a hardware guy than software, I suck at taking test but I love working with computers. Anyone have any ideas as to what I could do for a career?

I'm open to any suggestions...

Thanks

**GroundZero3** · April 7th, 2009, 05:56 PM

What experience do you have? You will eventually having to find yourself going to college to step up in the world. I suggest at least starting to work towards your AA.

**Autokad** · April 7th, 2009, 06:00 PM

The only experience i have is building and installing software/hardware on my own computers and fixing friends/relatives computers for a few extra greenbacks....
...once again, I will not be attending a college. I have money nor patience to go through school again.

**nemowolf** · April 7th, 2009, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by GroundZero3

What experience do you have? You will eventually having to find yourself going to college to step up in the world. I suggest at least starting to work towards your AA.

Originally Posted by Autokad

The only experience i have is building and installing software/hardware on my own computers and fixing friends/relatives computers for a few extra greenbacks....
...once again, I will not be attending a college. I have money nor patience to go through school again.

That is not grammatically correct as you cant use nor with out previous using some negative like neither.

So first off, to further expand and hopefully to make clear what GZ said ... Without a College degree you will not be able to get into Management and/or Senior level positions regardless of experience. If you couldn't tell, I didnt go to school for computers and instead got an AA in creative writing. I am writing this from while at my IT job as we speak. Go figure.

With little or no experience, in the current economy, you will be hard pressed to find anything in the PC field as there are more qualified candidates looking for work then there are positions. Be warned that this varies based on location, SF where i am still has jobs available if slim while other places may not be so fortunate.

That said ... You need to have some serious motivation to learn on your own because your going to need some certifications and expand your knowledge base to make yourself a viable candidate for employment. Start with the A+ cert from Comptia, from there you can do Network+ and Security+ to get a solid foundation.

If you want to do additional ground work, if you...

find you work on computers over the phone check out the MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technican) cert.

find you work on networks, firewalls, managed switches, routers, etc then consider doing Cisco certifications.

find you work on servers then go for OS specific training like MCSA/MCSE or get certified in your *nix flavor.

Where your at is like being at the center of a circle, only 360+ directions to go. Find one and start going.

**GroundZero3** · April 7th, 2009, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by nemowolf

With little or no experience, in the current economy, you will be hard pressed to find anything in the PC field as there are more qualified candidates looking for work then there are positions. .

Bingo! Unless he knows someone to get him a job, its gonna be tough :/

**EXreaction** · April 7th, 2009, 10:07 PM

Geeksquad? Bad pay and you'll probably have to deal with a lot of crap, but you don't need much to get that job.

**nemowolf** · April 8th, 2009, 01:39 AM

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Geeksquad? Bad pay and you'll probably have to deal with a lot of crap, but you don't need much to get that job.

as a former agent, i would not advise that as a first job. it is not a very good slice of life for anything outside of retail. it is very much slanted towards sales and not towards doing any real IT work.

ALL work is done through automated tools provided, very little hands on time with the hardware, and worse they do remote work so often times your just hooking a machine up to a kvm and waiting for it to connect. The main "technical" side will come with the initial inspection, 10 minutes to listen to the customer and try to get details on whats wrong. maybe even simulate it so you can see the problem in action.

Having said that ... you may get lucky and have one agent out of the entire in store team who actually knows a lick of computers and an show you a thing or two but dont expect this to be consistant or even beneficial training as what you have time to learn is slim.

You are far better off trying to find a local mom and pop computer shop and getting started with them.

**EXreaction** · April 8th, 2009, 12:17 PM

Well, if you are not going to school, don't have the basic certificates, and don't really have a ton of experience with working on computers as a part/full time job previously or something you are not going to really find any place that'll let you in besides retail.

**nemowolf** · April 8th, 2009, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Well, if you are not going to school, don't have the basic certificates, and don't really have a ton of experience with working on computers as a part/full time job previously or something you are not going to really find any place that'll let you in besides retail.

True, get your feet wet and get out. Dont get illusioned that you can make a career out of it.

**thephilosophizer** · April 8th, 2009, 05:44 PM

Let me just say that without some explicitly strong argument against going to college; that it is a foolish thing to write off. There is money available, student loans, grants and scholarships. Trust me, and I imagine many others here will back this up, you are much better off with a pile of debt and a degree, then you are with nothing.
Something to consider besides going to a community college and getting an AA, there are also technical schools, and online schools like university of phoenix that can get you out there and working faster than a university would.
The real thing to understand is that without comprehensive and significant experience, and credentials which require passing tests, there will be more qualified people in the job market than you. You have to make yourself competitive.

**EXreaction** · April 8th, 2009, 07:22 PM

Student loans should be relatively easy to pay off as long as you don't go and buy that 60" plasma that you know you don't need, a new car when an old one for 1/4 or less of a price works just fine, etc.

Very few fields are you better off learning on your own over going to school for. Most of the intro jobs like tech support will take someone fresh out of college over anyone else.

Of course the best thing to do would be to work on your degree while in a tech job. At the end you'll have much needed experience and a degree.