Advice on changing careers

[Sebastian]

Hello All!

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. Basically I am in a sales job working 45 hours a week and hating my life. I'm essentially a phone jockey and I have no interest in what I sell. I'm doing this simply because it pays the bills, and now that I've closed a few sales the money is getting "ok".

So my idea is that I want to start looking into a new field. QA Analyst/Tester seems like a cool gig. I want to get into some kind of IT field, but I'm not a big fan of code and programming.

What are some recommendations of jobs I could look into? I have a little computer background, and I am willing to learn how to code to an extend. Nothing crazy complicated or elaborate like C+. I was thinking more in line with SQL or something more basic like that.

Either way what areas/skills should I start developing to get my foot in the door to this industry?

Thanks for the advice!

[rugorak]

IT is a pretty broad field. There are all sorts of jobs. Sys Admin, SAN Admin, PC support, Application support, Helpdesk, Network Admin, DBA. All have varying levels of technical expertise. Many require no coding. Some should require basic scripting at least if not coding but do not (pet peeve as I am a SysAdmin and think all should be able to write scripts). You'll have to narrow it down a bit. Saying you want an IT job is like saying you want a job in Facilities. You could be an electrician, a plumber, a grounds keeper, HVAC, and so on. Huge variation.

For QA/testing a lot of times it helps to have some experience on the other side as well first. For example for some QA jobs I have interviewed for they liked having both coders and sys admins. Because the team could bring in the people who understood how the product got to them to test and how it would be used after. But typically IT QA/testing is heavy coding. So since you say you don't like coding that would be an issue.

Getting your foot in the door can be difficult or easy. Certifications can help. Many times they get you in the door easier than experience because HR doesn't understand what IT does. Degrees can help too. Some jobs require one or the other, some both. But landing the job is hard without experience. Some jobs they will train you in the IT side of things assuming you have experience in the other side of things. For example I work in healthcare and a lot of our clinical application support people came from nursing, etc. and were trained on the IT side of things. Honestly many of them suck at it. But that is how they got their jobs. Other jobs will see that you went for the certs on your own and give you a chance. Such as A+ or MCITP or the like certs.

So I would suggest first thing you do is a lot more research. Figure out more of what you think you would want to do. Then maybe even try and shadow someone. Then work on whatever you need to move into that field.

[the fixer]

I'm a software developer, and work closely with QA. QA is about understanding software from an operational perspective, specifically how it can fail. A good tester uses their intuition to find possible ramifications to a design: if the developer just changed X, how will that affect Y? What parts of the app might have broken in the process and been overlooked? Knowing how to code can be helpful here, but it's not required. It's like how you can be good at chemistry without knowing anything about the quantum mechanics that fundamentally explain everything that's going on.

If I were in your position and wanted to get started in QA, I would probably try this to minimize risk, commitment, and cost:

• Get a book. Learn about writing test cases, documenting requirements, and the different types of testing. Learn a bit about automated testing in a few different environments.
• Pick one or two free web apps, smartphone apps, or other open source projects, and apply your new QA knowledge to them. All of these free apps have at least a few bugs in them, see if you can find them. If you're having trouble, look for a project that's in beta and will definitely be buggy. Document your bugs and figure out how to reproduce them in the simplest way possible. Report them to the developers (optional, but recommended to get you some practice communicating your findings. Also a good way to build your resume and network). Also look for bugs or holes in documentation, and suggest fixes.
• Find a freelance developer or very small startup through elance, networking events, etc. Offer your testing services, possibly even for free for a fixed trial term since you have no actual experience yet (no more than six months). You goal here is to get experience.
• Either convert your free "internship" into a paying gig, or put together a resume and start looking for a real job. By this time you should have almost a year of "experience" you can put on a resume.

[Spork]

I'll echo a lot of what's been said: IT is very very broad.

I've been in some sort of IT-ish area since about 1990... before that I was in software development.  I've always been unix and/or security-centric.  In that particular area, I see a whole helluva lot of guys that (a) have no degree (but are wicked smart) and (b) have no real certifications.  (There aren't many that apply so much in this area).

Most of the folks I see that drag themselves up to the "important" level start out at the bottom and rise to the top.  More often than not, it is network operations, help desk or PC tech (i.e., the guys that repair the desktops) that end up filling openings in the higher up areas.  If you can get a foot hold in one of those areas and really show that you're leagues above everyone else... people will notice you.

If you're interested at all in the sysadmin side of things, start building servers/networks.  More often than not, you can do this with crap throw-away computers (you're not serving 10,000 people).  If the unix side interests you: dig into linux (and keep your eyes on windows so you understand how they might interact and understand strengths and weaknesses of each).  The same goes for if you gravitate towards Windows... keep your eyes and fingers in linux.

[jamccain]

I have helped several friends through this process.  Here is a 250 word plan for a stranger....

Start by buying a book, like this one... http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2013/dp/1607741474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368164951&sr=8-1&keywords=what+color+is+your+parachute+2013

It has sold 10 million copies for a reason.  Take your time reading the book and applying it to your life.  This isn't something you're going to figure out by asking a question on a forum.  Maybe you can come back here and ask a specific tactical career question later, but your not there yet. 

"Stop looking around for a career and start looking inside for one" -- or something like that is a good quote you will hear from career coaches (i.e. stop searching for the "hot" industry, high paying job, etc... figure out what your good at and like, the money will come) .  It's not just about "find your passion and do it"... it's more complicated than that.  "You could be in the right business the wrong way" is another one... (ie, you may love real estate, but hate being a real estate agent...you might love it again if you were a property manager, or fix and flipper, etc.) 

You have to know what you like, what you're good at, and how you can make money doing it.

Once you are moving toward a target of something you like, you have to figure out if you want to work for someone else or yourself.  Then do you want to work alone, or on a team.  What size team?  Do you want business travel or not?  40 hours a week or more/less?  Etc. Etc.

Finally, begin with the end in mind. 

It's all in the book...