Just graduated college. Been self employed for 5 years. No idea what to do- IT.

[zoochadookdook]

Hey all. I’m 26 and just completed my MIS bachelors. I have been self employed for the last 4-5 years and have owned my home for the last 3. The issue is I'm only going to ever make 25-35k annually self employed as is and I believe I can do more (I'm only working 5-6 hours a week at that). I do have some student loans and living expenses though so a no-pay internship really doesn't make a lot of sense. It's hard to quantify being self employed to employers though.

 I’m posting here to inquire as to what jobs I should be looking to apply to/options I have in the field. Most of my classes were sql and database focused, but I have IT hardware experience (build home networks and such for people in my spare time) and really have no idea where to start. I worked an internship this last summer as a data scientist just to get something to put on my resume (aside from being a wrestling instructor/a army grunt years ago). Any advice is appreciated. *I’m in Michigan if location makes any difference. If anything doesn't pan out I was considering being a union electrician. Pay is solid, overtime is guaranteed, benefits are great. It's just confusing having never been in a formal workplace.


Thanks, Zach

[Tester]

I don't understand.
You make 25-35 k anually while working 6 hours/week and you want to switch to 40 hours/week for how much?
If you need more i come can your self employed thing double the income while doubling the hours? If it can then just do that and increase hours for your self employed thing until you get the income you need. 30 hours/week should give you 125k?

[zoochadookdook]

nope doesn't scale like that. Based on local inventory and supply availability. I've gone months making 1200 and others making 4k or such. I'm constantly checking all my platforms but only count working hours as drive/meet up times.

[reeshau]

This is an interesting situation.  You are self-driven enough to be self-employed, but have ended up in a very typical case of graduating and wondering what's next.  It's hard to put those two facts together.  At least it is an MIS degree.

But, what were you expecting to do when you started the degree?  Why did you decide to go to school?  (and, to take student loans, at that)  Did your Plan A fall through?

Next, what does your school's guidance or employment office say?  They will usually have employers they partner with, or at least know the top employers that hire their grads.  What do you think about those options?

Finally, with MIS, I would ask:  hardware or software?  It's too bad you were meh about data science; while you likely would need even more school to get deep in that field, it is big bucks and in demand now--would be a perfect place to go, if you are thinking about money in IT.  But, you mentioned experience with networking--I assume you did it, and mention it, because you like it.

Finally, nothing wrong with being an electrician, either.  You will need to start off as an apprentice, so you're kind of starting over.  If you can get over that, there is plenty of money and job security in it.

[katsiki]

What kind of work are you doing now?  What IT experience (practical) do you have?

[Tester]

nope doesn't scale like that. Based on local inventory and supply availability. I've gone months making 1200 and others making 4k or such. I'm constantly checking all my platforms but only count working hours as drive/meet up times.

Ok, one thought - without more information hard to know if my idea makes sense or not.

What if you use your existing contacts/customers to extend your services to satisfy more of their needs?
You could identify what they need/ask and then extend your business into those areas.

Also important: how much income do you need? Besides "as much as possible" :-).

[zoochadookdook]

This is an interesting situation.  You are self-driven enough to be self-employed, but have ended up in a very typical case of graduating and wondering what's next.  It's hard to put those two facts together.  At least it is an MIS degree.

But, what were you expecting to do when you started the degree?  Why did you decide to go to school?  (and, to take student loans, at that)  Did your Plan A fall through?

Next, what does your school's guidance or employment office say?  They will usually have employers they partner with, or at least know the top employers that hire their grads.  What do you think about those options?

Finally, with MIS, I would ask:  hardware or software?  It's too bad you were meh about data science; while you likely would need even more school to get deep in that field, it is big bucks and in demand now--would be a perfect place to go, if you are thinking about money in IT.  But, you mentioned experience with networking--I assume you did it, and mention it, because you like it.

Finally, nothing wrong with being an electrician, either.  You will need to start off as an apprentice, so you're kind of starting over.  If you can get over that, there is plenty of money and job security in it.

I love being self employed. The idea of turning money into more money based on just how quick I am to advertise/get to somethings is kind of addicting. At the core I flip computer hardware-and while it sounds silly it can be pretty lucrative. I'll drive a 8 hour round trip for 500 bucks one day and the next get screwed on something water damaged. No benefits either are a pain.

I'm not opposed to any field. I did enjoy stats which is ingrained in data science but I'm not really tied to anything. I do know my degree was a lot of business core and not a lot of comp sci development outside of SQL-so people who want a java developer/c# are smart to pass me up. I did quite a bit of projects on data integrity with proper entity formation, use cases, relationships, and all kinds of diagrams/forms tied together (a 56 page or so project was pretty hefty).

Initially out of high school I went to the army reserve. I was honorably discharged after 2 years and had decided to go to school as my father had set up some MEP credits for me years ago. As a result I started paying out of pocket at a community college and used the credits towards a business degree. I liked technology and was too deep to switch to the school of science and engineering so I went with MIS. No real goal aside from a good job.

Our school has a career fall every semester and multiple employers on campus year around. The issue with the career fair is it's generally the same "apply online" run around but there's hundreds of employers to talk to at least.

Either way I do need a income of at least 30k a year starting out with room to go up. I have a ton of interests from lean development to ham radios to teaching grappling to Italian greyhound breeding; I'm taking a few construction classes and cooking courses this next semester at the local CC just to see if it's anything I can self benefit from (construction is so freaking lucrative if I knew how to I'd be killing it in that field).

[zoochadookdook]

What kind of work are you doing now?  What IT experience (practical) do you have?

I flip computers, motorcycles, gym equipment. It I've done VMware troubleshooting on host machines with win server, a bunch of kali linux testing, set up my home mesh/all the families, built a bunch of pcs and in house servers, frequently get calls for how to fix this printer or this router so on....wired my basement for rough in electrical if telecom counts lol. I'm looking for anything really-something with benefits that allows a decent amount of working remote would be awesome. I'm hoping to make 6 figures in the next 3 years.

[katsiki]

With your experience, hustle and degree, I would just apply to anything that sounds interesting.  Examples: analytics, business analyst, database administrator, system administrator, etc.  Someone will hire you.  Have you been applying or just doing your solo thing?

[Dave1442397]

Sounds like you may want to get into data analysis, which can be a very lucrative branch of IT work if you're good at it. I remember at my last job they were always looking for a good SAS expert - https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/stat.html

Business Objects and SAP seem to be in demand too, and I'm sure there are plenty of other software packages being used out there - https://www.sap.com/products/data-services.html

My brother-in-law was involved in SAP back in the mid-'90s, when there weren't too many people who knew the product in the US. He was making over $500k/year for a while as a contractor. He and my sister saved as much as they could, and were able to build a house for cash while putting away a sizable nest egg. Most of his friends fell prey to the consumer lifestyle, buying million dollar homes and $100k cars. Once the rates dropped as SAP programmers flooded the market, they were screwed,

[zoochadookdook]

With your experience, hustle and degree, I would just apply to anything that sounds interesting.  Examples: analytics, business analyst, database administrator, system administrator, etc.  Someone will hire you.  Have you been applying or just doing your solo thing?

.

I've been applying but really haven't been hearing much back. Any ideas on platforms to use? I've been using our university handshake platform which matches jobs to our gpa, major, etc

[zoochadookdook]

Sounds like you may want to get into data analysis, which can be a very lucrative branch of IT work if you're good at it. I remember at my last job they were always looking for a good SAS expert - https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/stat.html

Business Objects and SAP seem to be in demand too, and I'm sure there are plenty of other software packages being used out there - https://www.sap.com/products/data-services.html

My brother-in-law was involved in SAP back in the mid-'90s, when there weren't too many people who knew the product in the US. He was making over $500k/year for a while as a contractor. He and my sister saved as much as they could, and were able to build a house for cash while putting away a sizable nest egg. Most of his friends fell prey to the consumer lifestyle, buying million dollar homes and $100k cars. Once the rates dropped as SAP programmers flooded the market, they were screwed,

the frustrating part about my internship was the data was flawed and going forward there was flawed methods of maintaining it and repopulating it. Like there was no way to fix the system in the time I was there. Anything that would actually provide solutions to issues would be amazing.

I'll have to look into both, I want to work somewhere that will have security and room for moving up; analytics I'd be happy to look towards especially if it's THAT in demand. Any ideas if I should be looking at certain certifications or anything?

thanks

[katsiki]

I would hit up all of the usual job sites...  I see a lot from indeed.com when we are hiring.  You may try that first. 

Zip Recruiter, Monster, etc

[zoochadookdook]

I would hit up all of the usual job sites...  I see a lot from indeed.com when we are hiring.  You may try that first. 

Zip Recruiter, Monster, etc

Thanks haven't used any of those. I just finished tidying up my resume so I'm about ready to put it out there.

[katsiki]

Hope it helps!

BTW, we have had some folks post their resume for feedback.  We have some awesome people on this board who can whip a resume into shape!  If you are interested,you may want to make a new thread and indicate resume review or similar.  More folks might see it....

Good luck!

[zoochadookdook]

Hope it helps!

BTW, we have had some folks post their resume for feedback.  We have some awesome people on this board who can whip a resume into shape!  If you are interested,you may want to make a new thread and indicate resume review or similar.  More folks might see it....

Good luck!

heya sorry been busy! So I'll put up my resume in the next few days. Took my electricians exam and passed-they'd like to interview me in march. In the meantime I'm monetizing a streaming service, applying to more jobs and working on the basement finishing. Thanks for the tips