What is the best way to start a career in IT
Today I would like to share my story about how I got into IT. I will say right away that I do not consider my path to be a reference one, it is far from ideal and do not consider it as such, please. This is just my opinion and how to get started in IT without pain.
At university, I studied computer and cyber security. During the entire period of study, I naively believed that by working in my specialty, I would automatically work in IT. How wrong I was. I realized that I was wrong only when I graduated from the university, got into the big world and passed the first (serious, and not looking for a part-time job as during my studies) interviews.
In fact, only after university I realized that all this time I was studying to be a manager, in the field of IT, but still a manager.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad. It's just that in my opinion it is impossible to be a successful manager without working with your hands, without having worked in IT yourself.
Before looking for a job, I faced the main question - if I don’t go to work in my university specialty, then where will I go to work in IT and what do I need to be able to do for this.
It's funny that the question - what do I need to be able to do - IT specialists ask themselves every day.
What I did to find a job in IT:
- I looked at jobs on LinkedIn and the skills requirements of employers.
- Selected the most common
- Completed courses for each of the selected skills (on Udemy and Coursera)
Since I was most interested in working in Data Science, among the skills that I needed to learn were:
- Python and all required libraries
- SQL
- Excel|Google sheets (tool is not as important as functionality)
- Mathematical statistics
All the courses were not difficult for me, since I already had some kind of base that was given to me at the university (especially in mathematical statistics).
I was pretty good at it, but since candidates without DS experience weren't considered, I'll be honest, I almost gave up. My entire portfolio on Kaggle turned out to be useless, and even more so my ability to learn quickly.
But I did not give up and decided to start working in IT from scratch, from zero level (if I'm so good, then I'll be able to rise to the level that I want - I thought).
And I started this process...
Now I work as a Technical Support Engineer. And, to be honest, at first I thought that this was not at all what I wanted to do, but over time, I realized that if I really want to grow into an excellent IT specialist, this is a great option to start. I do not regret anything.
I can not say that this is advice - by no means. I just shared my experience, especially with those who are full of the same romance as me and with burning eyes want to conquer this world.
Thank you!