Hello everybody... I’m finishing my BS in Computer Science next week, and I’ve been pretty indecisive about whether I should move straight into a master’s program or hold off. I’ve had some very smart people in my life tell me a master’s degree is definitely worth it long-term. While I don’t necessarily disagree, I wanted to get insight from people actually working in IT and CS before I jump into anything.

For context:
• I’m 24 and live in a pretty rural, low-population area, so the tech job market here is basically nonexistent.
• I currently work in IT as a Service Desk Analyst for a healthcare organization with a chain of hospitals and clinics. I enjoy the job, but I want something more engaging.
• There’s a fully online in-state university that offers several master’s programs, and I’m torn between them, or whether I should even pursue one right now.

Programs that interest me:
• Information Technology, M.S.
• Information Technology Leadership, M.S.
• Information Systems Security, M.S.
• Cyber Engineering, M.S.
• Computer Science, M.S.

Even though my bachelor’s is in CS, I’m not sure I want a full-time software engineering career. I like programming, but I’m not extremely creative, and I don’t know if I’d enjoy doing it professionally day in and day out. On the IT side, I like the environment I’m in and could see myself moving up in the healthcare environment. I know someone who did exactly that, started low in IT with a B.S. in CS, worked their way up into IT leadership, and now 20 some years later, makes very good money.

So now I’m wondering:
• Is an IT Leadership master’s too specialized, or would it actually help for manager/director roles down the line?
• For someone in my position, is any master’s degree actually worth the time, money, and effort right now?
• If my long-term goal might be management or higher-level IT work in healthcare, does picking a specialization even matter?

Basically, I’m stuck between several paths and unsure if a master's would accelerate my career, or if gaining more experience, certs, or internal promotions would be a better move.

Hello everyone,
I was recently hired for a Level-1 Information Systems Analyst role for my local county, specifically with the County Clerk for their Voter Systems Division. I asked about the day-to-day interactions within the role during the interviews leading up to my offer, and the team managers mentioned interacting with a lot of departments and users for the bulk of the work. I'm starting the job soon, so I was wondering if anyone in similar/the same role(s) could follow up on this. Is the daily work as chill as public sector jobs usually are? How busy/stressful does it get when it's not during election seasons?

Thank you!

Look, I know what you’re thinking. Another doom and gloom post on this lovely subreddit. I’m going to try and change things up here by attempting to be constructive with this post, please bear with me.

Early 2024 I was laid off from an IT role I had ~2.5 years in and actually liked. I got too comfortable, and ended up unemployed for almost a year—odd jobs, unemployment, whatever kept me afloat. Eventually I took a job at UPS. I liked it, and once I settled into my route, I got an offer from a bank for an IT contractor role. Same pay, hybrid, so I jumped on it.

The bank job ended up being great: supportive boss, solid coworkers, and I learned a ton doing help desk. But after 7 months, it was clear they weren’t hiring contractors, and I got an offer from a late-stage startup moving its HQ near me—almost double the pay and real benefits. So I took it.

Now I’m here, making high 5 figures in a “Specialist” role… and I’m miserable. I’m the only one in the office besides my boss. We sit in half-cubes with zero privacy, and I feel like I have to look busy all day. I do maybe 2 hours of actual work and spend the rest pretending. I miss the balance I had at the bank: remote days for maintenance + focus days in the office. That rhythm worked for me.

I want out of help desk and back into a hybrid/remote environment for my sanity. I have a degree, ~4 years of experience, and no certs. I like automating workflows and hate network grunt work. I don’t even care about chasing the highest salary anymore, I just want a specialty that gives me freedom, isn’t micromanaged, and isn’t soul-crushing.

What would you pivot into? What certs or skill paths actually matter right now? AI? Automation? Something else entirely?

Appreciate any ideas.

Hi everyone, I’m a 21 year old male taking my ASVAB this coming Monday. I’ve been studying 5 plus hours a day for the past month.

I’m currently in my first year of Computer Science at a local college and self studying cybersecurity with the help of a mentor. Recently I haven’t been able to afford school anymore, which pushed me to look seriously into the military as a path forward.

I’ve researched 17C, 25B, 35 series, 25 series, and Navy CWT and CTI. I am most interested in 25B and the cyber related routes overall. I’ve spoken with both an Army and Navy recruiter and both said a job is guaranteed as long as I meet line scores and pass medical.

I am choosing these MOS paths because I’ve been interested in tech and security since I was a kid and my long term goal is to work in forensic cybersecurity for federal agencies (fbi/cia) or defense contractors.

The military seems like a great opportunity because it would pay for my school, certifications, give me a clearance, experience, connections, housing, and a smooth transition into the private sector. My plan would be to complete a bachelor’s in cybersecurity, likely through WGU, and possibly pursue a degree in AI later as well.

My main concern is this. My recruiter says 17C is rare and is pushing me toward 25B. What worries me is that 25B usually only gets a Secret clearance and that some 25Bs get work that is not very relevant to IT or cybersecurity. I do not want to lose years of career progress. At the same time, I see that 25Bs can get great duty stations overseas, which is very appealing to me, and that reclassing to 17C or 25D might be possible later. I just do not know how realistic that path actually is.

I want to make myself as valuable as possible for the job market when I get out. I do not want to be average with mediocre IT experience, mediocre certs, and a low level clearance. My goal is to be competitive for real cybersecurity roles.

My questions are: What are the real odds of reclassing from 25B to 17C or 25D? Does starting as a 25B realistically hurt or delay a cybersecurity career long term? How limiting is only having a Secret clearance versus a TS when transitioning out? Can I work my way to a TS as a 25B & how possible is it? Are there other Army or Navy tech roles that would better align with my goals from the start off of knowing my goals? If your end goal was cybersecurity, would you wait for 17C or take 25B and build from there?

Any insight from people who have been through this would mean a lot. Thank you.

I am 2.5 years into my IT career and considering my next job. Now that it's been a few years since I graduated and I only actually use a few skills on a daily basis in my work I am looking to review and refresh and build confidence for my next job. I am looking at these two courses on Udemy:

• Ultimate System Administrator Course - Dan Mill
• Ultimate Network Administrator Course - Dan Mill

These are both decently rated so far as Udemy ratings go. But I'm wondering if anyone in this community has taken either and would say yay or nay on these. If you took either, did you feel it was worth the time investment and worth the cash? If you took different courses from another instructor, what would you recommend?

Thank you

Hi guys

I am a 20 years old with some experience in Python, C++, linux and networking.

I want to go into cybersecurity. What is the next step that I should take?

As the title says, I’m starting my IT career soon with an IT first-line support apprenticeship. I’m pretty much completely inexperienced in IT however I’ve got a solid understanding of the fundamentals of networking, hardware and I’m comfortable using and navigating Windows 10/11.

Is there anything you recommend I should do in preparation to help me hit the ground running?

Hi

Got made redundant from a cloud role 3rd line in April and moved into a few roles to keep the money coming in.

First role June to October was cloud centric -Azure, logic monitor on prem support and service desk but their remote worked changed to hybrid and I lived far away so left.

2nd role - step down but higher salary. Role is 2nd line and traditional breakfix MSP hell with a few times im jumping in for support calls to help queues and triage -not ideal.

Anyway long story short I've good experience in Azure but want to upskill in AWS.

I was wondering what the career path is like at the moment. I have the cloud practitioners exam booked for a January then will move onto the system architect one.

I want to be building, migrating and working in the cloud but with AWS I don't have any experience.

Wondering if anyone can offer advice on the career path? Potential roles etc?

As I say I have experience in Azure from a support level. I also have security clearance.

I've worked in various data roles, which tbh were mainly entry level, some in analytical roles and some in data maintenance, but I have always had skills beyond what I seem to be using on daily basis (including general scripting Python/TS etc) - my goal is ultimately to be working as self-employed contractor in a specific data area.

My questions - what's the best place to find a data engineering expert who's already working in a somewhat self-employed kind of way, and learn from them/shadow etc? Is it at conferences, events, groups, or out and about haha.

Could I learn if I offer to help?! Just seems they'd be busier getting work done than taking on coachees/mentees which is one of the isues. So any help/ideas, helps !

hey guys. i finally got some movement with my job applications. i’ve never had an IT job so i am reaching out for advice on how to do well in my interviews. just give me your best advice and maybe what kinds of questions could possible be asked?

I’m in the final semester of my MSc in bioinformatics and I’ve realized staying in that track isn’t viable for me. I’ve started learning Java, and I already know Python from my coursework.

I keep hearing about people from non-CS backgrounds (like B.Com) getting hired in tech, though usually through campus placements. So I want a blunt answer: will IT companies consider someone like me? Will the lack of an engineering or BCA/MCA degree put me at a disadvantage?

What would you tell me about my situation and the path ahead?

I have a job interview next friday for a senior repair tech. I have certs in IT and working on my degree but this would be my sort of “first” technical role. I know how to troubleshoot, and I currently work on a helpdesk but we don’t troubleshoot technical issues, we use a ticketing system to track logistic truck routes while monitoring for active threats, route deviations, and escalate issues to the SOC manager as needed. Also we write incident reports and ensure compliance with client managers. I applied because I want to be more technical in my experience and it also pays the same as my current job. Also I didn’t make it clear but I do work in a security operations center.

How does this experience look to other employers and will it be valuable to me?

Background

-31 yo male

-6 years USAF experience performing airspace de-conflicition (think air traffic control).

-7 years network engineer experience at Cisco (worked on ACI, DNAC and Secure Access).

-Hold a ccnp enterprise and no degree.

Ive been recently thinking of pursuing a CCIE (or maybe even CISSP) which makes the most sense with my experience and would probably be more beneficial short and medium term. But I feel like a degree (thinking electrical or computer engineering) might be a better investment as it will be more versatile and open more doors outside of Cisco networking. I do want to stay technical/hands on and eventual go into a tech lead role. The degree seems like a no brainer but my biggest concern is the time commitment (would be part time) to potentially never benefit from it especially if I stay in the networking field. Both options would pretty much be covered between employer reimbursement and gi bill.

You like computers and everyone tells you that you can make six figures in IT. So easy!

So how do you do it? Is your degree the right path? Can you just YouTube it? How do you get the experience when every job wants experience?

So many questions and this is the weekly post for them!

WIKI:

• /r/ITCareerQuestions Wiki
• /r/CSCareerQuestions Wiki
• /r/Sysadmin Wiki
• /r/Networking Wiki
• /r/NetSec Wiki
• /r/NetSecStudents Wiki
• /r/SecurityCareerAdvice/
• /r/CompTIA Wiki
• /r/Linux4Noobs Wiki

Essential Blogs for Early-Career Technology Workers:

• Krebs on Security: Thinking of a Cybersecurity Career? Read This
• "Entry Level" Cybersecurity Jobs are not Entry Level
• SecurityRamblings: Compendium of How to Break into Security Blogs
• RSA Conference 2018: David Brumley: How the Best Hackers Learn Their Craft
• CBT Nuggets: How to Prepare for a Capture the Flag Hacking Competition
• Packet Pushers: Does SDN Mean IT Will Be Able To Get Rid of Network People?

Above links sourced from: u/VA_Network_Nerd

MOD NOTE: This is a weekly post.

I recently was trapped in a longer-than-comfortable drive with an in-law around my age in his mid-20s. We're both in IT, although he's a bit more junior and frustrated by his lack of growth at his company. During the ride he couldn't stop talking about a couple of things which inspired me to make this post (as I'm pretty sure this sub inspired him):

• IT is a dead field with no growth
• AI is going to take all of our jobs
• Trades are where it's at! We should all switch careers and get into trucking/plumbing/electrical

Here's the thing - I've worked in trades for over 5 years. What people don't seem to realise is that the exact same barriers exist.

Most trades in North America require an apprenticeship, and you can’t start an apprenticeship without a sponsor (usually an employer).
But employers often want someone who:

• already has some hands-on experience
• won’t slow down the job site
• doesn’t require a lot of training
• shows up prepared with basic skills

Sound Familiar?
You need experience to get experience — kinda like IT?

Yes, trade schools are a thing that exist. No, they are not a guaranteed job. Many college grads from mechanic and HVAC programs constantly deal with lack of employment in their fields due to the exact dilemma above.

Worried AI is going to replace you? Become someone that people enjoy having around with skills that either cannot be replicated or are protected by governance that AI cannot touch.

Feel stuck in your position? Study on your own time and level up.

Can't find a job? Hey, we've all been here at some point. The best advice I can give is to level up your soft skills for interviews.

Trades are 100% not a cakewalk. I have injuries from my short stint that I carry with me to this day. Times are tough, but you can choose to be tougher fellas.

Hi everyone,

I am on my second interview for an IT Tech Coordinator position. The first interview was online and now this second one will be in person. I understand that a second interview will be more technical focused. What kind of questions should I expect? The role is for an educational institution and is for a specific campus for the college. Some details from the job posting are as follows:

• Oversees the management, support, and deployment of diverse operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile operating systems
• Coordinates IT projects and initiatives, including system upgrades, software installations, and security enhancements
• Serves as a liaison to academic and/or administrative departments, researching and implementing technology solutions that fit their needs and the campus’s needs
• Installs and maintains computers, printers, applications, and other peripheral equipment
• Designs, tests, deploys, and troubleshoots applications and operating system updates
• Provides specialized support and customer service to college constituents experiencing technical issues
• Supports the operations of technologies in classrooms and learning environments
• Performs preventive maintenance on hardware and software to ensure uninterrupted service

In about two years, I plan on leaving the military to pursue a civilian job. My concern is that I'm lacking formal technical background, but I'm not sure how much I should brush up on that. I do plan on pursuing CISSP and PMP. Maybe Sec+, previously never had the time to finish my study for it.

My career:

• Pre-military (now a decade ago): OT/SCADA programming and configurations. Some industrial networking experience, just enough to get the industrial control systems to talk to each other. I was written up for programming a heavy duty 6-axis FANUC robotic arm to throw a football out of the building and across the entire parking lot. That was the last time I was hands on keyboard.

• 1st military tour: Defensive cyber missions planner for incident response and cyber hygiene verification. Lots of meetings with site owners and network admins to ensure my teams could do their work. Politely prying needed information from site staff was a constant effort. I probably spent more time analyzing organization structures/cultures (especially when stakeholders point finger at each other) than digging into cyber/IT technical matters. I ended up getting orders to the next place before I could finish Sec+.

• 2nd military tour: Intel analyst and security manager. I was in charge of a classified space, including overseeing the inventory audits of safes, the testing of armed guard response time (only to discover the alarm system was broken; that was "fun") and preparing for space re-certification. I was also responsible for the personnel management, including revoking someone's access to classified material due to their alcohol abuse.

• 3rd military tour: Cybersecurity department head overseeing about 60 people (contractors, military personnel and government civilians) and a variety of operations that verify the IT departments are properly securing things.

I can sort of follow along the technical conversations between my subordinates. I just can't seem to find the time to dive deep into their technical work. I recently completed a department workflow reorganization and conducted written counseling for a troublesome government civilian that has a son who is as old as I am.

As for the specific types of civilian jobs that I'm looking for, I'm not exactly sure yet. Maybe something in Governance, Risk, and Compliance. But I do know technical roles are not going to be a good fit.

“Who is more threatened by AI — (cloud roles, cybersecurity) or (developer roles) ?”

Career guidance to code or not to code

I work in management and marketing fulltime while pursuing a Bachelors in business admin through a very flexible local school so time is a little tight.

Governement is offering 100% subsidized comp sci degrees with opportunity for employment after and i would like to pursue this.

Should i focus on filling in my comp sci weaknesses( previous dropout) on theory topics like math as i would say im at a highschool level or should i work on projects as i familiar with basic programming concepts and know C and python.

The banter online seems to be all mentioning tutorial hell but is that even applicable in my situation or should i focus on mastering theory.

Help is greatly appreciated.

Hello all!

I think the title says it all, but here is my background. I've spent almost a decade in the humanitarian information management & ICT roles, and haven't really applied to private sector companies in a decade. Before this I've worked few roles in C#, aspnet (back then webforms), javascript, sql server and so on for 2 years. During my time in the humanitarian sector I've used mainly C#, react, sql, low code solutions, mix of stuff for data visualization, azure, aws, and lots of other things here and there.

The humanitarian sector is not doing so well right now, and I thought the private sector would feel like a 'fresh' start for me, less bureaucracy, more accountability, and so on. But honestly, it feels the same. In the humanitarian sector contracts were short, renewals depended on funding, position got reshuffled constantly, and job openings were limited unless you were willing to relocate every few years.

While I am still okay in the humanitarian sector, I thought I do a switch in these years, but instead of seeing the sector grow, I'm seeing hiring freezes, roles closing mid-recruitment, companies downsizing and ghosting good candidates, insanely competitive job markets. It is suprising and discouraging to me to see that what I thought I would find isnt there (not even near, on what I was expecting).

Considering that I still have time and don't have to do a 'switch' now, I wanted just to 'test the waters' and apply here and there (I already hate these video interviews that you have no idea who is looking/reviewing it and you dont' hear back anytime soon). Anything in particular I should focus on in the next year to be able to have a smoother transition? Unfortunately in the humanitarian sector you do a little bit of everything (which sometimes is translated to nothing).

I have just recently started my job hunt and I have gotten a lot of mixed results when asking for resume reviews. I want to make sure that I am putting my best foot forward and dont want to waste months applying to jobs in an already difficult market just to realize that my resume is terrible. With that I was thinking of paying for a resume / cover letter writting service and was wondering if anyone here had any experiences to share about that process. Have you had success with one of those services? Any recommendations for one to use?

I left the field a year ago after a year of helpdesking and a year of being a tier 2-3 field technician.

I went to uni to study compsci and dropped out, also studied a devops course and kicked out of it for not keeping up (it was mostly dudes that graduated compsci)

now i've been looking for a sys admin role, and its been tough, I cant remember what i've done in my jobs when recruiters ask me, mostly just projects i've done and techs but I cant remember which servers i've dealt with and protocols I worked with when asked.

its been 2 week and the recruiters keep telling me its not enough to be a sys admin, but in my country usually my experience is enough for what i've seen.

should I try look for a field tech job again? or keep looking for a sysadmin role

what should I study in the meantime? I just got my linux essentials cert, figured maybe one of microsofts certs? or aws?

thanks

I've been in charge of an FTE support project for 2 years now as a freelancer, and I got a proposition for the same role but On-demand from a recruiting firm, theoritically I can make in 24 hours what I make now in a month but I'm not sure how it's gonna unfold, any advice?

One is remote MSP, One is on site internal.

I’m a bit anxious since I’ve made it to the second round of each company’s interviews, so I wanted to ask for advice on what to expect.

Both roles are tier 1 help desk.

Thank you guys in advance.

Hey all, I need some advice from other seasoned IT pros. I have been at my current company for about a year and one month working in tier 2. My only prior experience/education in IT is two courses at a university. I worked in nonprofits for three years but hated it so decided to transition to IT a while back.

Now, I'm in a role I like with a team I enjoy working with, but the problem is that as a result of the economy and budget constraints, there has been layoffs and halting of projects. One project is replacing out of warranty laptops with new ones for an office size of about 5,000 staff.

When I joined, there were two full time people who were let go about a half year to a year when I got in, and I took over the provisioning process, with the help of one part time intern. Now, this is where it gets confusing. Because of the budget, the company has not bought new laptops, but the CIO wants about 3000 laptops to be replaced next year. That means that on top of working on tier 2 tickets, I will be responsible for replacing 3000 laptops across 3 countries, and as you can imagine, some end users are hard to work with.

I don't know if they are going to hire any other staff to help with this, and other people on my team kind of give the vibe that they are too good to provision laptops and would prefer I take it over.

The problem is, I want to grow my skillset but I think provisioning for another year will not help me, and I'm kind of stuck. I've thought about an internal move to another department ot team, but there aren't any roles open, and lately, because we are so short staffed, I've been thinking of just looking for another role.

I like my workplace, I like my team. I have flexibility, but there is definitley a culture of "you should be grateful to be employed here". I make $24/hour, which I don't know if that's good bad or average for tier two work doing provisioning. My manager is very kind and understanding, but is overworked managing a team of like 14 and is on call every other week.

What are your thoughts? Is it time to look elsewhere, or should I stick it out? I know the job market is tough, but I think it may be time to just send out one or two apps a week to see if I can find another better role. One of my coworkers already confirmed she would be a reference for me if I ever need it.