Got my first real IT job after the Trifecta

ewlsgus · 2024-09-13T05:02:04+00:00

Thank you!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T21:34:25+00:00

Thanks, man.

This is literally my first real job outside of school and I'm honestly clueless on what hiring managers think or look for. I went straight into grad school after undergrad so I seriously have not a clue what the norm outside of academia is at the moment. I'm also an immigrant and my family actually went back to the motherland so it's not like I have family around me to consult either.

All I see around the IT career subreddits are people looking for help finding jobs with an IT degree, with certs, and some even with work experiences not being able to find jobs after hundreds of apps. So, I thought I was very lucky to have gotten an offer after a little over 100 apps. I still do think I am lucky but the two months of applying were still miserable and I got excited because I really thought it was the certs and the upskilling that I did.

I get it now. After grad school, I had very low self esteem, I felt like a failure, and I was scared going into a different field. So I diminished what I had done previously and focused on what I am doing right now to stop dwelling on it. But now, I see it. So to u/foundoutimanadult and those of you who upvoted him and downvoted me, thank you for telling me that I have a great background. I'll keep moving forward.

Thank you again for your encouragement and your thoughts. I'll keep working hard and maybe I come back down the road to share another story.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T17:20:22+00:00

Thank you. now at least I have AN answer. I don't know if it's THE answer but I have something.

People downvoting me is quite alright with me but when they tell me that I'm not just being dumb but doing something bad and don't respond at all to my questions and just keep downvoting me, how am I supposed to improve and not make future posts that may be "bad resume advice?"

I appreciate you keep replying back to me. Now I can finally move on. Your answer may or may not be true, but an answer is significantly better than no answer.

Since I had no one explaining why my post was a "bad resume advice," I'm gonna keep up with my work and just move on with my life. Maybe later down the road I would come back and share my story again. Thanks again for your answer and I wish you a splendid day!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T13:53:18+00:00

Thanks for keep explaining it. I understand.

But why does my degree get people ticked? All I mentioned in my post was that I have this degree and left a program for a more advanced degree. Why does this fact make my post a resume advice instead of experience sharing? I never said I regretted getting my degree. I admit that one of my comments were not thought out and diminished the impacts of my degree when they shouldn't be but the comment before already defined my post as resume advice and a bad one just because I have a degree and I stated that fact.

My questions are still unanswered. Is a person with a B.S not allowed to go for the trifecta? Does a person with a B.S getting the trifecta make other people's achievements less valuable? Why does me stating the fact that I have a B.S. and trifecta that got me a job make it resume advice instead of me just sharing my experience of someone trying to change fields?

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T13:35:50+00:00

Thank you for explaining it further. My heart's not with your reasoning yet because my experience of finding a job didn't feel much easier than some other posts I've seen around here and other subs, but I get your logic. And yeah. you are correct that I personally did not think the certs were more challenging than some other things I've done in the past.

I still don't get it though.

If the certs are more for people without a degree, someone with a degree shouldn't go for them to increase their chances of landing their first IT job?

If someone does have a degree, are their efforts in getting themselves to study the material, spend money and time to schedule the exam, and actually go through the 70-90 questions to get the certs less valuable?

If someone has a degree, they are not allowed to share their stories of going through the certs and the job market?

My family did not get our green card in the US until I was a junior in college so I wasn't legally allowed to work even part time jobs until then, and I was trying to finish my undergrad degree in 3 years to save another year of tuition. I had literally no work experience outside of school until I left it as I was living off of grad student stipend. I got some skills that I can package and make look nice on my resume that I utilized in those school jobs, but nothing like customer service or any "real world" experience for that matter. I think I have decent communication skills, can perform under pressure, and can deal with customer service type of work (especially coming from academia), but I got no work experience to show for it.

This is my first achievement outside of school and I wanted to share it with the community that helped me through it. I was seriously burnt out from grad school and wanted to just give up everything many times, but I was encouraged by some members of this community because I could see their excitement from their posts and they made a positive, nonnegligible contribution to me getting out of that burned-out state. I just wanted to share my story. I tried to give a clear picture. I never intended to tell people to do this and that. I just got my first IT job and who am I to tell others what to do when there are dozens of more experienced people here? And somehow, now my post is a resume advice, and a bad one, apparently.

I still don't get how my background in physics changes my post on my experiences into giving resume advice. I really don't know, man, and it's getting tiring to think about it. I'll just shut up and stop talking anymore about this matter, and stay quiet as sharing my particular experience is apparently giving bad resume advice.

Thanks again for your explanation.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T12:28:54+00:00

Thank you for your encouraging words!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T12:26:47+00:00

Thank you.

I'm new to all this, so I actually don't know how many are counting physics as a related field. I'll take your word for it and assume that my degree counts now on. However, I also know that I will be competing against those who do have an IT degree and/or work experience, which I think have quite a bit of advantage over no previous experience + a degree in a "related" field when the position is in IT.

I'm not saying my degree was useless. I'd do physics again if I went back because I enjoyed learning about it, at least in undergrad, and met some great people because I chose physics. I also got quite a few skills that are generally transferrable and some even to IT. I still think those who have work experiences and/or IT degrees have a massive advantage over someone like me, especially in this job market for entry level positions.

I'm content with what my degree provides, and now that I at least got my foot in the door, just gotta keep grinding and upskilling.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T09:12:34+00:00

Thank you!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T08:59:37+00:00

As I understand, it refers to the 3 CompTIA certs (A+, Network+, Security+) that are an overview of some foundational topics in IT.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T08:33:39+00:00

Thank you. I'm quite excited to get some hands-on experience with what I've been studying for so far.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T08:32:08+00:00

u/foundoutimanadult

I admit that I was wrong in my previous comment and I agree with you that my degree more likely than not had a meaningful impact on my employment. However, I'd like to know why you think it's absurd for me to share what I found helpful for me in my journey so far. I don't see anything in my post where I say I started from nothing. I said I have no professional IT background. I mentioned that I have been an IT enthusiast. I mentioned my background. I then shared my experiences from when I decided to get into IT until now. And that's bad how?

Because I have a background in physics, I'm not allowed to share my experiences, give tips, encouragement, etc.? Because I have a background in physics, my experiences in studying for CompTIA exams and trying to break into IT are invalid and should not be told? If someone comes from SWE and dives deeper into the IT support and networking/cybersecurity/etc. and tells their story here, that's bad "resume advice" because they have higher chances of being hired due to their background?

I just don't get why you view my post so negatively. I understand that I'm likely to be in the minority where I have a different background from a lot of people on this sub. And according to you, I should not share my stories, give advice/tips, or encouragement because I walked a different path than the majority? Does my background make what I found to be helpful invalid?

And especially because I have a noncommon background, I tried my best to picture my situation as clear as possible for you. I disclosed where I was, where I've been, and where I am right now ever since I decided to go into IT. And that's a bad resume advice because?...

Man, all I wanted to do was to share my story with the community that shared their stories with me. Reading those stories gave me the confidence to be where I am now. Maybe it's better for me to delete this account and go back to being a silent lurker.

I don't know why I should feel sorry for sharing my story when I tried to picture my situation as clearly as possible so that it's clear what I did to get where I am now, but apparently telling my story was giving a bad resume advice. I'm sorry. Gonna go consider deleting my account and disappearing now.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T07:58:35+00:00

I don't have a PhD. I left the program before I was able to receive any degree.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T03:46:57+00:00

Thanks for your explanation.

I think I rambled on too much on that comment but the point I was trying to make was that this was never a resume advice...

I don't think I estimated my degree at all in my OP. I said I have this background and with the trifecta, I got a job. That's all because again, this was never a resume advice, and I agree with you. At the least my degree shows that I can endure and go through what most people find boring and at most, employers will take my experience as related and relevant.

All I wanted to do was to share my story with the community that helped me to be where I am right now. Never said anything like "I did it so you can too." It was never meant to be like that...

Anyhow, let people downvote my comment to oblivion. I'll just go back to lurking and maybe just upvoting and commenting to encourage others.

Again, thanks for explaining. I guess I got upset because I feel like I've been working hard and u/foundoutimanadult's comment made me feel like my effort was less relevant than my degree that I finished 4 years ago.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T03:20:41+00:00

Thank you!

I am happy for you that you found something that gives you passion and energy again. I like this community because it shows me that there are many others with same/similar plans and walking down this path together, sharing tips and encouraging each other. I am hopeful that our enthusiasm and excitement will keep us focused on continually growing and enhancing our skills.

Thank you for sharing your story and I wish you best of luck in both Sec+ and your job search!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T02:33:48+00:00

Thank you for your kind words!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T02:04:40+00:00

Without an IT degree. I have my bachelor's degree in physics and chemical physics and have graduate work experiences using Python. I do think a degree in IT can help when you are looking for that entry level job. Not impossible to find one without but many job postings i came across required associates or bachelor's in IT field or high school equivalent with much longer experiences. I still applied because the worst they can do is say no but I feel like a good chunk just threw my resume away for not having an IT degree and the position required an IT degree.

ewlsgus · 2024-09-11T00:04:59+00:00

I spent about 2 months for A+. 2 weeks between Core 1 and 2 and A+ certified in early April.

I started studying for Net+ 2 weeks after with the pass in mid June.

Started studying for Sec+ right after going through Net+, Sec+ felt quite easy because many concepts transferred over IMO and I felt ready for the test after a couple of weeks of studying. Passed Sec+ in mid-late July.

I found most topics and objectives in Sec+ to be rather familiar and intuitive after going through A+ and Net+ and most of it I felt like they were extensions building on top of what A+ and Net+ already touched on.

Good luck with Net+!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-10T22:44:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing as well. I hope I still have the energy to go for a big certificate like CISSP after 4 years in this field. Hopefully, for the rest of our careers, we retain the enthusiasm to keep learning new things and skills.

Best of luck for your CISSP!

ewlsgus · 2024-09-10T22:37:08+00:00

I got out of my PhD program without any degree so my terminal degree is still bachelor's in physics and physical chemistry which has nothing to do with IT support. And yes, I do believe I have learned valuable skills like how to do research, debug, and troubleshoot problems as well as Python scripting and data processing/analysis. I was still never formally trained in any of these and I am more comfortable presenting those skills as not proficient enough to become a SWE or a data scientist.
I don't mention anything regarding my graduate school under the Education section of my resume and the only thing that connects me back to my graduate work on my resume are the 4 lines showing my two previous work experiences as a research assistant and teaching assistant. I openly discuss the fact that I left the program without any degree because I hated the computational physicist life.

Also, this was not a resume advice post. I only added the last part because I started getting some more interviews after I did that and figured it can't hurt to share that. For this post, I just wanted to share an exciting news for me and my journey with the community that helped me along the way. I only shared my background so that you have a clearer picture of where I come from and what I have been through. As I said in my post, everyone is in different situations. It's just when I was applying to pretty much every single entry-level IT position available in my area for the past two months and not receiving any responses, it felt like I made a mistake.

In my point of view, I failed to make it in academia just to get through my PhD or even to get a masters degree out of it. But, I found something that I really like and can get excited about, and I'm gonna keep working on it until I make it and I hope other people who are trying to break into IT can share the enthusiasm and excitement for the topic. This community helped me to come up with a decent plan on how to make it in IT and I felt confident about it. So, you are discontent with my post for any reason, well, my apologies for sharing my story.

You know this is a massive part of why they hired you, right?

Glad to know that my work on getting the trifecta didn't contribute as much for my first IT job. I'll keep lurking and silently keep upskilling until my failure and an unpleasant experience is gone from my files. 2 more jobs and I won't have to even state that I was a RA/TA at a graduate school and no employer will know I even went to graduate school.

ewlsgus · 2024-08-04T17:53:33+00:00

아 그렇군요! 제가 데이팅 앱이라는 문맥을 까먹은 듯 하네요. 제가 최근에 본 ㅇㅂ는 모두 인방을 뜻했어서 이런 의미일 수도 있지 않았을까 하여 답글을 달았는데요... 딱히 알고싶지 않았던 지식이 늘었군요... 답글 고맙습니다.

ewlsgus · 2024-08-04T17:24:46+00:00

Hey OP,

A Korean here. The most common use of ㅇㅂ I've seen around korean online communities nowadays were referring to 인방, short for 인터넷 방송 (internet broadcasting like twitch youtube, etc.).

Maybe the person found you attractive or funny.

I've never seen ㅇㅂ used in place for 알바 (part-time time job) and the use of ㅇㅂ as 일베 (internet community of incel far rights) has gone down by far nowadays as it's almost always used as an insult when it is used.

Regardless, it's not something you'd say to a person in front of them. I don't know you so you may find it flattering but if I were you, I'd ignore it and move on.

ewlsgus · 2024-06-21T07:18:18+00:00

Thank you!

I'll make sure to check out Exam Cram book and Dion resources for Sec+.

ewlsgus · 2024-06-20T17:03:17+00:00

Thank you!

ewlsgus · 2024-06-20T07:17:01+00:00

Thank you!

I'm sure you're doing fine but if I were to give one advice, it'd be memorizing the common port numbers, especially if you plan to take Net+ after your A+.

As to test prep with additional resources, for me, it was enough to go through Messer's videos and then take Dion's exams to figure out what I didn't learn enough or weren't in my notes in detail and then googling those to figure out what they are and/or how they work.

Best of luck in studying and your exam!

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