Question What Tech Career should I choose?

[David Yellowhound]

Hello fellow pirates. Recently, I have been thinking about what I want to do after school. Just for a little background, I'm gonna be a senior in high school in August so pretty young I know I would like a career in tech due to my love for computers. However, that isn't really enough to help me decide what job I want specifically. A lot of people have said to learn coding and how that will majorly help me, but I don't really know how. Also what classes should I take in college? I'm interested in coding and would like to try it out, but I don't really know what a Programmer does. I'm interested in games like anyone else, but I'm pretty sure being a game developer is hit and miss type of thing. I guess my problem is, I don't really know what the top tech jobs actually do for a living and if I would like it or not. I was hoping that some of you may have experience in this and would maybe offer a little advice and guidance. Thank you for your time.

 

[maillon]

Well my friend, there are multiple paths in IT you can take,

You could go into network engineering; configure networks yourself, there is pretty high demand for this in businesses, since they always need maintenance, management or just someone to set them up.
To learn this I will refer you to Cisco, their cisco netacad program offers you the chance to even get CCNA certificates, which are pretty valuable in the field. They'll teach you the ins and outs of networks aswell as how to configure switches, routers, firewalls, ...

You could also go into software engineering; which is basically just coding, for which I would recommend CodeAcademy or W3Schools, both are very good to research languages, for languages I would recommend learning Java, C# and C++, and python, those are most often used to make or edit applications, for example, most apps for android are written in Android Studio, which is a Java IDE
One thing to remember in this is that Java can be used cross platform. It is, in my opinion, the most valuable of languages. This field offers you ALOT of job security.

Also, you could choose to work with embedded systems, like Raspberry Pi's or Arduino, for the use of, for instance, RaspPi's you need a basic understanding of Linux, getting an understanding of Linux is handy in any field actually, so check out the LPI (Linux Professional Institute), embedded systems enable you to make any product you wish, for example I made an alarm clock that drives away from me when it rings, so I have to go out of bed, everything is possible with embedded systems, but unless youre going to invent something there isnt alot of job security.

You could also just go into the support field and repair pc's for a shop, this is possible, job security is about the same as for store clerks though. however, it pays nicely.
For this field you should just get a good knowledge of computer hardware, aswell as Operating systems (MAC, Windows, Linux) since youll have to replace hardware parts, and do basic virus scans, formats, OS installs & upgrades,...

I hope this helps you.

 

[John Foulroberts]

Maillon summed the general field of IT up very nicely. IT has countless facets - a lot of people seem to use the term "programmer" as an umbrella term for someone who works in IT, but we know this is not true.

Myself, I'm kind of shoddy at coding. Scripting and mark-up I can do just fine, which does help in automating processes network-wise and with configuring individual systems. My strong suits are hardware/software troubleshooting and repair, but I also work on the side with network infrastructure.

My advice to you would be to start with basic technical support. Familiarize yourself with the innerworkings of different operating systems, become comfortable and confident working inside PCs, and train your mind to think in logical ways in order to troubleshoot things. Remember - one specific symptom can differentiate whether a problem is hardware or software related. If you want to become a certified PC repair technician, I recommend CompTIA's A+ certification. That'll lay the groundwork for you and acquaint you with all the different components of how a PC works. From there, you can expand your horizons to networking or another field.

 

[David Yellowhound]

Well my friend, there are multiple paths in IT you can take,

You could go into network engineering; configure networks yourself, there is pretty high demand for this in businesses, since they always need maintenance, management or just someone to set them up.
To learn this I will refer you to Cisco, their cisco netacad program offers you the chance to even get CCNA certificates, which are pretty valuable in the field. They'll teach you the ins and outs of networks aswell as how to configure switches, routers, firewalls, ...

You could also go into software engineering; which is basically just coding, for which I would recommend CodeAcademy or W3Schools, both are very good to research languages, for languages I would recommend learning Java, C# and C++, and python, those are most often used to make or edit applications, for example, most apps for android are written in Android Studio, which is a Java IDE
One thing to remember in this is that Java can be used cross platform. It is, in my opinion, the most valuable of languages. This field offers you ALOT of job security.

Also, you could choose to work with embedded systems, like Raspberry Pi's or Arduino, for the use of, for instance, RaspPi's you need a basic understanding of Linux, getting an understanding of Linux is handy in any field actually, so check out the LPI (Linux Professional Institute), embedded systems enable you to make any product you wish, for example I made an alarm clock that drives away from me when it rings, so I have to go out of bed, everything is possible with embedded systems, but unless youre going to invent something there isnt alot of job security.

You could also just go into the support field and repair pc's for a shop, this is possible, job security is about the same as for store clerks though. however, it pays nicely.
For this field you should just get a good knowledge of computer hardware, aswell as Operating systems (MAC, Windows, Linux) since youll have to replace hardware parts, and do basic virus scans, formats, OS installs & upgrades,...

I hope this helps you.

Thank you so much for the info mate. This helps a lot with my understanding

 

[David Yellowhound]

Maillon summed the general field of IT up very nicely. IT has countless facets - a lot of people seem to use the term "programmer" as an umbrella term for someone who works in IT, but we know this is not true.

Myself, I'm kind of shoddy at coding. Scripting and mark-up I can do just fine, which does help in automating processes network-wise and with configuring individual systems. My strong suits are hardware/software troubleshooting and repair, but I also work on the side with network infrastructure.

My advice to you would be to start with basic technical support. Familiarize yourself with the innerworkings of different operating systems, become comfortable and confident working inside PCs, and train your mind to think in logical ways in order to troubleshoot things. Remember - one specific symptom can differentiate whether a problem is hardware or software related. If you want to become a certified PC repair technician, I recommend CompTIA's A+ certification. That'll lay the groundwork for you and acquaint you with all the different components of how a PC works. From there, you can expand your horizons to networking or another field.

Thank you for the advice on the compti certification. It seems pretty easy to get since i'm already familiar with most of the material.