Ctrl+Alt+Route

“I want to get into IT but I don’t know where to even begin. Should I get a certificate or should I attend school? Would I even be able to get a job without a bachelors? Would someone hire someone without experience? What IT jobs should I even apply to?”

These are all things I was asking myself back in September of 2021 as COVID was ravaging the distribution industry. I was a 25-year-old, working as a warehouse associate and had never really contemplated much about my future. I had my certificates for various machinery like forklift and reach truck but I began to gradually think about my future and ultimately the career I’d want. Which in all fairness, as a single guy in his mid 20’s, we don’t generally think about much other than pizza and video games, but I wanted more. I wanted to work towards a career and something I’d genuinely enjoy. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy warehousing, but not many technical jobs are available to you when you don’t have the experience or skill set or in my case, college education.

I genuinely had no idea what I had wanted to do in IT but I had some inclinations so in November of 2021 I enrolled at British Columbia Institute of Technology for their Computer System Certificate program as a part time student. It was a 60-credit laddered certificate program but it would have ultimately given me all the credits needed for their bachelor program, which at the time was something I was going to pursue.

As a part-time student, I was attending classes in the evening and working during the day. I was breezing through my first couple of classes until I hit a massive road block and that road block was called Mathematics for Computing. Now to be honest, in high school I was a wizard in home economics and English, but when it came to math I might as well have been on a sinking ship with no life boat. I ended up dropping out of the courses halfway through, I hadn’t touched algebra and linear equations in years and thought I was in over my head. That goal I had, that desire to change careers was fleeting and fleeting fast.

I was taking another a class along side my math course though and that was a programming course that focused on the fundamentals of programming, the class was taught using python. The hope that had been dashed by my inability to solve matrices was gradually being restored by the CLI applications I was building in python. I had planned on continuing with school and regardless of how challenging a course might be I decided to persevere, I was getting a taste of technology, and I was enjoying it.

Fast forward a year and I was knee deep in programming, competing in hackathons, and getting my hands dirty with some web application development. Thanks to the program I was taking, I was getting thrown into a ton of different technology that I had never touched before such as SQL, HTML/CSS, Java, JavaScript, Python, and more, I even cofounded the BCIT Dev Hub, which is a registered club at BCIT. I had some bouts of imposter syndrome but my excitement of learning different technologies helped to distract me and pushed me forward on my journey.

After a while I started to think about what I’d specifically like to do. The battle I had lost with that wretched math course had dashed my hopes of ultimately getting into game development or software development, now I had retaken the course and passed, however I wasn’t too keen on diving into a role that made use of discreet mathematics. So I started to look at technology outside the realm of my school courses and I eventually came across the domains of information security and network security. I grew up always thinking those hackers in the movies were super cool, so I figured I’d try it out.

After a few courses and lessons on Hack The Box, I was intrigued but I completely understood that I had no idea how these networks functioned, how all this data was transferred via the cables, routers and switches, and ultimately how these computers communicated with one another via protocols, to be honest, the logic behind them was sorcery to me at this point. While getting my feet wet with cybersecurity topics, attending classes part-time and working full-time, I made the decision to start looking for a new job and to try to find something outside the realm of warehousing or distribution. I had developed some technical skills and knowledge, so as the kids would say, I figured I’d shoot my shot.

Fortunately, my girlfriend(now wife) was completely supportive of my decision to began that arduous job search that we often all fear, so armed with a resume and a desire to grow, I jumped into the fray. After a month and a half and a few failed interviews I finally landed a role outside of warehousing. I was given the opportunity to work as a temp to perm facilities team member at Fortinet which as someone who was trying to break into IT, I took that role in a heart beat.

I completely understood that this wasn’t a tech job but I figured, with how large Fortinet is I could eventually apply to transition to a different team but I didn’t realize the hurdles that I’d potentially face with a temp to perm role. Unfortunately with a temp role you don’t receive benefits(depending on the company) and also the company can let you go at any time, so this opportunity did come with some potential dangers, especially with my partner and myself discussing our marriage and eventual children. Did the potential risk outweigh the benefits?

It’s difficult to say, I had a lot on my plate at the time between starting a new job, family matters, and my education but I had lucked out a week after starting at Fortinet. One of the companies I had interviewed at decided they were going to let one of their IT specialists go and that they wanted to bring me on for that role, despite originally hiring someone else. With the worries I had from taking a temp position at Fortinet and with how this was actual IT experience, I confided in my partner and then a good buddy of mine, but I ultimately decided to take this role.

Do I regret leaving Fortinet? Partially, I’m not sure what opportunities would have been there for me had I stayed but deciding to leave and join my current company has certainly opened up doors for me that I don’t think would have been there had I stayed at Fortinet. For starters, at my current company I’m able to assist customers with network connectivity issues and other technical problems that they may face. This role also introduced the fundamentals of networking to me and has given me some hands on experience which I wouldn’t of gotten at Fortinet. I did have some doubts but over time they slowly faded away and I was happy with my decision to choose this role.

But now I had a bit of a dilemma as the part time program I was attending was centered around software development and not much else. I didn’t want to be labelled as someone who couldn’t finish what they started but over the past couple of years I realized that software development just wasn’t for me, I wanted to focus on networking and then eventually cybersecurity.

Now, I certainly could have kept doing my program but I had just spent the past 2-3 years studying these topics that I wouldn’t necessarily use on the job as a network engineer or a SOC analyst and it likely would have taken the same amount of time to finish the program. I was a bit conflicted but I ultimately made the decision to drop out and focus on working towards certificates as I had my foot in the industry.

So how do you break into IT?

There’s no clear-cut path, it’s a journey that varies for every different person and there’s potentially countless ways you could break into IT. what you could do is find an interest or passion related to the field of IT, whether that’s web development, machine learning, networking, or even just breaking/fixing computers. Find yourself a starting point and take it one day at a time.

Build up your knowledge and see what entry level IT positions are available in your area and what their requirements are. This would give you a pretty clear indication of what skills and knowledge you’d need as well as certifications or schooling. Most importantly, just take your time. You might fail an exam, or get frustrated because you don’t understand a topic or something else but it’s part of the journey, we don’t know what we don’t know, but it’s up to you to learn.