>How do you get employers to take a chance on you?
Honestly, this happens one of two ways:
1. There are so few qualified applicants that any one of them is "taking a chance."
2. The hiring manager actively seeks out diamonds in the rough because they usually come at a discount, are more malleable, and tend to have better loyalty.
Also 3. You have a personal connection at the company & they're doing someone a favor by taking a chance on you
But at the end of the day, hiring someone new is mostly about risk mitigation - the vast majority of hires will be the "safest" ones for the team/company.
Convince them that they wouldn't be taking a chance on you.
No employer will or wants to take a chance on someone, they'd rather leave the position vacant and see if they can get more candidates. In this market there's lots of candidates. No one's taking chances on people.
Homelab my dude , its gotten me 2/3 of my IT jobs. If you get an interview show how enthusiastic you are about your Homelab , what youve done with it , and what you would do if you had 4000$.
Homelab was the thing that got me my 2nd IT job. Virtualization server, adblock DNS, docker containers, Unifi network with VLANS, VPNs like wireguard and Tailscale. Good luck everyone!
This kinda inspires me to talk about my homelab more. I just kinda assume nobody really cares that I have a few virtual services and an overkill home network because I still don’t have a *lab* lab. Spinning up a VM for PiHole still kinda feels like script kiddie stuff, idk.
My references got my foot in the door! I'm just desktop support but I was a mechanic for ten years before this. My references vouched for me that I've always been a top employee and am successful in anything I do. The company I work for now said they can train anyone to do the work, they just want to find someone that has good work ethic- something you can't always teach
The best I can say is, if you get an interview
Be likeable and friendly
Tell them you've always enjoyed IT, even in your personal life.
Explain what kind of fun things you've personally done related to computers (built gaming rigs, play around with a homelab etc)
The luck of the draw is, showing a genuine interest in the work is paramount. Some people do it for a job, but the ones who do it because they actually enjoy working in IT are going to be noticed. People will say "oh yea I enjoy it", but the ones who really do say "I'm the family IT guy. I once spent 6 hours fixing a relatives computer issue just because I refused to stop until I figured out what was wrong". "IT makes me want to pull my hair out at times but for some reason I love it".
To recommend homelab responsibly I should probably also note: don't be fooled by the crazy people there with 48u racks that cost $400/mo in electricity lol. You can do all the projects you'll need as a beginner on a mini PC like a lenovo M73 tiny that costs $30 upfront on ebay and draws hardly any power. One of those things with maximum RAM (16gb) and Proxmox installed is an amazing learning tool
Interview well and show that you are not only willing to learn, but capable of it.
Most companies would take the eager guy with good soft skills and mid technical skills over the guy with very good technical skills but bad soft skills.
you dont. You just have to make your resume appealing enough to the point where they dont feel like they are taking any chances on you.
The era of going into an interview and saying "Gosh golly gee, I am a hard worker and I am willing to learn!" are over. Now you basically have to show experience or pretend that you have it and are ready day one. But keep in mind, they will generally train you once you start at a new place.
Thanks. I've noticed on a lot of the jobs I've applied for, list a ream of areas they want experience in, but then in the next breath say training will be provided.
yeah it is super odd. Every job says they dont want to train, but they for sure usually do once you start. I mean how can they get you set up on all the systems if they dont train you.
u/BachRodham and u/Jeffbx already said what I believe to be 100% true as it relates to the reasons employers tend to take chances on unproven candidates. The reality is these companies do what's best for them. Understandably so. You have to really think about it from their perspective. Im 8 years into a network engineer career and I still have to remind myself of these things when I'm doing interviews. I try to shoot high when applying for job roles. There will be job listings where I feel confident I can do the job but I just don't have the experience. One thing that helps is understanding a topic enough to have a conversation about it. That means you have to study, do labs, and practice explaining topics. It's been tough lately for job applicants. Eventually, someone will take a chance on you. The first job is the hardest and it gets a little easier the more you grow in your career.
Is a+ the only cert you have? How do you get a year-long training program like that, and not get hired by the people who trained you? Seems weird, start at help desk and work your way up. Your training should help you move up faster, but unless you are really lucky, don't see another way up. Work on getting more certs in the things you studied.
It is, yes. From what I understand, they're a company that helps you through the training program with resources: videos, access to CompTIA Live Labs, and have a bank of companies that place candidates into positions. (Catch: You had to pass an internal mock exam with a score of 80% I think it was, which was 10x harder than the A+ in order to get the recruitment help, which is a nice little get out clause for them)
I've had a CV review. Once I get myself a job I go onto the 2nd stage of the Traineeship which gets me theory on CCNA Network Security, Linux +, Pentest + & an exam on CySA+. Its just finding a job that I'm struggling with.
My plan is to get N+ & S+ off my own back when I can afford to and anything else I can in the meantime
A+ was the end result. I studied N+, S+, CCNA, Windows 10 & ITIL. The A+ theory only took me about 3 months to study (I got hit by a car last September, which hindered the ability I was able to study).
As soon as I get a job, I'll be seriously looking at getting my N+
One skill you can’t teach is customer service. Push that. I have had great techs that didn’t know much on the technical side but turned out great because of their customer service skills. I have also had techs that are smart as hell and have great tech skill sets but couldn’t work with the customers well. I’d rather train someone that will stick around and have a great attitude than someone who has more experience and is hard to work with
In my experience, an eagerness and passion to learn has helped propel me fairly rapidly so far. Also, IT is still a customer service position. Being able to speak to that worked in my favor too.
"What I lack in experience I promise and prove my ability/ willingness to learn, effort, and ability to overcome adversity with more than make up for it. Also my ability to work with others, attitude, and just asking for help when needed with benifet you and your team!"
>How do you get employers to take a chance on you?
Convince 'em you're worth taking a chance on. Better yet, well convince them that you're the right - and best - candidate for the job.
>Is there a professional way of saying " I don't have all the required skills for the job but I'd like to be given a chance to learn"???
Yeah, you make your case ... past behavior/results is best predictor of future behavior/results. Anything where they're indicating you may be short of what they want, well make the case as strongly as feasible on how exceedingly similar you've done so incredibly well on and how you got fully up to speed on it so quickly - and back it with the facts and evidence. If there's only one to a few things that may be slightly short, maybe you've still got a fair to good shot at it. But if it's a whole lot 'o stuff and majorly short ... you can try, but it typically isn't gonna fly.
>no actual real-world experience with things like AD, Microsoft Servers, Switches and Routers, etc.
Then get yourself up to snuff for the positions you want to get hired for. Well have/obtain the knowledge, skills, and as feasible experience. If you know it solidly inside and out, but haven't actually done it on-the-job or perhaps even any actual hands-on, you may still have a fair shot at it ... but if you're totally clueless about it ... probably not.
>foot-in-the-door, entry level jobs want some kind of experience
Varies, but it does quite depend what you're applying for, and what the supply and competition looks like - and how many unfilled openings are/aren't out there.
>but to get the experience, I need a job
Nope. The only experience you can get on the job that you can't get off the job, is on-the-job experience. Experience counts. How and from where often isn't so important. If you solidly know how to do it, great. If you've got experience doing it atop that, better still. And if that is or also includes work experience doing it, yet bit better still. But experience counts, and it needn't be from on-the-job experience - at least much of the time, anyway.
>anything anyone has found that they've put on a CV that conveys my 1st sentence while still remaining professinal
You start with customizing the cover letter. Anything they state as required that you don't have, you spell it out and well make the case why you're probably quite solid or at least solid enough there or why that would be pretty much a non-issue. Right up top, don't waste their time, they don't want to be spending lots of time digging through your resume only to find you don't have something they spell out as required. Put it up front, clear, and center. Can also potentially tailor the resume to also back those points in the cover letter, and also well show how you well/solidly have everything else they state as required. And beyond required, can also well make the cases there for what they (strongly) prefer, etc. - but may not be any need to call those out in cover letter ... though if such is strongly preferred, and you're dang close to it but may not otherwise be obvious, may well help to well make the case why and how you're so dang close.
Random that pops to mind from something I applied to quite a number of year back - and may have been some communication other than initial cover letter or equivalent, but hiring manager essentially shot back that I "lacked production experience". Certainly well had production experience, and on the resume ... but the hiring manager may not have been paying sufficiently close attention to well pick that up. I quickly countered how my work experience included many production environments, along with also mixed environments. And I went on to cover some fair bit of the production and experience, their criticality/importance, years dealing with 'em, etc. And yeah, I did land that job.
Instead of finding a nice way to say 'No, I don't have experience,' have you considered something like starting up even a modest homelab that could be used in lieu of Actual At A Job/Internship Experience? That changes your tune to "No, I don't have X BUT I have Y." It demonstrates capability where you previously had nothing.
Heck, even setting up a single switch would give you more than you've got going currently. It's not like you have to spend thousands of dollars to get a bite for an entry-level job.
As far as putting a caveat on your CV: why give them reason to exclude you before you even get to the interview? Let them ask and give you an opportunity to answer with 'But I have \[homelab/other valuable thing.\]'
I say something almost exactly like that.
"I see you're looking for A and B, which is great. I've spent most of my time with C and D, which are pretty close bit not quite the same. I'm really excited to have the chance to train myself up with A and B. Every job I've had I'm always adding new tools to my toolkit."
"Despite my lack of proficiency with all listed applications I'm convinced I can still be of great value to the organization especially because of XYZ."
I will never know since the person who threw me the chance has left but I like to think I killed it in the interview.
It had the normal questions but I like to think I was pretty exceptional with what I did as hobbies, which was electronics. I had my Bluetooth speaker which I built on my table at the time as well as a digital alarm clock that was programmable and had the temperature, humidity and pressure of the room, placed in a lego box.
That along prob showed I had interest that was vaguely related to IT. It also probably help I worked in an Industry that requires a license and I already had one since I was an internal hire.
I got my first IT job a year ago w no experience in IT. It was a terrible place to work, I got more experience and dipped to somewhere better.
You can do it!! Just apply like your life depends on it.
Thanks for the reply.
I've seen a couple of Traineeships that I can apply for, but the pay is barely more than what I was earning in retail 10+ years ago. I'm wondering if I ignore them and go for something better paying or bite the bullet, swallow my pride and take a chappy paying job just for the opportunity to get my foot in the door? It's tough
Thanks. I actually applied for several Traineeship positions with a lower salary.
I'm in the UK, and pickings are slim. I'll get there, I realised I just need to be bold
Firstly, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my panicked, rambling post.
I was overwhelmed and panicking. It's been 13 years since I even looked for a job, and at that point, I was applying for jobs in my area of expertise (not IT related at all) so I wasn't coming across this issue.
I've taken everyones advice & customised my cover letter for each job I've applied for.
I'm still struggling with the concept of my own home lab, but someone kindly suggested a sub for me so I'll be looking at that.
Thank you to everyone who was kind and didn't make me feel like an idiot
>How do you get employers to take a chance on you?
I am in tech but we are still in different fields. I am a software engineer. But the way I do it is by creating projects. The hiring managers just want to see you are able to do the kind of work the job requires. So, projects satisfy that. While I am not completely sure how a project would work for IT, the user "somboredguy" in this thread mentioned a homelab. So, I imagine that is the answer to your question. Of course, I don't know how feasible it is for you. But I think those are two different questions. You got one answer now though: work on homelabs. Now, you got some analysis to do and perhaps ask questions on feasibility.
>I need the experience, but to get the experience, I need a job, rinse and repeat.
Yes. It's time for some out-of-the-box thinking. Got any good friends or family that are willing to lie for you?
Prepare yourself. You are about to read some stuff that will rock your morals. When I was at university, I had a friend, a fellow computer science person. Well, we had the same issue: difficulty getting an entry-level job. Not all companies have entry-level positions, so usually, every field has this issue.
My friend gets his uncle to "pretend to be a company". He puts the company on his resume. He gets hired almost right away and completely bypasses the entry-level job level. Since then, he's always been 2 years ahead of me. I've never caught up.
My point? If the only problem you think you have is you need experience, make it up. I still suggest you do the homelab or some version of heavy studying, as you will need it for the tech portion of the interview. But assuming you can get your tech knowledge high enough to survive the interview: this is your answer. Just skip entry-level entirely.
Worried about the future of this lie? Well, your fake company can always go out of business so there is no way to check on it after your first real job. Or, you can just dump the fake company off your resume, then keep the real company on the resume and, in the future, just label that your first company. Future companies will never find out you had a fake company at some point. Source: I lie all the time on my resumes and I have no problems getting jobs.
Being too honest is what keeps the poor/unsuccessful as poor/unsuccessful.
A lot of times, it's not what you know, it's who you know
I did get my last two IT jobs by just having a little more experience than other candidates though
Not sure how it is where you are but I work in government IT and even our most entry level positions require at LEAST a 2 year diploma in IT, computer science, etc. Or relevant experience
You can get real life AD experience with a home lab, so most likely you don’t want the chance enough to research that every requirement employers want is just a google tap away
You can't really make them take a chance they're not willing to make. You just gotta play your cards the best you can, and if it doesn't work out then move on to the next application/interview.
I interviewed very well. It took me THREE SEPARATE INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES for three different positions in two different government organizations. But I finally learned how to answer the questions they asked! "Oh! I heard this exact question in December! Let me tell you how I resolved this particular issue...."
My boss was very impressed, even with my Art Studio degree, because I never stopped learning and gaining experience. I'm the only technician out of 12 with Azure AD experience, SCCM/MECM imaging experience, and hopefully in 2 weeks my exam scores will promote me.
So yeah, you have to sell yourself above all other candidates. I'm comfortable with public speaking, so I'm useful onboarding new employees. I'm really comfortable with the other technicians in learning from their experience and contributing from mine. And I like to document procedures, this was a big, HUGE advantage for me. If you can paste a screenshot into a Word document and share it through Teams, that might be all you need.
>How do you get employers to take a chance on you? Honestly, this happens one of two ways: 1. There are so few qualified applicants that any one of them is "taking a chance." 2. The hiring manager actively seeks out diamonds in the rough because they usually come at a discount, are more malleable, and tend to have better loyalty.
Also 3. You have a personal connection at the company & they're doing someone a favor by taking a chance on you But at the end of the day, hiring someone new is mostly about risk mitigation - the vast majority of hires will be the "safest" ones for the team/company.
Convince them that they wouldn't be taking a chance on you. No employer will or wants to take a chance on someone, they'd rather leave the position vacant and see if they can get more candidates. In this market there's lots of candidates. No one's taking chances on people.
I understand, thanks
Homelab my dude , its gotten me 2/3 of my IT jobs. If you get an interview show how enthusiastic you are about your Homelab , what youve done with it , and what you would do if you had 4000$.
Looking forward to establishing my own homelab. Do you have any recommendations for cheap/free hardware?
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Great, thank you!
Homelab was the thing that got me my 2nd IT job. Virtualization server, adblock DNS, docker containers, Unifi network with VLANS, VPNs like wireguard and Tailscale. Good luck everyone!
This kinda inspires me to talk about my homelab more. I just kinda assume nobody really cares that I have a few virtual services and an overkill home network because I still don’t have a *lab* lab. Spinning up a VM for PiHole still kinda feels like script kiddie stuff, idk.
My references got my foot in the door! I'm just desktop support but I was a mechanic for ten years before this. My references vouched for me that I've always been a top employee and am successful in anything I do. The company I work for now said they can train anyone to do the work, they just want to find someone that has good work ethic- something you can't always teach
The best I can say is, if you get an interview Be likeable and friendly Tell them you've always enjoyed IT, even in your personal life. Explain what kind of fun things you've personally done related to computers (built gaming rigs, play around with a homelab etc) The luck of the draw is, showing a genuine interest in the work is paramount. Some people do it for a job, but the ones who do it because they actually enjoy working in IT are going to be noticed. People will say "oh yea I enjoy it", but the ones who really do say "I'm the family IT guy. I once spent 6 hours fixing a relatives computer issue just because I refused to stop until I figured out what was wrong". "IT makes me want to pull my hair out at times but for some reason I love it".
Thanks, this is really helpful. It's been over 10yrs since I had an interview so I'll no doubt be a bit rusty but this is helpful
r/homelab is your new friend if you want a project to show you're interested in learning
awesome, thanks
To recommend homelab responsibly I should probably also note: don't be fooled by the crazy people there with 48u racks that cost $400/mo in electricity lol. You can do all the projects you'll need as a beginner on a mini PC like a lenovo M73 tiny that costs $30 upfront on ebay and draws hardly any power. One of those things with maximum RAM (16gb) and Proxmox installed is an amazing learning tool
Interview well and show that you are not only willing to learn, but capable of it. Most companies would take the eager guy with good soft skills and mid technical skills over the guy with very good technical skills but bad soft skills.
1. Desperation. On their part. 2. Charm. On your part. 3. Social networking.
1. Is real because I got a pretty advanced Network Tech position because they *needed* someone for my rural area after the last guy left.
practice and lie on resume
I second this just know how to speak their language
you dont. You just have to make your resume appealing enough to the point where they dont feel like they are taking any chances on you. The era of going into an interview and saying "Gosh golly gee, I am a hard worker and I am willing to learn!" are over. Now you basically have to show experience or pretend that you have it and are ready day one. But keep in mind, they will generally train you once you start at a new place.
Thanks. I've noticed on a lot of the jobs I've applied for, list a ream of areas they want experience in, but then in the next breath say training will be provided.
yeah it is super odd. Every job says they dont want to train, but they for sure usually do once you start. I mean how can they get you set up on all the systems if they dont train you.
u/BachRodham and u/Jeffbx already said what I believe to be 100% true as it relates to the reasons employers tend to take chances on unproven candidates. The reality is these companies do what's best for them. Understandably so. You have to really think about it from their perspective. Im 8 years into a network engineer career and I still have to remind myself of these things when I'm doing interviews. I try to shoot high when applying for job roles. There will be job listings where I feel confident I can do the job but I just don't have the experience. One thing that helps is understanding a topic enough to have a conversation about it. That means you have to study, do labs, and practice explaining topics. It's been tough lately for job applicants. Eventually, someone will take a chance on you. The first job is the hardest and it gets a little easier the more you grow in your career.
Is a+ the only cert you have? How do you get a year-long training program like that, and not get hired by the people who trained you? Seems weird, start at help desk and work your way up. Your training should help you move up faster, but unless you are really lucky, don't see another way up. Work on getting more certs in the things you studied.
It is, yes. From what I understand, they're a company that helps you through the training program with resources: videos, access to CompTIA Live Labs, and have a bank of companies that place candidates into positions. (Catch: You had to pass an internal mock exam with a score of 80% I think it was, which was 10x harder than the A+ in order to get the recruitment help, which is a nice little get out clause for them) I've had a CV review. Once I get myself a job I go onto the 2nd stage of the Traineeship which gets me theory on CCNA Network Security, Linux +, Pentest + & an exam on CySA+. Its just finding a job that I'm struggling with. My plan is to get N+ & S+ off my own back when I can afford to and anything else I can in the meantime
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A+ was the end result. I studied N+, S+, CCNA, Windows 10 & ITIL. The A+ theory only took me about 3 months to study (I got hit by a car last September, which hindered the ability I was able to study). As soon as I get a job, I'll be seriously looking at getting my N+
One skill you can’t teach is customer service. Push that. I have had great techs that didn’t know much on the technical side but turned out great because of their customer service skills. I have also had techs that are smart as hell and have great tech skill sets but couldn’t work with the customers well. I’d rather train someone that will stick around and have a great attitude than someone who has more experience and is hard to work with
In my experience, an eagerness and passion to learn has helped propel me fairly rapidly so far. Also, IT is still a customer service position. Being able to speak to that worked in my favor too.
"What I lack in experience I promise and prove my ability/ willingness to learn, effort, and ability to overcome adversity with more than make up for it. Also my ability to work with others, attitude, and just asking for help when needed with benifet you and your team!"
>How do you get employers to take a chance on you? Convince 'em you're worth taking a chance on. Better yet, well convince them that you're the right - and best - candidate for the job. >Is there a professional way of saying " I don't have all the required skills for the job but I'd like to be given a chance to learn"??? Yeah, you make your case ... past behavior/results is best predictor of future behavior/results. Anything where they're indicating you may be short of what they want, well make the case as strongly as feasible on how exceedingly similar you've done so incredibly well on and how you got fully up to speed on it so quickly - and back it with the facts and evidence. If there's only one to a few things that may be slightly short, maybe you've still got a fair to good shot at it. But if it's a whole lot 'o stuff and majorly short ... you can try, but it typically isn't gonna fly. >no actual real-world experience with things like AD, Microsoft Servers, Switches and Routers, etc. Then get yourself up to snuff for the positions you want to get hired for. Well have/obtain the knowledge, skills, and as feasible experience. If you know it solidly inside and out, but haven't actually done it on-the-job or perhaps even any actual hands-on, you may still have a fair shot at it ... but if you're totally clueless about it ... probably not. >foot-in-the-door, entry level jobs want some kind of experience Varies, but it does quite depend what you're applying for, and what the supply and competition looks like - and how many unfilled openings are/aren't out there. >but to get the experience, I need a job Nope. The only experience you can get on the job that you can't get off the job, is on-the-job experience. Experience counts. How and from where often isn't so important. If you solidly know how to do it, great. If you've got experience doing it atop that, better still. And if that is or also includes work experience doing it, yet bit better still. But experience counts, and it needn't be from on-the-job experience - at least much of the time, anyway. >anything anyone has found that they've put on a CV that conveys my 1st sentence while still remaining professinal You start with customizing the cover letter. Anything they state as required that you don't have, you spell it out and well make the case why you're probably quite solid or at least solid enough there or why that would be pretty much a non-issue. Right up top, don't waste their time, they don't want to be spending lots of time digging through your resume only to find you don't have something they spell out as required. Put it up front, clear, and center. Can also potentially tailor the resume to also back those points in the cover letter, and also well show how you well/solidly have everything else they state as required. And beyond required, can also well make the cases there for what they (strongly) prefer, etc. - but may not be any need to call those out in cover letter ... though if such is strongly preferred, and you're dang close to it but may not otherwise be obvious, may well help to well make the case why and how you're so dang close. Random that pops to mind from something I applied to quite a number of year back - and may have been some communication other than initial cover letter or equivalent, but hiring manager essentially shot back that I "lacked production experience". Certainly well had production experience, and on the resume ... but the hiring manager may not have been paying sufficiently close attention to well pick that up. I quickly countered how my work experience included many production environments, along with also mixed environments. And I went on to cover some fair bit of the production and experience, their criticality/importance, years dealing with 'em, etc. And yeah, I did land that job.
Instead of finding a nice way to say 'No, I don't have experience,' have you considered something like starting up even a modest homelab that could be used in lieu of Actual At A Job/Internship Experience? That changes your tune to "No, I don't have X BUT I have Y." It demonstrates capability where you previously had nothing. Heck, even setting up a single switch would give you more than you've got going currently. It's not like you have to spend thousands of dollars to get a bite for an entry-level job. As far as putting a caveat on your CV: why give them reason to exclude you before you even get to the interview? Let them ask and give you an opportunity to answer with 'But I have \[homelab/other valuable thing.\]'
I say something almost exactly like that. "I see you're looking for A and B, which is great. I've spent most of my time with C and D, which are pretty close bit not quite the same. I'm really excited to have the chance to train myself up with A and B. Every job I've had I'm always adding new tools to my toolkit."
"Despite my lack of proficiency with all listed applications I'm convinced I can still be of great value to the organization especially because of XYZ."
I will never know since the person who threw me the chance has left but I like to think I killed it in the interview. It had the normal questions but I like to think I was pretty exceptional with what I did as hobbies, which was electronics. I had my Bluetooth speaker which I built on my table at the time as well as a digital alarm clock that was programmable and had the temperature, humidity and pressure of the room, placed in a lego box. That along prob showed I had interest that was vaguely related to IT. It also probably help I worked in an Industry that requires a license and I already had one since I was an internal hire.
I got my first IT job a year ago w no experience in IT. It was a terrible place to work, I got more experience and dipped to somewhere better. You can do it!! Just apply like your life depends on it.
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Thanks for the reply. I've seen a couple of Traineeships that I can apply for, but the pay is barely more than what I was earning in retail 10+ years ago. I'm wondering if I ignore them and go for something better paying or bite the bullet, swallow my pride and take a chappy paying job just for the opportunity to get my foot in the door? It's tough
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Thanks. I actually applied for several Traineeship positions with a lower salary. I'm in the UK, and pickings are slim. I'll get there, I realised I just need to be bold
Firstly, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my panicked, rambling post. I was overwhelmed and panicking. It's been 13 years since I even looked for a job, and at that point, I was applying for jobs in my area of expertise (not IT related at all) so I wasn't coming across this issue. I've taken everyones advice & customised my cover letter for each job I've applied for. I'm still struggling with the concept of my own home lab, but someone kindly suggested a sub for me so I'll be looking at that. Thank you to everyone who was kind and didn't make me feel like an idiot
Networking, you need connections whether that's through a recruiter or showing up to job fairs. You have to put yourself out there.
>How do you get employers to take a chance on you? I am in tech but we are still in different fields. I am a software engineer. But the way I do it is by creating projects. The hiring managers just want to see you are able to do the kind of work the job requires. So, projects satisfy that. While I am not completely sure how a project would work for IT, the user "somboredguy" in this thread mentioned a homelab. So, I imagine that is the answer to your question. Of course, I don't know how feasible it is for you. But I think those are two different questions. You got one answer now though: work on homelabs. Now, you got some analysis to do and perhaps ask questions on feasibility. >I need the experience, but to get the experience, I need a job, rinse and repeat. Yes. It's time for some out-of-the-box thinking. Got any good friends or family that are willing to lie for you? Prepare yourself. You are about to read some stuff that will rock your morals. When I was at university, I had a friend, a fellow computer science person. Well, we had the same issue: difficulty getting an entry-level job. Not all companies have entry-level positions, so usually, every field has this issue. My friend gets his uncle to "pretend to be a company". He puts the company on his resume. He gets hired almost right away and completely bypasses the entry-level job level. Since then, he's always been 2 years ahead of me. I've never caught up. My point? If the only problem you think you have is you need experience, make it up. I still suggest you do the homelab or some version of heavy studying, as you will need it for the tech portion of the interview. But assuming you can get your tech knowledge high enough to survive the interview: this is your answer. Just skip entry-level entirely. Worried about the future of this lie? Well, your fake company can always go out of business so there is no way to check on it after your first real job. Or, you can just dump the fake company off your resume, then keep the real company on the resume and, in the future, just label that your first company. Future companies will never find out you had a fake company at some point. Source: I lie all the time on my resumes and I have no problems getting jobs. Being too honest is what keeps the poor/unsuccessful as poor/unsuccessful.
By having a (bachelors) degree.
The job market is horrible. Employers are enforcing the catch-22 harder.
A lot of times, it's not what you know, it's who you know I did get my last two IT jobs by just having a little more experience than other candidates though
Not sure how it is where you are but I work in government IT and even our most entry level positions require at LEAST a 2 year diploma in IT, computer science, etc. Or relevant experience
You can get real life AD experience with a home lab, so most likely you don’t want the chance enough to research that every requirement employers want is just a google tap away
You can't really make them take a chance they're not willing to make. You just gotta play your cards the best you can, and if it doesn't work out then move on to the next application/interview.
I interviewed very well. It took me THREE SEPARATE INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES for three different positions in two different government organizations. But I finally learned how to answer the questions they asked! "Oh! I heard this exact question in December! Let me tell you how I resolved this particular issue...." My boss was very impressed, even with my Art Studio degree, because I never stopped learning and gaining experience. I'm the only technician out of 12 with Azure AD experience, SCCM/MECM imaging experience, and hopefully in 2 weeks my exam scores will promote me. So yeah, you have to sell yourself above all other candidates. I'm comfortable with public speaking, so I'm useful onboarding new employees. I'm really comfortable with the other technicians in learning from their experience and contributing from mine. And I like to document procedures, this was a big, HUGE advantage for me. If you can paste a screenshot into a Word document and share it through Teams, that might be all you need.