Associate degree in IT, no IT job and no experience

I got my Associate degree in IT in Dec 2010 and have been looking for an IT job ever since. I have applied to TONS of positions and not a single phone call. I'm mostly applying for help desk, pc techs kind of jobs as I figured that's what I could do to start in an entry level position and then move up as I gain experience. The only problem is a lot of companies want TONS OF EXPERIENCE for an entry level!!! That doesn't even make sense! The only experience I have is the stuff I learned from my classes.

No I didn't go to ITT Tech. I got my degree from a community college

I'm currently in the process to transfer to a 4 year school. Only downside is about 90% of the classes I need to take are not even IT. All are business.
My search continues. Every pc tech, tech support, or help desk opening I apply to I emphasize that I have a current A+ Cert. You would think that's what you would need to get an entry level IT job, apparently that's not the case.

coqui04 in Virginia Beach, Virginia said: I got my Associate degree in IT in Dec 2010 and have been looking for an IT job ever since. I have applied to TONS of positions and not a single phone call. I'm mostly applying for help desk, pc techs kind of jobs as I figured that's what I could do to start in an entry level position and then move up as I gain experience. The only problem is a lot of companies want TONS OF EXPERIENCE for an entry level!!! That doesn't even make sense! The only experience I have is the stuff I learned from my classes.

Sorry, this is just one of a dozen reasons why IT is on The Avoid List as far as careers go. Entry level means 3 years.

Go back to school and look for careers where you see your customer face-to-face. These are easier to get and difficult to off-shore.

Man you guys are discouraging to put OP in a loser situation. I have 10 friends in IT and they are doing pretty well. I think you guys are the one's who's finding excuses for yourselves not being able to find anything and want to vent that same discouragement to others.

OP, I think you should try volunteering for free. Go to the library and see if you can volunteer to be a helpdesk or some tech support. Go to a church and volunteer there too. Go to Craigslist and volunteer to design websites for free, that way you can demonstrate your programming skills and you can somehow leverage that for a helpdesk.

Network with folks! VERY IMPORTANT.

In the meantime, do pursue certificates, they are very helpful too and show that you're serious.

Can I feed my kids with a volunteer job? Why would anyone make excuses for not having a job and losing everything they have? IT jobs require experience or a BA ... that isn't an excuse, it's a fact.

I think it's ridiculous when people blame the unemployeed for not having a job. Go pick on druggies on welfare or something.

Go volunteer, use it to get an internship, then use it to get a job, then use a job to feed your kids.

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: I am tired of hearing this nonsense of working for free. You go to school to find a PAYING job and if you can't get one after graduation then what was the point of going to school.

This is America and people don't work for free.

If every one can find a volunteer to do their work then no one is going to get a paying job.

Well, we no longer have slaves so I guess internships will have to do. tee hee!

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: It's even worse than working for free, I was at a startup that wanted the employees all to "contribute" to paying the rent and buying PCs. As the CEO said to the "employees", this a start up and we need you to pay for the privilege of having "filler time" on your resume.

Byeeeee!

Mike in Utica, Michigan said: Man you guys are discouraging to put OP in a loser situation. I have 10 friends in IT and they are doing pretty well. I think you guys are the one's who's finding excuses for yourselves not being able to find anything and want to vent that same discouragement to others.

OP, I think you should try volunteering for free. Go to the library and see if you can volunteer to be a helpdesk or some tech support. Go to a church and volunteer there too. Go to Craigslist and volunteer to design websites for free, that way you can demonstrate your programming skills and you can somehow leverage that for a helpdesk.

Network with folks! VERY IMPORTANT.

In the meantime, do pursue certificates, they are very helpful too and show that you're serious.

How would an independent adult feed him or her self while performing all that pro bono work?
Many internships are arranged with educational institutions and are paid for. Students pay indirectly for internships that are applied for through an educational institution or internships that require all interns to be "students". Since the most potent networking is performed through a internship, I can imagine that the ideal intern is under the age of 22 and is someone with substantial financial support. You the saying that "You get what you put in...?" I think it goes hand in hand with "You get what you pay for", for job seekers.

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: I am tired of hearing this nonsense of working for free. You go to school to find a PAYING job and if you can't get one after graduation then what was the point of going to school.

This is America and people don't work for free.

If every one can find a volunteer to do their work then no one is going to get a paying job.

Dude, chill out I'm giving out advices on how one can get a foot in the door. I have so many friends that are doing absolutely fine in IT. Employees want to see that you can perform the job, so go do something to show that you can do that work. Maybe when you're at work, go help out with the company website, or go help suggest ways to improve their networking system, etc.

Then use it to show on your resume that you are confident enough to perform some entry level IT job and go from there.

Average in Medford, Massachusetts said: How would an independent adult feed him or her self while performing all that pro bono work?
Many internships are arranged with educational institutions and are paid for. Students pay indirectly for internships that are applied for through an educational institution or internships that require all interns to be "students". Since the most potent networking is performed through a internship, I can imagine that the ideal intern is under the age of 22 and is someone with substantial financial support. You the saying that "You get what you put in...?" I think it goes hand in hand with "You get what you pay for", for job seekers.

Even if you're not in school or graduated, apply to the internships anyways. Or if you're working somewhere, try to find ways to move from your current job to whatever IT job (ex: you're an office assistant, when there are IT projects that need to be done, go help out with it, then when an IT position openining within the same company like helpdesk; go for it).

There's no systematic way in life to succeed, just takes alittle bit of thought and creativity.

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: You are better off not getting into IT if you have to start off working for free. People like you tell everybody should work for free just continues the continuing depression of salaries. If this keeps up then people will have to pay after spending $100K in college.

You don't have to work for free. You just have to prove something to employers you can do the job.

Bluetea in Texas said: hoapres in San Francisco, California said: It's even worse than working for free, I was at a startup that wanted the employees all to "contribute" to paying the rent and buying PCs. As the CEO said to the "employees", this a start up and we need you to pay for the privilege of having "filler time" on your resume.

Duh IT people don't get paid in start up companies do you know why? Because it's a STARTUP!!!! No one gets paid. How do you think a start up company pays its employees if it isn't even making any?

guest in San Jose, California said: That is what a college degree is for. You gave the best argument for NOT getting into IT because the field is glutted beyond belief with people who you believe should consider working for free. Just try to hire a plumbers helper for free.

Just FYI,

Software and Application engineers make on average 80,000

IT Security Analysts make 80,000

IT Managers make average 55,000

(According to BLS and some indeed).

People in IT do get paid you know, that's far from $00,000.00.

Where'd you get the idea that only IT people work for free?

guest in San Jose, California said: If you can't pay minimum wage then don't have employees. Nothing wrong with working for free as an owner but that does not pay the rent.

Apparently you don't have experience starting a business. You think a person starting a business on day 1 receives $70,000 from the same business the next day?

guest in San Jose, California said: Doing absolutely well are UC Berkeley EECS graduates collecting welfare. I can get a CCIE with 10 years of experience for $20 an hour. IT is a great field work 10 years and make $20 an hour without benefits.

You don't have evidence of that, you're just here making false assumptions to scare people away from doing what they love and I'm here to defend it.

On a very small scale it may be true but is it true on the entire scale of the IT industry? Possibly not even 3%.

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: Fair enough to "work" at a startup for equity only. Just don't use that as a claim of a "booming IT job market".

www.indeed.com/jobs?q=information+technology+security&start=10

56470 jobs above $40,000

www.indeed.com/jobs?q=software+engineer&l=

97,235 jobs with above $50,000

That's alot of high paying jobs buddy. But wait, Indeed is wrong because IT people are supposed to work for free.

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: Indeed has been thoroughly discredited.

Are those sources from INDEED.COM?

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: Incorrect.

ALL of the job bulletin board job number are wrong. 90% of the job ads are fake due to company "broadcasts". A "broadcast" is when a company uses multiple agencies for a single job. If a company uses 20+ agencies for a single job and all advertise on Dice then that it is counted as 20 jobs. It is even worth with Indeed as a job is EVERY ad from EVERY job board. You can do a search for "bogus job counts" which went through the gory detail along with backing up the claim that of the over 85K+ "jobs" on Dice less than 9K actually existed.

While I agree with you to some extent on that but I do not agree on your aggressive exaggeration to WANT to put all sort of numbers such as salaries and openings to an all time low and claiming that 90% of IT job ads are fake (when the truth through intuition is that IT is one of the highest paying and one of the fastest growing industries).

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: I backed up the claim by dissecting the job ads on Dice along with showing explicit examples. The most notorious perhaps was for a single fortran job in Iowa which was advertised by 14 agencies and Dice counted that as 14 jobs.

This has been hashed out on the Dice discussion boards and you can search for "bogus job counts" and "nonjobs".

"Truth through intuition is not truth". IT has extremely grim job prospects being so bad that Silicon Valley unemployment offices no longer sponsor or encourage IT training.

At one point, EDD (being the unemployment office) and I went through almost "line by line" of the 4K "jobs" claimed by Dice and we came to the conclusion that at best 400 represented "real jobs".

I would have stop reading at FORTRAN. lol!

hoapres in San Francisco, California said: The beauty of the FORTRAN example is that it was pretty dispositive. If you find 14 ads for a Fortran job with the exact same description in a small Iowa town and show that Dice claims that as 14 jobs then it you have a pretty clear and convincing case that the claims of 85K+ "tech jobs" are bogus. EDD and I went through almost line by line on Dice's claim of 4K jobs in Silicon Valley and came to the conclusion that at best 400 were "real jobs"

That would have convinced me. I doubt that they have 14 jobs for a FORTRAN programmer in the whole United States.

coqui04 and whoever feels discouraged by the lies of the people in this forum.

In the story of David vs Goliath

1 Samuel 17:33, "Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”"

1 Samuel 17:45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

You have people who want to discourage and spit lies at us and see that things are hopeless ahead of you, but you have the Lord God who is bigger than any obstacle ahead. Don't trust in your "swords and spears", don't trust when anybody tells you are a only a young man and not a true warrior. Trust in God, that He loves you so much, and know that He will come through..