[TriLUG] Career change into IT

Steve Litt slitt at troubleshooters.com
Fri Feb 14 13:16:49 EST 2014


On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 09:59:51 -0800 (PST)
Craig Cook <cncook001 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> My wife is interested in a career change to get into IT.  She has
> done DBA/SQL courses at Wake Tech and is now doing a web design
> course at Wake Tech.
> 
> Any suggestions on places to get experience?  Volunteer opportunities
> to get IT experience?
> 
> She enjoyed writing SQL, and likes HTML5 so far.

[Note: I sell a book called "Quit Joblessness: Start Your Own
Business", so I'm not unbiased on this topic]

There have already been a lot of good suggestions, so allow me to add
one more...

She should immediately start her own business. Print 500 bizz cards,
create her own company's website (nothing complex, but obviously good
code that verifies w3). She could do all that in a day.

Then, tell everyone she meets about her business, and lowball her rates
just to start things up. She shouldn't be picky about the jobs she
accepts, EXCEPT that such jobs should be small and short term, so if
she gets her dream job, she can easily fulfill all her business
obligations.

Starting your own business has some benefits:

1) You might actually make money
2) It fills slack time periods on your resume
3) If you make some money at the business, it gives you a bargaining
   position when negotiating your starting salary with an employer
4) The business might pan out long term.

In the 10.7% unemployment 1982 recession, I was burning all my gas and
time begging for jobs. Finally, I just started Steve's Stereo Repair
out of my house. In the ensuing years, Steve's Stereo Repair became
Steve Litt Business Systems, American Troublebusters, and
Troubleshooters.Com. Do a web search of famous businesses that started
during a recession. Mine isn't by any means a unique or uncommon
experience.

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance


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