Self-employed IT contractor looking to transition to employee.

silver21

Alright, so I've been a self employed IT contractor for the past 4 years. I've done all sorts from hardware repair/software to networks. I have no certs or qualifications(no degree or third level education) as of yet, but I have worked constantly in the field since I was 22 and I do know my stuff.(I think so, anyway.)

Business is a bit slow the last year, and being self employed means I have no guarantee of set income(Could be anywhere between 18 or 45k per year), so something that is a bit more of a guaranteed income would be nice. I was thinking of getting a CCENT/CCNA cert and going for some Network Engineer posts for something a bit more secure. I took some practice tests to check it out and it's definitely something I'm fairly familiar with. Anyone familiar with the process think it'd be doable to land a job with 4 years experience self-employed and the cert, or would they want something more?

I see some people with 10+ qualifications and a 4 year degree, which puts me off a bit.

horgan_p

Might be handy to get a deskside support job while you are studying (around 30K)

I'm presuming you are/used to be man in a van fixing PC/Laptop issues ? I've been that soldier , tough gig at times , as you say no guaranteed income is a balls.

Funny enough , I may be getting back into the contracting gig again soon - albeit as a PM.
I think that if you can get away from "being on the tools" then contracting to one company at the time isn't too bad.

silver21

Yeah I did a lot of that, but I also have a fair bit of networking experience from small-medium businesses and schools, hence the path into the CCNA. Those deskside support jobs were actually the ones I've been looking at taking while I'm getting the whole CCNA thing done. Plus the experience in a company position would be valuable, so I think I'll be trying for those in the meantime.

horgan_p

Sounds like a pretty decent plan to be honest.

twilight_singer

silver21 wrote: »

Yeah I did a lot of that, but I also have a fair bit of networking experience from small-medium businesses and schools, hence the path into the CCNA. Those deskside support jobs were actually the ones I've been looking at taking while I'm getting the whole CCNA thing done. Plus the experience in a company position would be valuable, so I think I'll be trying for those in the meantime.

Don't forget that a lot of companies will pay for training and educational. I was in a similar boat to yourself a year ago, actually took a drop in wages to come to my current company and leave the contracting game. Company have paid for all my certification so far and am starting ccna at the end of Sept.

silver21

So you had no qualifications either at the time, just a bunch of experience? That sounds fantastic, exactly what I'd like to do. I was just worried that although I do the work daily myself, and I have the practical experience, that I don't have a bit of paper saying so.

twilight_singer

silver21 wrote: »

So you had no qualifications either at the time, just a bunch of experience? That sounds fantastic, exactly what I'd like to do. I was just worried that although I do the work daily myself, and I have the practical experience, that I don't have a bit of paper saying so.

No no qualifications, just experience. If you look at a lot of Job specs they are looking for degrees or equivalent experience. CV is key, make sure you have a decent cv with experience clearly listed. Get on to the decent agencies and tell them you are only interested in permanent positions, don't take the contract offers no matter how appealing the day rate. There are a good few decent IT Support positions out there currently you can expect late 30-40k if you have decent experience.

silver21

Brilliant. I'm just working on doing up my CV at the moment. It's been a while since I had any need of it, so hopefully I can fix it up into something decent. Thanks a million for the advice and encouragement, helps a lot.