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Ask HN: How does a displaced IT professional get started in the software world?
Short story: I'm losing my job of 8 years on June 30th. Every tech firm I've applied for says I don't have relevant experience.
I've worked as an IT professional in my state schools for over 8 years now. In my job capacity, I've covered the gamut of IT related disciplines from desktop/server/network service and management, to software development/deployment. In the last few years, I've transitioned to more of a web developer as service needs were identified and providers were few and far between. I like doing this work and I'd like to continue to grow... the problem is, I live in West Virginia with no immediate plans (family reasons) of leaving. Opportunity isn't exactly within reach here.
So, I started looking at remote opportunities... and I've hit a wall. My jack-of-all trades resume isn't fitting for this sort of work, so I need to start training towards a more refined skill set that is more sell-able. I don't know where to start.
I currently work in PHP/JS/MySQL, I'm comfortable in Java/C#, and have a passing knowledge of many other languages and frameworks. If you were going to start over, right now, what would you be learning?
- ForHackernews 9y agoI'd suggest aiming for a "devops" role, given your background managing deployments and infrastructure. Study up on the AWS platform and automation/orchestration tools like Chef or Ansible. You can tell a plausible story about moving from managing real infrastructure to managing virtualized cloud infrastructure.
- Random_Person 9y agoAwesome. Thanks for the info!
- bradknowles 9y agoYou sound like the sort of guy that would certainly get an interview quickly at the place where I am now, if not a quick job offer. But that would be in downtown Austin, and remote could be tough.
- Random_Person 9y agoAustin is nice and I have friends there, but moving isn't in the cards right now.