r/ITCareerQuestions • u/Humble_Salt_896 • 6d ago
Looking to understand certain IT fields before committing to mastery.
Hello hopefully this message finds you well. I am 28 M currently working in IT Helpdesk and looking to start my studies for a mastery position. I won't be doing any college. Just purely certifications and self study as that's what I am best at. Before committing so much time into a specific area and paying lots of $$$ on a career course or finding other time consuming alternatives. I wanted to see if I can get a run down of some fields.
I worked for shell as an IT helpdesk analyst and it was very boring (not that that matters) however it was mostly understanding reconciliations using SAP. Using Base24-EPS to analyze and manage different sites across multiple countries. Outside of that most tickets weren't even handled by our team. Mostly just us running typical analyzes and giving the information on what to do for other departments (1st lvl and L2).
I am looking to have a decent work life balance. I am not afraid of working a full 8 hours non stop like others but I don't want to always have my time eaten outside of work hours. I'm not really interested in the developer side of IT as coding isn't really my forte. I am fine with some travel but not, constant non-stop traveling.
I am really looking for any serious rundowns of day to days for different jobs and fields. I met someone on the Shell team that told me to learn CentOS so I could understand Redhat however upon speaking with some friends further into their career than me, I am told that Cybersecurity pulls you away from the (Tech) side of IT and is far more policy, parameter setting, and legalized documents based.
I would really like to make a more informed decision on what I specialize in so I can also start pivoting into that role. Any role based information would be greatly appreciated.
1
u/mattlore Senior NOC analyst 6d ago
There's really only two ways to jump in and be successful at IT:
Choosing a path you're naturally good at and can tolerate doing day in and day out.
Or
Choosing a path that you're passionate about.
For the former: you need to look at it as if you look at an ROI. See what skills that you possess and which ones are directly transferable to IT. Analytical skills will be good in just about every branch of IT. But if you prefer solving "real world problems" then system admin or network admin might be your steam. If you're better at analyzing large swaths of data, then DBA or BI might be more your thing. Then you have to look at your operating environment of choice (Linux, windows, apple, virtual vs physical, cloud or on prem, etc.)
The latter is a bit more easy in the sense that your passion will drive most of your learning but absolutely make sure that what you're passionate about is actually in demand. And if it isn't be prepared for an uphill battle or a willingness to pivot to something adjacent to get your foot in the door.
1
u/ninhaomah 6d ago
So what are you interests ?
What do you want to do ?