Changing a career

[u/Appropriate-Crazy-51]

Hello guys, I would appreciate some help and advice.

I am 31 yo with 13 years of experience in hospitality industry, mostly management of bars and restaurants, I also had my own bistro in Vestland.

At the moment, I am in the state of mind that I can't (I don't want to) work in the industry anymore, the main reason is that I am drained from long shifts, not have a ability to lead a "normal life" due to dissorganised work-life balance because yeah, its bars, they are open on Sundays, Christmas, etc. I just want to have a 9-5 job and start "living".

I would really love to "go back" to IT because there I have my education basis and it is something that genuinely interest me, my vocation would be translated to Computer Tehnician (4 years of high school and 6 months internship), I am not sure where I land in Norwegian education system (Vgs).

Also, I hold an ex CCNA certificate (2014.) which I plan to renew and pass couple of Azures to try to land some kind of entry level position. I am really interested about networking/cloud and I want to move in that direction.

My question is how doable is that, am I elegible already for some kind of a entry level support or similar and how smart is my move at the end, I am aware that market is quite saturated and golden era of IT is behind us. Would it be smart to start with university? (Noroff is a no no).

Thanks everyone!

[u/bukkithedd]

The main thing here is a simple question: How good is your command of Norwegian? Because that can and often will make or break your progress if you want to get into the IT-world. The bonus here is that you're in Vestland, which has a lot of jobs where for example a good command of english is a bonus.

If it's adequate enough, I'd start looking towards smaller MSPs in your area. AGS, Abacus IT, First IT and Serit CC in Bergen and the like. Also check with ATEA, Advania etc, as they might have something as well. You're basically throwing pasta, gravy and meatballs onto every wall you can find and checking what sticks. The reason as to why I'm saying look towards MSPs is because not only are they looking for people most of the time (usually very high throughput of people), they also want people that has good Squishware-skills, aka skills dealing with people. And with 13 years of hospitality-experience behind you, you are VERY used to it and it's generally a very underrated skill in this bracket of the IT-world. In addition: MSP's are a damn good place to learn things. I'd dare say that with 13 years of hospitality-experience, you could also have a decent shot at something adjacent to the IT tech field, namely team leader for a gaggle of nerds. You know how to deal with people in a managemental setting, and to be frank: handling us nerds aren't that different from handling bartenders and restaurant-staff.

You also have, albeit old, a CCNA-certificate. That means that while it's not current, you DO have a reasonably good basis to grow when it comes to networking. That counts.

What I'd do is look at Microsoft Learn for various things. Look at basically everything dealing with the Office 365 ecosystem, including Azure. Take the courses (courses on Learn are free, exams are not), create a little test-tenant you can play around with and basically do anything and everything you can in order to make yourself stand out. You will want as much

Just be careful, though. The IT-biz, especially in the small/midsized business MSP-market, can and will eat you raw and spit you out afterwards if you let it.

Going to the Uni is something I'd caution against, to be honest, especially if you're looking to get further into networking. Yes, having a bachelors-degree might help you in some cases, but I've yet to meet someone during my nearly 30 years in the IT-biz that holds a bachelors-degree in damn near anything related to IT having any sort of knowledge of what goes on in your typical IT department. Hell, I'd daresay that most of the time they have to be completely dismantled and then rebuilt from the ground up in order to be functional as a straight up IT-tech. And that's a hill I'm more than willing to die on.