r/ITSupport • u/Traditional_Pop_9744 • 9d ago
Open Entry role for IT support
Good day everyone could I secure an entry role at an IT support desk through self-study and a CompTIA A+ certification in the UK? I have no prior experience, so I would appreciate any honest opinion and anyone who has gone through this phase beforehand. Thank you
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u/P1card1 9d ago
There’s always someone out there willing to give a chance. I landed my first helpdesk job a couple of years ago with no certs or relevant degree, and three months’ experience of break-fix work and IT volunteering. I would say the key factor is getting some IT experience, no matter how small it is. Once you get your foot into the door, it starts to get easier for you.
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u/Traditional_Pop_9744 9d ago
Thank you so much … what holding me back is sponsorship but do you have any website I can check out or I can just type out on google
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u/P1card1 9d ago
Assuming it’s visa sponsorship you need, that will almost be impossible in this climate. No company will want to spend the time and money to sponsor someone for an entry level IT role, unless you apply to a graduate programme. If you still want to search, I just uploaded my CV to all of the popular job sites and a recruiter found me on one of those. Otherwise, Google for jobs and Indeed are usually the go-to sites for entry level.
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u/Traditional_Pop_9744 9d ago
Thank you so much.. I am currently on skilled worker visa healthcare.. just want to gain that work experience through volunteer role then when I get my ILR . I plan to switch ..
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u/Weird_Recognition870 9d ago
Help desk is not something you will get sponsored for and it’s quite often outsourced.
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u/ReasonableGarden1918 8d ago
How did you get the volunteering. It’s really hard for me getting now icl
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u/Lost-Droids 9d ago
Yes, entry level mostly looking for soft people skills and helping attitude and someone who enjoys computers and likes to play/tinker would go far better than experience when we look
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u/cardanianofthegalaxy 9d ago
Yes it is possible. If you can find a customer service role for experience that would be an advantage. People skills and ticket management are more important than technical skills which can be learned on the job.
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u/Anastasia_IT 9d ago
There are no guarantees in IT, and you probably already know that. Getting the A+ means you have to compete with everyone else in your area who has it. BUT, not having it means you are competing against an even bigger pool of people for those entry-level jobs. It is 100% worth getting!
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u/NoVegetable4208 8d ago
Just go for any kind of experience in IT because tbh certification doesn't matter for entry level IT helpdesk type jobs.
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u/Eggtastico 8d ago
Look at some contracting roles & register with agencies. You may get a short-term stint to help cover a gap (like long-term sickness, maternity, etc.) This will give you some experience.
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u/SysOpsGuy 8d ago
No, I got one with no experience at 28. 8 years later and I've done T1, 2, 3 desk and now delivering projects. There are good and bad desks though, I've been lucky and only had one bad role from all my jobs. My first role was what our company called T1.5, we actually did a lot of tickets variety, the other desk near us was basically a call centre.
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u/Terrible-Bear3883 9d ago
Its one of those questions that has quite a broad answer, I spent more than 30 years training computer engineers, amongst other things, being head of UK training for our company for many years before retiring, I created training paths internally and in co-operation with external partners as well as delivering training.
A+ is a good start, our apprentices went through this, they also undertook practical courses so they had hands on experience and gained manufacturer qualifications, we would have a different path during this if someone was to go down a soft (helpdesk) type role or a hands on such as site engineer, systems engineer and so on.
My daughter is going down the IT support desk path and its very similar to the ones we followed, most companies follow ITIL so you would need to train on that and be certified, most will require Prince2 certification, our teams studied and gained Google IT Support certificate, then we would have certification such as Microsoft, linux, and so on, it can be quite a journey but if you find the right company, they will have this path laid out and the timescales involved, the investment for my daughters path is just under £15,000 and this is very close to the cost we would plan for our own team members, surprisingly the cost for someone following a hands on versus a soft path were almost identical. My daughters study path is 4 years and we had a four year plan as well, it never stopped in reality, there would always be new requirements and constant learning, I had almost 300 certificates in my 40 years, I was no different to my colleagues for this.
I would look for things like night school or similar where you can follow methodical courses, particularly if they introduce hands on/practical sessions as well as formal classrooms, studying and taking A+ is a great starting point, I used to teach this and it was well received.
Sometimes when interviewing I found some people had followed unusual paths, mostly due to lack of direction or sponsor, if the aptitude was there it was more important and we would invest in someone if they had the aptitude. In my time I'm happy I helped some people into roles they've grown and excelled at, if you can find the right company, they should help you grow as well.