Thread by @kennagq, There's really no starting point for these issues but here's a noble [...]

There's really no starting point for these issues but here's a noble try. When people say they want to transition to IT, it really needs to be a bit more granular because IT as a discipline really isn't a thing. I view it as philosophy with multiple (broad) sub-topics

So as a starting point. There needs to be some information gathering to kick off this transition. What part of IT are you interested in? Programming? Devops? Networking? Machine learning? Data analysis?

As you can see the list is pretty pretty long and can get confusing.

This brings us to step zero. Gather information on the various disciplines. This really isn't a deep dive, just surface info gathering do you can have an opinion on what each of them entail. You see, goals have to be specific and you need more info for specificity

So hop on youtube, surf the web and gather information. Then reach out to people in the field and ask simple questions. "Hey, what part of IT are you into? ", " What's your typical day like? " , "Do you like what you do? "

Now because you did some groundwork ....

The answers will make more sense. Now comes another critical part - look at yourself and figure out which discipline best suits you/your personality. Be extremely honest. If you cannot sit and look at a screen for 8-9 hours at a stretch, programming may not be for you

If you prefer processes, discussion, product evaluation and some of the more process oriented stuff then a program manger, business analyst, product owner role might be your calling.

This is very important. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP

Once you have gathered enough information and decided what suits you, pause and reflect on motivation. If you're doing this "to get more money ", that is not going to be enough to motivate you, you'll plateau on a salary and start to resent your job. You have to like what you do

So, deep dive what you intend to transition into. Make friends with people who already do what you wanna do. Ask questions, daily if you must. Start to get a more balanced view. Then come up with a plan.

Your plan MUST include dates. A plan without dates is a dream

The absolute first thing to do is future out how to get trained. The effort required, the money involved and everything else. Get EXACT figures and plan. Don't assume people will feel sorry for your quest and donate to your cause. If you don't have the money saved...

Start saving it. If you can find free resources, please do. Get a mentor - someone in the field. Start having one on sessions in conjunction with your training plan. It is difficult to find someone who will train you for free but you'll find people willing to give you an hour

Here and there. So, once you have found the means to get training, throw everything at it. If it is 3-6 months, throw literally everything you have at it. Think about it like Bruce Wayne in that cave and you're trying to become Batman.

Immerse yourself fully.

Once you have got training and you feel a little comfortable. Reach out again to your mentor and have them assist you with resume prep. Don't freestyle. There are certain keywords that need to be on there and certain tricks to the trade

Start making applications

Ideally you should try to avoid senior positions and look at junior to mid positions. With those positions you can get into a team and learn without heavy expectations. Build your craft, get better and then decide to move for more senior positions.

So yeah. That's pretty much it really. I kept it as generic as I could but I assume it works for other disciplines not just IT.

Happy to answer any questions

So fire away!

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