IT in Tough Times: Switching from Banking to Starting an IT Career

Today on TIP: Changing Course: Making the Move from Banking to Start an IT Career, VIDEO: Big Data, Big Hardware, Big Software, GM Cuts IT Services, Brings IT Back In-House, EMC Rolls Out Storage Resource Management Suite, Savvis Expands Enterprise Cloud Ecosystem Program, Oracle Supports Intel Itanium For Now, Nvidia Announces K5000 for Mac Pro Workstations, and Top 10 Enterprise Humor Videos.

In his latest article for Tom's IT Pro, IT certification and training expert Ed Titttel considers the plight of a 30-something banking professional who’d really rather be working in IT. The reader has a CCNA, lots of off-the-job experience, interesting skills and knowledge, and plenty of drive.

Ed explains how he might parlay that into a new career in IT, with some additional effort and elbow grease. Check out his latest Making It in IT blog post here.

In addition, Ed recently reported on the top wireless certifications for IT pros. As he noted, if there’s one area in networking that bubbles to the top, it has to be wireless. See here to get the full story.

Ed also addressed a news slate of certificates from CompTIA for executives not too long ago.The Executive Certificate Program is for Cloud Computing, Healthcare IT, and other hot IT topics. Ed wrote that interested readers should point their execs to the training classes and certificate info linked in the story.

Top 10 Enterprise Humor Videos

IT budgets are tight. Times are uncertain. You can cry about it ... or you can have a good laugh. We prefer the latter. See here to check out the videos.

In another recent article, Ed commented on Global Knowledge (a large and well-recognized training and certification company) newsletter entitled “IT Roles Facing Extinction.” He addressed points made in the newsletter regarding the future of IT in the modern workplace. As Ed notes, some IT roles face extinction while others are set to expand.

Ed also spoke to the key skills today and tomorrow's IT pros should posses and seek out, and outlinesd the kinds of IT jobs that are moving up or expanding as a result of the changing landscape. On the flipside, Ed presented the types of IT positions that are moving down or contracting as well. See here to get the full story. 

Previously, Ed presented the most sought-after Help Desk and Technical Support certifications. As Ed pointed out, Technical support and help desk positions are (and will remain) traditional entry points into IT for many people. Ed layed out a mix of such credentials in his list of leading help desk certifications. Click here to get the full story.

He also addressed the top certifications for Project Managers in an article for Tom's IT Pro. As Ed explained, "If there’s one set of soft skills that has remained high on the IT radar for the past five years and more, to the point where they’ve become almost as sought-after and every bit as valuable as other top-level credentials, that has to be project management."

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With the publication of Training Options for IT Pros, also by Ed, Tom’s IT Pro launched an important series of articles that tackle a subject close to the heart of information technology professionals, that of IT training and certification. Especially in the current economy, training and certification increase the marketability of IT pros, leading to greater job mobility and opportunities to do the most interesting work.

The article, which Ed updated for 2012, provided a comprehensive overview of what 35 IT training companies do and how well they do it. It included several quick-read tables to assist busy IT pros looking to increase their knowledge and advance their careers. The tables graded and described training providers that cover most subject areas as well as those that are vendor or niche specific, such as those that are focused on information security, forensics and more.

James Alan Miller is Managing Editor of Tom's IT Pro. He is a veteran technology journalist with over seventeen years of experience creating and developing magazine and online content. Founding editor of numerous business and enterprise computing sites at the internet.com network, James headed up the After Hours section at PC Magazine, as well as hardware and software sections of various Windows publications.

See here for all Tom's IT Pro articles written by James.

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