Hi,
I think it is important to establish what kind of job you are aiming for and make an honest assessment of the skills that you may have in that area.
At the moment you don't seem to have a clear picture of what your goal is. Web design and PC repair are poles apart in terms of skills. Do you mean building websites OR actual User Interface design? If it is building a website then there's a major difference between creating a website for say a sports club, or building an internet application for a bank. Regarding PC repair, it would be a fairly low-payed, low-skill occupation I'm afraid.
There are a number of areas to be considered. I come from a development background so this may be a little skewed towards that. Also it is not an exhaustive list:
1. Development - Programming possibly web/front-end, server or database development, or a combination of all. Being a front-end and back-end programmer is becoming rare since the days of client server and would take an enormous effort to come up to speed.
2. Administration - Database / Operating System / PC Software Installation / Patching / Backups. Some people make good administrators but can't programme to save their lives.
3. End user support as you've already mentioned may be the best way of leveraging your business skills. This could be the provision of reports from a decision support system, warehouse, data mart or it could possibly be as someone configuring a package such as Oracle Financials or a SAP module such as Sales & Distribution
All of the above tasks require considerable training.
While I agree with Clubman's view that some FAS programmers are excellent, and some university graduates aren't, I would say at this stage that there are fewer people coming from these types of courses into the jobs market these days. This is anecdotal on my part but many of the excellent programmers from FAS and say the CATT/Siemens Nixdorf courses, or who have no qualifications, are in the industry a long time.
There are a few points I'd make about a choice of IT now:
1. Programming is a fairly brutal game. Either you can cut the mustard or you can't. Programming requires a certain type of mindset. I've seen a lot of people come into IT during the boom times only to be let go during the recession when it was found they were just being carried.
2. Programmers are less respected now than they were 10 years ago. Business demands solutions fast, so it is less of an engineering discipline than before and timelines can be very agressive requiring weekend and nights working. Often support can be a 24x7 exercise with pagers etc.
3. Despite the fact that there are supposedly 1000's of jobs out there much of the entry level positions are being filled by Eastern European IT and Science graduates. Many of these guys are excellent at what they do. They lack a little English in some cases but that won't last long coming. Many of these positions don't pay much above the average industrial wage.
4. The high-end positions require a lot of experience, and contacts, and good references, and a good track record getting the job done. It is still a small industry where you're generally known.
5. Business Skills and Project Management expertise are likely to be the key skills in the future so a Business Analyst role might suit. I tend to prefer working with Project Managers who actually have coded but it isn't always required.
I don't wish to put you off but it is a tough industry. For those with substantial experience it is a great market out there at the moment.
But the market is fierce, and both immigration of skilled graduates and large-scale outsourcing will start to affect salaries before too long.
I must admit I'm in the industry since the early 90's and I'd like to do something a bit less intensive once I hit my mid-40s.
I sometimes wonder whether something requiring the cupla focal might be the only way to avoid the global competitive pressures in the I.T. industry. It won't be long before at least some of the killer apps come from India and China. At that stage what differentiates an Irish coder will be lack of the Chinese work ethic and too high a salary.
It's time to innovate and upskill for us all!
To get back to the point. If at all possible try do a degree at night or distance DCU/Trinity. This takes years. Also there are one year diploma and masters courses for graduates. If you go to Fas, and I know they are reputed to have excellent courses, try to get statistics as to how their graduates were placed.
Best of luck.
Gearoid
