Become an IT Technician?
This is a question that I would ask myself a lot. Though there is no simple answer or way, I can say this. If you can think it, you can achieve it, you just need to stick to it. Here are a couple of things you can do to move forward.
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Study for Certificates
A good way to get through the door is by starting to study for certificates. Think of it this way: certificates do not automatically get you hired, BUT… they are a good way to pass the competition. They also prove to a hiring manager that you are knowledgeable in that subject.
A couple of good certificates to get as a beginner are the CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, and CCNA (this one is pretty hard for beginners and more suited for someone on the network engineer path).
Home Labs
When I first got hired as an IT technician, I had no prior working experience. What saved me during the interview process was saying I had a home lab.
A home lab consists of VMs (Virtual Machines), network equipment, PCs (old PCs are good to take apart and learn how a PC works when studying side by side with CompTIA A+), and even logging into your internet modem and checking the settings out is great for getting to know how to access devices via private IP (do not change any settings unless you know what you are doing).
The modem method mentioned is something that comes up a lot in IT. Sometimes you need to reach a device through a webpage in order to change some settings. A good example of a device like this is a printer’s splash page. This is very common in IT.
Virtual Machines (VM)
This is the best method for studying various OSes (Operating Systems) without the need for more hardware except your laptop/computer.
Here you can pretty much destroy your VM, and at the end, you can just delete it and start a new VM. This is great for sandboxing (testing code, programs, programming, and settings) without the risk of compromising your host PC.
When I was diving into CyberSecurity, there were many websites that are open to learning cybersecurity technologies and best practices. VMs are also perfect for this, as some of these websites require you to SSH to their servers to start a session.
Switches and Routers
Even if you are not planning to go through the network path of IT. I still recommend learning about networking. This means Switches, Routers, the OSI model, and how everything interconnects. A great way to do this is to go to Ebay or any second hand shop, and buy some cheap decent, used switches and routers. Here you can learn some CLI commands, and how everything works network wise.
Conclusion
If you want fast money, this path may take a while to finally get a position in. If you need ideas for something to you can do now, Check out this post: How to monetize hobbies?.
Though this path may be slow, If this is the path you want to go on, my advice is to never stop studying!
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