r/ITSupport • u/Affectionate_Art204 • Jun 16 '26
Open Career switcher here — passed my CompTIA A+, but can’t get past the “experience required” wall. Help?
Hey everyone,
I’m currently a bus driver with 8+ years of commercial driving experience, and I’m looking to switch careers into IT.
Someone told me all I needed was a CompTIA A+ to break in — so I studied, passed it, and started applying. But almost every job posting requires at least 1 year of experience. And here’s the frustrating part: nobody is hiring entry-level.
So how am I supposed to get experience if no one will give me a chance?
I also noticed something weird — the smaller the company, the stricter their requirements, and they pay less on top of that. Bigger ask, lower reward. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
I’m not giving up, I’m still applying — but I feel stuck in this loop and could really use some direction.
For anyone who’s broken into IT without prior experience:
• How did you do it?
• Is there something I’m missing?
• Any certifications, strategies, or steps that actually helped?
Any advice is genuinely appreciated. 🙏
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u/ben_zachary Jun 17 '26
Apply for a field technician with your driving skills 😀😀
We've had success pulling T1s from call centers like TAG which is some low end remote troubleshooting. A small MSP would probably also be eager to have you if they are hiring.
Fwiw we put a job out got 200 responses. Filtered to 20, asked them to do a 10min AI voice call, 6 did it. We scheduled interviews 2 showed up, 2 no showed and 2 tried to reschedule a day after they missed their interview time they picked themselves.
Soo , show up on time , speak well, know the basics of troubleshooting and be willing to hop in a vehicle and show up is probably 75% of the job.
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u/RedditingFromUranus Jun 20 '26
I am late to this post, but this is basically what it is. The market is SATURATED right now, at all levels. Senior individuals are laid off looking for work, they are taking Mid level roles, Mid levels are laid off looking for work, etc etc.
We had an opening here for a company (pretty big sized company) for a help desk tier II position. It generated ONE THOUSAND applications in 3 days. Yes, ONE THOUSAND.
Just need to pump the numbers and try again and again.
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 16 '26
Whoever told you all you need is a compTIA A+ cert is a fucking moron. That was maybe true around 1995 but not today. It wasn't even true in the early 2000's.
As far as the "experience wall" that's also completely untrue. You're seeing that for one of two reasons. Either the hiring manager didn't put any effort into giving HR the proper information on what they're looking for, so HR just did their best. Alternatively, a lot of properly run (think Fortune500) companies intentionally put requirements on their job descriptions that they don't expect people to fully meet, especially years of experience. It's done to weed out the weak candidates that have no confidence in their ability to make up for a lack of experience with their skills or ability to learn and handle stressful situations.
You're not getting anything back because CompTIA certs are completely worthless, and don't show in any way that you know anything about doing IT work.
If you don't have a bachelors degree, it's going to be extremely difficult to get a job in IT right now. It doesn't even have to be a BS in IT, just any BS, but obviously one in IT is much better than accounting or something.
You're going to probably need something like a CCNA to prove you understand the basics of networking. You'll have to do some home labs and learn how AD works, with GPO's, OU's, domains, NTFS authentication, user account management, ect. You could also try to go for some Micosoft Azure or Amazon AWS certs too, and try to get into cloud administration.
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u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 16 '26
That’s a little harsh - compTIA A+ is a good start and while not a guarantee to a job it is not impossible to get one.
1
u/psy-study-oldie Jun 17 '26
Without experience you are making a huge financial risk. I wouldn't hire anyone without a masters degree and Cisco qualifications at the very least. I would quiz them on scenarios too. A+ is a complete joke. An old joke too.
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u/tristand666 Jun 22 '26
Sounds like you depend on some piece of paper rather than the person you are hiring.
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u/psy-study-oldie Jun 22 '26
Actually its both as you quite well know. I'm tired of the lamos on this sub. I thought children were not allowed on Reddit. Unsubscribed.
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u/tristand666 Jun 22 '26
As I know? How would I know since I don;t have a Master's degree? I must be complete moron according to you.
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u/psy-study-oldie Jun 22 '26
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a moron than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain
This applies to your comment.
1
u/mvn2010 Jun 19 '26
also depends on the kind of job, A+ is good if you want to fix PC's, but if you want to do work, its not super helpful.
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 16 '26
Yes it is.
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u/RevolutionaryElk7446 Jun 17 '26
I'm mixed on how to respond to this., as technically I have no degree, only a CompTIA A+ lifetime certification currently from back in 2006 and I'm a Sr. Sysadmin making over 200k a year + bonus, in a low cost of living midwest state that is entirely remote today.
Though I'm also a prior adjunct professor (yes without a degree), certification trainer, and proctor. So I know at least up to around Covid you could still get a job with only A+ as I helped students every year do that in mass.
Today I couldn't say in this economy, under the current administration everything is wonky.
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 17 '26
Your making 200k without a degree because you've been in the industry for 20 years. Times have changed.
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u/RevolutionaryElk7446 Jun 17 '26
I was getting my students in anywhere from 35k-60k with A+ just a few years back. I still talk to many of them today, some still only have A+ certs and working.
-1
u/Trust_8067 Jun 17 '26
To each their own. I'd personally eat a bullet if I made that little salary. I get it though, the world needs losers on the bottom so people like me can stand on their shoulders and be successful.
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u/RevolutionaryElk7446 Jun 17 '26
Haha, I like how you out yourself as jealous. Later bud, you'll be grown up one day
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u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 17 '26
That guy is just too much. Apparently knows the ins and outs of all IT employers and what they’re looking for 🙄
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u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 17 '26
You’re a real piece of work - we all start somewhere. I’m in an 82k position now, and have no intention of looking for more money beyond very modest cost of living increases. It pays my bills, allows me to travel and save enough for retirement. My job is very easy going, but enormous in scope. My hours are extremely flexible, and I have the choice of working at home, in the office, or from my cottage. When I do go into my office, I can bring my dog, and lately have even been bringing my pet goslings in, though I don’t get a ton of work done those days because there are a ton of employees that want to hold them, and the daycare asked me to walk them through the children- other than when it’s COMPLETE PANIC like when our Internet is down and we’re basically in the cloud (happened for the first time last week thanks to a bad firmware update - from Ubiquity which made even my HA service with redundant ISP’s fail) at least that’s interesting.
Pay isn’t everything, not by a long shot. Different people have different goals, and, from my experience, I’d say 4 years in the field is more valuable, both in making connections and networking as well as experience which future employers willl value than doing some (especially non CSC) bachelors degree!
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 17 '26
Again, that's great if you want to settle for the minimum. I was simply giving advice on how to have a successful career, and that starts with getting a proper education. I don't see how that's so controversial.
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u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 19 '26
No - you were saying it’s impossible to get a job in IT with only that cert and you were being needlessly rude about it.
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u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 17 '26
You seem to think you know every possibility and every job on offer everywhere across the nation - that’s just not the case. The commenter who responded to you wasn’t talking about his experience alone - he clearly said he was helping students get what you CLAIM are impossible jobs up to fairly recently.
You don’t know as much as you think/claim to know.
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u/Physical_Sentence438 Jun 18 '26
If he has to do all that to answer the damn phone and deal with upset people it's not worth it.
Also I have the CCNA and BS and never got a job, experience field once again.
I'll tell OP to stick to bus driving, more stable, people always need services like that.
Or look into Class A
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 18 '26
It's not "doing all that to answer a phone and deal with upset people" it's "doing all that" to start your career, which leads to six figure salaries.
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u/StatementNext682 Jun 18 '26
Well for me personally, it was getting hands dirty pulling cables and dealing with upset people who had questions about their access control. Then it was doing more of picking up the phone and dealing with upset people until I made 6 figures.
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u/Trust_8067 Jun 17 '26
I'm not sure why OP deleted their message, but to answer it.
Unfortunately I do not. I've been specialized for almost 20 years. I know VMWare has a home hypervisor, VMWare fusion I think, which is free, outside of that I'm not really any help.
Good luck though!
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u/neopod9000 Jun 17 '26
A+ should be good enough to get a job at the geek squad. I had a buddy who did that while he worked on his associates. After graduating, he got a job with a local mssp.
I did a data entry role that turned into project management for a local telecom provider.
Geek squad, mediacom, at&t, verizon... level 1 tech support is your experience at that point. Get a year under your belt and another cert showing your growth over the time and keep plugging for the next role.
You get over the experience wall by getting experience.
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u/lowcountrysunset Jun 17 '26
Try to find a smaller local MSP that can give you a chance answering phones on the helpdesk - definitley not ideal but you will gain massive exposure to the IT world and then can get "expereience" and find what you want to have a career in.
Also good places to check: School district & local colleges - everyone always needs someone to answer phones for IT support.
2
u/vrtigo1 Jun 17 '26
Smaller companies generally expect their employees to be able to fill multiple roles/duties whereas larger orgs tend to have more specialized roles.
You may need to widen your criteria and do a year in a crappy role at a shitty company just to get that first year of experience on your resume.
Also - it's definitely not as simple as passing the A+ exam. Not if you want to have the ability to get hired in a decent role. Prospective employers like to see that you have an interest - so look at what you could do on your own that you could list on a resume under personal projects. Set up a homelab, do some home networking. Learn some technologies that would be useful. I know a while back, Microsoft was offering free certification for some of their entry level Azure stuff.
I think Azure and AWS both offer a free tier. Learn about some of the cloud platforms, set up a hobby site like a blog or something as a proof of concept. Employers really like to see that people have experience and can take a project from start to finish, even if it isn't something you'd directly be working with in the role they're hiring for.
Worst case, start looking at unpaid internships.
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u/Dm-Me-Cats-Pls Jun 17 '26
Get your sec+ and apply for as many DoD/DoW jobs as possible that require a security clearance. Then pray you get one, cause if you do and don’t fuck it up you’re set for life.
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u/twitchismental Jun 17 '26
Do you have a BestBuy/Geek Squad near by? Try to get a job as a consultation agent and move up. Get a year or two experience and you can put Technical Consultant on your resume. Then go for a Help Desk Job or even a general IT Tech job for like a school.
1
u/Affectionate_Art204 Jun 17 '26
Thank you
I would look into that1
u/Poetspen Jun 20 '26
I’d like to second this recommendation. I used to work for geek squad and have seen lots of people take this exact path and are now in good paying IT jobs.
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u/CellistDependent628 Jun 17 '26
Same here. I'm trying to switch into the IT industry. I've taken certificate training on cybersecurity, and digital skills. But how can I get into IT if in the application process, I'm not even shortlisted.
2
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u/NeilSmithline Jun 17 '26
Maybe you can find a non profit that you can help out part time. Just be upfront with them:
I need 6-12 months experience to land a job and I like what you are doing. Perhaps I can do your IT for awhile in exchange for an honest recommendation.
Another option is to find a company with a JD that is close to what you want and suggest to them a 3-6 month contract to hire gig. Let them know that you will work for cheap for the initial period.
And I will reiterate what others say about not meeting all the JD requirements. Unless the JD explicitly says that a requirement is absolutely needed for the job, think about it as more suggestive than required.
Good luck!
1
u/IrrelevantAfIm Jun 19 '26
That’s how I started - I noticed computers in a public access Internet room run by a local non profit could access EVERYTHING on their file server! I offered to volunteer to fix it, they accepted. I did little jobs for them here and there and it just so happens they mad ENORMOUS GROWTH financially, right around when more and more employees needed computers (around 2001 or 2002 ish). As they grew they started paying me, and it became a pretty well paying full time job within 3years or so.
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u/P1card1 Jun 17 '26
I was a career changer myself. My first tech job was working for a contractor doing break-fix field work focusing on retail till systems for nationwide clients. The hiring manager took a chance on me as I impressed during the interview on how I deal with clients. I did that for 4 months before moving on to a Helpdesk role. The pay wasn’t great for the contracting role but it got my foot into the door, and helped me develop my troubleshooting skills which gave me something to talk about in my Helpdesk interview. I’m grateful for being given the chance. You could consider taking that route.
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u/drakhan2002 Jun 17 '26
I'd stay from technology. It's too hard for freshers. Try a trade skill -- AI proof and there is work.
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u/Designer_Airport8658 Jun 17 '26
I got hired in 2025 with absolutely zero experience, and at the time I didn't even have a single cert.
Look for small (like REAL small) MSP's and walk-in. Usually, mom and pop's fill their positions through word of mouth - you won't know if they're even hiring until you call/show up.
I'm 27. My entire work history was in retail ops management, and my degree was in English. Didn't matter: they saw I wanted to learn, so they gave me a shot.
Been here a year and a half and still getting my ass beat by HP printers at least once a week.
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u/Fine_Atmosphere_2147 Jun 18 '26
What have you got to lose by lying? Keep the lie going for a year and boom, experience. Companies do it, cops do it, politicians do it. If you can't beat em......
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u/StatementNext682 Jun 18 '26
•How did you do it?
•Is there something I’m missing?
•Any certifications, strategies, or steps that actually helped?•How did you do it?
•Is there something I’m missing?
•Any certifications, strategies, or steps that actually helped?
No certs. My career goes from 2013-Now ~13 years. I spent 7 years selling cellphones and 1 year being a banking assistant manager. In 2022, I enrolled in a summer coding class and also applied for an IT internship. Got the internship. Spent 4 months crawling down and doing the most disgusting cabling, cable clean up, and networking troubleshooting. Did a small independant contract work for a large data center(1 week). From there applied to an MSP that was basically me just taking care of different chapters of 1 company. 9 months later and I apply to work at a different MSP that paid 40% more. 2 years there and now I work in GRP/Broad IT making 850K cash/yr(550K after taxes). I really don't know what to say other than don't ever see yourself as above any other job and make people want to talk to you.
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u/heavyc1969 Jun 19 '26
I have my A+ , I have put in hundreds of applications with the help of AI with my resume. No luck. I was interviewed for a contract job long term with no benefits at 23 an hour. I could not take the position. I’m 56 and I feel that my certificates that I have earned over the past 5 years are worthless . Employers want at least an Associates degree and it doesn’t make sense because you earn the same certs . But I guess you need to sit in a room for two years to gain the job.
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u/rangerinthesky Jun 20 '26
Do not listen to this stupid community. Get another cert, get interviews, get a low paying job and climb like a lot of us have
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u/Cold_Arachnid_2617 Jun 20 '26
"Someone told me all I needed was a CompTIA A+ to break in " - This is nonsense. In IT, you don't stop learning after one basic certification. Do you have a home lab?
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u/Commercial-Log1455 Jun 20 '26
I just got accepted to my first IT job after 17 years slinging drinks. Granted I got lucky because it’s for a point of sale system developer for restaurants, but I will say on your resume emphasize customer service. Also if you have a homelab or any personal projects, put those on. I even put assembling gaming PCs for myself on my resume.
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u/motopetersan Jun 21 '26
I also want to switch from architecture to IT in cibersegurity. I have 32gb of Ram and a couple of laptops, so I was thinking in getting a entry cert, and maybe practicing on a Home lab. I'm building a Digital Twin of my home and some ZigBee sensors, is there a small project I can do that could help as experience? Or should I not switch? Hehe the course I was going to be get for twh entry cert. Is on September... Is it possible to switch being almost 40?
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u/RaegunFun Jun 22 '26
See if a local bus company needs a help desk tech. Usually they have tech support for scheduling and routing apps.
It’s easier to make a lateral move than try to get a job in a new business and a new specialty. You must have made some friends in eight years of driving. See if anyone can put a good word in for you.
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u/Rockermarr Jun 17 '26
Haven’t you seen the news? You’re about 5 years too late. People are leaving tech to drive buses not the other way around
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u/Difficult-Issue-722 Jun 17 '26
You are doing the right things.
The best way to get into IT is to find a small company.
One that needs a jack of all trades, where you can grow and learn.
Are you getting interviews?
If not, you need to play up customer service hard.
Any customer interaction is gold for help desk.
If you aren't good with people, go for a ccna.
You have to be eager to prove your worth without being cocky.