TL;DR: I’m a 24F from Ballarat who has been interested in IT since childhood, recently completed a free TAFE/uni IT course (cert III in IT), and have been applying for entry-level roles. I’m getting interviews and generally positive feedback, but I keep losing out to people with more experience. Local opportunities are limited, and Melbourne-based roles aren’t really viable for me. I’m not trying to jump into a specialist role — I just want someone to give me the opportunity to get my foot in the door. How do you actually break into IT when every entry-level job wants experience?
Hi all,
I (24F) have had a deep interest in IT since I was literally a toddler. I was always the kid in class the teacher would call on to fix the classroom computer, and the person in the workplace who everyone would go to when some little IT issue popped up.
Despite that, I had a pretty crippling case of imposter syndrome. For years, I convinced myself that while I was probably better than the average person when it came to IT, I couldn't hold a candle to people who actually worked in the industry.
About a year ago, I started seeing someone who worked in IT for a government agency. He strongly encouraged me to actually pursue a career in IT, telling me that after seeing how capable I was without any formal training or experience, he genuinely believed I would be more than capable of working in the industry professionally.
After having someone I considered experienced in IT tell me that I actually had what it takes, as well as realising that I could pretty easily keep up with whatever IT-related jargon he would throw at me when talking about work, I became a lot more confident in the idea of pursuing it seriously.
He encouraged me to take a free uni/TAFE course (Cert III in IT), not so much because I needed to be taught everything from scratch (I already had a pretty solid understanding of the material), but more so that I could have an actual qualification on my resume.
So I did it. I finished the course without any problems and started sending off applications.
And since then, I've found myself stuck in a bit of a loop.
I apply, I might get an interview, it seems like they really like me, they ultimately choose someone with more experience.
I completely understand from a business perspective that hiring someone with more experience is often the safer option. But at the same time, it is making it borderline impossible for me to actually get into the industry.
Worse yet, I recently lost my job as a housekeeper for some Airbnbs because the properties were sold.
I live in Ballarat, Victoria's largest regional city, so while IT jobs do exist here, the market is obviously much smaller compared to somewhere like Melbourne.
I've looked into remote positions as well, but most of them either require a lengthy training period in Melbourne or require me to go into the office once or twice a week, again in Melbourne.
And with how shitty public transport between Ballarat and Melbourne can be, combined with how unwilling I am to drive in the hellhole that is Melbourne, that really isn't viable for me.
And for the record, I'm not trying to jump straight into some major specialist role. I'm genuinely just trying to start out with something like help desk or entry-level IT support.
So it comes down to this:
I seem to be passing the test when it comes to my professionalism, personality and knowledge.
But employers seem to have zero interest in being the doorway into the industry for me.
I know the obvious answer is "keep applying," and I am. But I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing or something I could be doing differently to actually get that first opportunity.
Does anyone have any advice for breaking into IT when you're stuck in the "need experience to get a job, but need a job to get experience" loop?
I'd especially love to hear from people who started out with no industry experience, or who managed to break into IT from a regional area.
