So I'm in year 10 and exams and all kinds of stuff is coming up and I need to decide what I'm going to do for my future. I'm super interested in I.T and want that to be my future career.
I can stay at school and do a tafe course (Cert 2/3 In I.T) if I'm lucky and get accepted into a Vet course. My other choice is too leave at the end of this year get a part time job in I.T (again If I'm lucky) and study and hopefully end up with two years experience In an I.T job and a certificate 3 and 4 from a Tafe by the time I would have finished school.
I live in Western Australia and I may not be the smartest kid in my year and I feel like the second option is something that I would like to pursue more but I need trusty ozbargain to help me in my situation. Thanks everyone in advance!
Edit: Thanks everyone! The help that you have given me has helped me to decide to stay in school and decide if IT Is something I would love to do forever. Special thanks to this legend for recommending The Big Picture education which is something of huge interest. Once again thanks Ozbargain community this shows we aren't all about bargains :)
I'm in Year 10 and Need to Decide My Future Any Advice Would Be Welcome.
Last edited 16/05/2018 - 09:24 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 433Stay in school do a VET course and do general course's.
- 15Leave school at the end of this year (Year 10) Part time Study and Part time work.
Comments
Replied to your PM.
As someone who hires entry level IT staff, I strongly encourage you to do a VET or tafe program. That is the minimum, then you can get a basic job and work your way up doing industry certs on your way.
You remind me so such as I was when I was your age.
I loved IT, and really wanted to study it. Went to IT school, and being not the smartest (or at the time very immature), I failed. Well, long story short my mother pushed me to finish year 12 and I hated it. I did not finished it. (but I had a lot of girlfriends instead lol) anyway, I packed my bag and I went to work in Greece. After Greece I couldn't stop - I lived in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and travel a "big" part of the world.
Now I'm 28, and I decided to go back to uni and study medicine. Did I got asked for year 12? Neh they didn't care - I got accepted as a mature age student.
Now, should you finish year 12? If I can suggest, follow your heart. But more importantly, if you fail - that's fine. If you pass and finish and then change career - that's fine. If you take a break, try to find a job, don't find it and go back to school - that's fine. You'll find your way I'm sure.
Good luck :)
Do something that can't be outsourced:
- Doctors
- Fireman
- Electrician
- Plumbers
- Prostitute
From that list, Prostitute will probably be the last to be replaced by robots or computers. All jobs will be gone within the working life of the OP.
Finish year 12 especially if you want to get into IT.
Doing well academically is more about spending time studying properly and less about being smart. Year 11 and 12 are essentially the first real challenge. You start to study subjects / topics which you are not interested in and may not use in real life later on, so why study them? The reason is to develop your ability to pick up any material and solve harder problems.
Going for TAFE or VET to pick up skills which "interest" you is essentially to overcome your unwillingness to learn topics which are not interested to you at all. Don't get me wrong, most people struggle to learn things which they are not interested. If you really want to go down the TAFE / VET path, make sure you do well in those courses.
You might be lucky to keep on getting jobs which interest you in the future. However, at work, people doing well have the ability to learn new materials quickly and truly understand them. That ability is something worth picking up as early as possible. It gives you the belief that you can solve a problem you haven't seen before.
Unless you want to be an electrician, doing well in IT requires constant learning of new materials, it is not as good as you think.
I wish my teenage self could have read this post. In any job, even one that interests you, you have to be able to learn the stuff that doesn't interest you at all. High school is where you master this skill and I didn't for a long time and it held me back. Wish I could give this a thousand likes.
Just make sure you finish year 12, even if you hate it and get poor marks. Getting stuck with the dropout label will hinder you in whatever you choose to do afterwards.
All the IT jobs will be gone to filo and india by the time you finish school. Better off learn share tradings and make $100k each year like me.
Great to see the OzB community coming together to give such great advice 😀
I'm a graduate myself and I advocate for completing year 12 and tertiary studies but it is also hard to ignore some trades can make a decent career.
For instance you should be a plumber and drop out at year 10 to go to trades school.
I live in Sydney's eastern suburbs at my Ps, My back neighbour is a plumber and owns his own small business, he is in his late 30's. He has not finished high school, is inept and has a slur, my conversations with him seem to annihilate my brain cells but he is absolutely rolling in it. He brags a lot, i tend to find most tradesmen brag about their income. He has a freshly renovated 2 story home which he bought a few years back, his wife and her augmented tits are nice, step daughter has pretty big cans too obviously he is affording the dosh to pay for big tits and nice high yield cars.
Could also be drug money, hard to tell.
What IT field are you looking at going into? And why IT?
Does your school have IT related classes for year 11/12? If so be sure to go into them and complete year 11/12.
The biggest thing I found when going to uni (computer science degree) is the amount of people that ended up dropping out because it's not what they thought it was going to be. They went into IT because they spent alot of time on computers playing games or just screwing around.
I've been working for 4 years now, started off as a help desk dude and am now a systems and network engineer. You can definitely go the route of completing yr 12 and then getting certs and work experience. But again it all depends on what It field you want to get into.
Nothing revolving around software. More hardware and networking
Finished year 12 in 2003 with a trade apprentiship. No OP and did not do any computer related subjects at school, did all trade level math, English and related subjects.
Found it isn't what I wanted to do 2 months in. Went and signed up for a cert 2 and 3 in IT. Didnt know what to expect, picked up a full time job at a computer store doing sales (with no prior sales experience) 2 years later I was managing said store. 1 year after that I started my corporate career.
Level 1 helpdesk for 2 years. Then a team leader, overseas to open a new help desk then another year passes and I took a break.
1 month passed got bored. Started a level 1 help desk role as a contractor. 6 months in I'm in a level 2 helpdesk role. 3 years later I move to an application admin role. With no prior knowledge of coding or the application
Was an Admin for 2 years, then a senior admin for another year and now I'm a solutions architect just hit 6 months.
31 no degree. Only now am I considering a degree… but in business and not IT… I could quit my current role and go be a consultant for alot more money and not bother with the degree but I'm in a position to be able to work toward that degree as I know where I want my career to be in 10 years…
Any questions hit me up..
Didn't proof this at all so wish me luck!!
Moral of the story… finish year 12 with IT electives. Get an entry level job to figure out where you want to go and get some certifications around that…. then decide on the degree that is right for you….
I have a few questions as I am in a very similar situation to yourself. It sounds like you have a well paid, well established career. As we are in the same industry, I have an understanding of where a solution architect sits in the hierarchy of IT jobs and I also believe it isn't a role that is likely to be automated or outsourced (so is somewhat future proof). What makes you want to pursue university now? What are you aiming for in 10 years time? Having invested a lot of time and effort in IT, why are you deciding to study something different? Also at 31, do you have a family? If so, what are your strategies to fit this in?
Feel free to PM me if you don't want to answer publicly :)
Heya, I've come to terms that IT degree related qualifications tend to be out dated quite quickly. Knowing this I have decided the platform I want to work with and have the relevant certificates for that platform that need to be renewed yearly. I'm forever learning about the platform so an IT degree will not supplement me at all. My biggest gap is the business and strategic alignment of my career. A business oriantedted degree could be deemed as timeless and the knowledge learnt can be used across a variety of roles.
In 10 years I want to be the platform or product owner and look toward starting a vendor to service the application. So this role would be called a Technical manager where I would be 70% strategic and 30% technical. I never want to leave the tools but I personally am not overly technical compared to the developers I work with. I will continue to keep my technical related certificates up to date as my career progresses. If I cant get there. I will be an SME for the and work for the software vendor themselves.
31 and a young family. Bub is 11 months old and we have quite a large mortgage. I was between roles for the last year and got some consulting experience under my belt. Since then I've gotten a perm job for the stability. I've ensured the working agreement ticked all the boxes to allow for a perfect work life balance. Some days I'll start at 9 and others 7. Some days I'll finish at 1 or 5. Others I might not be back in the offi e for 3 to 4 days at a time. It is rough as guts but I make the most of the time I have with my family. I never ever ever bring work home with me…. even if I have strict deadlines, I'll work late to sort it out and take time off later in the week to make up for it. I'll only ever work the minimum hours required unless it's related to a platform patch or outage.
Hope that helped a bit. Again didnt proof read. Any other questions throw them around, happy to share/brain dump.
Questions to ask yourself
• What do you want out of life?
• What do you want out of your career?
[The answers to these may change over time]Considerations when choosing a career
Passion / drive / interest -> single-mindedness, hard work, persistence, competitiveness
Strengths / competitive advantage [N.B. passion + training can overcome difficulties/weaknesses]
Technological change (job security, opportunity)
Sociodemographic and climate change (job security, opportunity)
Public / private sector (job security, opportunity)
Income (lifestyle)Look up "Ikigai" for good career guidance principles.
Choose a career that is more "future-proof" if possible, i.e. won't become redundant because of AI, automation/robotisation.
Even coding will become redundant because "self-learning and self-correcting algorithms will be able to do a lot of basic coding functions in the near future."
Check this out: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/view/1314
I think you should consider a decent trade. Electrical or HVAC.
Another vote for finishing year 12 and going to tafe - whether it's for IT or plumbing/trades.
I suggest you go to tafe and get some hands on experience, work a year or few then go on to do tertiary studies part time.
Don't let the pressure of your future get to you, you're in year 10 there's plenty of time left to mold and change your future.
These last few years of high school you will never get back and they won't decide the rest of your life despite what some might say.
Live them to the fullest in a way that makes you the happiest :-)
I have seen a few kids getting their foot in the door via a TAFE course/traineeship with my employer - a contractor with major government agencies. Research that, I think it is an amazingly good opportunity, provided you have the attitude.
I don't work in IT, but I would think that an industry that it pretty saturated with applicants with bachelor degrees for low level jobs, being a high school drop out and no uni degree would look pretty bad. Whoever you apply to is likely already chucking half the applications in the trash at a first glance, you need to stand out and give them a reason to consider you over all the others.
Also I'd just finish school because I don't think you should 100% commit yourself to a certain path when you're 16. I wasn't even certain about my career after 4 years of uni. I certainly wasn't as a teenager when I was making my uni applications. Hell I'm still not certain where exactly I'm going to end up and I've been out of uni 5 years.
Finish year 12. Do computer science at university.
Anything less is going to cause you a tonne of problems down the line.
Entry level IT jobs in Perth are awful and their experience isn’t worth toilet paper. Moving up from them is nigh impossible. And so many companies won’t hire anything less than a bachelors.
So unless you already have the next Facebook and funding and a revenue stream then forget it. Be cool stay in school.
Additional option:
Apply for every job and take what you get.
Instead of wasting your income obtaining a car loan and/or other things to impress other people who couldn't care less anyway, put at least 10% (but more is better) aside into a 'high interest' online bank account separate from your day to day expenses, FORGET about it, and NEVER make excuses or justifications for dipping into it. You WILL adjust your expenses to whatever your income is. So REMOVE IT FROM SIGHT as if you never had it. (Side note here: Look up the miracle of compounding interest.)
Educate yourself. Not in the foolishness the education system teaches, but invest in yourself. Start with these two books: "The Richest Man in Babylon" and the first half of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (second half mostly pointless). BTW… Both are available as PDF torrents. They may even be available as audiobook torrents.
In other words, use the money you would have wasted paying off a new car (etc.) for years (a liability) - and instead invest in yourself. i.e. Research something that interests you… Real estate, the stock market, cryptocurrency, etc. and educate yourself in it. (This may change over time. Read the books!)
Begin investing in ASSETS (things the wealthy buy) instead of the LIABILITIES everyone else THINKS wealthy people buy, like cars and boats (the things - the accessories - that people think make them LOOK rich but actually make them POOR).
Ignore nay-sayers… i.e. The friends, relatives, and co-workers - all going nowhere fast themselves - who try and steal your dreams because they're too lazy to do anything like it themselves. People who say things like:
"You want to do WHAT!? Pfft! You'll never make money/get anywhere/lose everything doing THAT! I knew a guy/I did… blah, blah, blah - negative." and even worse, things like… "Don't buy a $2000 car, go and 'invest' (rubbish) in a $30,000 car instead." (READ THE BOOKS.)
Be polite, listen, then shed it all and do the opposite. Unless they're sitting back with a few million $ of real estate or shares, producing passive income or dividends, listening to them will get you the same results they've achieved.
- Don't think with what's inside your undies - getting some skank pregnant, who bounces from bed to bed, collecting multiple child support cheques along the way. Hang around quality people and WAIT for a quality WIFE. This should have been number 1, actually.
Take note that "Kogan" guy wasn't very bright, nor good looking, yet look at what he's worth - and ask yourself did a great qualification get him there. i.e. Widen your goals. READ THE BOOKS and don't accept that because most people join the rat race, you should too.
- Come back in 15 years and say thank you.
Absolutely love how positive this thread is. Amazing.
Degrees are necessary for many jobs because:
1) Good grades show you are capable of working within a bureaucratic set of rules and still achieve. That you can put up with BS, and rise above it.
2) Taking a candidate without a degree over one that does have a degree could be interpreted as showing bias. In the event of legal action regarding the hire, it looks damning. No one wants to stick their neck out.
3) It may prove a certain level of basic aptitude and knowledge in a particular discipline. More importantly, a degree may be a legal requirement for the role. If not it is likely company policy to only hire those with degrees. Again, butt covered if something goes wrong. The recruiter proved they were diligent in only hiring someone who had "proven" they could take on the role.
I hate to say it but I see a lot of people with masters degrees and even a couple with PhDs applying for good entry level positions now.
Leaving at year 10 is career suicide.
Forget the rat race, "red-pill" yourself while there's still time and pick a side…
I'm 27 and I've been thinking about this exact same situation. I was academic and book smart in my high school years, thought mechanical engineering was the way to go because I loved physics, and went on to do a 4 year degree (plus 1 year internship) at UNSW. I graduated with first class honours and struggled to find entry level work in my field. I eventually worked in a role unrelated to my field but I started teaching myself how to program in my spare time. After a couple of months of learning I transitioned to a dev role at a start up. It's been 2 years since, and I think the job potential is amazing. Offshoring your work is harder than you might think. Collaboration is much more difficult with an offshore group. Trust me I've had to work with them, and I would always take someone working next to me if it was up to me.
Given the chance, I would have taken the jump from year 10 to programming, learnt a hell of a lot of programming, got an entry level role at a start up or otherwise, and then keep going from there.
So I haven't read all of the other replies, but from the poll most should be 'stay in school'. I would be inclined to agree and there are a few reasons to do so.
It doesn't matter if you're not the brightest kid in your year. You know what you want to do, and you can look at what you need to try and get to where you want to be. The professional world is full of nonsense and most of that nonsense involves pieces of paper from universities, so you want that to be a priority. You may not find it vital in terms of what you learn but it is something a lot of employers look at just to tick a box.
If you're not on track to get straight to uni after school, do a Tafe course or a bridging course to get you through. School is a nonsense environment that few students really profit from, especially in our state school system.
Other than that, there are things you can do in your spare time to better prepare you in terms of your own skillset and what your skillset looks like on paper. Some free university courses are very easy and are provided online, at your age it will look great if you have coding skills / passed external courses / a good knowledge of the industry or where you want to fit in.
That being said, it is a competitive industry. I say get a degree because there are people with degrees that don't get employed.
Keep posting KFC and Maccas deals on Ozbargain, then send your resume to Scotty and he might give you a full time gig here on Ozbargain.
Some of this info is totally wrong so please take it with a grain of salt.
Im 23 now and i went to TAFE for a cert 3 & 4 in Networking which was straight after finishing year 12, landed a job with a huge company in level 1 help desk straight after TAFE, got promoted after 2 years. Now i have 4 years of experience in Support and i am working with a smaller company earning top money for my role.
You definitely don't need to go to University for IT however i would recommend TAFE, vendor certifications look good too (Cisco, Microsoft). Looking back at what i did, i wouldn't change it at all apart from paying more attention in TAFE. But definitely finish school, it looks bad in any corporate environment for any job if you haven't finished school.I'd argue the looking bad if you haven't finished school.
There's plenty of reasons to leave early that are valid, wanting to further your studies in an area that you will most definitely thrive in being one of them.
One of my first jobs out of school was working in Federal government which looks much nicer on a CVYou are confusing "looking bad" with "ought not to look bad".
"Looking bad" is how others look at you. You have zero control over that and you will not be given an opportunity to change their view.
"Ought not to look bad" is your perspective.
In a world where the employer is the one doing the looking, your perspective matters far less, regardless of merit. Therefore it's better to be prepared for what your employer wants, not what you think they ought to want.
I have read your post below and it looks like you have had success so far in your life with career. But don't forget you actually went ahead and both worked and did a diploma during the 2 years others only did Y11 and Y12. You then went and finished? a degree. So you actually worked quite hard to get to where you are. You did not do what this kid is perhaps thinking about doing. Your comments reflect your underdog status for having successfully taken a road less travelled. But unless the salient elements of your road is followed, quitting school for this kid will result in far less opportunities for him in the future.
These details matter. Not just sentiment.
I think TAFE is fine as long as you have year 12 - but diploma level, not below. TAFE is hard yakka, those classes go for hours compared to uni - there's a reason diplomas are recognised as prior learning by degree courses.
I've been working in IT since I was 15 (14 if computer and networking sales @ JbHifi count), leaving school at the end of Year 10 to do so.
During the first year out I did my Certificate 3 & IV in Networking and worked part time at an IT store doing basic repair/troubleshooting and networking.
By the end of the next year I had been working in IT 2 years with a Diploma up my sleeve, I worked full time the entire second year, my work place allowing me to study and do some things with them as well as the one day every 2-4 weeks to go in, present some work and show them some understanding of networking etc, I also studied after work.
All my friends were finishing year 12 and getting ready for Uni, I had the opportunity to opt in to a uni course doing network with a massively reduced workload due to Recognition of Prior learning - cutting around 12 months of the course out.Now here's the kicker, every job I've had, every workplace has preferred experience and evidence over 'Qualifications', I'm 21 years of age and have surpassed people fresh out of Uni who are about my age. I've been working 6 years with a plethora of on hands experience as well as bringing in 50k+ a year (Currently on 82k as a sysadmin).
At the end of the day it depends on what you want to study and what area you want to get into - if you want to go into the computer science area, programming/development I'd recommend Uni but for Systems Administration, MySQL databases, Networking, VPN's the Tafe path is more than suitable and you can always go to Uni to further those skills in a quicker period of time if you're interested.
I was from WA too but have since moved to Adelaide as the jobs there were easier to come by with more opportunities to grow and develop my skills - Upon arriving here I had 8 interviews the first day and a few for later in the week, I went to 3 of them and rescheduled the others to later in the week.
I was offered a position at all 3 companies that I went to.I've read a lot of the comments and I seem to be one of the rare few that doesn't regret only getting those qualifications/dropping out of school; but I've never had an issue upskilling, upping my payrate or developing my career… might be my industry and what I'm happy to do.
—-> Inb4 everyone downvotes me to heck because I'm not the 'norm' due to putting in effort where they did not or getting further than someone with uni quals that's upset they had to waste all this time studying
The main thing is self study. High school is very different to TAFE/uni. No more hand holding.
You've done well, but you're probably more the exception rather than the rule
Seems like you have good self discipline to keep learning and gaining experienceBut out of 100 people who leave school in Year 10 only the minority turn out as well as you did
The problem lies with that unless someone looks carefully its very easy to toss a CV without qualifications aside.
Maybe you have a well written CV that captures ppl's attention
There's a lot of factors, but finishing year12 and having a degree minimises the chance of being overlooked.+1 from me for self-directness but I agree you are a rarity amongst the year 10 school leavers. You should be commended for the amount of initiative you've shown, but you really are one of the rare few. It's a huge ask for a teenager to demonstrate that level of commitment to something that is essentially so unstructured. The beauty of school is that everything is planned for you - something you rail against as a teenager but something you wish for later! Well done on all your hard work.
AWS and Azure. Check out Kinetic IT company they are a good company in Perth.
IT is a very broad field and right off the bat you might not know which area you want to specialise in. In the long run, it’s better off to finish off your Year 12, and go to uni. I know it’s a common route to take, but it works.
Whilst at uni, you can do internships and stuff to boost up your work experience. And by the time you’re done with uni, you’ll have a few months/years of experience under your belt plus the learnings & certificate from uni. You’ll be pretty much set for grad roles.PS: the reason I say completing high school and uni is important is cause I’ve seen a lot of people, who start off in the industry pretty early and by the time they’re in their late 20s, it gets a bit harder to move up the chain. So a balance between work & study is a good choice in my opinion.
Stay in school, one of my friends that left at year 10 is now back at uni 5 years later as can't climb the corporate tree without the paper, he is smart as all heck but HR will choose higher education over non.
remember this in the future when you hit a roadblock in life — This too shall pass
Stay in school.
Perseverance is a skill employers look for. Generally people who drop out are looked down upon no matter how smart or experienced you are.
Unfortunately its hard to change this mentality so there's no point fighting.
2 extra years will give you 10 years in return from having better pay in better job opportunitiesbut he's "dropping out" to pursue further education in the field he wants.
Good to see your update OP, you've got your head screwed on. It's easy for our thoughts to lead us astray and hard to stick to a difficult path - but the hard stuff is always worth it in the end in one way or another.
Does this mean you won't be working for like 5 fast food places anymore? Sad times :(
To the point, have a long think over it and decide if it's truly right for you. Definitely stay until Year 12, but don't close all your doors yet - you might find you want to go into a complete new direction like I did.
(Studied all science & maths in Year 12. Then decided to do psych -> business -> law)
Depends where you are prepared to work, if you work remote in oil and gas can make good $$ in IT and don’t need a lot of qualifications. You need to be able to handle working 19 days in a row.. then you get 9 off. You get paid well and also don’t spend anything as all meals provided. It’s not for everyone but can make good money doing it and when you are in and do the on the job training, it’s valuable to stay in the field.
Where do you apply? What qualifications do you need?
I find the comments about TAFE interesting. TAFE is in a real mess nationally, though only SA has been busted so far.
https://indaily.com.au/news/local/2017/12/05/tafe-scandal-hi…Me in year 12: I don't know what to do with my life! I'll just apply to random bachelor degrees out of the idea that going to uni is a necessity to make money
I then land a bachelor's degree in forensic biology, of which I was only partially interested in and not something I would consider my career to be in. I then quit uni for a period of time, then tried a short Cert 3 course at TAFE in pathology collection. Found it wasn't something I was interested in either.
Decided for a complete change, started off Cert 3 in IT. Thought I did pretty good, continued on Cert 4, finished my Cert 4 and got a full time job in IT. Finished off my Advanced Diploma while working full time. Still working full time and I'm now considering a degree in IT, or working on getting industry certifications.
Basically what I'm trying to get as is, you likely won't know what you want when you're a teenager, and you may stumble for the first few years of your young adulthood finding out what you want in life. That was the case for me, and despite being unhappy in my biology degree, I was able to get myself out of it and tried to just evaluate my life and where I wanted to go and tried something new.
I reckon you shouldn't over-stress at such a young age, you may or may not end up with something you like, and if you don't, your age is at your advantage and you will be able to move onto something else.
Ok can i pm you?