Career switch

[DodgyAgent]

[DirtyDog]

Hi,

Just looking for some advice for my sister. She is currently doing her Masters in IT after leaving her job in Research. She has a PhD and Masters already in bio/chem related stuff and was a research fellow publishing papers and managing projects (applying for and winning large grants) and groups of PhDs. She didn't like development so she is looking at testing or project management or maybe BA. Is it worth doing certification as she has no direct experience in IT but skills that can translate over to managing projects etc. The end game is contracting.

Don't take it the wrong way, but this smacks of someone who wants to remain in academia rather than working - two masters and a PhD shows that she is clearly bright, but as an employer I would question whether she really wants to be working or is this another short-term thing between going back to do another degree.

I don't see the benefit of doing certifications - all that shows is that you can study enough to pass the exams at the end of it, which she has already done by having so many other qualifications. I'd suggest that she needs to look at what permanent jobs can she get so that she can build experience. Many consultancies used to recruit people from a wide-range of backgrounds as long as they could prove some degree of aptitude - you can always learn the specifics of SAP if you have the aptitude, but without it you are always going to struggle, for example.

There is some significant difference between being a tester, a BA and a project manager - and each requires very different skills, so she needs to work out exactly what she wants to be doing rather than just thinking "oh, I don't like development, I'll try something else". Once she knows which way she wants to go, then she'll need to convince employers why they should take someone on without any relevant experience - it's a lot easier to argue "oh I've got the aptitude..." when you are fresh out of a bachelor's degree than someone who has spent a significant amount of time moving from one degree to another.

[Unix]

Don't take it the wrong way, but this smacks of someone who wants to remain in academia rather than working - two masters and a PhD shows that she is clearly bright, but as an employer I would question whether she really wants to be working or is this another short-term thing between going back to do another degree.

I don't see the benefit of doing certifications - all that shows is that you can study enough to pass the exams at the end of it, which she has already done by having so many other qualifications. I'd suggest that she needs to look at what permanent jobs can she get so that she can build experience. Many consultancies used to recruit people from a wide-range of backgrounds as long as they could prove some degree of aptitude - you can always learn the specifics of SAP if you have the aptitude, but without it you are always going to struggle, for example.

There is some significant difference between being a tester, a BA and a project manager - and each requires very different skills, so she needs to work out exactly what she wants to be doing rather than just thinking "oh, I don't like development, I'll try something else". Once she knows which way she wants to go, then she'll need to convince employers why they should take someone on without any relevant experience - it's a lot easier to argue "oh I've got the aptitude..." when you are fresh out of a bachelor's degree than someone who has spent a significant amount of time moving from one degree to another.

Sigh , She worked for 10 years after getting her PhD. She isn't moving from one degree to another. Please leave out the PhD envy and answer constructively, has no one ever moved careers!

[DirtyDog]

Sigh , She worked for 10 years after getting her PhD. She isn't moving from one degree to another. Please leave out the PhD envy and answer constructively, has no one ever moved careers!

Sigh

Try reading some of the advice on here - ignore your PhD obsession and look carefully. Here's some that I've highlighted for you...

The golden word here is EXPERIENCE and the problem is that IT isn't really a field to which you can bring transferable skills from other firlds( well, you can, but they're not the marketable skills).
...
Going back to the start of my reply though, she needs experience. The nub of my post is this - get her to make sure that whatever she does for her dissertation is directly relevant to what she wants to do in the world of work and involves using marketable skills. More importantly still - make sure it has commercial relevance - preferably by getting an industrial placement to carry out the project. Her college should be supportive in this; worked for me and I haven't looked back since :-)

She might do well to look for IT roles in pharma / biotech companies where her existing background will come in very useful and perhaps mitigate her lack of IT experience.

We all know that the way into IT is through graft and experience. Getting another certificate to go on her shelf tells us nothing except she chose to collect one. I would second Doodab's point about shed needs to branch out into IT by being on the business end of something she knows about.

I don't see the benefit of doing certifications - all that shows is that you can study enough to pass the exams at the end of it, which she has already done by having so many other qualifications. I'd suggest that she needs to look at what permanent jobs can she get so that she can build experience. Many consultancies used to recruit people from a wide-range of backgrounds as long as they could prove some degree of aptitude - you can always learn the specifics of SAP if you have the aptitude, but without it you are always going to struggle, for example.

There is some significant difference between being a tester, a BA and a project manager - and each requires very different skills, so she needs to work out exactly what she wants to be doing rather than just thinking "oh, I don't like development, I'll try something else". Once she knows which way she wants to go, then she'll need to convince employers why they should take someone on without any relevant experience - it's a lot easier to argue "oh I've got the aptitude..." when you are fresh out of a bachelor's degree than someone who has spent a significant amount of time moving from one degree to another.

If you can't find something constructive in there, then maybe you're just not getting the answers that you want to.

[Unix]

If you can't find something constructive in there, then maybe you're just not getting the answers that you want to.

I was talking about your answer only, the others have been good, if not a bit stating the obvious (you need experience) REALLY!?

[SpontaneousOrder]

if not a bit stating the obvious (you need experience) REALLY!?

So, reading between the lines: Don't waste your money with certifications.

[DirtyDog]

I was talking about your answer only, the others have been good, if not a bit stating the obvious (you need experience) REALLY!?

Well, maybe I should highlight it again for you, then

Is it worth doing certification as she has no direct experience in IT but skills that can translate over to managing projects etc. The end game is contracting.

I don't see the benefit of doing certifications - all that shows is that you can study enough to pass the exams at the end of it, which she has already done by having so many other qualifications.

It's obviously not what you want to hear, so...

Yes, get the qualifications, they'll be well worth the time and the money she spends doing them. That way, she can waltz into any job in any field of IT that she wants.

Better?

[SpontaneousOrder]

Also... more and more testers are starting to code too (insofar as Java is concerned at least) - especially in Agile environments. If they can code it helps them be able to sit next to a dev while one implements the task and the other implements the automated tests (such as selenium - or even just having the technical savvy to to do ops-type stuff that might be required for setting up automated testing).

Perhaps that's a way in that isn't too dev heavy.

[bobspud]

Maybe she could mention the more relevant degree plus point out the IT one that she is working on. turn her cv into something based on challenge, response & results to show the skills that she wants to re-use