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Retraining my own brain for a new career took 6 months longer than I planned
I decided to switch from retail management into IT support and figured I'd be job-ready in about 4 months if I studied hard. Between the certs, the home lab setups that kept breaking, and just getting tripped up on basic networking concepts, it ended up taking nearly 10 months before I felt confident applying. Has anyone else had a career change timeline stretch out way further than they expected?
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oscar7431mo ago
I've been there myself, and that extra stretch of time can really test your patience. It's one thing to plan for a change, but it's another thing entirely to actually live through all the unexpected delays and steep learning curves. You put in the work and stuck with it though, which is more than a lot of people manage. Ten months is a solid accomplishment, especially for a field as technical as IT support. Good for you for not giving up when things got messy.
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christopherwilson12d ago
I saw this article a few weeks back about how IT support is actually one of those fields where the certs matter way more than people give them credit for. Stuff like A+ and Network+ can make a big difference when you're trying to get past HR filters, and those take months to study for. Ten months might sound long to some, but the guy probably stacked up a few certs and got some real lab time in, which beats just winging it on day one. The ones who rush in often burn out fast when they hit stuff they didn't prep for. So that timeline sounds about right to me, better to show up ready than to waste time spinning your wheels on the job.
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Nah, I gotta disagree a bit here. Ten months to prep for an entry level IT gig sounds like overthinking it to me, most folks I know got in by just applying early and learning on the job.
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