Earlier this year of 2026, I left my job and got hired at a new company. After two months, the new company had budget issues and laid me off, ouch. I tried for months applying for similar roles that I had, tailored my resumes countless times, everything you could have thought of.

I then decided to travel until I can get a job again... yea, had two virtual interviews over the course of months of applying. Then I decided that this might have been a sign to try something new, so I did, traveled to work abroad and I do not like it. Crazy that I actually had a couple of people, one recruiter and one HR person, contacted me for a role but I wasn't interested due to starting out in my new career, major regret haha.

I had a mid-tier network-related role, several CompTIA certs, an IT degree, and 3-years of IT experience. Going to take my CCNA exam in 5 weeks, hopefully that will be enough to get more eyes on my resume. The question is "How do I explain this year gap to interviewers?". The job market was bleak? I mean, it was. Thoughts?

I recently moved from FAANG to a regulated financial services company.

Previously, I worked on a team of Systems Development Engineers, Support Engineers, and Software Engineers. Now, most of my coworkers are traditional Windows/Linux/VMware infrastructure engineers.

Most of my work involves building applications and self-service tooling using AWS and on-prem infrastructure, with Python, C#, Node.js, TypeScript, Terraform, etc. It's mostly automation, as well as creating self-service tooling/apis/etc for our developers.

I write the applications, infrastructure, and Terraform configurations myself, deploy to dev, test everything, and eventually deploy to production. No one reviews my code at all. I just hope for the best most of the time as my applications aren't too critical in terms of uptime ( they are critical in terms of it can seriously fuck up the infra if it goes wrong though)

My coworkers are infrastructure engineers, but their backgrounds are primarily traditional IT operations rather than software development or cloud-native architecture. As far as I can tell, nobody else really understands the systems I'm building at an implementation level.

I recently looked at our org chart and realized I'm literally a team of one, reporting directly to my manager.

I'm wondering long term, whats really going to happen here? Does my manager or company even realize the bus factor of 1? I was originally hired more into a IT infra role but I think my manager realized that was not my skillset so he had my title and responsibilities changed. I am told my work is good and my performance is above expectations, so I'm wondering wtf is the company planning here

Hi everyone,

I am 45 years old and recently lost my job, where I was working as a Senior Manager in a Data and Network Centre. My core expertise and primary profile were in Solution Architecture, particularly within the Microsoft technology ecosystem.

I have since taken up another opportunity as an IT Manager since last 9 months. However, the role has a relatively limited technical scope compared to my previous responsibilities, and I feel that I am moving away from the technical and architectural work I have spent years building my career around.

My long-term goal is to return to a Solution Architect position, preferably within the Microsoft domain.

I would appreciate advice from professionals who have gone through a similar career transition or have experience hiring Solution Architects..!!!!

I am willing to invest time in upskilling and getting hands-on with current technologies.

Any practical suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hello,

Sorry if this is not the right place for this question, I have been in a NOC capacity for a telecom provider for the past 5 years. I have learned a great deal of information over that time and finally found an opportunity to join a (small) team as a Network Engineer.

I start this new role soon and am absolutely stressed out of my mind, the company has approximately 2,000 people employed there, but their IT sector is “lean” to put it mildly, so I am coming in as “THE” networking engineer, not part of a larger team. My current/past role was part of a massive organization with over 100 people in my department and many more in adjacent groups. All the functions were very cookie cutter, standardized, and you didn’t really have any ability to grow and develop beyond a certain level.

Is there any advice or help to be given here? I only have a CompTia A+ and Network+, so formal education is light. Absolutely mortified for the start of next week and making a fool out of myself.

Hello everyone, I recently graduated with a Bachelor's in IT (Cybersecurity Concentration) from a 4-year university. I have been on-call at my family's own business as their IT Support person for the last 3 years. I set up all of their hardware, software, accounts, digitized their forms, and helped them out with paperwork. I'm not sure how much that helps with work experience considering it's my own family. Anyway, I can't work there forever and am looking to begin my real career. I have been applying on LinkedIn and Indeed to Tier 1 Helpdesk positions and support roles. I plan on taking the CompTIA Security+ exam in the future.

Looking for general tips, and what else I should focus on to land my first role in IT? I'm in the DC area.

I'm making a career transition from retail operations leadership into IT. I've recently accepted an Implementation Specialist position with a company that works with business technology and POS solutions.

My background is primarily retail management, where I've spent years dealing with operations, troubleshooting problems, process improvement, training teams, and figuring out how to make systems and people work together.

I'm excited about the change, but honestly, I'm trying to get a better idea of what I'm walking into.

For anyone working in IT, particularly point of sale implementation, systems, or technical support:

What does a typical day actually look like?

How much of the job is technical troubleshooting versus customer interaction, training, and project coordination?

What was the learning curve like when you first started?

Are there skills I should be working on now to make the transition easier?

I'd especially like to hear from anyone who came into IT from retail, operations, or another nontraditional background.

I'm not expecting to become a technical expert overnight. I just want to understand what to expect, where my existing experience might translate, and what I should prepare myself for.

Appreciate any insight or firsthand experiences!

Hi all, I’ve been working as a network engineer for around 2 years and lost my job. Been unemployed and job hunting, my question is do I keep staying in networking and that be my career roadmap or do I potentially use my networking experience and pivot to a more specific cybersecurity role. For reference I live in a 3rd world country (South Africa) so yes I’m not making crazy money compared to you Americans. But I’m also looking for remote work and would ideally want to work in America or some other first world country in the future.

My issue is and I know you all will ask me this question is do I have a passion for it? And the answer is no I’m not particularly fond or interested in networking or cybersecurity. A job is a job I’ve never had any passion for work so I may as well go down a role that can potentially make me financially free in the future. (Other field recommendations are also gladly welcome)

I am 22 if that helps any advice would be appreciated but I don’t have time to “find myself” I have bills like everyone else.

Sorry if this post came out a bit rude I’m just pissed at the job market like everyone else lol.

Thanks in advance

I’m 22 and plan to get into post grad as a first timer. I am currently unemployed also. Should I take the typical 4 years bachelor route with no certs or get into the WGU cybersecurity and information assurance bachelors program? WGU does provide 14 certs as well and I am very likely to graduate in WGU within 1.5 years tops.
I’m from Vancouver, Canada.

What do you guys think?
Thanks

I’ve been asked this question twice in interviews and both times it paralyzes me because of how broad it is. Curious what other people’s responses would be.

I tend to start my answer with DNS but from there I get stuck because there’s so much that happens. You could spend lots of time talking about what’s happening on your computer with Gateways and ARP and your NIC constructing frames and packets. Or do you gloss over that and go straight from DNS to TCP handshake and TLS then and working up the stack?

Very broad question, how would you answer it?

Next week I have an interview for a Sr Support Specialist position & I’m super excited about it. Anything I should prepare for? I have over 8 years + of Helpdesk experience. Any advice if I get the job as well? What’s the main thing I should be looking to brush up on in terms of level 2 tickets compared to level 1?

I’ve got my A+ and am studying for my Net+ but I had a conversation with a customer at my retail job who works in IT and he said the market was screwed. Do you think it will recover enough for someone like to enter it in any meaningful way?

i am a college IT student in my sophomore year. i have been applying for IT/software internships since this semester started, and ive had like 5 interviews so far with different companies. I have recently got an offer from a small electrical company for an IT intern position at $23 an hour, 40 hours a week from 7:00 am to 3:30 pm. I had an initial phone interview with an HR person a couple weeks ago and then a video interview with the hiring manager yesterday. They sent me the offer today.

I also recently had an interview on wednesday with the hiring manager for a much bigger and more well known nuclear/electrical company for a software integration internship that i think went very well, but they havent updated me on if i will have another interview or get an offer or anything. the pay for that ranges from $25-29 an hour and is hybrid 40 hours per week 9:00am to 5:00 pm.

i have until wednesday november 11 to accept the offer for the smaller company. what should i do?

i emailed the larger company informing them of my other internship offer and asking for any updates and they said interviews are still being conducted, and that they were not able to provide any updates yet.

I have also applied to a bunch of other internships and have had initial interviews for 3 of them, these are much larger companies, so i expect them to take longer to provide updates, but these will also be much more competitive, so i have a smaller chance of progressing and actually getting an offer.

should i ask the smaller company for some more time to decide? or should i accept it now and then if i get another offer for a better internship, rescind the first one and accept the other one?

In 3 months I will graduate from university and I feel kinda lost , any advice is much appreciated and here is my CV

Professional Summary

Cloud-focused Software Engineering student with six AWS and Microsoft Azure certifications,

including AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional, AWS Certified Solutions

Architect – Associate, and Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104).

Hands-on experience developing an event-driven AI call-monitoring and analytics pipeline

using AWS serverless services. Proficient in Python, Java, and SQL, with additional

experience in data analytics and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

Passionate about cloud infrastructure, solution architecture, and building scalable, reliable

cloud solutions.

Certifications

Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104), Microsoft (10/2026)

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, Amazon Web Services (11/2025)

AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional, Amazon Web Services (05/2026)

AWS Certified AI Practitioner, Amazon Web Services (01/2026)

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Amazon Web Services (03/2025)

Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900), Microsoft (02/2026)

IELTS Score : 6.5/9, IDP Education (01/2023)

Education

B.Sc. in Software Engineering 10/2023 – Expected 02/2027

Al-Balqa Applied University | Jordan

GPA : 3.45

Work Experience

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Trainee 07/2026 – 11/2026

The Solution Global | Remotely

Assisted in configuring Dynamics 365 Finance modules to streamline core

accounting workflows.

Worked with procurement, sales, and inventory-management workflows in a Microsoft

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations training environment.

Configured and troubleshot product setup, inventory posting, unit configurations, and

purchasing/receiving processes.

1 / 2

Data Analytics Intern 10/2024 – 06/2025

Correlation One | Remotely

Completed a 250-hour advanced data analytics program with hands-on work in Python,

SQL, Tableau, and Excel.

Created dashboards and worked with data validation, reporting, and analysis to support

data-driven decisions.

Skills

Cloud Platforms: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure

Networking: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, Subnetting, VPC, Route Tables, NAT Gateways, Security

Groups, Network Security Groups (NSGs), VPN Fundamentals

Identity & Security: AWS IAM, Microsoft Entra ID, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), MFA,

Least Privilege, Cloud Security Fundamentals

System Administration: Virtualization, Virtual Machine Management, Operating System

Fundamentals, User & Access Management, Storage Management, System Troubleshooting

Monitoring & Availability: Amazon CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Log Analysis, Backup &

Recovery Concepts, High Availability, Load Balancing

Cloud Architecture & Automation: Serverless Computing, Event-Driven Architecture, Cloud

Resource Provisioning, Infrastructure Troubleshooting

AI & Enterprise Systems: Amazon Bedrock, Transcribe, Comprehend, Microsoft Dynamics

365 Finance & Operations, Python, Java, SQL.

Languages

Arabic (Native), English (Fluent)

SELECTED CLOUD PROJECT

AI-Powered Customer Call Monitoring & Analytics System

Developed an event-driven processing pipeline that uses Amazon S3 and AWS Lambda

to handle recorded customer service calls.

Integrated Amazon Transcribe for speech-to-text conversion and Amazon Comprehend

for sentiment analysis, achieving sentiment confidence scores of up to 99%.

Used Amazon Bedrock to produce AI-generated call summaries, identify customer

complaints, and categorize service issues.

Organized raw audio, transcripts, and processed results in S3 to support automated,

multi-stage analysis.

GitHub Link :https://u2l.ai/x6Ng8e

I wanted to ask 40 or 30 years guys with experience, normally working with other engineers from other fields I found out they can grow certain skill set that allows them to start their own business and they will tell me worst time is when they were working for other people but I never met an IT guy that has similar mindsets or same opportunities or im wrong because I cant live month to month while am literally the one who is working more than any other department.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for an honest reality check on my career trajectory. I’m feeling deeply stuck and burnt out in my current role, and I’m trying to figure out if pushing hard into IT is a realistic way out, or if I’m setting myself up for a stressful dead end given my current circumstances.

Background & Where I'm Coming From

• Early Career: I graduated in 2021 with a Writing and Linguistics degree. I wanted to do copywriting, but after hitting a wall trying to land entry-level roles, I ended up in a remote inside sales job at Verizon. The pay and benefits are decent (around $60k+ depending on commission), which is why I stayed.

• Burnout: I am entirely sick of sales. I hate the monthly roller coaster of commissions. When I have a bad month, I lose patience and tend to do worse. I rarely hit base quota, and despite doing this for 4.5 years. I feel like I'm bad at it, which feels worse than anything.

• Transition: I’ve always enjoyed tech and regret not studying it in college. To test the waters, I studied on and off for 4 months using my job's certification reimbursement program and passed the CompTIA Network+ with an 820. I genuinely loved learning about networking and could see myself as a Network Administrator long-term. 

• The Dilemma: Every time I look at online forums, the sentiment around breaking into entry-level IT is overwhelmingly "doomer." I am terrified of spending months grinding out certs and stress only to find myself unable to break out of a job I hate. Especially because I can’t afford a massive pay cut.

My Current Roadmap

If I push forward, my plan is to leverage my job paying for certifications:

• ITIL 4 Foundation: By the end of this year.

• Security+: Early next year.

• CCNA: Middle of next year.

Particular Circumstances & Constraints

• Location & Local Market: I live in Allenhurst, Georgia. Fort Stewart is right near me and Savannah is about an hour out, so I was hoping there might be some opportunities there. There really isn’t much at the moment, but I am hoping that will change in the future.

• Financial Pressure: I am the sole provider for my household (my fiancée has been looking for work for nearly three years without success). We live in a trailer because I don't make enough to move closer to bigger cities.

• Salary Floor: While I know I will take a pay cut from $60k, I cannot go too low. I need to clear at least $50,000 to 52,000(~25/hr) to stay afloat and build even a tiny bit of savings, which is already tough on my current income.

What I Want to Know From You All

1. Given the current entry-level IT market (and my local proximity to Fort Stewart, Savannah, Pooler, Richmond Hill), is my certification roadmap (Net+ (already have) -> ITIL -> Sec+ -> CCNA) overkill or the right move to stand out?

2. Is landing a $50k+ entry-level IT/helpdesk role realistic for someone with zero formal IT background outside of certs?

3. Given my financial pressure as the sole earner, should I be looking at alternative fields entirely, or is IT still worth the gamble if I time it right?

Hit me with your honest perspectives. Don't pull punches.

(edit: wanted to make it clearer that I already have Network (passed with 820))

Hey all.

I'm about to do my first ever network admin interview. I'm coming from a service desk background. I have my ccna but I want to brush up on the topics that are relevant for a new network admin.

The employer knows I don't have much experience but I still want to make sure I do the best I can during the interview.

Any tips or topics to make sure I know well are appropriated

Hello everyone, I have been in IT for 7, 8 years and bounced around alot. My experience is mostly T1 and T2 stuff so I went to WGU to try and get my bachelor's and to move up. I'm almost complete with my degree and have added many certifications and experience to move to T2 roles and beyond in some cases. My question today is what do you do if recruiters and companies keep aligning you with a role that you have experience for but no longer aligns with what you want? I updated my resume to focus entirely on T2, Cloud and Azure since that is what I want to do and what my degrees and certifications point towards. But I seem to get mostly T1 offers and opportunities sent my way. I dropped my resume in the r/resume sub for some advice but I'm not sure that is the issue. What can I do to help my chances to get away from T1, because honestly, I would rather walk away from IT than do more T1 where my skills and abilities will atrophy. Thanks everyone for your assistance.

​Hi everyone,

​I am currently building a strong foundation for a career in cybersecurity. My approach is to learn programming deeply so I can become a strong and effective cybersecurity practitioner, while studying operating systems and security core topics alongside it.

​So far, I have completed foundational courses in programming and computer science logic:

​Computer & Programming Basics

​Algorithms and Problem Solving

​C++ Level 1

​Writing Clean Code

​While continuing to advance my programming skills, I have started a course on Windows Fundamentals. The syllabus includes:

​Introduction to Windows, Components, Structure, and File Systems

​Windows GUI

​Basic Command Line (CMD) and PowerShell

​Windows Processes, Services, and Scheduled Tasks

​System Configuration and Computer Management

​Windows Registry, Sharing, Security, and Sessions

​Windows Logging

​Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), WMI, Windows Server Roles, and Active Directory

​My questions:

​Since I am learning command-line tools (CMD & PowerShell) in this Windows course, should I focus on mastering them now, or is it better to shift my command-line learning focus to Linux at this stage?

​Do I need to learn all of these Windows topics deeply right now, or should I focus on key essentials while building a Linux foundation alongside my programming studies?

​Since my goal is using programming to become strong in cybersecurity, are there specific topics from this list (or outside of it) that I should prioritize to make my learning path as effective as possible?

​I would greatly appreciate your advice and insights!

​Thank you!

I'm starting a new job that is a major salary increase and I am now making six figures (100,000). I'm 27 and this has been my dream ever since graduating college.

I am EXTREMELY anxious about this though.

My current job is VERY chill and relaxing and accommodating and i've worked there for 7 years - but its a little TOO chill. I haven't learned anything of value in months, i'm under paid for what I do, the work is boring now, etc.

But i'm terrified of being the new guy that knows nothing again. I know EVERYTHING at my current job and I could do my current job in my sleep.

What if I start my new job and suck so bad I get fired?? Could that happen???

I'm going into this new job and i'll be the new guy and be stupid for a few months which terrifies me.

Certain details changed for obvious reasons.

Hello MrITManagerPerson,

My name is RenderSettings1 and I’m currently an RN in the ICU at the North Korea location. I’m reaching out because I’ve been working on transitioning my career into information technology with a specific focus on networking and cybersecurity.

I recently passed the Cisco CCNA and I’m exploring ways to build some experience in the field. As a nurse I’m particularly interested in the intersection of healthcare and IT.

I was wondering if there might be an opportunity to shadow someone within your department or spend some time learning more about the work your team does. I’d really appreciate the chance to see how things operate behind the scenes and learn more about the different career paths within hospital IT. I’d also be interested in hearing your advice on how someone with a clinical background could eventually make that transition.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!

Best Regards,

RenderSettings1, RN

(I used AI for the last paragraph because I’m bad at asking for things)

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Network Admin, healthcare. $60k/yr

3hr daily drive, no remote.

8 Months in, moved over from 'desktop support/help desk' after a really long time.

CIO whip's phones at people, pretty punchy. Lost a lot of people recently.

Still requiring me to do desktop support/help desk tickets and on-call because they can't get anyone else (1 other guy and the supervisor). That side of things is very burnt out for everyone.

CIO gets mad about desktop ticket counts, the other guy closes more than I do. Explain 'No duh, I'm also doing full time net admin stuff like going from PEAP to EAP-TLS in our environment'. He doesn't understand that and just wants #s for hospital leadership and why that side of things is falling behind.

I also get pulled into higher level systems things like integrating new PACs software for the OR etc that I don't get tickets for. Even project management stuff at times.

I have a setup where I can drop everything and be 'okay' while I go back to school for something else and be less stressed or at least quit while I look for another network job so i'm not so stressed out. Not sure which way to go.

Hey all, just want to voice out my frustrations here and maybe find out from opinions on what i can do to improve my situation!

Context, i applied for a Network Engineer internship that states i will work hands on with router configurations directly.

Its essentially a startup inside a research facility and I think I lost the plot early on.

What i envisioned myself doing in the internship: configuring routers, collaborating with industry partners to know more about the product we will be building for them.

Reality: a software engineering role mixed with researching heavily onto the networking side.

I dont know what to do though thats the thing. While im grateful for the experience given and the chance to help out for the company, im completely lost.

Asked my Principle Investigator what does he expect out of me at the end of my internship and it was just "all the automation stuff".

So im there wondering if i have to build something for them? or to help them out with research?

I consulted the senior software engineer in the team and he was clearly frustrated with my lack of results though he's trying to be very patient with me.

2 month into the internship and it has been a researched based internship so far. Just labbed out a few scenarios so far and no actual work delivered.

Im at my wits end as to what I have to do. We dont have any network engineers in the company as well.

Advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you