Speaker 1: If you're someone who has an interest in getting into IT, more specifically IT Help Desk, and not sure how to do it, or you have some of the skills, but you don't know how to actually get a job, this video is for you. In this video, we're going to be talking with Ariel, also known as JuicyTech on YouTube, on how he landed his first IT Help Desk role with having no prior IT experience. So, we're going to be breaking down exactly what he did to end up landing this job, and what he has done since landing that position to further his education and improve his skills. I'll have his YouTube channel linked in the description down below. So, feel free to check him out, and let's get right into the interview. All right. Well, I appreciate you for joining me in today's interview. I'm glad to have you here. Before we go ahead and dive into some of the juicier questions, could you first introduce yourself, a little bit about your background, and what you did before starting IT?

Speaker 2: Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Happy to be here. My first name is Ariel, last name is Juice. Before IT, I was tech support for some years. I did that for a while. Now I'm in IT Help Desk. I don't want to say it's the same job duties, but it's pretty close. So, me doing Help Desk was pretty much, it just made sense.

Speaker 1: Cool. So, before getting into IT, have you ever had a college experience, any previous experience, any certifications, things like that?

Speaker 2: Actually, my first IT job, I did not have any certifications and never went to college. So, that's going to be a no. But in terms of the experience, again, tech support for what I was doing before IT, the job duties were pretty close. So, it kind of did give me, I guess, a step up in terms of me kind of already knowing what's going on, in terms of using Azure or using things like PowerShell.

Speaker 1: Cool. So, you said you had some similar types of experience. What made you actually decide that IT was the career that you wanted to pursue?

Speaker 2: Great question. So, actually, I don't want to say it was by mistake, but since COVID-19, I actually lost my job because of that COVID-19. So, at the time, I was looking for work in tech support, and I received a phone call from a recruiter after I updated my resume, my LinkedIn. The recruiter actually compared my past job duties to the IT role that he had for me. And he just thought it kind of made sense for me to maybe to try out IT since you already were doing the same work prior. So, I don't say it was by mistake, but again, IT helped just kind of just kind of just landed in my lap since I kind of already had experience. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Cool. So, since you had some, I guess, sort of a gap in some of the things that you needed to learn, how did you sort of fill in those gaps, whether it was before you actually started in that role or actually doing that role? How were you able to fill those gaps?

Speaker 2: Great question. So, Desperate Course Careers came in. I actually took the course during the IT of this job. So, what's awesome about Course Careers is the lab work are very similar to what I'm doing right now. So, again, using things like PowerShell, Azure, it's very, it was so helpful and exciting. So, that's how I was able to fill in my gaps in my course through Course Careers. It helped a lot.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty cool. So, I hear a lot about Course Careers and I really like to see how people find Course Careers. What made you decide that the Course Careers IT professional course was something that you wanted to pursue?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the question. So, what caught my attention the most was how convenient it is to take Course Careers. So, it's online, which makes sense. I can go from my home, I can go from my main break at my job. So, just the convenience factor made sense for me, other than going to college or something like that. Which is not a bad thing, but maybe just the convenience factor really makes sense for me to just take Course Careers instead.

Speaker 1: Cool. So, from taking the Course Careers certificate, since you already had a job, you're definitely learning stuff from the job and learning stuff from the actual course. What are some of the things that you took from the Course Careers course that you may not take from an actual day-to-day job? Or maybe how did it help you better your skills for a future position?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so the thing with Course Careers is it doesn't stop at IT help desk. They do encourage you to kind of keep learning other skills. So, what's cool about my current employer is I work closely with the system engineers, the network engineers. So, a lot of their tasks is sometimes thrown onto me. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is Course Careers does kind of encourage you to kind of learn new skills. And I love that about it. So, IT help desk, I don't want to say it's easier, but it is a great entry-level job to kind of try some new things. Network engineering, stuff like this.

Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. Even if you want to get into cybersecurity, any other IT discipline, a lot of people start with a customer-facing position like IT help desk. On that same regard, as of recently, a lot of people especially have been coming to me saying they've been struggling to find a job. Job market sucks recently. There's been like a bubble that's popped, people getting laid off. So, what would you suggest for, especially now that the job market's a little harder to land a position, what would you suggest for some of the people who may not have all the credentials they need, the certifications, the education? What would you suggest to people who are trying to find work and actually get their foot in the door in IT?

Speaker 2: Great question. Yeah, it's just a really strange time in terms of the job field. So, I guess for someone that's really new to this or that doesn't have a job yet, honestly, I can't really give you any tips or advice. But what I did is I networked my butt off. I'm such a fan of network, it's not even funny. Most of my jobs that I receive are through network. So, sometimes just knowing people is how you get the job instead of just having all these skills and just having all these certs. It's sometimes really about who you know. So, I would network my butt off. And that doesn't really mean to go to events or a conference. To me, network is almost like social media. Just talking to people on LinkedIn is also a form of networking. So, I would talk to as many people as I can. And it's possible to post your skills online and let them see what you can do. It's really about what you know, or I'm sorry, it's more about who you know that can get you a job first, believe it or not.

Speaker 1: I can definitely say from my personal experience networking as well, even just adding recruiters on LinkedIn. Six months later, they'll come messaging you and say, hey, I have this job opening here, here, here. And you can sometimes be placed on an interview immediately just from having that connection. And networking events are great as well. Just meeting people, getting your face kind of around is a great way to land a position. Especially when it's so easy to be like a nail in a haystack pretty much like against hundreds of other applicants. So, networking is definitely something that I would recommend for a lot of people before getting into IT. So, let's say you graduate from the course careers course. What would you suggest for people post graduating the course? Let's say you don't have a job. Obviously, you want to start applying. But what other ways do you think you could further your skills after taking the certificate course?

Speaker 2: So, what I do is labs as much as I can. The thing is, once you get a job as an IT help desk, you're going to be actually, I don't want to say grilled, but they kind of want to know what do you know and why should we take you on? Because there's so many people trying to get that one job. So, it's like there's so many to choose from. So, it's like how do you stand out really? So, really up your skills as much as possible because times are changing so fast and quickly. So, you just kind of want to be ahead of things. So, when that opportunity does come about, you can kind of know what's going on because your skills are just up there. So, laboratories or labs are great options to keep your skills up as much as possible.

Speaker 1: Yeah, home labs is a great way to learn a lot of things. I had a home lab for a while before I moved to college. That's kind of how I learned basic, you know, operating system things, any things with software. Yeah, after graduating the course careers course or whatever certificate course you do, it's always good to better your skills and keep applying the jobs and just keep going at it and improving your soft skills. Because the interview itself also can be hard after getting the interview. But having a good resume, cover letter is something great when you're first getting into IT. If you were to start over and let's say you didn't have the experience you had before getting this job. If you had nothing, how would you go about getting your first IT job?

Speaker 2: Love that question. If I were to start over, I think I would network some advice more. Again, it's really about who you know. I mean, it's just a weird time. Everyone's trying to find work right now. And I think employers know that. So, they're really, it's like they get to choose who they want. It's like if you know this person already, you're in. A lot of my co-workers also got in through someone that they knew. And they told me this. Again, you want to make sure your skills are up. But it's really about who you know right now. It's just a real thing. So, network as much as you can. And again, it doesn't mean just going to a conference. But post online. Post your skills. Post what you can do so they can see what you can do and call you. Because that's really a thing today. Use it up. It is a tool. LinkedIn. Even YouTube. It's a real tool to get your stuff out there more. For sure.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so speaking from experience. After you get an IT and you take all these courses and you get the job, how much can you expect for someone to make in an entry-level support role, IT role, something similar? What would you say you can expect to make after landing your first position?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I get this question a lot from people on YouTube. Of course, the pay. It does depend on where you are in the country. So, for example, if you're here in South Florida, the average is around 23 to 26, just to start. But, again, I'm not in places like New Jersey, New York, California. I'm not really sure what's the pay rate there. But it does depend on where you are in the country. So, the average may be touching 23, 24.

Speaker 1: Cool. So, in your current position, how are you bettering yourself to prepare yourself to move up in the IT field after getting into help desk?

Speaker 2: Love this question. So, where I work right now is really cool because my manager and the IT director are so cool. I had my first evaluation, and they kind of grilled me. But what's so cool about where I work is they are encouraging you to learn more. And that's so awesome. And that's something I don't really see too often in other jobs where they're kind of pushing you to learn more skills. But, again, I work closely with the system engineer, the network engineer. So, I get to tag along and see what they do on a day-to-day. And it's almost like free job training. I swear to God it is. It's amazing. Again, just learning as much as you can, whether at the job site or not. Just keep learning as much as you can. But, yeah, take advantage of everything that's available in terms of, again, social media, networking. And if you're finding a job, yo, learn some new skills. Competitive security, network. Just keep going at it.

Speaker 1: For sure. I appreciate the advice you're willing to share and your story and stuff like that. I do have one more question. It did come from a viewer. They wanted me to ask you about your thoughts of Lenovo laptops.

Speaker 2: Oh, I love them. Oh, my God. So, the thing is, I love the touchscreen feature. I wish Macintosh knew this. Because I'm all up in the screen. It's so convenient. It's like the best thing ever. It's almost like a tablet laptop when you want it to be. So, maybe that's why I'm such a fan of it. Just that touchscreen aspect is so amazing. I'm such a fan of it.

Speaker 1: That was my last interview question. I used Lenovo at my last job. Lenovo is a pretty reliable company that I've seen. But, yeah, that was just more of a fun question to end it off with. I do appreciate your time. If you do want to check him out, definitely go into the description down below. His name on YouTube is Juicy Tech. He does all kinds of videos. Definitely check him out for sure. And I do appreciate you for taking the time to do the interview today. And, yeah.

Speaker 2: It was a pleasure. Likewise.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Have a good one.

Speaker 2: Likewise, my friend.

Speaker 1: Once again, thank you to Ariel from Juicy Tech for taking the time to do this video with me. I will have the course careers IT course linked in the description down below. You get $50 off and the first module for free. So, if you want to try it out, go ahead and click the link down below to get started for free. And if you're more interested in learning more about Ariel from Juicy Tech, I have a link to his YouTube down below. This is James E. Tech. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to hit that Like button and subscribe for more videos like this in the future. Thank you guys for watching. This is James E. Tech, and I will see you guys next time. Bye-bye.