What would you do if you were in my situation?

Work the oil rigs in Alberta. Means time away from home, and bunking in with some fellow roughnecks. But if you send your pay checks home, stay away from the poker games and the booze, you'll make really good money and have cushion use to get established in the computer biz.

Now, first thing is first. Find a way to make due with what you have. Cut spending to basically none. Don't buy new things unless you have a dire need for it.


Then, while doing that, look for a job. If you already have a job that pays okay, then look while you're not working. If you don't, get a job to bring in some money, and look while you're off.

I think most computer repair shops will only pay you close to minimum wage. Not sure about that though.

As fireshot91 mentioned, make sure to cut costs first of all. One thing that you could probably do is use coupons, as they can get you a quite decent discount.

jc0481 said:

So what would you do in my situation?

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I'd quit with the online school thing and go to an actual physical campus for an education. In the meantime, put your résumé together and start networking with people. Filling out a job application and hoping for the best is for suckers. Make some phone calls, get a Linkedin account, start actually talking to real people to get your foot in the door. It's really the best way to make inroads for your career. And best of luck to you!

first things first congratulations for creating a future Mac user

i know you are in a desperate situation with the kid on the way and its understandable that you want your wife to stay at home with the baby, but you cant force to get a better payed job especially in IT or anything computer related
Thousands if not millions of others have the same idea and on every attempt from you to apply for a job there are several hundreds applying too especially in the IT and related business . Don't want to destroy illusions but most dont end up in a £50000PA job in IT , some are lucky if they get £20000 PA , but the majority today are just above minimum wage and you need to work your way up which can take several years and thats optimistic


so my advice
keep you warehouse job(not a dream job but a regular income) ,

keep doing your studies and keep on looking for a job in IT

try to find a second job like for example courier driver i do the same part time and i earn easy£500+ a week in my "spare time", all you need is a estate car or small van ..no problem you need that estate anyway when the kid arrives to fill up with nappies downside you will be exhausted some days as its not as easy as it sounds to work 8-9 hours in the first job come home eat something and and then drive for another 10 hours around the country to deliver goods and often you might be away on the weekend
or like you said do computer repair Maintenance or combine both , the more second jobs you do the more you can potentially earn

But do it self employed then you choose when and what jobs you take on and you earn the money , and maybe one day you earn enough in the second job to give up the first ..but that needs two things and thats time and dedication


anyway good luck

It is great to see another person who is going for the same job as me, your ideas are great! I am 20 years old and I live in a small town (18,000 pop) and I did exactly that, I started a Facebook page for computer repairs and I put up poster ads in all the major stores in town. Didnt cost me a thing, and I am now making a little extra money on the side. It's not alot but it sure helps.

I was lucky enough to get an IT job handed to me, and I am currently doing my compTia and A+ course online paid for by the company. My boss continues to push me for getting my certification, because you won't get hired anywhere without it apparently. Those are the base they look for on resumes, if you don't have those on your resume, good-luck.

I hope this helps you a bit, let me know if you have any questions about getting started with the repair work on the side, I'd be glad to help out!

Since you got a bachelor in IT, why don't you program? I know students who make $20 an hour.

Tomorrow said:

I'd quit with the online school thing and go to an actual physical campus for an education.

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I disagree with this. For some people its simply not feasible to do a campus school.

That being said make sure you pick the right online school, one that has a physical campus as well and is a state school. Not DeVry or ITT Tech or one of those schools. Penn State has online degrees, lots of them now.

As far as starting your own computer business, this can be a bad idea and a money hole. First, remember that you are liable for another persons machine. By the sounds of it if something happens when its in your care you may have a tough time covering the expenses. Not to mention if they lose any data or something important, there is a possibility you can be sued.

I've seen many times where a machine will simply stop working for no reason while its on the work bench, or the backlight bulb goes, or something and even though its completely unrelated to whatever you were fixing, the customer doesn't see it that way and thinks its something you did. Not to mention if ANYTHING on the machine changes from what they were used to they will be bringing it back wanting you to fix it for free even if its nothing related to the work you did.

As for getting an IT job, start with a job like Geek Squad. Sure it sounds dorky but many people (myself included) used it as a stepping stone for better jobs. Not to mention I can't tell you how many job offers I got from people when I was in their homes or businesses setting things up. If you do go the Geek Squad route, try and work your way from a store technician, to an in home technician, and then to Best Buy for Business (if its still called that, its been years since I've been there).

These types of jobs are generally the easiest way to get started in IT. Not to mention consumer IT work is actually much harder than corporate level IT work believe it or not. (With consumers you have to make them happy and fix all the stupid stuff on their computer, with corporate you can just re-image the machine and transfer their profile back on if need be.)

Anyway, best of luck to you.