Army Officer trying IT career - advice needed

[Litzkrieg]

Hey everyone. I am 1st Lieutenant in the Army, considering my options for both Army and civilian careers. I'm planning to stay in a bit longer, but wanted to know more about the IT field.

I have a bachelor's in Political Science, so nothing helpful there. I love tech, tinkering with PCs and have recently started working on networks as well. I am a manger and leader by nature, and for that reason I am especially interested in project management.

My question is this: What do I need to break into the IT field? My military time has given me management and leadership experience, but I don't have any formal IT education or work experience. Would it be best to go for a master's in information systems, or start at a lower level job and gain IT knowledge? I plan on starting a family, so taking a big pay cut is not really an option. Any help would be great - trying to keep my options open and work towards my goals.

 

[USAFRet]

What do you see yourself doing in the IT field? It is VERY broad.
Hardware, software, networking...hands on, management?

 

[popatim]

I would say stay in the military as long as you can, get your retirement in if possible. Let them train you and get you your experience.
In the real world anything that can be done by IP, will be done abroad sooner then later because they make 1/10th of what you would want; unless its government contracting that requires it be all handled in the US.

So, IMO, unless you're going to be happy with a 45k/yr job doing hands on type work. Look elsewhere for a career.

I say focus on your retirement for now.

 

[Ralston18]

Agree with the previous posts.

You may be able to find some middle position:

Stay in the Army, work on a Master's degree in IT (but as stated earlier that is very "broad") but leverage yourself into future employment as a Project Manager. Government directly or Government Contractor perhaps.

And if you have or can obtain a security clearance - hang on to that. Especially TS or better.

Look for a Master program that may offer some credits related to other duty assigments you have held. May get you a bit of a jump start with respect to some electives.

Maybe even work in earning yourself a CPM standing.

However, with all that and what you have in mind just plan on being busy, very busy.