A December 2012 graduate of IT-Ready Technical Support, Andrea Ring has developed expertise in online security. She spends a good deal of time identifying, intercepting and eliminating malicious viruses and other threats to data security.
She credits the program for teaching her critical technical skills.
“I’m able to talk with confidence about exactly what the problem is,” Andrea said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Andrea already had some formal IT training and was looking for an IT internship when she stumbled upon an ad for IT-Ready Technical Support on Careeerbuilder.com. Her first thought was, “This is too good to be true.”
“And I spent the next two weeks thinking about it and talking to friends about it before I decided, why not give it a shot?” she said. “It seemed like the opportunity to get to the place I wanted to be.”
Anticipating a formal learning environment complete with rigid instructors delivering dry lectures, Andrea said she was astounded by her IT-Ready Technical Support classroom experience.
“It wasn’t anything like high school or college – it was better,” she said. “My classmates were so helpful with each other. We studied together and made sure everyone understood what was going on. What I ended up learning blew me away. I thought I was knowledgeable about computers, but IT-Ready was a real eye-opener for me.”
Andrea said she loves the world of opportunity that comes along with her tech career.
“Technology isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “The career field is ever-expanding and there are so many different facets to each position. I don’t know many people that can’t find a path that fits their personality.”
Asked what advice she offers today’s IT-Ready Technical Support students, Ring said she would encourage newly minted tech workers to keep an open mind.
“Everyone and everything have pros and cons; there rarely is just one right or wrong or superior product,” she said. “We all make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and move forward. It will be OK.”
