PP here, who just re-read the original post.

For information security (cloud or not), the usual background would be networking and Unix/Linux admin work, along with possibly some military and/or law enforcement experience. Getting a job (any job) which would allow him to get a security clearance would be valuable here. Note that lots of infosec work is kind of boring--writing and enforcing policies, looking at log files, etc. The fun stuff (pen testing, forensic analysis) would be much harder to get into, at least at the entry level.

I've worked in IT for ~30 years. Which means that I started in the mid-'90s, when anyone who could spell "HTML" could get a well-paying job and learn by doing.

That said: what does he want to do? CompTIA is pretty basic help desk/network/PC troubleshooting stuff. AWS is more about infrastructure and development work. Does he want to do systems work? Programming/development/cloud? Networking? Something else? These are all very different career paths.

If he wants an entry-level help desk job, the best method is to get experience. Get a job--any job--where people use computers and volunteer to help when people need help. This becomes a relevant resume item for a help desk position ("helped co-workers with technology questions"). Retail (e.g. Micro Center) or computer repair shops might be useful places to start, too. Even building gaming computers for friends is worth something.

For development, I would suggest volunteering some time to a small open-source project that needs programmers, either by submitting patches/bug fixes/feature enhancements, or by (probably after doing the above) working as one of the core developers on that project. This, too, becomes a resume item ("contributed to X project, responsible for Y and Z components") and a place to send people who want code samples. Many high-level programming jobs would expect advanced math and at least some college, but some people are just really good at doing the work and don't actually need the education.

So, I guess, the short answer here is "do something, anything" and find a way to relate it to the jobs that he wants to actually do. Certifications can maybe help get one's foot in the door, but aren't (usually) actually necessary for anything, as long as one has the skills and experience that are necessary.

Anonymous wrote:I respect you for not pushing college on your uninterested child. I think you have a couple of options here:

1) Let him get the certifications, etc. and have him try getting a job. At the same time, set expectations for him (e.g., if he is living at home, he must pay transportation expenses, be working full or at least a significant amount of the time, chip in to rent and food, whatever you think is reasonable). If he’s unable to find a job in IT, he will need to get another sort of job to ‘pay the bills’ and meet expectations, even if that job is a minimum wage fast food or retail job. If those are the only jobs he can get, he may be less interested in IT.

2) have him get involved with a trade school. Electrician, HVAC, maybe even some sort of more technical medical certification like ultrasound tech?

FWIW: my husband (who is fine now) barely made it through college and had several peers who didn’t go or dropped out. Most of them ended up getting their degrees a few years later when they realized that the jobs available to them were not appealing. They did well in college then as they’d matured and had a new perspective. Not saying college is a must, but he may change is tune in the future.

Good luck to your son!

+1 to this plan. Some experience of the real world and the realities of job opportunities, plus just more maturity as he gets older, will likely get him thinking more about his options.

Community college is the best investment.
Its cheap; it provides structure but isn't very demanding (even if he gets bad grades, that's better than not going at all); and it provides a steady supply human beings that he won't get sitting at home after high school.

Has he tried applying to government contractors? I would also use AI to write up his resume and cover letter to match job posting keywords. Landing that first job is tough! Tell him to hang in there apply to everything and eventually someone will say yes!

I did an AS in CS at NOVA. I’m now working on finishing a CS BS degree. The problem with an AS degree is that when you go to apply to jobs there isn’t an option for an AS.

The CS professors at NOVA seemed really good and the Manassas campus has a nice newer building where the CS classes are taught. I wish I could of done a whole BS degree there. I took pretty much every IT and CS class they had.

I respect you for not pushing college on your uninterested child. I think you have a couple of options here:

1) Let him get the certifications, etc. and have him try getting a job. At the same time, set expectations for him (e.g., if he is living at home, he must pay transportation expenses, be working full or at least a significant amount of the time, chip in to rent and food, whatever you think is reasonable). If he’s unable to find a job in IT, he will need to get another sort of job to ‘pay the bills’ and meet expectations, even if that job is a minimum wage fast food or retail job. If those are the only jobs he can get, he may be less interested in IT.

2) have him get involved with a trade school. Electrician, HVAC, maybe even some sort of more technical medical certification like ultrasound tech?

FWIW: my husband (who is fine now) barely made it through college and had several peers who didn’t go or dropped out. Most of them ended up getting their degrees a few years later when they realized that the jobs available to them were not appealing. They did well in college then as they’d matured and had a new perspective. Not saying college is a must, but he may change is tune in the future.

Good luck to your son!

OP here - my son doesn't want to join the military because he's afraid that he'll get sent to the front lines of fighting someone else's war (and overall, he's not too crazy about the political situation right now). Sorry not trying to make things political - just showing his point of view.

Regarding college, he just seems adamant about not going and overall finds most of the classes that you are required to take useless. A lot of this is just the mentality of a 16 year old. However, I admit that I am impressed that he is at least trying to set up a game plan for the future by learning about and studying for his certifications. He has begrudgingly told me that he is willing to explore possibly attending community college and getting an associates degree, but he is against going to a 4 year unless absolutely necessary. In fact, he asked that we put the money for his college towards his first home instead. Sometimes, given how difficult it is for kids to get a job and buy a home, I'm wondering if he's correct in his thinking. I'm hoping that things will turnaround - and hopefully, with all the tech investment happening in NOVA there will be opportunities for him and other entry-level applicants in the near future.

Both my husband and I have post graduate degrees (law and CS) and his older sibling currently attend a 4 year college now. So we always just assumed that our son would go. However, I guess everyone is different.

The CS board on Reddit is insanity. I would take that messaging with a grain of salt and stay off that board.

That being said, if you are in the DMV area and want to work on govt contracts, a lot of gov contracts require a BS for the workers.

Networking is key in this field, so the problem with not going to school is that you don't meet people, chat it up, and network. My kid is in school for CS and does not feel they learn much there and also does not think getting the degree is a necessity in life to be successful. But they just got a gig job for 5 days making 100$/hr bc a friend of a friend from school was under a deadline and needed help. The work was at an office of some very high end, forward thinkers (think MIT PhDs) and they got super excited about the work they are doing, and may do more gig work for them if not be fully employed for them in the future.

What about somewhere like Capitol Technology Univ in Maryland?

I have hired non college grad IT people. Only the ones that were previously military worked out. The maturity is just not there. Going to college and learning various things, not just the IT part teaches you how to communicate, work on a challenging team, make a plan for tackling something without a preexisting set of instructions, write a decent email etc. All these things can be learned without college but as an employer, I have no idea so a college degree (and I look at coursework) is another way for me to tell what kind of employee you'll be. Philosophy and history majors can make good IT staff too.

He should apply to DOGE.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, it's very overly saturated right now at entry level.

This.

Your son's best bet is to seek out internships. Those are typically provided through colleges, though - I honestly don't know how it works for people outside of school.

But, yes, it is a buyer's market for talent at the moment. Even though my group has very deliberately removed the degree requirement from our job listings, given the glut of available workers, why wouldn't we hire somebody with a degree than one without, all other things being equal?

College grads aren't getting jobs in that field

Has he thought about doing a stint in the military?

Unfortunately, it's very overly saturated right now at entry level.

I'm asking the question mainly for my son. He's in high school, but he does not want to go to college. Therefore, he has been working on getting more certifications (currently has CompTia A+, Network+, Security+ and AWS Cloud Practioner) and creating projects for his Github portfolio. He wants to start in IT first, but ultimately wants to pursue cloud security. At the most, he "might" attend NOVA to get his associates in IT/engineering/CS. Even though he has the apptitude for college and we have the money to send him, he feels like he doesn't need college for what he wants to do. To be honest, as smart as he is, he has never liked school. Even socially, he has always felt like he could never relate to his peers (and he has no interest in school activities like prom/football games or your typically teen social media).

Anyways, I have been scouring the reddit boards and it seems like there are many individuals (a lot of college graduates with CS degrees) who are struggling to find entry level work (even help desk work). It seems that those who are in mid-career are having better luck, but the entry level market seems to be overly saturated at the moment. It's been a while since I personally looked for a job, but I am seeing many people post that they have applied to hundreds (if not thousands) of jobs with no luck or even a response (maybe a ghost job). It's crazy how different the job search culture has changed since back in the old days (90s/early 2000s) when i was searching for a job. What has been your experience in the IT sector? My son will probably begin his job search next year after he graduates high school.