Why am I having so much trouble finding an IT position?

Question

Hi everyone,
I need some good hearted individuals to help me out here.
I've been hunting for an IT Desktop support/networking entry position for over a month and half now. I have 5+ years of experience (all in college), I worked as a Tier 3 desktop support Tech and later as an IT consultant for a grant research project. I have lots of hands on experience, but I do not hold A+ cert or a ccna(although I completely grasp concepts such as subnetting, tcp/ip, lan switching etc). Financial circumstances led to a complete halt of my academic career. I'm willing to share my resume to some of the users here, I will change some personal details ofcourse. I really hope for some honest advice from people in the bussiness of IT, or even out of IT. Keep in mind that going back to school now is just out of the question. I'm 26. Is that old?

Thanks for the help, yes I am in the US, NJ,
the thing is, I want to eventually get in the cisco path, and become a cisco professional. I am having trouble getting out of Hardware support and into Networking. I mean, how can I get Networking experience, If I worked with support? I had a chance to work in the networking dept of my school, but my manager didn't let me go. So now I'm out in the market without direct connections, I've enough years of HD support experience, but I wasn't exposed to networking. I learned all my networking on my own, and in the cisco labs. I'm STUCK! I mean, there is no other direction that an experienced IT guy could go to besides a Sr. HD support tech.

Answer 1

i am assuming you are based in the US. your type of job description is being ouotsourced to low-cost countries such as the philippines and india. if i were you, you should differentiate you career path from being a IT support into a more advanced and/or niched job such as spreadsheet modeling or programmer. this will give you a better chance in landing a really hot job in the US. plus, it would not hurt if you go to the heart of IT in California.