How does a history major get a job in IT?

Seconding deadmessenger. With your history background, you can write. Get your foot in the door by doing technical/proposal writing.

I did almost exactly this. My degree was in communications, and after college I became a full time IT worker and that is what I do now. A LOT of the advice above is what I did. First, I started in a low position, the help desk. For the help desk you need fair knowledge of the operation of the various Windows operating systems (Control Panel, registry, etc.) and a good ability to communicate. WHERE you work the help desk is irrelevant, be it a local internet company, a computer house, software house, etc. Help desk doesn't pay a ton, but it's an entry level job that exists to give people experience so they can move on. More, even those who graduate with degrees in IT/CS usually start out there. To get higher requires a few things: Experience, knowledge, and education. The experience is simply the duration which you've worked in IT. A couple of years is usually needed for higher positions. Knowledge is needed to actually be able to do the higher jobs, and you can get that by self-teaching, online courses, certifications, or formal education. The education part is different. For a lot of higher jobs you will need certifications, a degree, or both. After working in IT for about five years out of college, I went back and got my masters in CS (notice, I didn't need a bachelor's in CS to get the masters, at least at my university). I didn't do this just for the degree, I did it to learn some of the basics which I missed specifically related to programming, which after five years I learned was my favorite part of IT. I then went on to teach IT classes at a local college and have worked in IT for 14 years. So you can do it. Good luck!

One entry way into IT for non-CS majors is to learn to support legacy systems. Many large systems are still in active support phases in so-called "obsolete" languages like COBOL, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG, and require familiarity with CICS or JCL (IBM Job Control Language or a subset like CL). Jobs involved in such system environments range from daily operations (IT management), to customization of existing programs, to creation of new programs, to writing interfaces from legacy systems to databases and to graphical clients. You can work directly for client organizations using such systems, or you can work as an independent or third party contract programmer doing project work for the end client organization. As an example, there are still thousands of customers world wide running Oracle/http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/jd-edwards-world/index.htm software suite on IBM iSeries (as of April 2008, now http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/) machines, which is a code base of several million lines of RPG III and IV, with a subsequent interoperable version called EnterpriseOne which is written in various MS tools for operation under in the Windows ecosphere. Some organizations actually run mixed environments with World backends and EnterpriseOne functionality for clients. The pay, especially for contract personnel at the top consulting firms, can run to the low 6 figures a year ($150,000 to $200,000), but this also involves heavy travel commitments, and a thorough knowledge of business processes and software features, as well as good client relationship skills, that take years to master. Independent journeyman RPG coders can generally command $40,000 to $60,000 a year, with experienced senior system developers going into the $80,000 to $100,000 a year range. You generally learn RPG or COBOL these days through independent study (lots of books, http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/portals/systemi, etc.) or by attending http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:6Mrv0bfNHdQJ:www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en%3FpageType%3Dcourse_description%26courseCode%3DAS070+IBM+RPG+language+workshop&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us, as few college programs offer such. One way of getting the toolset is to simply buy your own used, entry level "baby" Power System, which will come complete with a licensed copy of iSeries software, which will include an RPG IDE (Integrated Development Environment, which includes various compilers for RPG, C, and even COBOL, various editors and screen build tools, some Windows middleware to use a PC as a terminal, and some documentation for development), the Power System OS (used to be iSeries or OS/400), and probably DB2 and Websphere tools. You can get an older, used developer box complete with system software, http://www.perfdata.com/shop/category.asp?catid=24. You'll pay extra for an annual software subscription license to keep your software up to date.

I have a tester on my team who was a History major at Stanford. I think he got the job by just showing up at the right party at the right time and saying "yeah, I can test software." Find an IT-job-dense part of the country and you increase your odds quite a bit.

First: Computer science is not IT. IT is not programming. Computer science is what programmers study. It's the study of producing new programs. Information Technology, as used in the business sense, is the department of the company responsible for managing and maintaining the various computers used in the business. This may involve building complex systems which require some programming (scripting) work. But, for the most part, does not require the creation of novel programs from nothing. If you want to program, you need to learn computer science (either on your own or through university). I would not recommend taking the Master's. The prerequisites will, I absolutely promise, amount to almost a bachelor's degree in and of themselves. There's simply no way that a pre-law history major took all of the regular math, computer math, and programming classes necessary. If you want to program, go take a second bachelor's. It'll take you less time, and will probably be cheaper. If you don't want a job as a programmer, but rather as an IT technician, I really don't think your degree matters. Lots of folks do have compsci degrees, but it's by no means the rule. The field of study designed specifically for IT techs is usually called "Information Systems" or "Information Science"--at Temple University, it was called "Information Science and Technology". Some of these programs are really excellent, turning out excellent network engineers; some of these programs are going to be more basic than the books you've already read. So, assuming that you want to do technician work, I'd just start interviewing for jobs. If you have the chops, you can prove it. And a degree in history is no real detriment.

Oh yeah and getting certifications is a good way to "prove" you know what you're doing if you want a most non-programming sys-admining type job.

Your degree is irrelevant. I've been in IT for almost two decades now, and the overwhelming number of people that I've worked with have non-IT degrees, if they had any degree at all. I could probably count the number of people with IT-related degrees that I've worked with on the fingers of one hand. You should be thinking about developing an IT skillset, and it certainly seems to me like you're on the right track there. The one piece of advice I would give you is to think about what you actually want to do within IT as a first step, and talk to someone already doing that kind of job about their skillset - then get to work on developing that, either through vendor-type training, or independent work, or whatever.

I'm a programmer and I studied English in college before I dropped out. I suppose I got into the business by doing small projects for clients, and one of those eventually turned into a full time position. It's possible to become a programmer without a degree in CS. I don't recommend that you try it though. I'm good at what I do and I have over ten years of experience and there are lots of employers that won't even look at me because I don't have a degree.

As others have pointed out, it depends on what kind of IT job you want. If you want the kind of IT job that has more to do with maintaining systems, no, you don't really need a college degree in CS. But if you want to become a software engineer, you do. I have both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Computer Science from a major university. In my opinion, you really need a bachelor's degree in CS or a (closely) related field to be properly equipped to take on earning your master's. I wouldn't recommend jumping into the U of C's master's program without that kind of equipment. I work as a software engineer, and I'm good at what I do in part because I have a good theoretical background (experience doesn't hurt either, of course). This type of understanding isn't something you're ever going to get from dabbling in release candidates or programming, no matter how much of it you do. If you want make a living designing and implementing software systems, you need to do more than treat your interest in computers like a hobby. You might start with some sub-master's-level courses and move on from there if you like the direction you're going in.