What kind of job will I have to do as a computer engineer?

What kind of an IT job can you quickly get where you're mostly sitting at a computer and don't have to deal with customers?

• I need a job quickly. I know Windows, and am often called a tech whiz but I don't think I know as much as I should about IT, and just started learning web programming. What kind of job can I get right right away or what kinds of skills can I quickly pick up to get a job? I would prefer something where I can sit on a computer most of the day and not be in front of customers or deal with customers. I don't mind interacting with company employees at all but would prefer not to be in front of customers. I don't care what kind of job it is as long as I can make some decent money. I live in the US.

• Answer:

  If you don't have formal technical training, you won't penetrate very deeply into IT. There are, however, some things you can do quickly that will help you go much further. There are a few industry standard certifications in IT that are fairly easy to study for and obtain: A+ / Net+ would be the place I suggest starting (MCSE, Cisco certs and all that other stuff comes later.) What can you do with them? And what can you do without them? Tech support is a large industry. Some of it is 'customer facing' and some of it is 'user facing.' What's the difference? Users are people who work for the same company you do. You still need customer service skills, when tell someone "Sorry, I can't fix your computer this week because I'm setting up all the laptops for this weekend's conference" they might grumble, but they don't stand there yelling at you about how much they paid for the computer or how it's all a big scam to make them buy more of your company's product. Internal support positions are harder to get without experience or education. Most people hiring for internal support tend to recruit from people who have done customer facing work before. I've interviewed plenty of 'tech wiz' types over the years, but in general, without education or certification or experience.... it's really hard to get work that isn't customer facing. A large swath of the IT Industry's entry level is customer facing. People cutting their teeth in telecom may start with cable companies as installers. Customer facing tech support is huge, and the turnover is high enough that jobs are frequently available. Desktop support / Bench tech work, with something like an A+ / Net+ and no experience... you may be able to get your foot in the door, but it's going to be rough. Probably not the answer you wanted, but I've been managing teams with entry level IT staff for a while and I just don't see many people without education or experience getting hired for non-customer facing work.