Pathways
Where are you starting from?
The honest route into tech depends on your starting point. Each pathway composes the full journey from cited data — what transfers (O*NET), the realistic first role (BLS), the certification ladder with the vendor’s own eligibility, real costs including upkeep, and the funding levers for your situation. No figure without a source; the “not yet” entries render on purpose.
Available pathways
Pick your starting point
Career change → IT support
No IT background. What transfers from customer-facing work, the realistic first role, and the honest five-credential ladder.
Veteran → cybersecurity
The DoD 8140-aligned ladder with candidate baseline mappings per certification, the honest not-yet entries, and the funding levers only veterans have.
Help desk → cloud
Already in IT support? The fundamentals-then-administrator ladder, the pick-one-platform advice, and the honest infrastructure gap.
Career change → cybersecurity
The honest version: security is rarely a direct entry from zero. The genuine zero-experience credentials, the on-ramp most people actually take, and the not-yets.
Career change → data
One of the more accessible switches — spreadsheet and reporting work genuinely transfers. The thinner cert landscape, said plainly, plus the portfolio reality.
Student → IT support
Time-rich and cash-poor. Whether tech needs a degree-first plan (usually not for support), the orientation-vs-hiring-standard distinction, and the campus levers.
Veteran → networking
The signal/comms MOS bridge — civilian networking is the most direct translation of tactical-network work; the gap is commercial vendor vocabulary, not concepts.
Returning to work → IT support
After a career gap, hiring screens test currency — which is exactly what a date-stamped certification demonstrates. The honest re-entry sequence.
Help desk → cybersecurity
You are already on the on-ramp: access resets, phishing reports, and endpoint tickets are security-adjacent work. The analyst ladder from where you sit.
Manager → IT management
The rare pathway where existing seniority is the asset — people, budget, and stakeholder leadership transfer; the credentials add the technical vocabulary.
Veteran → IT support
For the majority of MOSs: procedure, accountability, and calm under pressure are what support teams hire for. The broad on-ramp the specialist tracks branch from.
Career change → networking
Network roles rarely hire from zero — here is the structural reason why, the support on-ramp, and the honest Network+ → CCNA sequence for when networking is the destination.
Career change → cloud
The sharpest honesty on the site: cloud administration is not entry-level from zero, and fundamentals certificates are orientation, not job tickets. Read this before any bootcamp.
Student → cybersecurity
Labs, CTFs, and campus clubs as practice and evidence — plus the cheapest cited credential scaffolding around them, and the honest parallel plan through IT support.
More pathways ship on a rolling basis. In the meantime, the career-change overlap pages cover ten starting backgrounds with cited O*NET data.
Or personalize it directly
The planner builds a cited plan from your actual background, budget, and hours. Free; we sell nothing.