Seriously though, IT is a horrible field to get into. The customers are nasty, the work is frustrating and repetitive, and you'll be expected to constantly perform miracles with insane deadlines and no money for equipment and training. Look into another field if you can.
Oh... and you job may cease to exist six months from now due to outsourcing.
This. I would choose something else if I had it to do over. To illustrate a recent example of ultimatebob's post, let me tell a story.
I had a funny interview yesterday for a consulting job. They asked me about one of my current projects. Keep in mind that I am the only person in my company who does Sharepoint and I had already listed off several other HUGE projects I have to get done. There is no way it would be humanly possible for me to get them all done over the summer.
Anyway, this particular project was an upgrade of a mission-critical system and they asked me what my plan was. I mentioned that the plan was to engage professional services of the software company and they'd have to help me, as I have not had any training whatsoever on the product. The guy actually said to me "Uh, you've mentioned formal training a couple of times. Do you really need formal training to learn?" The question didn't bother me, but the tone he used did. But I remained calm and didn't decide to have fun with it like I did in
this interview.
That told me a lot about the company and there is no way I would accept a position there if offered. Yes, I do have a lab at home and do tinker and learn things. However, I'm not 25 and single anymore -- I'm sorry, but I am not spending every waking moment either at work or working in my lab. I'm 40 years old and have a wife, a big home to take care of, and a family and hobbies to keep me busy as well.
At any rate, I really felt like slapping the douchecanoe, but whatever -- go ahead and hire the nerd with no life. He might know more than me or spend more time in his home lab, but I promise you this -- I would kick his ass up one side and down another as an employee. You can't gain 17+ years of IT experience by reading a book or playing in a lab. In fact, we used to make fun of job applicants whose sole experience with a product was in their home lab, so I NEVER claim experience with a product unless I've actually used it in a production environment.