How to Start an IT Career for Free: Courses, Certifications, and the Jobs They Lead To

Starting an IT career is more attainable than you might think. The good news is that you do not need a computer science degree, years of experience, or thousands of dollars in tuition. What you do need is a starting point and a clear sense of how to build momentum. This blog post gives you both: the free courses to take, in what order, and the jobs they lead to.

The Benefits of Upskilling Through Courses and Credentials

You can rule out a wrong path in an afternoon instead of a year. This is the most underrated benefit of free courses. A short introductory course tells you whether troubleshooting energizes you or drains you before you have spent money, taken time off work, or committed to a months-long program. Finding out how interested you are in information technology is super valuable.

Credentials give you something concrete to show recruiters and potential employers. If you are changing fields, your resume probably has a gap between what you have done and what you are asking for. A completed course or certificate fills that gap with evidence instead of just enthusiasm. It answers the hiring manager's real question: "Have you demonstrated any commitment to this field yet?"

Certifications are what some employers screen for. There is a real difference between a course completion and an industry certification. Course completions show initiative and give you vocabulary. Certifications like the Grow with Google IT Support Career Certificate and Microsoft's Associate-level credentials are named directly in job postings and recognized by employers. Both are useful, but serve different purposes.

You’ll gain stackable skills. IT foundations build on each other. Networking knowledge from an entry-level course still applies when you move into security three years later. Unlike some fields where a pivot means starting over, IT rewards the layering.

You learn the language. This sounds minor until your first interview. Being able to say "I'd start by isolating whether it's a local issue or a network issue" instead of "I'd try to figure out what's wrong" is often the difference between sounding curious and sounding qualified.

Some of Our IT Training Paths

Here are some of our free courses, ordered generally by experience level.

One quick note on that last row. Microsoft Learn works more like a library than a single course, so treat it as something you keep coming back to rather than the one you check off and finish. For example, the Information Security Administrator track runs about 18 hours across four Microsoft Purview learning paths covering information protection, data loss prevention, insider risk management, and securing AI environments. You also get an instructor-led option, a practice assessment, and the Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate exam waiting at the end.

The material assumes you already understand networks, identity, and access control, which is exactly what the earlier steps on this list teach you. In short, do not start here. Bookmark this one and work your way up to it, because this is the step that can turn an IT support job into a security career. It is also the reason the earlier courses deserve your full attention instead of a quick skim.

The IT Field is Bigger Than the Help Desk

When most people picture a career in IT, they imagine a person in an office who fixes laptops and resets passwords. That role is real, and it's a solid entry point, but it represents one small corner of a much wider field.

For example, Grow with Google's framing of an IT Support career spans hardware and infrastructure, information security, cloud computing technologies, computer networks, and storage and data. Additionally, within those areas sit help desk technicians, network support specialists, systems administrators, site reliability engineers, security analysts, cloud support engineers, and web developers. The skills for a lot of these positions overlap enough that moving between them is normal and rather seamless. 

A dive into the wages and labor market statistics 

Computer and information technology occupations earned a median annual wage of $109,470 in May 2025, more than double the $50,980 median for all occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also projects the group to grow faster than average from 2025 to 2035, with roughly 280,000 openings a year across the field.

Entry-level support is where most people start their careers, and the volume there is substantial, so it makes sense as a starting point. About 48,700 openings for computer support specialists are projected each year on average, with computer user support specialists earning a median of $61,860 and network support specialists earning $76,220.

IT security is one of the fastest-growing areas in the field. Employment of information security analysts is projected to grow 21 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 14,100 openings a year and a median annual wage of $129,180 as of May 2025. Systems administration pays a median of $99,130, and web development comes in at $92,650.

Looking at this all at a high level, you can see that IT careers have a wide entry point and a ton of room for growth. The training paths CareerCircle offers are built to get you through the door and then keep you climbing.

Where These Skills Can Take You

These are the roles you might consider from the skills learned in the courses above. Wage figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025.

Hear From Some of the People Who Upskilled Through CareerCircle

What upskilling through IBM did for one member 

"What motivated me to pursue this program was my desire to start a career in IT support and build a strong foundation of technical skills that are in demand. I wanted to transition from my previous hands-on mechanical and construction experience into a role where I could troubleshoot problems, assist users, and support technology solutions. 

Through the program, I learned essential IT skills including system troubleshooting, customer support, networking basics, and cybersecurity fundamentals. It has improved my ability to communicate technical solutions clearly, prioritize tasks, and approach problems logically. I feel more confident applying for remote helpdesk or IT support positions and know that I can continue to grow and learn on the job." - John Parker

How one member leveraged their Grow with Google career certificate to get into cybersecurity:

"Taking a Google Career Certificate significantly enhanced my transition into cybersecurity. The structured curriculum provided practical skills, particularly in network security and systems administration, which seamlessly aligned with my previous quality management experience. By deepening my understanding of cybersecurity concepts and tools like NMAP and Nessus, the certificate empowered me to apply my analytical mindset to safeguard digital assets effectively, accelerating my career growth in this dynamic field." - Lauren Johnson

Start With One Course and Go From There

You do not need to decide on a career today. Start one course and decide if IT is the right path for you.

Our advice: start with IT Fundamentals. It is free, self-paced, and ends with a realistic look at what IT support work involves. If it clicks with you, add a specialization course, then move to the Grow with Google IT Support Career Certificate.