IT support no experience jobs: how to land your first UK role

Yes, you can get an IT support job in the UK with no experience. First-line support and service desk roles are the most common way into IT, and many employers hire for attitude and customer service, then train the technical side. What gets you shortlisted is showing you already know the basics: Windows, Microsoft 365, password resets, account management and how to talk to a frustrated user.

Here's how to make that case when your CV has no IT jobs on it.

Which IT support jobs take people with no experience?

Search for more than one title. These are the ones that most often hire beginners:

• 1st line support analyst or 1st line support technician
• Service desk analyst
• IT helpdesk analyst or helpdesk technician
• IT support assistant or IT technician (common in schools, colleges and councils)
• Desktop support or deskside support (often in larger offices)
• IT apprenticeships, such as the Level 3 IT Solutions Technician the National Careers Service lists

Schools, NHS trusts, councils and managed service providers (MSPs) are all good places to look. MSPs in particular hire a lot of first-line staff because they support many client businesses at once, and the variety teaches you fast.

Our IT support jobs guide goes into more of these roles.

What do employers actually want?

IT Jobs Watch tracks the skills mentioned in UK job ads. For permanent 1st line support jobs in the six months to November 2026, the most common were:

Look at that list. Two of the top four aren't technical at all. Customer service and problem-solving matter almost as much as Windows.

So if you've worked in retail, hospitality, a call centre or any customer-facing job, you're not starting from zero. You've already done half the work: calming people down, asking good questions, following a process and logging what happened.

How do you get IT jobs with no experience?

Build proof of the technical half. Here's what I'd do, in order.

1. Set up a home lab. Install a Windows Server evaluation in a free virtual machine, create a domain, add users, reset passwords, set up groups. That's Active Directory experience you can talk about.
2. Get comfortable with Microsoft 365 admin. Use a Microsoft 365 business trial if one is available to you. Practise creating users, assigning licences and managing mailboxes.
3. Learn the ticket mindset. Read about ITIL basics: incidents, service requests, priorities, escalation. Many service desks use ServiceNow, Jira Service Management or Freshservice.
4. Fix things for people. Family, friends, a local charity. Keep a log: problem, what you tried, what fixed it. That's your interview material.
5. Take an entry certification. CompTIA A+ is the one IT support managers recognise most at this level.
6. Apply while you learn. Don't wait until you feel ready.

Step 6 matters most. Plenty of people get hired halfway through their studies because they could talk confidently about what they'd already tried.

A useful test: could you explain, step by step, how you'd help a user who can't log in on a Monday morning? If you can cover checking the account status in Active Directory, resetting the password, checking multi-factor authentication and logging the ticket, you're closer to job-ready than you think.

Can you get an IT job with no experience or degree?

Yes. The National Careers Service lists several routes into IT support: university, college courses (including the T Level in Digital Support and Security), apprenticeships and starting as a trainee technician while studying for qualifications on the job.

First-line roles are among the most degree-friendly jobs in tech. Employers care far more about whether you can reset an account, explain a fix and log it properly than about what you studied. If an ad asks for a degree but your skills match, apply anyway.

What will you earn?

Starting pay is modest, but it rises once you move to second line.

The National Careers Service gives £24,000 as a typical starter salary for IT support technicians and £36,000 for experienced ones. Advertised salaries run a little higher. On IT Jobs Watch, the median for UK permanent 1st line support ads was £28,375 in the six months to November 2026, with the 10th percentile at £25,300 and the 90th at £34,835. Service desk analyst ads had a median of £30,000 over the same period.

London and specialist sectors such as finance tend to sit at the top of those ranges. Schools and smaller businesses often sit at the bottom, though they can offer more variety and a gentler start.

The bigger jump comes with progression. Second-line roles, where you handle the problems first line can't fix, had a median advertised salary of £33,500 on IT Jobs Watch in the same period. Many people make that move once they have some experience and keep learning.

The National Careers Service also notes that hours are typically 35 to 40 a week, often variable, and can include evenings or weekends on a shift rota. Worth asking about at interview.

How should you write your CV with no IT experience?

Put a short profile at the top that says what you want: "Customer service professional moving into IT support. Built a Windows Server and Active Directory home lab and studying for CompTIA A+."

Then add a "Technical projects" section above your work history. Describe the lab in specific terms: what you set up, what you broke, how you fixed it.

Rewrite your previous jobs to show the overlap. If you handled a high volume of customer queries, say roughly how many (only if you know the real figure). Show volume, patience and process. Mention any time you were the person colleagues asked when the till, printer or booking system stopped working. That's informal first-line support, and it counts.

Where do people go wrong?

The most common mistake is waiting. People spend a year collecting certificates and never apply. The second is applying only to "IT support engineer" roles, which usually mean second line. The third is a CV that lists technologies with no evidence of using them.

Fix those and your response rate goes up. For more on entry-level roles across IT, see our entry-level IT jobs page.

How Experiencely can help

If you need real service desk experience on your CV, our IT help desk programme is built for that. It includes training and three CompTIA certifications (ITF+, A+ and Cloud Essentials+), plus a live service desk placement. You're placed within 48 hours and work about an hour a day for three months, fully remote. The programme costs £2,495. If you're not hired within 60 days of finishing, you get your money back, with conditions. You'll have actual tickets and fixes to talk about in interviews.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Figures are taken from the sources below. Salary ranges are indicative and individual offers vary. Last checked 9 November 2026.

1. National Careers Service: IT support technician
2. IT Jobs Watch: 1st Line Support jobs, UK
3. IT Jobs Watch: Service Desk Analyst jobs, UK