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Dwiman89
February 8th, 2008, 07:51 PM
Hey. I have always loved working with computers. I am almost done with high school. I want to work in the industry. The problem is I don't know witch rout to take. A lot ot people have told me that the industry is crowded and way too competitive to make any money.
I havve been told that a lot of large systems use linux/unix based systems. I would assume there is a greater demand in the department because most peple go for Microsoft certifications. Please help me with advice regarding this. I herd that about 35% of kids coming out of high school are getting into computers....
I live in the Atlanta area so there is a lot of places around...

p_quarles
February 8th, 2008, 08:26 PM
Moved to Community Cafe.

ghandi69_
February 8th, 2008, 08:57 PM
Hey. I have always loved working with computers. I am almost done with high school. I want to work in the industry. The problem is I don't know witch rout to take. A lot ot people have told me that the industry is crowded and way too competitive to make any money.
I havve been told that a lot of large systems use linux/unix based systems. I would assume there is a greater demand in the department because most peple go for Microsoft certifications. Please help me with advice regarding this. I herd that about 35% of kids coming out of high school are getting into computers....
I live in the Atlanta area so there is a lot of places around...

As for the industry being crowded, I am not sure who you are hearing that from. I can't speak for computer science majors, but I would definitely recommend engineering as a degree that has more job opportunites than can be filled at the moment (again, things change with time)

At my university, they offer computer engineering (as opposed to just electrical) which deals a lot with how a computer works under the hood as well as embedded systems and other great stuff.

Now, if you wish to limit yourself to Linux/Unix exclusively, that could be more difficult, and maybe others here might be able to help you better.

DrMega
February 8th, 2008, 09:07 PM
Don't get too hung up on which OS you are going to target for now. Focus on getting a good grounding in programming in general. Like Mr Mayaga said, even the strong building will fall if it is built on a foundation of sand:)

When you are ready to specialise, there are two things you need to decide:

1. What do you actually WANT to do? Only you can answer that, and..
2. What is popular in your area? To do this look at recruitment websites to see what's going.

The important thing is, never lose sight of your goal. If you have to take a job that is not quite what you want but will give you good experience, then take it but use it as a stepping stone. Don't do like I did and stay on that stepping stone until you get bored, by which time you realise you're tied in to a particular part of the industry that you have no interest in.

toupeiro
February 8th, 2008, 09:25 PM
I've been in IT for 10 years, and only the last 2 have been specialized in UNIX/Linux disciplines. Now, I am being pulled to do more cross functional work (which I actually prefer because it keeps it interesting.) I just want to reinforce the comments made about being flexible. Specializing in something can help you later on, but it can ultimately hurt you in the beginning because you are fighting against experience in the workforce. If you develop a strong base set of skills across multiple IT diciplines (Windows, UNIX, Linux, Networking, Applications) then strengthen the ones you enjoy, you can use the skills you've acquired to make your specialized focus even stronger. UNIX and Linux is a great discipline, and I enjoy it but generaly it can also become easy to get into a comfort zone with because to be honest, it just has less problems and runs better for longer periods of time, and requires less maintenance and tweaking to keep its performance optimal. Thats not necessarily the best rhythm to get into just starting out (but its a breath of fresh air once you've been an IT firefighter for a few years) ;-) Your exposure to other OSes and disciplines are definately transferrable to UNIX/Linux so don't think that because you aren't working on linux/unix in the beginning that you are not preparing yourself to.

jaytek13
February 8th, 2008, 09:58 PM
It is actually quite overcrowded. The IT boom in the late 90's led to a lot of people majoring in IT fields due to high demand, but now with the decline of not only the IT industry but the economy as a whole it can be very hard to find a career in this field doing what you want to do, regardless of the degree you hold. With the current situation, the people doing the hiring have become very very picky. You can browse through job listings and see this... most of them are asking for 10+ years of experience and very particular skillsets, like expertise in this or that obscure application.

That said, if it's really what you want to do, basically any degree will do. You can also look through the job listings and see that people doing the hiring don't really care about which computer degree you hold, whether it be CS or CIS or CE, but only that you can do the job. Considering this. certifications can certainly help, probably Linux+ and Networking+ or RHCE. Learning a scripting language is a must, such as perl or php and definitely bash. Also programming skills in general will be required. But, all of these skills are very transferable, regardless of the OS in question.

scorp123
February 8th, 2008, 10:14 PM
Hey. I have always loved working with computers. Same here. It always was a hobby of mine. And at some point I turned my "hobby" into my job & profession which pays me good money. :)


A lot ot people have told me that the industry is crowded and way too competitive to make any money. Only true for the Microsoft world: Every moron has a MCSE or other Microsoft title these days. Not that all MCSE's are morons ... but somehow many morons achieved to get a MCSE title which kinda tells me that this title isn't worth much. Really. I have worked with MCSE's (e.g. at HP where I worked 2000 -- 2007) and sometimes it's shocking how utterly clueless some of those guys are. As I said: Not all of them of course.... But there are too many black sheep amongst them.

UNIX and Linux and especially CISCO are different: Here you can really shine with your brilliance if you do it right and need not fear the competition. Even if your competitors beat you chances are they will sometimes screw up or not do the job right so you can still have a second chance. And in my experience people who may truly call themselves "UNIX guru" are *very rare* and customers know that too! You solve a really tricky problem for them once and they will not in 1000 years abandon you ever again. In the UNIX market a happy customer is guaranteed to be a returning customer too. Good for you. Good for me. Good for them. Everybody wins. :)

The company I work for now is very very small (especially when compared to HP where I worked before that!) and totally specialised on SUN's UNIX hardware (and a little Fujitsu-Siemens and Hitachi storage stuff besides that) and services all around Linux and UNIX. And we're making money like mad. We're not millionaires or anything like that but still we have pretty good lives and our income is way beyond anything "average".

And we already beat Microsoft several times. Trust me: There are enough potential customers out there who've had enough. Enough viruses, enough malware, enough trojans, enough bluescreens, enough downtime ... You make them a decent offer to switch over to Linux (or UNIX), you also include a decent offer to train their people and give them top notch + first class support whenever a problem --no matter how "silly" or "stupid" it may be-- arises, and voila: you win!

We've beaten companies 1000 times our size at this game. Can money be made here in "the industry"? You bet. :guitar:


I havve been told that a lot of large systems use linux/unix based systems. I would assume there is a greater demand in the department because most peple go for Microsoft certifications. Exactly. Or if you really want companies to treat you like a king: Go for CISCO certifications. "Cisco Certified Internetworking Engineer" <== that one is *HARD* to get. But once you're a CCIE you can rightfully call yourself "Networking Super-Guru" (I promise: all others around you *will* call you like that anyway!) and I've never seen a jobless or poor CCIE :lolflag:

The key to success these days is to be different from the masses. "Be classy ... not massy ... " :guitar:

macogw
February 8th, 2008, 10:26 PM
What I've noticed while job-hunting around here (DC) is that Unix/Linux system administration jobs are all full-time. The part-time ones I keep seeing are for Windows. It's getting annoying, because I'm in school and can only work part-time.


It is actually quite overcrowded. The IT boom in the late 90's led to a lot of people majoring in IT fields due to high demand, but now with the decline of not only the IT industry but the economy as a whole it can be very hard to find a career in this field doing what you want to do, regardless of the degree you hold. With the current situation, the people doing the hiring have become very very picky. You can browse through job listings and see this... most of them are asking for 10+ years of experience and very particular skillsets, like expertise in this or that obscure application.

That said, if it's really what you want to do, basically any degree will do. You can also look through the job listings and see that people doing the hiring don't really care about which computer degree you hold, whether it be CS or CIS or CE, but only that you can do the job. Considering this. certifications can certainly help, probably Linux+ and Networking+ or RHCE. Learning a scripting language is a must, such as perl or php and definitely bash. Also programming skills in general will be required. But, all of these skills are very transferable, regardless of the OS in question.
The reason they're picky about hiring now is because back then any idiot that could type "./configure" could get a job as a "developer" regardless of whether they could actually code or not. It's just that now you have to be actually *gasp* qualified. Oh, go for LPIC, not Linux+. It's not as basic as Linux+.

Oh, from what I've heard (though I haven't paid attention to the salaries offered for full-time since I'm looking for part-time), the salaries for *nix sysadmins are higher than for MS sysadmins, overall.

jaytek13
February 8th, 2008, 10:47 PM
The reason they're picky about hiring now is because back then any idiot that could type "./configure" could get a job as a "developer" regardless of whether they could actually code or not. It's just that now you have to be actually *gasp* qualified.


Well, I think there are additional reasons for it, too. Back then, they were forced to hire anyone because the demand was so high it was hard to find people. They'd pay for training for a few individuals on a few of their business apps that they regularly use, and then after the paid training was over the person hired would leave for another job.

So we've went from the extreme that they were forced to train everyone to the other end of the spectrum where they refuse to train anyone at all.

But, I'm specifically referring to applications. Basically every business uses different ones for the same purpose, so requiring familiarity with this or that business app, well, it is certainly a way to weed people out, anyways.

chirulais
February 8th, 2008, 11:12 PM
i got a microsoft certification at high school here in mexico, i just had to learn some VB, windows, office etc.. and voila!
it was quite easy...

scorp123
February 8th, 2008, 11:21 PM
the salaries for *nix sysadmins are higher than for MS sysadmins, overall. Absolutely! :) I know a guy who's about the same age as myself, same years of work experience and all that .... I earn about 65% more than he does (I have like 165% ~ 170% of his salary). Sucks for him. :lolflag:

Dwiman89
February 9th, 2008, 12:29 AM
SO what are the first steps to take to get somewhere so to speak. Should I g for A+, Networking+ and Security+ certifications first?

macogw
February 9th, 2008, 01:38 AM
SO what are the first steps to take to get somewhere so to speak. Should I g for A+, Networking+ and Security+ certifications first?

A+ is nothing. It's equivalent to 6 months working at Geek Squad. It just means you can replace a dead hard drive or install a PCI card, basically

Linux Professionals Institute Certification (LPIC) is the first thing to get for Linux. It says more about your skills than Linux+ does. There are 2 levels available, I believe, and they have to be done in order.

Networking+? Not sure. Cisco certs are the standard for networking certs.

jpkotta
February 9th, 2008, 01:38 AM
I say go to college. You learn how to learn there and you learn problem solving skills. I agree with Ghandi69. By all means, get some certifications too, so you can get a job to pay for college.

macogw
February 9th, 2008, 01:40 AM
I say go to college. You learn how to learn there and you learn problem solving skills. I agree with Ghandi69. By all means, get some certifications too, so you can get a job to pay for college.

You learn how to think too. Discrete math is great for teaching new ways of thinking about problems.

scorp123
February 9th, 2008, 02:27 AM
SO what are the first steps to take to get somewhere so to speak. No kidding here: Finish some "smart a**" school, so people perceive you as being intelligent & smart. Go and get yourself a University degree if possible. No kidding here. You can't beat a University degree when it comes to "smartness". Very popular these days in the Human Resources departments: a combo of "Economy & Management" + Computer Sciences. Preferably with a Master Degree .... or at least a Bachelor's degree.

My boss at HP had exactly that and she was only slightly older than me. But she had a Master degree in Economy, another one in Management, and a few titles in Electro-Engineering .... That's why she was my boss and I not her's :lolflag: (and she was an excellent boss too!)

I started my career as "Call Center Agent" at a stupid local IT company. So my first "IT" job had nothing to do with IT at all: I was just supposed to take the damn phone which would ring all day long, open a support ticket and then assign it to one of our support technicians.

Life sucked ... so I changed the rules: Instead of assigning the support ticket to other people I started to solve the problems myself. My success rate increased over time and with time customers started to insist that they speak to me because they perceived me as being the only "really helpful" guy there.

Of course this caught management's attention ... six months after I started as "Call Center Agent" I was promoted to "Support Engineer", I all of a sudden had tons of more priviledges, "root" passwords everywhere, access codes to all the server rooms, and so on.

One year after that I was the team leader.

Another year later I received a phone call from HP .... my new title there: "2nd Level Telecom & e-Services Support Engineer with Trans-Geographical Responsibilities" .... I travelled the world, solved problems where local teams had failed to do so ... and we managed escalations and solved problems nobody else was able to solve. If I ever had a dream job, then this was it. And I did this for seven years (2000 - 2007) until my department was deemed as being "too expensive" and finally axed; all our jobs were outsourced to India. (now a guy barely able to speak English has to solve the same complex problems over the phone without being able to actually travel on-site and see the damn thing ... Good luck with that HP!! :lolflag: )

Now I am 35 and a wealthy overpaid "Technical Consultant" ... I travel around and tell people why they should toss HP's hardware out of their server rooms and buy SUN hardware instead (which really kicks a** !!!) and why they should migrate away from Windows and whatever UNIX they have towards Linux and SUN Solaris, and why they can entrust their complex projects to me ....

What a career :lolflag:

toupeiro
February 9th, 2008, 07:45 AM
A+ is NOT nothing -- you would be surprised how many people I've seen come into an IT job and don't know hardware to save their lives. Take it. Its inexpensive, and internationally recognized. It alone will not land you your IT dream job, but it could open a door. An open door may mean a VAR company or an IT support role that will pay, in full, your higher certification exams. People throw out a cisco exam like its free and forget that the budget of a High School grad looking for work doesn't include the cost of such exams and training materials. There is hundreds -- to thousands of dollars invested in a CCNA cert, and many thousands in a CCIE cert. Let your future employer pick these up. Do the industry baseline ones first. And as far as finding a job, go to college. companies recruit for internships in colleges, which can turn into full time positions. You get money, credit, and experience. Kinda hard to lose there.

scorp123
February 9th, 2008, 10:13 AM
Take it. Its inexpensive, and internationally recognized. It alone will not land you your IT dream job, but it could open a door. ... Do the industry baseline ones first. And as far as finding a job, go to college. companies recruit for internships in colleges, which can turn into full time positions. You get money, credit, and experience. Kinda hard to lose there. Well said. I second that. That's basically what I did. Start with the stupid jobs first, go for the cheapo certificates ... They will open doors to more interesting things. But school is so important: Go to college, grammar school, lyceum, whatever it is called. If possible go to University and get a degree there. Such things are big big bonuses.

The key is to find employers who are either willing to "sponsor" you (e.g. they send you to the trainings because it's in their own interest) or find jobs which will pay you enough so you can afford those trainings.

Just don't rush it. If you apply for a new job somewhere and you have certificates like mad (e.g. all achieved during previous jobs) then it soon enough becomes too obvious for a new employer that you're only after the certificates and that you don't really have any experience and "loyalty" is an unknown concept to you ... You have to keep a certain balance here so you look like someone who's worth to be employed and invested in.

Dwiman89
February 10th, 2008, 05:10 AM
So what are the base certs to get first?

ispy
February 10th, 2008, 05:34 AM
Like Mr Mayaga said, even the strong building will fall if it is built on a foundation of sand:)

Jesus said it first... :)

scorp123
February 10th, 2008, 11:17 AM
So what are the base certs to get first? A decent school diploma. I am not making fun at all here. Potential employers in the IT industry really do look at your school background and if they get the impression you're worth to be invested in you will get a job somewhere somehow.

e.g. I started as "Call Center Agent" ... the job sucked. But it was a first step "through the door". After a few weeks they paid me a "TCP/IP Networking" class and a basic Cisco training ... With my miserable salary back then I would not have been able to afford those trainings myself, so having my employer pay for them was a big big bonus.

So where you should start or not start depends on what's possible for you. If you can afford a few trainings / certifications yourself then I'd say: go for it!

No matter what stupid certification you start with: This stuff is not "nothing" and can open doors to better opportunities.

For example ...

you could start with some PC hardware certificate. Those should be cheap and easy to get. "Armed" with this you could try and apply for a job at a PC shop somewhere somehow ... you'd be the "PC repair guy". You work there for a few months and try to gain some experience there and then you move on: Try to get into a bigger company, e.g. into their IT department. You'd still be the "PC repair guy" and you'd still have a joke of a salary but nontheless: being employed in a bigger company has its advantages.

The advantage here is that with bigger companies it's easier to get more trainings .. more certificates ... and thus improve your CV with them.

Work there for a year or so (better: 2), make a good job, leave an excellent impression .... After a while you should ask them if you could change your job and join their IT administrators team, e.g. join them as "Junior System Administrator". If they say no: You move on. You could still use that other company as reference (that's why I said you should make a good job so people remember you in a positive way!).

If you move on: Try to get a job as "Junior Administrator" somewhere in a bigger company. The salary you should get there should be better than that of the "PC repair guy". Bigger salary means you can afford some of the more expensive trainings if your employer doesn't pay for those already.

Why bigger companies? Bigger companies are more likely to have UNIX machines of some sorts. If they do: Make sure you can join that team!! Because: Nobody is using UNIX machines "just like that", chances are they are keeping their most important stuff there (you can't beat UNIX when it comes to reliability!). And because nobody wants a noob mess with those machines and the data stored there they will very very very likely send you to a UNIX training ... e.g. SUN's "Solaris Administrator Training" or if they use e.g. HP-UX from Hewlett-Packard: "HP-UX System Administrator Training". Make sure they let you go through all levels of the training and that they'd support you get the certifications (e.g. "SUN Certified Solaris Administrator"). If they have Red Hat you of course try to get their certifications, and so on.

Very important: Once you're let in into a UNIX admin team, even if it's just as "Junior Administrator", make sure you stay there!!! The longer, the better. Because you can't replace the experience you'd get there with anything else! Also very important: Being in an "Administrator" team opens the keys to many doors ... e.g. in the UNIX world: Nobody is running "just" Linux or UNIX. Chances are they are running some application on top of that: Apache, Oracle, MySQL, Postgres, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, Apache Tomcat, JBoss, OpenLDAP ..... Whatever they are running on top of their boxes: You definitely want to get a few trainings for those products too, maybe even 1-2 certifications. Such stuff looks very good on a CV. :)

But as I said before: You can't replace experience.

For example: If two guys applied for the same job in my company, one has a UNIX certification but only 2 years of experience and the other guy has no certification at all but has 8 years of experience which he gained working all 8 years for his previous employer ... Guess what: We'd take the guy with the 8 years of experience!

There is no universal recipe here and no "one and only" path to get into the IT industry ... Ultimately it all depends on you and how you play out the cards given to you. This is like a Poker game in a sense. Sometimes you have to bluff, sometimes you have to cheat a little, sometimes you have accept defeat ... whatever happens: The IT world is constantly changing and you always have to flexible and adapt. Always know where you want to go and how to get there.

Dwiman89
February 11th, 2008, 06:34 AM
Thanks for your input. so I could get an A+ certification and get a job at a computer repair place(actually sounds fun) and get experience. Or go to school for two years and get an associate degree.
The degree doesn't cost any money because of where I live they have what's called a Hope grant.(The GA lottery pays for it.) But I would be stuck at my current job as a printer repair and Laser cartridge remanufacturing company(7 bucks an hour) for the duration. A degree does look good to employers. IM not one to normally take short cuts. ether certs and experience or a degree. Im just thinking that if I go for the degree im still going to have to go get certs and get a low paying job for experience before I can get anywhere. The degree does look good but is it honestly a two year setback.
I dont want to be living at home when im 23 years old like my brother because he couldn't figure out how to make some money...
Here is the link for the school I am looking at; //http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS (http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS)

macogw
February 11th, 2008, 08:12 AM
Thanks for your input. so I could get an A+ certification and get a job at a computer repair place(actually sounds fun) and get experience. Or go to school for two years and get an associate degree.
The degree doesn't cost any money because of where I live they have what's called a Hope grant.(The GA lottery pays for it.) But I would be stuck at my current job as a printer repair and Laser cartridge remanufacturing company(7 bucks an hour) for the duration. A degree does look good to employers. IM not one to normally take short cuts. ether certs and experience or a degree. Im just thinking that if I go for the degree im still going to have to go get certs and get a low paying job for experience before I can get anywhere. The degree does look good but is it honestly a two year setback.
I dont want to be living at home when im 23 years old like my brother because he couldn't figure out how to make some money...
Here is the link for the school I am looking at; //http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS (http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS)

You gotta get a college degree. It sounds like a setback, but really, when you have a degree, it tells the employers "I have 4 solid years of experience dealing with tons of stupid ****. I'm not a quitter."

scorp123
February 11th, 2008, 11:00 AM
You gotta get a college degree. Definitely! If you can get one, go for it! And nope, it isn't a setback at all. It pays off later on and you automagically get higher salaries than the people without one. No kidding. The argumentation here is: "He's / She's got a college degree - so he's / she's better qualified than you!" ... even if both people perform the same job, the ones with the better degrees have the better chance of getting good salaries and having their employer invest more money into their careers with additional trainings. The logic here being: "He / She already has a college degree ... If they were able to do that they can do more! Way more! " and so employers (especially bigger companies) can easily be convinced to support you financially so you can get even higher degrees.

And of course: Guess who gets promoted all the time? Of course those with the higher degrees! Imagine this: You start the same day as another guy, you both perform the same job, deliver the same quality of work. After three months the other guy gets a salary increase. You not. After another six months he gets promoted and all of a sudden he's your boss ... and not you his. Why? He's got a college degree, you not. <== think of it that way. That's definitely the bigger setback!

My boss at HP made her "MBA" degree while she was employed working for HP (like myself she started as support engineer at HP). They paid half of the bills and with her already high salary it was easy for her to pay the other half. She applied for a higher position, HP turned her down ... and now she's with a competitor where she's become a "General Manager" of several departments and now she's got like 2000 people underneath her, all under her command and doing her bidding ...

A college degree can be the key to many doors ... And even if you can't see those "doors" right now and even if right now you can't think of why you'd need those "keys" at all ... Trust me. You gotta think and plan in advance: Where will you be in 10 years? Where will you be in 20 years? Still work your a** off, doing some rather uninteresting job for 7 bucks per hour?

I am in the same boat. I am 35 now, and it has become clear to me that I can't work in customer support or technical consulting for all eternity. The bitter truth is: I am getting older too. In 10 years from now I will be 45 and maybe already slightly too old to compete with you youngsters -- young people are way better at grasping new products, new situations, learn new stuff. So I gotta change the game in my favour: Instead of having to compete with young people who might soon replace me I have to get myself a decent management job so I could e.g. lead young people (why not? let them profit from my many years of experience ...) instead of having to compete against them (in 10 years from now I'd definitely lose that game!).

As I said ... It's a Poker game, you can influence this, you can play your cards, you can bluff, you can cheat (just don't get caught), you can grab new cards if you need to (= go for better certifications!) ... But you have to remain active and play along, play the game. If you don't do anything about it this will soon degrade into a Roulette game, and then it is too late, "Les jeux sont faits, rien ne va plus!" ... in Roulette you get what you get. And it better not be Russian Roulette :lolflag:

chrismr
February 12th, 2008, 03:14 AM
I attend UF, and our IT department is big enough to have ~2 linux proficient support personnel, this really helped when I hosed my vista system. Been using Ubuntu ever since.

stmiller
February 12th, 2008, 05:02 AM
Get a job now. Even a little computer lab job, anything. It's not just certs and degrees- having a list of computer-like jobs is worth more than gold.

The more things that say 'computer' on your resume (even if small or minor) the better.

Dwiman89
February 12th, 2008, 11:07 PM
So what are some good certs besides A+ to get a job at a computer repair place. Im thinking of looking for something part time there while I go for a degree in CIS.. Wont these places see me and realize that im just a kid looking for experience and just using them as a stepping stone?

scorp123
February 13th, 2008, 01:49 AM
Wont these places see me and realize that im just a kid looking for experience and just using them as a stepping stone? What's wrong with that? Of course you will use them as a stepping stone, just the same way as they will use you as their cheapo "PC repair guy" slave. That's capitalism! Sell & buy, give and take. :)

Biochem
February 13th, 2008, 02:35 AM
Wont these places see me and realize that im just a kid looking for experience and just using them as a stepping stone?

I'm not in the IT field but I train a lot of undergrads and some things are universal.

Better be seen as the guy looking for experience than the one who's there only for the pay check. The former is motivated, always wants to learn knew things, works hard, is loyal and could stay for a while. The later is lazy, uninterested and will leave without notice the second he finds a better pay check

Guess which one I will have good reference?

farruinn
February 13th, 2008, 04:37 AM
Wont these places see me and realize that im just a kid looking for experience and just using them as a stepping stone?

Funny, when I interviewed for my current job at a local ISP I said exactly, "I see this as a good stepping stone for me to get into IT" and I got hired, so don't let that thought hold you back.

good luck

Dwiman89
February 13th, 2008, 06:29 PM
So what are some certifications to get that will help me get that PC repair job?

farruinn
February 13th, 2008, 07:17 PM
If it's just PC repair, A+ will do.

Kedaeus_Sendre
February 13th, 2008, 08:30 PM
Thanks for your input. so I could get an A+ certification and get a job at a computer repair place(actually sounds fun) and get experience. Or go to school for two years and get an associate degree.
The degree doesn't cost any money because of where I live they have what's called a Hope grant.(The GA lottery pays for it.) But I would be stuck at my current job as a printer repair and Laser cartridge remanufacturing company(7 bucks an hour) for the duration. A degree does look good to employers. IM not one to normally take short cuts. ether certs and experience or a degree. Im just thinking that if I go for the degree im still going to have to go get certs and get a low paying job for experience before I can get anywhere. The degree does look good but is it honestly a two year setback.
I dont want to be living at home when im 23 years old like my brother because he couldn't figure out how to make some money...
Here is the link for the school I am looking at; //http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS (http://www.northmetrotech.edu/index.html?lmenu=PoS&content=PoS/CIS)

Dude, I worked at Whataburger making $8.50 an hour while I went to school. Paid a buddy $150 a month to sleep on his couch and put the rest of the money, I didn't spend on gas, in the bank.

While going to school for 2 years, at ITT-Tech of all places, for computer networking systems I ended up turning a hobby of mine, programming, into a full-time cram session. Networking was easy - I chose it because it was the hot-job back in 2000 and I grew up putting computers together in my sleep. C# and VB being my main focus at the time (along with Actionscript 2.0)

When I graduated from ITT-Tech I had an associates degree in Computer Networking Systems and a Home Brewed Education in software development.

I got a DUMB job contracted to a call center development firm run by a multi-national telecom company in Irving Texas (Verizon). My job? Scrubbing test scripts for a contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California (For HMO Coverage.. Press 1, That was me!). Instead of bullshitting around and hand typing the test scripts like the other 30 people hired to do the job with me.. I spent 4 hours and developed a slick little application that read the database of script prompts, compiled the script numbers in the order you told it to, saved the data to a new table in the database and exported it as an Excel file..

Instead of taking a day to scrub 10 scripts I could do 50 in an hour.
29 peoples contracts were ended 3 months early and 1 [me] was hired on full time to set up and debug routes in scripts instead of scrubbing excel files.

After resigning from that job a year later (I got cubicitus [see office space]) I joined the Army as a PFC and now run Patrol Base Baker's communications in Iraq doing something completely different. Still there is opportunity to shine even here.

The point is - anyone can go to school and graduate. Anyone can possess entry level certifications however, it's what you do at the future job that sets you apart from the rest of the crowd. No matter what you do - believe you are the **** - but don't tell anyone you think that way. Show them. I've learned firsthand that people who talk ****, are.

Be passionate about what you do - even if it sucks and don't sell yourself short. A+ will get you in the door, N+ will tell your potential employer that you had a weekend and a few hundred bucks.. (which is good - get them) but don't stop there. Someone will always know more than you, or have more experience, but your proven work ethic will get you ahead 9 times out of 10.

Oh.. and for God's sake.. buy a nice suit.