IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Sonny Bonds]

12 month contract on the table as a field engineer but doesn’t have vacation or pto time ,

Should i still consider accepting just for the experience or should i say nah?

It depends on how much experience you have, if the role is going to give you experience in the next step of your career, and how much money they’re offering.

 

[NYtymes]

It depends on how much experience you have, if the role is going to give you experience in the next step of your career, and how much money they’re offering.

I dont have much experience, just recently left a tech support role which is basically the same pay. Are contracts like this common at the entry level?

 

[Splash]

I dont have much experience, just recently left a tech support role which is basically the same pay. Are contracts like this common at the entry level?

Contracting life bruh, you aint get shyt but a day rate.
Take time off and its on you but the rate should balance it out.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

I just had a call with a recruiter that found me on LinkedIn. She did a bait and switch. Told me it was contract to hire. I told her I was still interested, but I don’t think I am. And the rate didn’t seem high enough for my liking.

I think I just want to be the first IT hire at a startup. Setting things up from scratch would be good experience.

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Contracting life bruh, you aint get shyt but a day rate.
Take time off and its on you but the rate should balance it out.

Of the contracts you’ve taken, what are the companies like? Do you go for contracts exclusively?

 

[Rawtid]

12 month contract on the table as a field engineer but doesn’t have vacation or pto time ,

Should i still consider accepting just for the experience or should i say nah?

Negotiate a slightly higher rate and pay yourself for your days off. You know how much you make hourly, so you know how much you need to take off work.

 

[Splash]

Of the contracts you’ve taken, what are the companies like? Do you go for contracts exclusively?

I do contracts only now yes for the last 3 years or so I think, usually two at once.
There is no prototype for the company can be very large companies or very small but they usually fall in one of two categories:

1) Company needs to complete a project but do not have the staff (or alot of cases a cyber security department) to do the work
2) Or somebody has left the company and they are struggling to replace them.

I prefer them because now I can pick up gigs in about a week as there is plenty of work out there if you are experienced and if I'm doing more work than I want to, I simply ask for more money or I leave with a few days notice.

 

[Rawtid]

I just had a call with a recruiter that found me on LinkedIn. She did a bait and switch. Told me it was contract to hire. I told her I was still interested, but I don’t think I am. And the rate didn’t seem high enough for my liking.

I think I just want to be the first IT hire at a startup. Setting things up from scratch would be good experience.

Contract to hire is the ultimate, IMO! A big issue with being an employee is culture/co-workers. With contract to hire you can check all that out before you commit to them. If you don’t think it’s a good rate then forget it, but overall don’t shun contract to hire, it’s not that bad.

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

That makes sense. Some people use help desk and desktop support interchangeably. So I was wondering what you meant.

I started out in IT asset management. It gave me experience with ticketing systems and the occasionally shytty user (and coworker). After that job, I just faked my way into desktop support.

Bruh you and me have the exact same start in IT

I started out in Asset Management and went into Virtual Desktop Administration. I had to fake it a bit myself to get out of assest manangement but I learned alot from home labs too

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Bruh you and me have the exact same start in IT

I started out in Asset Management and went into Virtual Desktop Administration. I had to fake it a bit myself to get out of assest manangement but I learned alot from home labs too

I changed the job title and embellished the fukk out of my responsibilities. Learned active directory through YouTube and some VMs. Never got a networking cert, but studied the basics and some troubleshooting.

It was the only way to make it.

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Agency has been harassing me about this system engineering gig with Leidos for over a week

multiple recruiters blowing my line when i'm clearly not interested

and they're clearly lying and stepping over each other with inconsistencies

"fully remote" "may have to go onsite at a certain date"

"long term contract" "6 month contract with possible extension"

Agent 1 : "Most we can do is 33 per hour"

Agent 2 and 5 : "Most we can do is 36 per hour"

Agent 3, 4, 6: "Most we can do is 27 per hour"

Turn it down one last time...

Agent 6: "so apparently the client has just increased their budget....how's 38 per hour sound"

sent them one last not interested email


and they barred me from ever being submitted for their company.

where aare all these emotional azz recruitng agencies coming from?

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

I changed the job title and embellished the fukk out of my responsibilities. Learned active directory through YouTube and some VMs. Never got a networking cert, but studied the basics and some troubleshooting.

It was the only way to make it.

damn bruh I was studying networking too because at the time I was planning on getting the CCNA,

but yeah I learned Active Directory and all the basic shyt too

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Agency has been harassing me about this system engineering gig with Leidos for over a week

multiple recruiters blowing my line when i'm clearly not interested

and they're clearly lying and stepping over each other with inconsistencies

"fully remote" "may have to go onsite at a certain date"

"long term contract" "6 month contract with possible extension"

Agent 1 : "Most we can do is 33 per hour"

Agent 2 and 5 : "Most we can do is 36 per hour"

Agent 3, 4, 6: "Most we can do is 27 per hour"

Turn it down one last time...

Agent 6: "so apparently the client has just increased their budget....how's 38 per hour sound"

sent them one last not interested email


and they barred me from ever being submitted for their company.

where aare all these emotional azz recruitng agencies coming from?

Update:

Leidos themselves set up an interview; just completely went around the recruiting agency. Sent me a calender invite @ 9:00 PM




I've never had a company try so hard before

all I can think about is WTF is going on there for them to be so pressed to interview me despite repeated rejections

 

[JT-Money]

Update:

Leidos themselves set up an interview; just completely went around the recruiting agency. Sent me a calender invite @ 9:00 PM




I've never had a company try so hard before

all I can think about is WTF is going on there for them to be so pressed to interview me despite repeated rejections

Sounds like my last company which turned out to be a dumpster fire. I should've paid more attention to the negative company reviews they had.

I found a better gig for way more money so it worked out in the long run. But always check company reviews on sites like Blind, thelayoffs.com, Indeed and Glassdoor.

I've also started doing searches in LinkedIn on how many people have recently left the organization. If the turnover rate is through the roof you know to pass on the job.

 

[RealCrownHeights]

My plan tentatively as far as next 6-8 month's God willing.

Take both A+ next month, then start Network+ and Sec+. I have a full-time job already making a help desk salary so I was wondering should I get a part-time help desk job to supplement that experience or maybe volunteer at a Church's IT department so I don't have to go through that process. I'm already 28 and don't have the savings to dwell In low wage at the moment. I have a Bachelors's in English from a reputable college and most of my career work has been customer service related and client interaction with some of the most diverse groups of people in NYC (I know that's been a shortcoming for many IT folks.)

Also after Sec+ should I go into Azure or cloud instead of CCNA? The ultimate goal is cyber security analyst or whatever pays 110k or more with not that much annoyance.'

Sidebar -I can't believe I wasted time and didn't just study for the a+ 2 years ago, turns out I know some stuff already just from my day to day interactions and computer and mobile usage