IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Chris.B]

If you can't see yourself doing IT for "fun" you are in the wrong business.....

 

[Simbashanafelt]

depends on your long term goal to be honest. i was told that getting a degree will allow for you to obtain a manager/director position, whereas without a degree, your ceiling is an administrator or engineer level, which is still a really good position/title.

an associate degree is a great stepping stone that can point you in the right direction. it seems like you have your A+ already? and are you currently working an IT job?

Yea I have a bachelors in economics but after a year of going to multiple interviews and not getting a job I figured its time to take another career path. So thats why I asked about computer networking.

 

[patscorpio]

Aight...thought I was the only one slacking

wasn't slacking breh...it took some time

 

[GMOGMediaTV]

1 cert away from MCSA Server 2008. Anyone here with Sharepoint exp? IT director at my job is getting mad pressure to transition our documents from dropbox to sharepoint but noone here has experience. What skills would be needed to go from "green" to knowledgeable enough to admin/implement? (no java or html exp)

I administer Sharepoint servers among other things. We've recently migrated our existing Sharepoint 2007 environment over to Sharepoint 2013.

We had to totally redesign the farm from the ground up. I deployed 12 Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise VM's for production and development.

In order to maintain/Administer Sharepoint you need to know understand load balancing when you are dealing with a Sharepoint farm.

Also know and understand fundamental SQL database administration.

 

[RubioTheCruel]

I don't mean how many years of experience you have. I mean in a average week, how many hours are you putting into pushing your career forward (whether it is certifiactions, writing articles and research papers, going to networking events, etc.)?

If you're spending more time on the internet or playing video games than you are grinding, then you'll never find success.

Created an account to tell you that you've been dropping absolute jewels for these young brothers in this thread. Much respect.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

Created an account to tell you that you've been dropping absolute jewels for these young brothers in this thread. Much respect.

I appreciate it breh, I just wanna see nikkas succeed

I just came back from a meeting with the UNIA and we getting the ground work together to start teaching some classes in the hood to show cats how to get a career in IT. I can't speak on everything, but between the ideas I got in my head and the structure/infrastructure they have in place........

 

[dtownreppin214]

My IT brethren. What is an easy cert (other than A+) toget with one week of cram studying. I'm trying to use this free voucher from work before the quarter ends.

 

[the bossman]

This might be a little off-topic, but what's the typical salary for a network engineer (especially for a Jr. engineer)? So far in Maryland and Virginia it seems to be around $45,000, but I was kind of expecting it to be a little bit more.

It just depends on how well you can sell yourself. My first network gig four years ago I started off at 57k on a contract downtown

 

[bigDeeOT]

Ok so I want to go to UT Austin and major in computer engineering. How do you think a field like that would compare to IT? Any difference in pay? Easy to get a job? Which one has more room for growth?

 

[krexzen]

It just depends on how well you can sell yourself. My first network gig four years ago I started off at 57k on a contract downtown

Thanks. Usually within the job postings or during the initial phone/email inquiry it seems the listed price for a jr. network engineer falls around $45k.

In part I'm trying figure out the market value. I've always thought a jr. network engineer would fall more in the $55,000 - 65,000 range while a more experienced engineer around $70k and above. While I don't want ask for an outrageous amount, I don't want to settle for a low ball offer either. I really don't mind relocating, so if salaries are higher elsewhere, I'd like to know that too.

 

[krexzen]

Ok so I want to go to UT Austin and major in computer engineering. How do you think a field like that would compare to IT? Any difference in pay? Easy to get a job? Which one has more room for growth?

It depends on what you want to do in IT. If you get some useful internships and make good connections then a degree will serve you well (which unfortunately I did not do). A degree might be a lot more beneficial if you plan on going the IT management route too. If you plan on being more hands on, then self-study and/or certifications might be a better route. Personally I've gotten more attention from my certifications than my degree. But I will say that a computer engineering degree is probably the cream of the crop for technical degrees though.

 

[Rayzah]

Man whats some good sites to post your resume on, cuz monster is

 

[Rayzah]

Thanks. Usually within the job postings or during the initial phone/email inquiry it seems the listed price for a jr. network engineer falls around $45k.

In part I'm trying figure out the market value. I've always thought a jr. network engineer would fall more in the $55,000 - 65,000 range while a more experienced engineer around $70k and above. While I don't want ask for an outrageous amount, I don't want to settle for a low ball offer either. I really don't mind relocating, so if salaries are higher elsewhere, I'd like to know that too.

It also depends on your experience how many certs you have or if you have a degree, according to the salary guide Engineers can make anywhere from 70 - 110k

 

[krexzen]

Man whats some good sites to post your resume on, cuz monster is

Try dice.com. Careerbuilder is ok too (but mostly for contract work). You can also give indeed.com a try, but I don't know too much about them.

 

[Rayzah]

Robert Half International - Salary Guides

link for IT salary guide for 2013