IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Rain]

CISSP is complete

 

[xXMASHERXx]

I'm working on getting the CCNA certification.

Do you have any recommendations for training resources to use (Books or Online training courses)?

I was going to use Cisco Packet Tracer but I have heard its not the best for simulations/training.

I may be able to get a hold of some old Cisco switches from work to setup a lab for training. I will find out this week if I can get access to the switches.

Been a while since I've done anything networking(at least 10 years) but when I was learning, I used GNS3. Not sure how much it been maintained/updated but you might want to look into that.

 

[NYtymes]

Where is the best place to look for desktop support roles other than linkedin and dice? My contract is ending soon

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Where is the best place to look for desktop support roles other than linkedin and dice? My contract is ending soon

Google - Just type the job title+ "jobs" and filter however you need

Glassdoor.com

indeed.com

Otta--> The better way to find a job in tech

simply hired (kinda the same as indeed)


Also sent you a message breh,

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Otta--> The better way to find a job in tech

 

[Silky Johnson]

Where is the best place to look for desktop support roles other than linkedin and dice? My contract is ending soon

Zip recruiter and indeed

 

[Silky Johnson]

For brehs just starting out

you may hear things on places like Reddit etc about CompTIA certs being trash or not worth it. Do not listen to that bullshyt

I have come across over 100 jobs (Tier 1, 2 and 3 )in the last month paying $57k - $90k that ask for CompTIA certs ( Mainly A+,Net+, Sec+) --All Remote too.

I bring this up because alot of you seem pressured to go after the higher level certs thinking it will shortcut you to 6 figures

Make sure your certs match the level you're at in your career

CompTIA certs are foundational, but some take the term 'foundational' to mean 'useless, beginner certs'. Nah. That logic implies that the information you attained can be quickly discarded the moment you get a job or get 6-18 months experience. 'Foundational' means the information you attain will give you the core knowledge on which all subsequent, advanced knowledge will be built on and. Meaning the shyt aint going nowhere; The material on the CompTIA' trifecta certs will serve you well beyond just breaking into IT. but even mid-career. There are plenty of excellent paying jobs asking for these certs and they hold value because:

1. They are still the most recognized, damn near ubiquitous certs in the industry
2. They show that you care enough to learn and maintain the core concepts and not just someone chasing high-level vendor certs feeling entitled to a 6 figure salary because of what some Youtube influencer told them.
3. They can be renewed by earning either other CompTIA certs or non-comptia certs that count as CEUs (Continuing Education Units). Most vendor-specific certs only allow you to renew their certs only under them.
4. Hiring managers are less likely to grill you in an interview Vs. having a bunch of high-level top 10 lists certs on your resume with little to no experience to justify it and the hiring team makes it a point to expose you for their own amusement.

The Certs I see requested the most are:

• A+ and Network+ -- For most * ____ Support Specialist job
• Security+ (For SOC analyst or as a hard requirement for public sector/Government IT roles.) DoD Approved Baseline Certifications
• SC-900 -- I see plenty of tier 1 and 2 security analyst roles ask for this - Doesn't expire either
• MD-100/MD-101 Now just one exam --> MD-102
• AZ-900 - Despite Az-104 being the sexier, hyped up Azure cert. I have seen plenty of listings where all they requires is reasonable amount of exp and Azure fundamentals cert. I mainly see this for entry level cloud admin / jr Cloud Admin postings. Also doesn't expire.
• VCP --VMware Certifications. This plus a year of working in a VDI role is what took me from $28 Hourly to $85,000 annually. I sort of fell into the virtualization side of things. Again, VCP certs dont expire.

You can earn as high as a $100k with these certs (+ experience) if that's what you're chasing.

shyt like the CISSP, CCNP etc can wait unless there's like some sound pressing justification for why you need it right away. like a pending promotion (That's in writing of course) that hinges on you getting them

All facts

I'll add that those certs let them know you have a firm concept of troubleshooting best practices and a foundation for more advanced root cause analysis needed in the advanced roles.

 

[xXMASHERXx]

All facts

I'll add that those certs let them know you have a firm concept of troubleshooting best practices and a foundation for more advanced root cause analysis needed in the advanced roles.

This is the biggest thing I try to emphasis with people. The foundational knowledge you get from these certs is going to be the basis for everything you learn later on in your career. How can you write a rule to block a process from creating a child process if you don't even know how to what that means? I work with people constantly asking me to troubleshoot their application because they don't know how to read logs

 

[LiquidMasterSwords]

One more cert away from joining 6 certs, 6 figures and 6 feet gang.

 

[Young]

I'm working on getting the CCNA certification.

Do you have any recommendations for training resources to use (Books or Online training courses)?

I was going to use Cisco Packet Tracer but I have heard its not the best for simulations/training.

I may be able to get a hold of some old Cisco switches from work to setup a lab for training. I will find out this week if I can get access to the switches.

You have a lot of options for CCNA. Packet tracer is mostly fine for what you need - you can build any environments you need to. I did my CCNA labbing entirely in PT and moved on to GNS3 for my CCNP labs.

For material - would recommend the official Cert book combined with Pluralsight or CBT Nuggets videos.

 

[Rozay Oro]

Not gonna lie, it's no so much ServiceNow but the setup I got. Remote, making $30 a hour, and no micro managing. The best thing out of all is I don't really have to deal with any end users anymore.

These are the only type of roles I will search for from now on in the future.

 

[ViShawn]

Apparently Kevin Mitnik died of cancer recently

 

[semicko82]

How far can a secret clearance help you in the I.T. job hunt?
I know top secret is solid gold, but I haven't heard anything about secret clearance.

 

[HovaNas]

How far can a secret clearance help you in the I.T. job hunt?
I know top secret is solid gold, but I haven't heard anything about secret clearance.

Secret is good. It’ll take you far and will help you get to a top secret.

 

[semicko82]

Secret is good. It’ll take you far and will help you get to a top secret.

Ok I've heard different things about secret clearance.
I can't get top security clearance unfortunately