IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[tofuspeedstar]

DBAs get paid good, but the job is mind numbingly boring

Yep, the DBA at my work is bored out of her mind.

 

[gldnone913]

Your best bet is finding an good company to work for above all else. An company with an great tuition reimbursement program is all you'll need.

Stay away from contracting jobs especially Federal IT contracting.

i started out in the public sector...moved to the private doing government IT contracting

 

[humble Hermit]

I have access to free exams only because I work for Xerox and I think credit are transferable to university of Pheonix. I started taking practice test and I can take the regular exam anytime but I'm unsure where to really start. Currently taking A+ classes.

 

[rapbeats]

this thread made me make my transition.

 

[Theabbot]

Unless you can acquire really hard to find skills fairly early on your career IT for the most part is an dead end field. Especially if you get stuck working for an company that almost never upgrades their technology. Plan on upgrading your skills on your own dime just to get ahead and even that's not an guarantee.

C/S

 

[Hahahaha]

My 2 cents on A+ is that the knowledge is great but the cert is now worthless since it expires (it's decent resume fodder for any help desk/desktop type job.

It's only value comes from recruiters/HR who use it as a keyword when searching job sites. No IT hiring manager is going to care if you have one.

 

[Hahahaha]

I have my CCENT, CCNA, CCIP and CCIE

start with ICND1 exam like i mentioned to another poster

what questions do you have about the ccna?

Props to anyone who gets a CCIE legitimately.

 

[Insensitive]

@ This thread.

 

[JT-Money]

i started out in the public sector...moved to the private doing government IT contracting

How long ago was this? Because it couldn't be recently with all the cutbacks in Federal spending. The private sector all things considered will always be better than the Federal sector. That is unless your an Federal employee since they don't do anything.

 

[gldnone913]

How long ago was this? Because it couldn't be recently with all the cutbacks in Federal spending. The private sector all things considered will always be better than the Federal sector. That is unless your an Federal employee since they don't do anything.

i've been working in federal IT since 2007. been on my current job for two years. i will say that i'm in the DC area, and this area hasn't felt the recession hit like other areas.

regarding cutbacks.... i can't call it -- i'm not seeing any. the company i was with before my current company wasn't seeing any cutbacks....company i'm with now definitely isn't seeing any.

 

[Theabbot]

Props to anyone who gets a CCIE legitimately.

Agreed. I heard that was a major hill to climb.

 

[Tyuhnjko]

L

 

[tofuspeedstar]

As irrelevant ppl might assume gender is in the workplace, it is an issue... Do any of y'all know successful women who are in IT (other than graphic design) and do you think it might be more difficult for a women to get into (or be taken seriously) that industry? I'm asking because it tends to be a male dominated career. I am currently in school studying CS. Am I wasting my time?

The DBA at my workplace is female.

In IT from what I've witnessed over the past four years working in it gender doesn't matter much. More guys tend to go into IT because it's hands-on geek type stuff that guys are interested in. Very few women I know are interested in IT/technology type things. That's why it looks lopsided I think.

When I worked at Hostgator the male:female ratio was like 3:1 lol.

But if you can sell yourself better during an interview and have the experience and credentials to back it up then I don't see why a woman wouldn't get hired.

 

[aixenv]

That means youre a cisco guy correct?

I know i want to get into the wireless field. Now im studying for ccent then ccna then ccna wireless..good path or no? What are some jobs i shuold be looking to get into etc if you have any idea?

i started off in M$ land, then ventured into linux sysadmin, and finally to complete my understanding of the "big picture" went into networking, juniper, f10, extreme, cisco, my edge routers are cisco, so ya i suppose you could say im a cisco guy

that is a great path btw (what your plan is)

 

[aixenv]

Props to anyone who gets a CCIE legitimately.

put it this way i am never taking another test as long as i live lol, i dont care if everything expires ; my brain dump probably took a few years off my life hah

iSDN1/2-CCNA isnt necessarily a joke, it definitely teaches basics.. get a simulator and goto town, but then after that, they just progressively get harder, ive met lots of ppl who had various cers and couldn't tie their shoes, but the CCIE cert ive never met anyone with that validated that didn't know their shyt