IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Lex218]

I'm looking at local colleges in my city. These are the options I have

http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/Acad...dy/Computer_and_Information_Technologies.aspx

I wanna start off with my associates and work my way up from help desk. I have at least average knowledge but I wanna make this a career. I'm best at math and interested in the business/logistics side of things. I'm looking for good short and long term salary. What path should I take bruhs?

 

[JT-Money]

I'm looking at local colleges in my city. These are the options I have

http://www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/Acad...dy/Computer_and_Information_Technologies.aspx

I wanna start off with my associates and work my way up from help desk. I have at least average knowledge but I wanna make this a career. I'm best at math and interested in the business/logistics side of things. I'm looking for good short and long term salary. What path should I take bruhs?

It would be easier to move up from the help desk doing programming or web development. It's damn near impossible to find an entry level job as a Systems Administrator or Network Engineer.

 

[Beegio]

The CISSP certification is the most recognized out of all the IT Security related certs. But you need to prove you have 5 years experience and someone to vouch for your skills.

https://www.isc2.org/cissp-how-to-certify.aspx

Yeah, im a long way from Cissp. Im thinking more along the lines of
ccna, or network+, or mcsa

 

[Solano707]

I'm taking Net+ in the morning... we'll see how it goes. After that, it's CISSP.

 

[Lex218]

It would be easier to move up from the help desk doing programming or web development. It's damn near impossible to find an entry level job as a Systems Administrator or Network Engineer.

I've done some research. I think I wanna be a network/systems admin or a systems analyst. They both caught my eye. Just gotta weigh the pros/cons thoroughly. Would an AAS in computer science put me in the right direction?

 

[Solano707]

Passed N+ this morning.

Working on CISSP next...

 

[Beegio]

Passed N+ this morning.

Working on CISSP next...

Im thinking about taking network+

How many questions was it?

What kind of questions (to the best of your recollection) did they ask?

 

[Luken]

anyone have any IT resume templates?

 

[Beegio]

I've done some research. I think I wanna be a network/systems admin or a systems analyst. They both caught my eye. Just gotta weigh the pros/cons thoroughly. Would an AAS in computer science put me in the right direction?

What your specific degree is in won't matter as much, imo. You basically have to just start from the helpdesk, and work your way from there.

Getting past HR is what the degrees are for, applicable experience does the rest. No prior IT experience = helpdesk. IMO

 

[Solano707]

Im thinking about taking network+

How many questions was it?

What kind of questions (to the best of your recollection) did they ask?

There were 5 simulations which regarded WAP placement and troubleshooting. One of the sim's was troubleshooting an event of a brown out. There where 3 routers linked together with one of them having a serial link to a modem going out to the cloud. You have to prevent the switching loop in that one.

After that, there were 80 questions. 90 minutes to complete. I finished in about 45 minutes - not bad. Score is 100-900. I scored a 798, the minimum you need is 720.

Hope this help breh.

 

[Beegio]

There were 5 simulations which regarded WAP placement and troubleshooting. One of the sim's was troubleshooting an event of a brown out. There where 3 routers linked together with one of them having a serial link to a modem going out to the cloud. You have to prevent the switching loop in that one.

After that, there were 80 questions. 90 minutes to complete. I finished in about 45 minutes - not bad. Score is 100-900. I scored a 798, the minimum you need is 720.

Hope this help breh.

More than you know. Pos rep if I could

The Security+ exam was structured with about 5 visual interactive scenarios. Caught me off guard for a second, because I took waaay longer than I wanted in answering them, OCDing about the answer. Then felt the squeezd when I had 70 more (75 total) questions to answer with about 70 minutes left out of 90. I was more expecting a paragraph like scenario with multiple answers or something.

 

[Solano707]

More than you know. Pos rep if I could

The Security+ exam was structured with about 5 visual interactive scenarios. Caught me off guard for a second, because I took waaay longer than I wanted in answering them, OCDing about the answer. Then felt the squeezd when I had 70 more (75 total) questions to answer with about 70 minutes left out of 90. I was more expecting a paragraph like scenario with multiple answers or something.

Also, the test covered more of the protocols such as smtp, sntp, dns, how are you to troubleshoot a netbios issue.... stuff along those line. I think there were was like 4 sub netting questions too as well.

 

[krexzen]

More than you know. Pos rep if I could

The Security+ exam was structured with about 5 visual interactive scenarios. Caught me off guard for a second, because I took waaay longer than I wanted in answering them, OCDing about the answer. Then felt the squeezd when I had 70 more (75 total) questions to answer with about 70 minutes left out of 90. I was more expecting a paragraph like scenario with multiple answers or something.

wait till yall see the ccna. I was literally answering some multiple choice questions in 10-15 seconds just to conserve time for the big boys (and you can't go back).

 

[O.T.I.S.]

Yea I got like 5 Certs... Gonna try to get N+, CCNA or CISSP. I've been out my rate for a minute (IT Navy), so I feel like I'm getting rusty. Definitely would LOVE to get resume template since I'm trying to get out the military soon

 

[Romell]

Just received and signed my offer for a Systems Engineer position

This is going to be interesting seeing as though I haven't done any real SysEng work since school(building and deploying Unix/Linux systems for class) and I have a mostly NetEng background(CCNA, 2/3 complete CCNP). I think I'm going to enjoy this side of the IT house more though. The guys said they will be training me on the more difficult concepts seeing as the position required 0-2 years experience. It looks weird for a NetEng guy to jump to SysEng, but I'm only 2 years into my career post college and I had to get up off that night shift.

@Chris.B Thanks for that linuxcbt.com link in your post. Looks as though I'll be making that my homepage for a few months.