IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[kevm3]

I feel I've really found my niche with this web design/development.Was working with Javascript earlier.... Just installed Wamp and it's time to play around with PHP.

 

[JayStarwind]

I feel I've really found my niche with this web design/development.Was working with Javascript earlier.... Just installed Wamp and it's time to play around with PHP.

With web design/development do you have to be really creative? Or is it just skills you obtain and use?

 

[kevm3]

With web design/development do you have to be really creative? Or is it just skills you obtain and use?

If you're going to be working on the front end, you'll want to know how to create attractive lay-outs and user interfaces, which will require that you dabble in graphic design/typography to some extent to really create attractive lay-outs. I don't think you really need to be as creative as an artist who does something such as paintings, but you will want to know how to create pages that look attractive, so learning which fonts look great with which fonts, what colors are attractive, etc., will be something you'll have to learn. Back-end design is more coding oriented. The great thing about web development is you can easily and freely experiment until you find the area that really sticks with you.

 

[JT-Money]

Im getting my first entry level contract in IT..

I been studying this shyt for a long time now. About to come up on my A+ and the other two basic certs very soon. Gotta find the time, and an institution to schedule the test with. And illl be there.

Alright so the entry level contract is extremely simple however i still want any tips and advice any seasoned pros can give me.

Its PC migration and general tech support for a law firm.

The company is basically switching from xp to 7.

Here is the description and skills



So does this mean i will basically be using migrations tools and just basically going through the motions without any hiccups? I mean from what i learned PC migration is easy as hell.

That sounds about right. I had a contract gig just like this years ago. But it was so boring I didn't stick around long enough to even finish the contract.

 

[Pyrexcup]

If you're going into web development, it's critical that you know HTML/CSS since that's what all of the other languages will be interacting with. HTML is used to structure your documents and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will be used to provide the style. Check out csszengarden.com to see what is possible. However, without languages like Javascript, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python (Django), etc., web pages would simply be static pages that display information.

After you learn HTML/CSS, you can choose to specialize in the 'front-end' or the 'back-end'... or if you're really ambitious, you can learn to do both, which is what I'm attempting to do. Front-end development entails you thoroughly knowing HTML/CSS and Javascript and your focus will be primarily on developing how the web page looks and interacts with users client-side. You will do things like design the overall look of the page, work on user interfaces, etc.

The "Back-end" development is where the server and webpages interact in order to create dynamic pages that can draw information from databases. This allows you to do things like build shopping-carts, message boards, blogs that allow you to input data via your own interface as opposed to directly editing html files, etc. The most common language for back-end development is PHP, although languages like Python with the DJANGO framework and Ruby on Rails are picking up steam. Javascript can actually now be used to develop on the back-end with node.js. With back-end languages, you will typically want to interact with a database, which is why you'll have to learn SQL along with it

Javascript is the official language that interacts 'client-side' with your user, meaning it interacts with the browser and the code is executed on the client's machine. Essentially, this allows for dynamic behavior that wouldn't be possible without it. Javascript allows you to do a ton in your browser, such as the fade-in, fade-out, fancy menus, etc. Javascript is now so powerful, I've even seen people make Quake with it in the browser and other games.
Command and Conquer
http://www.adityaravishankar.com/projects/games/command-and-conquer/

Your first stop should be to know html and css though. Go to codecademy.com and go through the html/css track and then get this book:

work your way through it and then you'll want to take your css knowledge further, which you can with this book:


After you've got CSS and HTML down, then you can worry about the language to choose after that.

what book do you recommend? you never posted it. just went through 80% of html css on codeacademy went through the ruby course before but i threw that shyt to the bushes for now

 

[5010]

Anybody have/know where i can get a copy of a fairly recent A+ test?

 

[kevm3]

what book do you recommend? you never posted it. just went through 80% of html css on codeacademy went through the ruby course before but i threw that shyt to the bushes for now

The board converted the link into some sort of media link, which wasn't why it didn't show up.

Beginning HTML/CSS

http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-HTML-Elisabeth-Robson/dp/0596159900/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393112412&sr=8-1&keywords=head+first+html%2Fcss

Really delving into CSS
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=css missing manual&sprefix=css mi,aps&rh=i:aps,k:css missing manual&ajr=2

 

[kevm3]

Well. I've got a ton to keep me busy for the next few months between continuing to master HTML/CSS, increasing my Javascript skills and learning PHP/SQL(MySQL in particular). I just bought a PHP book, so time to jump into that.

 

[patscorpio]

Figure I'll ask this question to my IT brethren

For anyone of you that do projects..planning..have deadlines..the whole nine..do any of you utilize any software that helps you with that? I'm juggling many different projects at work and I'm afraid that I may forget something of importance. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[FLYINHAWAIIAN]

Brehs I need to upgrade my life.
I wanna be a Veterinarian but I can't even get an animal job.
Ain't got squat but a high school diploma.
Making only 500 + every two weeks.
I aint shyt brehs

 

[kevm3]

Figure I'll ask this question to my IT brethren

For anyone of you that do projects..planning..have deadlines..the whole nine..do any of you utilize any software that helps you with that? I'm juggling many different projects at work and I'm afraid that I may forget something of importance. Any suggestions are welcome.

I don't personally utilize any software, but if you want a cheap solution, create a new excel workbook and make a tab for each project that you need to complete. In each worksheet, create a table that is essentially checklist for each element that you need to get done, with the columns being "Task Name" "Objective" "Due Date" and "Completion Percentage". If you want to get fancy, use conditional formatting to highlight the elements of those projects that are due soon.

 

[FreshFromATL]

Was just offered a Business Intelligence Developer position at Comcast and have 48 hrs to accept. If I accept this joint I may be out of the Software Development realm for good and just post-up in the Big Data market until I spot my next move

I'm thinking I'm gonna except because this will lead to A LOT of dope opportunities down the line.

 

[Pyrexcup]

I must have the world worst luck brehs ill try and make this as short as possible.

Basically i live in Europe and i speak both English and another small European language perfectly, I've always been good with computers ect built my computer when i had just turned 15 years old. Anyway i graduated highschool last year in june and was never really into college seems like a waste of time and money for me personally. So back in 2012 i started doing research and looking for jobs so that i could get into the IT industry long story short i found out that Dublin is now the sort of silicone valley of europe because alot of IT companies ibm hp ect have moved there because they pay no tax. Anyhow found out that there are helpdesk positions at these companies but the jobs were in Europeans languages only so helpdesk jobs in Spanish french ect and for my language. i thought i was when i found this information because on another forum some other people were moving to Dublin for these jobs and other IT language jobs too. I thought this was going to be my entrance to the IT industry fast forward after my graduation in june last year i had to some bullshyt to take care of so my move to dublin put to the side in October i applied for a helpdesk position at ibm, went through tests, interview process ect and everything was successful. The recruiter told me that he was waiting on ibm for more information regarding starting date ect about a month went by from when he sent me the email telling me i was successful to me sending him a email asking him what's up ect, the idiot didn't even reply. I was like fukk them nikkas like i said before many other IT companies are in dublin so i applied for other jobs got no calls ect was a bit upset for a while cause i really want to do this shi.t last week Tuesday i got another phonecall from a recruiter in glasgow asking me if im interested in helpdesk position for IBM and i told him yes. I was supposed to have my interview this monday but i never got the call and the bytch nikka recuiter haven't even replied to my email i sent him later on monday asking him about it. This is the second time i've been fukked over by a recuiter not sure what im going to do now im broke as fukk might end up just applying to college and getting some bullshyt degree

I just got a call from the recruitment company today they said they have positions open. The job starts 10 march i have not accepted it yet the guy is going to call me tomorrow.

 

[patscorpio]

I don't personally utilize any software, but if you want a cheap solution, create a new excel workbook and make a tab for each project that you need to complete. In each worksheet, create a table that is essentially checklist for each element that you need to get done, with the columns being "Task Name" "Objective" "Due Date" and "Completion Percentage". If you want to get fancy, use conditional formatting to highlight the elements of those projects that are due soon.

thanks for the suggestion...i already use excel for other things in my job...im trying to separate this from spreadsheets

 

[kevm3]

Was just offered a Business Intelligence Developer position at Comcast and have 48 hrs to accept. If I accept this joint I may be out of the Software Development realm for good and just post-up in the Big Data market until I spot my next move

I'm thinking I'm gonna except because this will lead to A LOT of dope opportunities down the line.

congrats