IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Reginald Noble]

One thing i have learned. If a company REALLY wants you around, they will pay you like they want you around. Or promote you, or give you stock options. Something other than words. Years ago i stayed way too long at a job hearing that same old thing with no promotions. learned my lesson though.

Spoke with a couple recruiters and they all say I'm paid handsomely at the top end of market rate. So I am gonna sit tight for a little while longer till I can secure a nice $$$$ transition.

 

[Apollo Creed]

"We're looking for someone with 10 years experience in <insert tool> and some experience in <insert another tool>"
*First tool has been out for 8 years, second tool isn't used on the job at all*

Yea take some of those experience lists with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, they just need someone that can do the work and will be able to do the work going forward.

yea its while how specific of a technology stack these companies ask for on top of 10 yrs in them

 

[kevm3]

Yep, a lot of the listings are by people who have limited experience actually programming. There's no way someone knows JS, CSS, Ruby, Java, Angular, React and the 10,000 other technologies you're asking for +5 years experience and will come in as a 'jr. developer.'

 

[RubioTheCruel]

So you'd say CBT Nuggets is worth the 99 bucks a month?

I dunno about all that, but I pay $12 a month for a Packt subscription, it's AYCE

 

[Apollo Creed]

I dunno about all that, but I pay $12 a month for a Packt subscription, it's AYCE

They have Cert Curriculum or you just look up individual e books on the subject?

 

[FastEddie215]

So you'd say CBT Nuggets is worth the 99 bucks a month? How much time a day did you dedicate to studying? And I assume you did the Sever MCSA? I was thinking about doing SQL and then the Business Intelligence one since I have classes for both as part of my masters, but I`m not trying to be a DBA per say, so I may just scratch that and focus on doing the Sever 2012 and then get the Cloud MCSE.

I didn't pay $99 for cbt nuggets. I got it for free somewhere. And yes when i say MCSA i mean MCSA server2012. I studied about 4 hrs a day everyday

 

[Apollo Creed]

I didn't pay $99 for cbt nuggets. I got it for free somewhere. And yes when i say MCSA i mean MCSA server2012. I studied about 4 hrs a day everyday

 

[ahomeplateslugger]

don't get too hung up on having certs y'all....having certs is nice but if you don't have the experience to back it up then you'll get exposed. I have my CCENT and working in a simulator is easy for me, but managing a company's network is a lot tougher than that. there's no room for mistakes and it's way more complex then your CCENT and maybe CCNA. i'm not saying don't go for it, but make sure you have experience to support it and on the job training is crucial to career development. nothing wrong with reading a book, learning how things work and understanding terminology, but it's better to get a job first so that way you'll have more leverage when job searching.

 

[Apollo Creed]

don't get too hung up on having certs y'all....having certs is nice but if you don't have the experience to back it up then you'll get exposed. I have my CCENT and working in a simulator is easy for me, but managing a company's network is a lot tougher than that. there's no room for mistakes and it's way more complex then your CCENT and maybe CCNA. i'm not saying don't go for it, but make sure you have experience to support it and on the job training is crucial to career development. nothing wrong with reading a book, learning how things work and understanding terminology, but it's better to get a job first so that way you'll have more leverage when job searching.

The thing is you can't get experience just buy showing up. I thin Certs can help you transition into something else because it at least shows you have fundamental knowledge.

 

[Ice_MF_Mike]

How did you "boot camped" MCSE? Any suggestions on books, videos, etc..?

I went to a two week bootcamp. Classroom sessions from like 7am to 7pm posted up at a hotel and you take all the tests over that time. They are expensive. Like $2k i believe but i got my job to pay for it.

 

[AyBrehHam Linkin]

I redid my resume and plan on sending it to all the places with the crazy qualifications like you guys said, just wanna know if there is anything else I can touch up on .

 

[Ice_MF_Mike]

I redid my resume and plan on sending it to all the places with the crazy qualifications like you guys said, just wanna know if there is anything else I can touch up on .

where is your employment history? If you have none, i would add some projects.

 

[AyBrehHam Linkin]

where is your employment history? If you have none, i would add some projects.

it's on the document but I didnt put it on the snippet by mistake

 

[Data-Hawk]

What did you use to study? Didnt realize it was 150 per test lol

When I was going for the MCSA( 1 exam short of the title ), I always used Microsoft books( Microsoft press training kits ), if I remember correctly, they have a ton of labs.






Also Pluralsight is probably the best training site out there.

 

[krexzen]

I redid my resume and plan on sending it to all the places with the crazy qualifications like you guys said, just wanna know if there is anything else I can touch up on .

Is this for an internship or full-time position? If full-time which role are you leaning towards (Systems, Network, or Security)? You might want to clear this up in your summary. IMO casting a wide net doesn't always net results. It usually adds confusion for the hiring manger.

I would remove RIP (I've only seen it used on very very rare occasions such as legacy circuits), and "router on a stick" ( cool for a novice home lab but not in a production environment). Also, any hiring manager is gonna pull a when reading "ability to build a basic network.... and building larger networks with more network devices". They are going to want clarity. Where or how did you gain this ability? At minimum, I would hope you at least have a home lab. I say all of this based on your graduation date and your omission of work experience. For networking you might also want to mention which vendor or product line you are familiar with. I'm assuming Cisco. It'll provide more validity towards your knowledge. Otherwise, I might assume you read an intro to networking book for class and embellished your "ability to build networks"

If you put it on your resume, make sure you can explain it during the interview. Most interviewers will go through each bullet of your resume (especially if you come across as inexperienced). For example, you may get asked to explain how a TCP connection is established and the process for obtaining a DHCP lease. That's why its best to choose the words on your resume carefully.

P.S. Remove the "studying" from your Summary section.