IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[↓R↑LYB]

Wow this is some great insight breh. +rep. I feel like I could and would grind harder than the avg college grad or help desk dude and move a little quicker but I just need a plan. I don't stay at a job more than 1.5-2 years now so I'm having a hard time imagining being in a help desk role for years and years.

But... what is a VAR? Also, obviously there is more contract work for people w/more skills/experience. But is there anything like that for someone lower on the totem pole? I'm guessing that's what a VAR is. I like the idea of bouncing around and basically freelancing. I've done that within companies and it's been the fastest way to gain skills.



I def want to settle into a comfier role once I have all my shyt together. I am close with my IT guy and he makes 6 figures doing basically what I imagine a low level help desk dude does... setting up computers, helping people with email problems etc. Plus most of the problems he sees come from corporate IT, so he doesn't even have to do scripting and all that shyt. He seems bored though. But he has a family and all that so the low stress is probably a plus.

You work for a major company and don't have a ticketing system That shyt's a must

A VAR is a value added reseller. They're essentially the people you buy your products from. A VAR in the networking space buys the equipment from Cisco, and then sells it to you (reseller). The value added part is they'll also help with implementation. So if you're upgrading your switches, they'll install, configure, and do a knowledge transfer to your current staff.

There's contract work for help desk/pc tech roles. If you can get em cool, but the main goal is to get out of help desk. Don't move from help desk to help desk job, that's how you'll get stuck in help desk hell (unless you hate your current gig and you need a change).

 

[Data-Hawk]

I pushed and pushed for it, we're finally testing out ticketing systems, my boss and I got tired of getting bombarded with e-mails from every business unit.

lol. damn no ticketing system? you guys probaby could of found an open source solution or build one in-house( active directory( or anything LDAP )+ some backend + some cheap front end )

We use Remedy. its decent, but im sure it costs an arm and a leg.

breh if you looking to get a raise. Build a knowlegde database. Thank me later.

 

[beezy]

Say brehs, is there anyone here that can analyze PCAPS? im a little in that department and can use a little help with this one ive got..

 

[Shameonyou]

in terms of getting the comptia A+ cert would you advise taking it in a classroom training method, or self teaching method?

 

[King Sun]

in terms of getting the comptia A+ cert would you advise taking it in a classroom training method, or self teaching method?

its depending on how familar you are with a pc. ask yourself this

have you ever ran any windows command line?
have you ever repaired or opened your pc?
have you ever tried troubleshooting a broadband connection?
Have you ever hooked up and configured your own router?

if you never did any of those in my opinion take the class if it doesn't cost too much

 

[tofuspeedstar]

lol. damn no ticketing system? you guys probaby could of found an open source solution or build one in-house( active directory( or anything LDAP )+ some backend + some cheap front end )

We use Remedy. its decent, but im sure it costs an arm and a leg.

breh if you looking to get a raise. Build a knowlegde database. Thank me later.

Already been working on it, going to drop it on my boss after school lets out next month and i graduate.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

in terms of getting the comptia A+ cert would you advise taking it in a classroom training method, or self teaching method?

its depending on how familar you are with a pc. ask yourself this

have you ever ran any windows command line?
have you ever repaired or opened your pc?
have you ever tried troubleshooting a broadband connection?
Have you ever hooked up and configured your own router?

if you never did any of those in my opinion take the class if it doesn't cost too much

When I took my A+ I never even opened a computer before and didn't even know what RAM was. All those questions you asked, I would have answered no to. I just bought the book and studied my ass off.

Good luck breh keep up posted

Had my interview today and killed it breh. No lie when I was down the cac said "Wow " He said I was the 1st person he interviewed and he'll def be reaching back out to me. I'm 100% sure they're gonna bring me in for an in person interview.

Also I might be getting another remote job paying another 106k. If these 2 joints come through like I think they will, I'm copping either a maseratti or bentley off GP. nikka will be pulling down 20k/mo after taxes

I never thought I'd make it this far brehs, and I'm just getting started

 

[Regular Developer]

lol. damn no ticketing system? you guys probaby could of found an open source solution or build one in-house( active directory( or anything LDAP )+ some backend + some cheap front end )

We use Remedy. its decent, but im sure it costs an arm and a leg.

breh if you looking to get a raise. Build a knowlegde database. Thank me later.

O man, please dont talk about remedy right now, lol. Them nikkas.. smdh

The company that my company is consulting on BI deployment strategy uses remedy and we actually built them a dashboard for it. Its quite useful. But our extract layer in production started "failing" because of a bad ticket in the db. Reduced an extract that pulls two years of data to like a month. No idea if they've figured out what's wrong with the ticket yet. They're waiting to hear back from the remedy ppl.

 

[tofuspeedstar]

Deciding between Spiceworks, Kaseya or ZenDesk.

Or I'm just gonna build it my damn self.

 

[Conscious Pilot]

Is any A+ book going to work? I read that they changed the test or whatever and I was just wondering if I HAVE to cop the most recent book/materials to study? Or will the ones from like 2-3 years ago be sufficient.

 

[Silkk]

Is any A+ book going to work? I read that they changed the test or whatever and I was just wondering if I HAVE to cop the most recent book/materials to study? Or will the ones from like 2-3 years ago be sufficient.

Mike Meyers Book

And Check Professor Messer Site :ppvbro:

 

[BamdaDon]

edit

 

[BamdaDon]

in terms of getting the comptia A+ cert would you advise taking it in a classroom training method, or self teaching method?

Is any A+ book going to work? I read that they changed the test or whatever and I was just wondering if I HAVE to cop the most recent book/materials to study? Or will the ones from like 2-3 years ago be sufficient.

Look brehs i'll break it down like this. When I stated I was a novice Im talking about my understanding of anything A+ related revolved around my phone, ps3/xbox, and using the internet on a sony vaio with vista....vista my nikkas.

I had a non profit program that taught me the shyt for 12 weeks, now I had to take this shyt 9-4 m-f and in hindsight I dont really think I needed it. I was just shook to be honest because I come from a different field. So imo this is what you really need to understand for 801/802 A+

• Professor Messer, CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Linux, Microsoft Certification Training
• computer tips all the shyt from A+ acronyms to the motherboard notes
• how to troubleshoot and use Windows 7,XP,VISTA and the difference between enterprise and home ect.
• Phones/Tablets,Printers and Screens (CRT, Plasma, LCD, LED, OLED)

That's all free shyt online. If you need quizzes you can google those too. I'd say give yourself 2-3 hours a day with that for a month and you'd be good to take the test.

Let me reiterate this too. If your not willing to read through a thread of 88 pages this shyt is NOT for you brehs. So any future individual coming in here quoting asking how do you do this and that, to get to here and there with IT?
You have to be willing to dig for information, the original post was that exact question so its BEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN answered.

 

[Chris.B]

For those of you getting into IT understand the money starts coming when you LIVE I.T.

If you plan on making IT an 8hr a day job and forgetting about till the next day you are in the wrong business.

Dream big and think complex scenarios, ambition drives innovation....what will happen if I do this or that?

Challenge yourself....You have to be a dynamic person to survive this industry because what you know yesterday could be irrelevant today.

That's just how the business is...never stop learning.

I just finished reading this book for like the 5 time...almost 500 pages....I know almost everything in there but I read it anyway. That's how good engineers are made

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Let me reiterate this too. If your not willing to read through a thread of 88 pages this shyt is NOT for you brehs. So any future individual coming in here quoting asking how do you do this and that, to get to here and there with IT?
You have to be willing to dig for information, the original post was that exact question so its BEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN answered.

I get that you can't be lazy, but at the same time its like why reinvent the wheel? Yall have gone through it, so it seems only logical to come to yall for advice on what we should + shouldn't do. I've been searching and putting stuff together, trying to create a plan of attack. But I learned more in like a 1 hour convo w/the IT dude at my job than like 4 hours of searching. So its true, I def don't doubt that you gotta get your stuff right and keep searching + soaking it in. But for just starting out, insight from people who did it is invaluable.

I feel like another thread w/FAQs might be the wave... I would even be down to look for answers already asked in this thread.