Brehs,
This thread is full of years worth of valuable and relevant information. You need to read through this whole-entire-thread front to back. This is EXACTLY what I did when I started in IT and its the reason I have a great career now.
From 2017 til now I have read through this entire thread 30 times. With each revisit, I found something new that I might have missed or ignored previously but speaks to me now that I'm at a certain career level.
I've been dropping gem after gem because I want you niccas to flourish and I want to keep this thread going strong, But don't expect me or anybody else to spoon-feed you every step of the way. You have to take the initiative, research and find out shyt for yourselves.
This thread has all the info you need to to get started. The A+, Sec+, Net+ and CCNA, MCSA and CISSP has been covered 100's of times in painstakingly detailed fashion. Examples of the amount of money you can make has been discovered thousands of times by real people working in the field, telling you how to get there. You just have to read this thread front to back. it's all you need.
When I started, I didn't know shyt. Didnt know how to get started, didn't know what this or that cert was for. I was attending some certification bootcamp while unemployed and my wife was the breadwinner. She was stressed, I was stressed, my pride was shot, and at times I wanted to just give up and go back to working warehouse jobs because it was tough getting a job in IT. Interview after interview led to nothing. One shady recruiter after another misleading me and selling me bullshyt knowing they didn't have any jobs lined up.
It started with this thread. Cats like B.Dizzle, Havoc, and others was dropping all this inspiring and informative shyt page after page. I became hooked. This thread was my entertainment, my vision board, and my bible. I read this shyt obsessively over and over again to the point I already knew what to do before I landed my first job.
Got my 1st job in IT after getting my A+ and following the advice in this thread starting at $18/hourly. 7 months later I got another jobs paying $28 an hour. Gotta pay raise 7 months after that making $34.00 an hour. From the time I got my 1st job, My life started to turn around like a muthafukker. Debt was being eliminated rapidly; Bills just evaporating, Having all this disposable income. Between me an my wife we bring home 8 G's or more a month now. Been able to work from home during this COVID bullshyt and I cant remember the last time we were even hurting for money. Sometimes we forget that we even got paid because we still got money sitting in the account from previous pay periods.
Even with all the success and blessing coming my way, I still read through this thread when I'm not home labbing, cert prepping or just living life. This shyt is a constant grind and you need to always be learning and and taking the initiative to invest in yourself, Having a mentor is good, but fukk that. Don't sit around waiting for muthafukkers to teach you how to do anything or pay for your certs. I don't care how much the certs cost or how much time you have to invest into learning and growing, This is the nature of the game and you need to get numb to it. Put your emotions and ego to the side and attack this game with relentless determination. Failure is to be expected but it aint shyt in the long run. Keep pushing and ignore the setbacks.
Dont matter how hard something is. If you want it, you will find a way to justify the energy you put into it. The key to becoming good at anything is repetition+time. Dont matter if you suck at it or cant fathom how you could ever do something you think is impossible. You have to be stubborn to the voice of your own inner resistance/self-doubt and just keep trying and one day shyt will just click and then it snowballs into competence, into expertise and finally into mastery.
You think Programming languages is impossible, You think Linux is spaceship magic wizardry that only the elite minds of the world can understand or that cloud is some spooky shyt that you will never be able to learn. It's all bullshyt. Keep pushing and time will do the rest of the work. In this game you will find your self around muthafukkas who are smarter and more experienced than you but fukk it let it be your motivation. You dont have to be the smartest to make top dollar, just be on top of your shyt with a some modicum of people skills and you will flourish. You'll be able to blow past all these gurus and nerds who have expertise, but none of the hustle or drive to play in the big leagues. You will reach a point where you think you're not good enough but once again, it's all bullshyt. You are, even if your job doesn't acknowledge. Just get your weight up and bounce for a better one if need be.
All in all. you have to be willing to bet on your self and take initiative. I been through the shyt, people in this thread have been through the shyt, and you're gonna go through it as well.
Keep in mind that you're in control of your destiny in this IT game and when you hit a rough patch or start to doubt yourself, push though it because it aint nothing but some ole bullshyt to learn from and get better.
The world is your oyster my G's but you gotta believe it.
Stay solid and the success will come 100-fold. I promise you this.
Done.
