Its pretty important actually if you ever want to be someone on SRK.
I mean, all the best posters are full of useless, but interesting skills you can only get from an arts degree, plus being saddled with debt gives you and your persona a real bitter outlook on life, which is very handy when it comes to forming a scathing, passive aggressive critique of someone or their thread. Some of the realest niggas on SRK have fine arts degrees.
Who you know wrecks what you know.
Unless it’s IT. The better you are at being a robot wrecks being likeable.
To obtain scandalous females and vast amounts of currency.
The later he will not spend on said females, but he will make them think he will.
Tell that to all the jobs requiring you to have A+ certification before you can even apply.
(And yes, I have an AA in IT. I’m studying for the A+ test now.)
On a semi-related note, why in the world do some job aps ask for your elementary school name and address?
What for?
My old elementary school is demolished.
Got my A+ in March 2010. Graduated with an AA in Information Systems Technology - Computer Network Systems last September. Got my first IT job 2 months later doing deployments, minor server configuration, and password resets for Pepboys. Got my current job doing IT Support at Cigna at the beginning of April.
My degree certainly helped. The thing is, I didn’t just see it as a pass to make truckloads of money. I made sure that I was studying something that I really wanted to do and also something that I was naturally good at. I also made it a point to get the most out of the time I spent in college. I did tons of research, made sure that I was up to speed on everything IT related, set up a home lab so that I could experiment hands on with everything that I was learning, and got to know my instructors very well and learned as much as I could from them about working in the industry.
The recruiter for the staffing agency who contacted me about the job at Cigna didn’t really ask about my degree, but that’s because I already had paid experience in the field. If you don’t, then a degree is certainly important because you’re going up against other people who have experience. A degree shows an employer that you can be trained to do something and that you can stick to a project over a long period of time, handle the challenges presented, and actually finish it.
I didn’t know people did require A+ certification anymore. I’ve never been much of a hardware dude, but the last couple of months I was in the job hunt and never saw any postings requiring A+ cert. Isn’t A+ cert just mean you know how to put together a computer?
Often experience is more important than a degree. You can do well if you go through agencies that are sub-contractors, they’re always looking for people and don’t have the time to put you through bullshit.
If you want to be a engineer, chemical annalist, biochemist, drug designer, a research scientist, professor, or a doctor… its needed.
Other than taht, i don’t see the use of a college degree.
Huh? Im already established in my career
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I thought I was going crazy reading this thread. Every job I applied for recently required some kind of certification, and nobody even looked in my direction until I had a couple. That doesn’t apply to every IT job, but you should at very least have one A/Sec/Net+ cert just in case they ask for one.
it helps
but in life its more about who you know then what you know
from there you can learn
Sames on the opposite side of it got a AA in CIS but no certs market is dry out here in NW Indiana so if the OP has any suggestions i would like to hear some suggestions. Here in the thread or a pm greatly appreciate it.
Respect is interesting, because personnel change, personnel don’t change, and everyone’s threshold for respect varies. Some people don’t care how much you’ve sacrificed in the name of a job, some people don’t know or care that you look at a job as a paycheck. Your story is how work should be… which means your story isn’t guaranteed to repeat itself in someone else’s case. As fucked as the workforce is right now, just assume that there is no loyalty, and work your damnedest to have something to fall back on, in case it all unravels. Personally my career and ‘job loyalty’ from here on will be modeled after the philosophy of DeNiro’s character in Heat-- I won’t get involved in anything that I can’t walk away from in 30 seconds two weeks.
I personally think doing contract work is a good way to get your feet work. People underrated it. But honestly the search for your first job us going to be the hardest. When I first got into IT, I spent 6 months calling every company I could with the name “computer”, “technology”, “tech” in the company name. I called up everyone and I asked if they had any sort of entry level IT job. Eventually someone did, as a tape librarian. It was at Hewlett Packard. I was qualified to do way more, but I took that job because it was at least in my field. And I built myself from that.
Honestly your career is going to guide you more than you’re going to guide it. You’re going to find yourself working with technogies you’ve never heard of, and being introduced to markets you didn’t know existed. You’ll see how enterprise systems work from the inside. School really doesn’t give you the best perspective of how things are in the real world, or how huge systems really are.
Basically IT us really about building. I went from a tape librarian to a mid range operator. From a mid range operator to a mainframe operator. Then I became a Unix admin from there, now I do production support/system analyst work. What I do now something no one can come out of school knowing how to do.
Personally I was never really a specialist in anything. I know Java, Unix, Weblogic, Oracle databases, PL/SQL at very good technical levels. Of course if my career is suppose to expand, I have to latch on to a speciality, which will be backend Java development always. Since I really understand backend systems the best.
Your path may be different. One thing I do is loon at peoples profile on LinkedIn. A lot of people have the same path out of school. Thru go with some company and stay there for 5-10 years, and then they do a lot of contract short term work. I think working your way in a company for 3-5 years establish a salary base. Contracting your salary will generally go up. If you specialize in something, your contract rate becomes very very high. Here in Atlanta Java developers contract rates are like $50-$60 an hour. Keep in mind rent in Atlanta is rarely going to be over $1500 a month. So that’s living large in ATL.
I ramble. But I will say this. Production Support or Development are your best bets. Production support guys are bondafide jacks of all trades. Thryre salary only get trumped by developers and other specialist like DBAs. Java development is always hot. Some.markets may habe Microsoft development, but I’m not that familiar. Learn to work more with recruiters ans understand Indian accents and you should be good. Also don’t be afraid to travel a bit of things are slow in your local market. I’m moving to Seattle for a contract. Tons of people travel around the coubtry doing contract work.
As far as certs are concerned. Thryre more beneficial for hardware support, or networking. That’s only because networking is so saturated, and only genuine monsters do well in it. But you need to be a guy holding advance Cisco certs to even be looked at by someone needing networking. Netowkring is actually the most marketed aspect of IT, so its no surprise why so many people get into it. But unless you love networking. I would stay away from it. If you go the route of networking, be prepared to invest heavily in certs. Advance Cisco certs are expensive with high failure rates. Very few people individualy fund these degrees out of their own pocket.
Certs get more mileage in security. Most security guys do well with a cert and a degree. It’s not overly saturated like networking (its getting there though), so you can find your place. Financial industry hire most IT security personnel.
I’m biased toward development and Unix system for obvious reasons. I do well, and find work relatively easily, but career is built around that.
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It’s pretty hard to work in industrial research without a college degree. That applies to fields like semiconductor, biotech, chemical engineering, etc. And in many of those fields, if all you have is a bachelor’s degree, you won’t be more than a lab technician.
A whole slew of professions require degrees: doctors of all kinds, lawyers of all kinds, etc.
I agree with this, and also the medical field. But if the goal is simply to make money and get a job making money, a degree isn’t necessary.
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Bran good stuff personally been hitting the job sites for anything i can sink my teeth into. I’m more hardware then software took courses in school for java, VB, HTML and even Distributed Apps. The jack of all trades fits me more but they get paid well from what you say contract work would do fine if the contract willing to travel yet got a young son and a wife on the way so travel well if it’s worth it then yeah i’ll travel Thanks for the words of wisdom i certainly hope that something does come thru IT been my thing for years since i got a amd anthlon thunderbird 800mhz computer built then had it crash with all my napster songs!!!
The general rule of thumb for IT is that you definitely want to stay unique. One thing that has made me very unique is that while I know midrange sysems and development languages, I also know some more obscure technologies like Weblogic. Weblogic isn’t that obscure, but few people have knowledge of it, the ones who do are in development, or don’t speak English all that well. But I also know legacy systems like OS/390 and AS/400. Very people people know both the Java world and also know legacy systems. I’m probably one of the few people who know both is pretty good detail.
Hardware is great, but of course the track for hardware is kind of limited. There isn’t much you can do with hardware but kind of become a server repair guy which has different title depending on where you are (a lot of people call them Computer Engineers or CEs). The real money (and uniqueness) will come from repairing larger systems. For example repairing mainframes is highly specialized and few people can do it. You’ll likely work with IBM while doing this, but it’s pretty cool since mainframes aren’t going anywhere in yours or my lifetime.
One of the advantages of hardware is that you need to physically be there to repair it. That usually means you can’t lose your job to offshoring as easily. Infrastructure is what is basically keeping a lot of jobs on this side of the country. The real problem with hardware is that you give up a lot of flexibility you would get if you were more of a software guy, or if you worked as a Unix/Window’s/Linux admin.
On the topic of job websites. Personally I only like Dice and Career Builder. Back in the days when I first started, Computerjobs was the site, but it’s shifted to tons of people over the years. You can apply to jobs on websites, but it really does little good. For the most part, it’s better to have your resume posted and have recruiters find you. I don’t think I’ve applied for a job in 6 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever applied for a job and actual got it. Recruiters oftentimes get good leads or hints on jobs, and will contact you before jobs are posted. Some have good relationships with hiring managers as well, and oftentimes hiring managers will ask them to send over a candidate before a job is posted. The old scool applying for a job approach doesn’t work as well. You have to get a little creative.
On the topic of wife and kids, well I know I’m single now and was definitely single when I started my career. But honestly having children and a wife shouldn’t be much of a handicap when looking for a job or traveling. Depending on what level you’re working at, and what projects you get involved in, you can spend a lot of your would be personal time working. So keep in mind, any idea of a regular 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t exist in IT. That’s the first thing you should be willing to accept. Also keep in mind this field is highly competitive. You’re not competing with other American’s but the entire world. Some guys travel around the country with worker visas and take contracts. This is very common in India. These guys normally leave their family in certain locations to travel for contracts. So keep in mind, if you’re selective, recruiters will get someone who isn’t so selective or apprehensive about moving. Some of those guys leave their family back in another country. China is also on the come up, but it may be a few years before you see strong worker visa from them.
Anyway good luck. If I were you I would definitely take anything they give you right now to at least get perspective. From there you’ll have more of an idea of what direction you want to go in. As I said before, your career will guide you. And there are some technologies that are not household names, but have tons of money in them. For example, when I worked at T-mobile I never heard of JDA, but it’s pretty big in retail. Walmart and other big retail chains use this tool. And there are consultants who do nothing but JDA. There are also dedicated JDA developer, and they stay employed. I’ve been open up to this type of stuff a lot, and you’re like to be as well. If you’re in NW Indiana, I think you’re close to Chicago. Definitely see what you can find in the the Chicagoland area, it’s field is strong. I have a lot of friends who work in that area.
Anyway that’s just my long winded 2 cent.
Immigrant fruit pickers in British Columbia that barely have a functioning grasp of English work and make money, too. Some of them might not even have what would pass for high school education. A person could have nearly zero education and work as a manual laborer in south east Asia. They’d also make money doing that.
“Make money and get a job making money” doesn’t mean much by itself. Plenty of poorly educated workers in the world work really damn hard and make a living wage.