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Struggling with direction
ck86
Member Posts: 62 ■■□□□□□□□□
Hey guys,
I'm struggling with figuring out in which area I want to specialize. I hope to get some feedback from those of you who went through something similar or may share some similarities to me and my preferences.
I'll start by giving you my brief history.
My IT "career" started as a 25U in the Army. I spent 5 years doing all the different signal stuff in a maintenance company. A lot of break/fix. I did some basic networking, AD work, etc but really it was all very entry and easy to pick up. I didn't obtain any certs because I was unsure I wanted to continue working in the field after my ETS.
After my ETS I picked up a job as a junior windows sysadmin. I worked that job for almost a year and learned a bit about basic server work, licensing, a lot of print server work, a little virtualization. From there I followed my boss to a linux shop startup where I was doing basic network troubleshooting and such through linux. I never really became comfortable with that work as it was my first jump into the linux world and I felt like a fish out of water and had a hard time picking it up. Eventually I was laid off with a significant portion of the company.
I took a little break after that before getting an opportunity with a small startup (3 people) doing consulting. I worked 2.5 years for the owner and learned a great deal. The systems engineer that was working with us had a falling out with the boss shortly after I joined the team, so I absorbed a lot of his responsibilities. I became the go-to for all of the server and design work. We supported small/midsize medical practices and law firms. Some of them would have little to no infrastructure and we'd do projects and build from the ground up. I quickly learned enough VMware to build out, setup and maintain the servers. I gained knowledge in the server fundamentals, but mostly through trial and error and lacking the formal training and experience. In most areas I was the strongest troubleshooter/most technical on the team and spent a lot of time researching and coming up with new solutions to offer customers. We slowly converted to MSP type offerings to keep clients paying and I really enjoyed the creative/design side of it all. That said, I was very weak in the operational side. Checking backup reports, licensing, doing maintenance, following checklists, etc always felt very unnatural. I loved to spin up a new environment but really wanted to have my hands out of it after that. The repetitive mundane tasks ate at my soul and the 24/7 phone calls really disrupted my work-life balance and in high stress I'm very inefficient. I'd say the most enjoyable parts were the engineering, design and big picture piece.
I've since moved on from that job since I was no longer learning and was far overworked. I know that I need to finish my degree and focus on reinforcing my experience with education. I picked up my life and moved across the country near family (Philly to San Antonio) to figure it all out. I was offered a position with an MSP yesterday as a systems engineer, but will also play a part in the business development side of things and wear a sales engineer/management hat as well. I accepted because it seems to be a much better fit than my last MSP experience, but was a little turned off when they suggested I get an Office 365 certification and showed me I'd be sharing one large desk with two other techs. My other opportunity in progress is with USAA in their VetFIT program which would be a 22-week internship learning java with a job offer contingent upon performing well through that, but that may or may not work out and doesn't begin until January.
Education wise I'm currently taking basic science courses at a local community college with the plan to decide on a degree from there. The issue being that I am still really undecided between Business Administration (would like to be an entrepreneur one day), Computer Science (strong foundation/software engineering intrigues me), Cyber Security (strong field, UTSA has a great program), or an AAS in Network and Cloud Architecture at a decent community college here.
I feel like a square peg in a round hole with aspects of most IT careers and am really having a hard time pulling the trigger on the best fit.
Would love to hear any thoughts or opinions.
I'm struggling with figuring out in which area I want to specialize. I hope to get some feedback from those of you who went through something similar or may share some similarities to me and my preferences.
I'll start by giving you my brief history.
My IT "career" started as a 25U in the Army. I spent 5 years doing all the different signal stuff in a maintenance company. A lot of break/fix. I did some basic networking, AD work, etc but really it was all very entry and easy to pick up. I didn't obtain any certs because I was unsure I wanted to continue working in the field after my ETS.
After my ETS I picked up a job as a junior windows sysadmin. I worked that job for almost a year and learned a bit about basic server work, licensing, a lot of print server work, a little virtualization. From there I followed my boss to a linux shop startup where I was doing basic network troubleshooting and such through linux. I never really became comfortable with that work as it was my first jump into the linux world and I felt like a fish out of water and had a hard time picking it up. Eventually I was laid off with a significant portion of the company.
I took a little break after that before getting an opportunity with a small startup (3 people) doing consulting. I worked 2.5 years for the owner and learned a great deal. The systems engineer that was working with us had a falling out with the boss shortly after I joined the team, so I absorbed a lot of his responsibilities. I became the go-to for all of the server and design work. We supported small/midsize medical practices and law firms. Some of them would have little to no infrastructure and we'd do projects and build from the ground up. I quickly learned enough VMware to build out, setup and maintain the servers. I gained knowledge in the server fundamentals, but mostly through trial and error and lacking the formal training and experience. In most areas I was the strongest troubleshooter/most technical on the team and spent a lot of time researching and coming up with new solutions to offer customers. We slowly converted to MSP type offerings to keep clients paying and I really enjoyed the creative/design side of it all. That said, I was very weak in the operational side. Checking backup reports, licensing, doing maintenance, following checklists, etc always felt very unnatural. I loved to spin up a new environment but really wanted to have my hands out of it after that. The repetitive mundane tasks ate at my soul and the 24/7 phone calls really disrupted my work-life balance and in high stress I'm very inefficient. I'd say the most enjoyable parts were the engineering, design and big picture piece.
I've since moved on from that job since I was no longer learning and was far overworked. I know that I need to finish my degree and focus on reinforcing my experience with education. I picked up my life and moved across the country near family (Philly to San Antonio) to figure it all out. I was offered a position with an MSP yesterday as a systems engineer, but will also play a part in the business development side of things and wear a sales engineer/management hat as well. I accepted because it seems to be a much better fit than my last MSP experience, but was a little turned off when they suggested I get an Office 365 certification and showed me I'd be sharing one large desk with two other techs. My other opportunity in progress is with USAA in their VetFIT program which would be a 22-week internship learning java with a job offer contingent upon performing well through that, but that may or may not work out and doesn't begin until January.
Education wise I'm currently taking basic science courses at a local community college with the plan to decide on a degree from there. The issue being that I am still really undecided between Business Administration (would like to be an entrepreneur one day), Computer Science (strong foundation/software engineering intrigues me), Cyber Security (strong field, UTSA has a great program), or an AAS in Network and Cloud Architecture at a decent community college here.
I feel like a square peg in a round hole with aspects of most IT careers and am really having a hard time pulling the trigger on the best fit.
Would love to hear any thoughts or opinions.
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Params7
Member Posts: 254
I'd pick one between CS or Cyber Security for degree. CS is stronger of the two and with CS you can still move over to cyber security if you decide to specialize. You can still be an entrepreneur later on in life, only go for Business Administration if you're looking to go into managerial or business development roles straight away.
If you go CS, I'd really just for with the USAA program. The experience and skillsets will pair up nicely to make you into a software engineer. You're gonna have to figure out how to kill time until January. -
OptionsBlackBeret
Member Posts: 683 ■■■■■□□□□□
Checkout Rack Space in San Antonio as well, with your Linux/VM experience you'd probably be a good fit.
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Optionsck86
Member Posts: 62 ■■□□□□□□□□
Thanks for the advice.
Rackspace turned me down for an entry level virtualization gig, which I wasn't too upset about honestly.
The interview at USAA went really well today and had some good connection with some of the current staff. Seems like it'd be a great place to work and get my foot in the software dev world while I continue going to school, which they not only facilitate but encourage and pay for.
Need to take the other job for income in the meantime. Only about 20% of who interviewed today will be accepted for the USAA training program so I need a backup plan.
Good advice on the CS degree. It'd probably be more valuable to gain knowledge that I could branch into different fields rather than pigeonholing myself to Cyber Security.