Seeking Professional Advice - Career Advancement

twistedkarma

Hey all!

I thought this would be a really great place to pour my heart out and receive great advice from like minded individuals. I've found myself stuck at pivotal point in my life with seemingly no answer. Brief background of who I am.. I'll try to keep it as short as I can.

I have a very strong dislike for school. I struggle to learn the way most do. I ended up dropping out of grade school at the age of thirteen. The last grade I completed was 8th. I have always had a passion for technology. I found myself always wanting to help people. I've loved taking things apart to learn how they work, this started the moment I was able to hold a screw driver. Before long, I had this wealth of break/fix knowledge, an amazing skill set and I was the go-to-tech for friends and family. Anything I didn't know, I researched or I learned from trial and error. This lead me to my first "real" job at Apple. Having no real prior experience with Macs, I aced FIVE interviews to be hired on as a Genius. Landing this job gave me the best high, it gave me a great confidence that I had always been lacking. Being sent to Cupertino, CA for training has easily become some of the fondest memories I have.

After my departure from Apple (left after a year and a half), I felt lost. Everything I knew was gone and I didn't know what to do next. I volunteered as a firefighter for two years, helped two different friends open retail presences for their computer repair businesses, moved/drove a crossed the country (NY to NV) where I worked for a residential on-site IT company, moved back to NY and worked for one of the largest Apple Authorized Service Providers in the world and then ended up running one of the most successful computer repair businesses in Manhattan. Now I'm unemployed and lost. The problem? I don't want to work in a residential/consumer/retail environment anymore. Although it's something I enjoy and it's something I am quite good at, it's not something I want to do for the rest of my life.

That brings me to present day (thanks for reading all that).. With little to no knowledge of Networking/Security/Active Directory/Virtual Machine/Citrix/VPN/Windows Server, ect.. Because I have always dealt with residential/consumer.. I can not get the career I want, the career I need. Although I am a great tech, with a great resume, a well honed set of skills and a good personality, there is no room for me in the corporate world. So the question in my mind has become, what do I do next? What do I do to make room for myself? How do I advance my career? Microsoft Certs? Cisco Certs? CompTIA Certs? And how do I accomplish this? Reading from a book will not help me, I have a learning disability that makes it extremely difficult. The way I learn is by being mentored and by hands on experience.. But there are no "trade schools" that are reputable, at least none that I've found, so i'm stuck.. and I feel quite hopeless. I know where I want to be and I can't get there. I do have an interview at a very reputable company in a week, but when they start to probe me about things like Active Directory and Windows Server, I'm sure i'll be overlooked.

Any advice is helpful!

TacoRocket

I always recommend the CompTIA trifecta as a beginning point for certs.

twistedkarma

TacoRocket wrote: »

I always recommend the CompTIA trifecta as a beginning point for certs.

Do you have any suggestions on how to gain the knowledge needed to pass these certs and feel confident in real world situations? Again, studying from a book will not work for me.

Dakinggamer87

I would maybe consider watching videos with hands-on demonstrations on YouTube. This might help you retain the information better and your overall knowledge and understanding. I hope this suggestion helps!!

Caiyenne

twistedkarma wrote: »

Do you have any suggestions on how to gain the knowledge needed to pass these certs and feel confident in real world situations? Again, studying from a book will not work for me.

Please don't take this the wrong way but if you really want to advance with certifications you will need good reading comprehension skills. Perhaps find a remedial program that will help you deal with your learning disability in order to advance your reading skills? I just took the Network and Security + exams this year and honestly a BIG part of being able to pass those tests was being able to INTERPRET exactly what they are asking.

Sounds like you are a super intelligent guy who can learn very quickly. Don't let this hold you back. I'm sure there is a way to get though this part of your education and overcome the reading obstacle.

twistedkarma

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

I would maybe consider watching videos with hands-on demonstrations on YouTube. This might help you retain the information better and your overall knowledge and understanding. I hope this suggestion helps!!

I'm looking at CBTNuggets and I'm wondering if this is my answer, or at least part of it.

Caiyenne wrote: »

Please don't take this the wrong way but if you really want to advance with certifications you will need good reading comprehension skills. Perhaps find a remedial program that will help you deal with your learning disability in order to advance your reading skills? I just took the Network and Security + exams this year and honestly a BIG part of being able to pass those tests was being able to INTERPRET exactly what they are asking.

Sounds like you are a super intelligent guy who can learn very quickly. Don't let this hold you back. I'm sure there is a way to get though this part of your education and overcome the reading obstacle.

Unfortunately it's not the reading comprehension part that I struggle with, it's retaining the information I read. I have a very hyperactive mind, unless it's stimulated, I struggle to learn. Reading does not stimulate my mind. This is why hands on/mentored training allows me to excel at a rapid rate. I do appreciate your response and I get that I'm going to have to pick up a book once in awhile

I have tried to study for my CompTIA certs before, on a few different occasions. I still own the material I purchased for that. I've also enrolled myself in college three separate times, each time, same outcome.. I don't want anyone thinking I haven't tried.

alias454

For what it's worth, much or your experience will carry over into a corporate environment. Corporations have lots of desktop and mobile devices, which will allow for you to use much of your existing experience. You can start looking for helpdesk or desktop support type roles to fill in some or your gaps like AD and Terminal Services. In my opinion, getting an A+ would be very easy for you since it is really a basic cert. After that, I would get some physical gear and look into CCENT/CCNA. Also MS has their MVA course https://mva.microsoft.com/.

Good Luck

twistedkarma

alias454 wrote: »

For what it's worth, much or your experience will carry over into a corporate environment. Corporations have lots of desktop and mobile devices, which will allow for you to use much of your existing experience. You can start looking for helpdesk or desktop support type roles to fill in some or your gaps like AD and Terminal Services. In my opinion, getting an A+ would be very easy for you since it is really a basic cert. After that, I would get some physical gear and look into CCENT/CCNA. Also MS has their MVA course https://mva.microsoft.com/.

Good Luck

Thank you! I appreciate your insight. I hope the company I have an interview with this week feels the same way you do!

OctalDump

So, you prefer hands on to reading? Well, the good news is that getting a certification just by reading is much harder than getting one just by hands on. Most people will do both, with more time spent "labbing" than reading. There's also a heap of how to's and videos and what not.

If your Apple stuff is reasonably advanced (say, beyond ACTC, comfortable scripting, digging around in plists and /etc, /var, bash/ssh etc), then the transition to Linux might not be a difficult path. The Red Hat (and Novell SUSE) exams are hands on exams, so might even suit you more.

The other thing you must do, if you haven't already, is set up a home lab. Install the OS or whatever you are practicing for, and then go through all the features. Look at the exam objectives (generally a few pages of bullet points at the most), and then figure out "How do I do this?". A lot of experimentation and Google later you will get a handle on things. Home labs are also a good way to get incidental learning about virtualisation, since you can set up a small network of computers all virtualised on one workstation.

The MS path might be challenging from your background. A good employer will likely realise your strengths and give you a go, but you will still need to learn it all at some point. Home labs are probably your best option here, too. I'd recommend starting with Windows client, then moving to server. The Windows client certifications are very much focused on an enterprise context, so it's a bit like lowering yourself into a hot bath.

The hands on route into networking is probably better achieved by going down the Cisco path. The Cisco courseware generally involves lots of hands on labs that get you doing things with the technology.

Security is more difficult perhaps, since it does tend to involve a lot of process/policy/procedure documentation and writing. The most hands on stuff generally also involves a lot of report writing - audit findings, forensics reports, penetration testing reports etc. It might be one of those things where you just aim to know what you have to know. But who knows, it might be the kind of thing that really appeals to you. You won't know until you try.

twistedkarma

OctalDump wrote: »

So, you prefer hands on to reading? Well, the good news is that getting a certification just by reading is much harder than getting one just by hands on. Most people will do both, with more time spent "labbing" than reading. There's also a heap of how to's and videos and what not.

If your Apple stuff is reasonably advanced (say, beyond ACTC, comfortable scripting, digging around in plists and /etc, /var, bash/ssh etc), then the transition to Linux might not be a difficult path. The Red Hat (and Novell SUSE) exams are hands on exams, so might even suit you more.

The other thing you must do, if you haven't already, is set up a home lab. Install the OS or whatever you are practicing for, and then go through all the features. Look at the exam objectives (generally a few pages of bullet points at the most), and then figure out "How do I do this?". A lot of experimentation and Google later you will get a handle on things. Home labs are also a good way to get incidental learning about virtualisation, since you can set up a small network of computers all virtualised on one workstation.

The MS path might be challenging from your background. A good employer will likely realise your strengths and give you a go, but you will still need to learn it all at some point. Home labs are probably your best option here, too. I'd recommend starting with Windows client, then moving to server. The Windows client certifications are very much focused on an enterprise context, so it's a bit like lowering yourself into a hot bath.

The hands on route into networking is probably better achieved by going down the Cisco path. The Cisco courseware generally involves lots of hands on labs that get you doing things with the technology.

Security is more difficult perhaps, since it does tend to involve a lot of process/policy/procedure documentation and writing. The most hands on stuff generally also involves a lot of report writing - audit findings, forensics reports, penetration testing reports etc. It might be one of those things where you just aim to know what you have to know. But who knows, it might be the kind of thing that really appeals to you. You won't know until you try.

Appreciate you taking the time to give me advice. As far as the CCNA certification goes, without much knowledge of networking, will I be comfortable diving into this first? CompTIA's Network+ wouldn't be a better starting point? I've also thought about going down the path of a Red Hat System Admin, but the truth is, I feel as if I need to learn a lot more about networking to be successful anywhere I go. So my immediate goal now seems to be achieving A+ & Network+ to get my feet wet and gain some confidence, then move toward Cisco Certs.