A.A.S Networking Technology

Sylice

How far would an A.A.S Networking Technology degree with a Network+ certification get me in the I.T field?

http://www.waynecc.edu/networking/degree/

I plan on going for the bachelor's as well:
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cet/techsystems/bsit.cfm

But I'm just wondering, would I be wasting my time taking this route? Is thus a good step to get started in the I.T field?

ITSpectre

You don't need a degree to get started in the IT field. Start off looking at entry level Help Desk roles and go from there. Get your degree but use the help desk to get experience.

kohr-ah

Some degree beats no degree. I have an AAS in Computer Internetworking Technologies and am glad I do. One day I'll get my bachelors.

Advice, Certify as you do it. Dont JUST do the network+. If you can do A+, CCNA, Sec+ as part of the courses do it and ceritfy. Also see if you can find work in IT while doing your degree even if part time.

OctalDump

The low cost option is to work and study at the same time. It takes a while to get enough work experience that you get to do things that actually require a degree. So if you do both at once, hopefully when you graduate, you have enough experience that your degree will help you in your work (and not just to get work).

Longer term you want education (diploma, degree), experience (ideally varied and paid, but whatever you can scrape together including labbing and personal projects), and certifications (to demonstrate specific industry competencies).

If you are really starting from scratch, then community college with a good lab and affiliation with industry partners eg Cisco Network Academy, VMware Academy, Microsoft etc, is a great way to get hands on, practical experience and also work some way toward certifications.

If you do take a program that has things like Cisco Network Academy, then also take the certification exams and not just the internal exams. And take them as soon as you can, while the information is still fresh in your head.

If you do have some experience now, see what kind of credit you might be able to get for completed certifications. Self study for certifications might be cheaper and faster than paying for a course through a college.