Anyone taught IT classes?

12thlevelwarrior

Anyone ever done IT training on a part-time basis or full time for that matter, just want to hear some negatives and positives about it (pay, classroom experience, amount of stress, etc..).

thx

keatron

I spend about 40% of my time training. Bottom line is you really have to get experience in the field and become very good at it, then move into training. Sadly, I know a few people who came into to IT, grabbed a few certs as quickly as possible, then jumped right into teaching (this explains why so many students leave the classes feeling like they didn't learn anything). The pay again is what you make of it. If you're really good, people will request you, and you will pretty much set your own price (depending on what kind of training it is). I did an official CISSP review seminar recently. It was 15 students and if you're familiar with the CISSP you know the seminars are about $2500 per student. As you can imagine, we get the biggest majority of that, and ISC2 gets a small cut. As for Microsoft classes, I usually bill out at about $1700 a day. However, when I started doing training, I was only billing between $300 and $500 per day. So again, I stress..you have to start from the bottom as with most areas of IT, then build an excellent reputation by doing excellent work. As time goes on, your rates will go up (if you're serious and passionate about what you're doing). I enjoy training enough to almost do it for free....as a matter of fact, I have done it for free before. If you don't have a true passion and just do it for the money, you probably won't be as successful. The good thing about the advanced classes like CISSP is that most of the students are seasoned Infosec professionals. So you always get to interesting and important information from these guys about what they're doing back at their shops. This does wonders for your knowledge base. So all in all, it can be a very rewarding route to go, but be prepared to hit patches where you won't have any training going on. Also make sure you're qualified to teach more than one class, this will give you options.

Keatron.

12thlevelwarrior

Thanks so much for the great feedback, I have never taught before, so I don't know if I would like it or not. I think I would enjoy the stimulation of being in front of a group and being able to help them learn.

I need to bring in alittle more income come this fall and I was thinking about different kinds of part-time jobs I could do. There aren't many part-time system administrator jobs. Night helpdesk work would be ok, but to me part-time teaching would be a better fit (more stimulating, better pay, solidifies what I have already learned).

Do you think this amount of experience/certs would allow me to possibly try out teaching (don't mind starting at low pay):

4 years tech support
2 years sys administrator
MCSA 2003 (hope to have this by Oct, 2 more exams to go)

Once again, thank you for your time and responses.

keatron

All of this looks like a decent amount of experience. Keep in mind that knowing material and being able to relay that information to a group of people in a fashion that they will retain most of it are two totally different things. The only way to know for sure is to give it a try. Go ahead and get a few of your friends together (preferably one's who aren't in IT), then try to get them to understand NTFS and Share permissions. Give yourself 20 minutes to do this. Also, to teach Microsoft classes you're required to become an MCT which is a brutal process. To teach CompTIA material you're supposed to become a CTT. And for the most part, each certifying vendor or body has a similar "certified trainer" requirement. Bottom line? If you really want to do it, then go for it. Nothing can stop you.

Keatron

sprkymrk

While my teaching experience does not approach that of Keatron, it may apply to your current situation a little closer. A few years ago I spent a couple of years teaching an Intro to Computers (level 1 and 2) class for a big school distict's Community Education program. This was seasonal, part time work at night that catered mostly to middle-age and older adults who needed to get some basic computer skills to advance at their current jobs. Class size ranged from 6-15 people and the pay was $18 an hour (not much I know, but the students were only being charged $40 tuituion for the 6 week course). It was less than I was making at my full time job, but it was fun work and made me feel like I was giving something back to the community. It's really cool to see the light go on in someone's head when they finally "get it". If a similar opportunity presented itself again, I would probably take it. Part time only, of course... I like my current job too much.

12thlevelwarrior

Great information, I will keep it in mind. Thanks for the feedback.

benbuiltpc

I teach free, informal intro classes at a public library. Classes are 2 hour sessions. Really basic stuff meant for people who have little/no computer exposure.

Teaching is part of my job description so I'm not making any extra money from it- but I am able to then promote my little side business (home/small business service calls and consulting).

Classes can be fun when the students actually seem like they enjoy being there, but sometimes it's like talking to a wall. My job is mainly to answer any questions they have.

Trailerisf

Keatron does it bother you that you have to pay a $400/yr fee???

I find it humorous that most of Africa is charged $50. (Isnt that like 6 months avg income??)

Oh well, I guess we need to pay for Bill's new pool somehow.

keatron

Trailerisf wrote:

Keatron does it bother you that you have to pay a $400/yr fee???

I find it humorous that most of Africa is charged $50. (Isnt that like 6 months avg income??)

Oh well, I guess we need to pay for Bill's new pool somehow.

Actually the fee is not that bad at all considering what you get.

1. You get to download all the MOS (Microsoft Official Curriculum) for official courses (the ones listed next to the exams on the www.microsoft.com/learning website.). So basically, I never have to take a class to get the official curriculum complete with lab manuals, lab setup instructions, and lab/class files. This alone saves me tons in books and other materials.

2. 50% off Technet DVD subscription (this alone equals about $400 bucks), since I've been an MCT for 3 years or more. (However you do have to ask for this).

3. 50% off all Microsoft exams. $125/2= $62.50 per exam savings. So I saved another $125 just this weekend (I took 290 and 291).
Again the website advertises 45% but the three year clause gives me an extra 5%.

4. 50% discount on Microsoft Press books (yes, the big blue ones). So I only pay half for those also.

5. I just received my welcome kit for the 2006 cycle year (start's May 1st) and it's packed with all kinds of new goodies that weren't in last year's. A really cool MCT polo, and a set of e-learning dvds that are really really good (so far I've looked at the exchange server one about 8 hours). And other little nifty stuff.

So to be honest, with all this stuff, the $400 doesn't bother me one bit .

gabrielbtoledo

That is a path that I've never really thought about it, but has been pointed out to me many times.
My teacher always tells me to go into teaching. Because of my natural ability to help others teaching stuff that I know and my paitience. I had no idea it could be very rewarded. I will think about it.