Losing career -offshoring advice for certs

Looking for a bit of advice and perhaps a dash of mentoring. Recently found out that the career I have enjoyed for the past 18 years is on its last leg and will be offshoring all production type work to China within the next 6 to 12 months. Seriously sad it was a great job, design type production work, it was a career the employed lots of craftsman here in the midwest, payed very well and was interesting and challenging work. I saw the writing on the wall a couple of years ago and started going to college for information systems at a local private regional university on the weekends and evenings. I am not usually good at timing but it sort of worked out this time I will be finished with my BS in Information Systems this May.

My question is I have learned a ton, worked hard to soak it all up but I have no certs just the degree. I have good background same job for the past 18 years and have served in the Air Force Reserve for 19 and still going strong.

Since I have some time before I'm forced to change careers what two certs (along with my degree) should I work on before I am out of a job, that would help get me in the interview room. I enjoy most everything in "Tech" at the top I enjoyed programming in VB, Java and HTML5 courses then followed by Databases, networking and security. A+ type courses were my least favorite although I learned a ton that is at the bottom of my list but I'll do it if that is the recommendation.

Thanks and I hope a few respond would go a long way in helping me not feel so bummed about my losing my career.

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TheFORCE

What is your career now? What type of a job are you doing? Finishing up your degree May is a good step and a good start towards a change.
Important things to comsider is your life situation, are you the main or bigger % of income in your household? The answer to that will guide your options.
Was your previous career in IT or closely related? Getting a degree in IT and being in the late 40s or 50s I assume would mean that you have to start almost close to the entry level positions. Having a good support at home though, financially and emotional will get you through, it will take a few years but you can get back to a good career level.
Finish your degree, but in the mean time look to do some patt time or contract positions to get you experience. Work on certs while you get the experience, they go hand by hand.

fusestone

Current Career Packaging Design and Prepress, Lots of experience with Photoshop, illustrator, 3d software and High end design systems most have never heard of. Yes I am the bread winner in the family. I understand I will be taking a pay hit for a bit but should be ok for the first two years after that if I can't push to a higher level I have no issues working two jobs.

Career before while technical in nature in regards to being done on high end workstations using complex design tools that took me years to master, I would not sell it to an employer as what I consider "IT".

You nailed it I'm 45, The degree part is in the bag currently on the last capstone course, like I said it will be completed in May. Its tough to volunteer at the moment for that experience, Full time job and since they know the conglomerate that bought my company is offshoring there is a ton of overtime available which I am taking full advantage of. That along with school 2 nights a week and my Air Force Reserve commitment, and family (1 wife + 4 children) I can't do the volunteer thing but I can squeeze an hour or 2 a night at home to study for a cert.

EANx

Sorry to hear about the upcoming change but at least you have the ability to prepare for it. You sound like you prefer programming and databases to operating systems and networking. If that's the case, I'd go more after VB and SQL. There's a whole 'nother world of programming and big-data analytics that this board really doesn't touch but since you need to start somewhere, VB and SQL are as good a place as any to get a foothold.

fusestone

Thank you EANx. I have been preparing since 2014 when our company was bought and they sent about a dozen folks who have been in this industry for decades to China to teach workers at the new facility overseas, under the auspice that "expanded" business opportunities were coming and they need a presence overseas. Those never opportunities never came but the facility in China learned our business and do it well enough that we can't compete within the confines of employee pay.

So I did a search I noticed Microsoft has an MTA 98-361 Software Development fundamentals and it looks as if I have a choice of VB or C#? Start with that? then move up to a higher cert? Sorry I never really payed attention to the certs available in the world and goodness there are just so many options. I just want a few on my resume to get my foot in the door I won't much care what it entails I will embrace it full gusto and at that point get any certifications that my job entails. Hope you understand what I'm saying.

stryder144

I would do a quick analysis of the job requirements in your area before deciding on a path to take. Go to indeed.com and type in your degree. That will bring up several job postings. Look at the details on what they are looking for and that will tell you what the need is in your community.

Please remember that your AFSC and your industry have given you experience that might be very valuable to future employers looking for someone to join their IT team. They want people in IT who understand the business priorities and why it is important to fix the issues they encounter quickly and correctly.

Lastly, there are several organizations that want to invest in you. Consider looking into the Vet Force initiative that Salesforce.com has initiated. They have developer and administrator tracks. If you are accepted, you will be given training and certification on their dime. It might give you the boost you need.

TheFORCE

fusestone wrote: »

Current Career Packaging Design and Prepress, Lots of experience with Photoshop, illustrator, 3d software and High end design systems most have never heard of.

That is some impressive skilla to have, and very valuable in IT, if you want to go to the programming route, those skills will serve you well. There are a lot of companies out there that would hire someone with your skills, I just dont know if they are located in your area.
I remeber at some point in the past, I tried to learn using those 3d software products and I couldn't even make a 3rd triangle. So the skills you have are very valuable.
With that being said, I'd recommend you use your existing skills to apply to gaming companies, app development companies and animation companies, find those companies and see what jobs they have open, do a search, you might find something that can use your skills right away skipping the entry level IT jobs.

The other big thing now, is app development for mobile phones, android and IOS development, download the SDK's (software development kit) and learn how to use it, together with your design background who knows you might even come up with a killer app and be rich, or at least develop your skills well enough where you can find a good job. Lastly there are a lot of jobs as QA's and software testers and BA's that your experience can be of value. My point is, dont put all your chips in getting certified just so you can start over from scratch when there are potentially other jobs out there that you can do fairly quickly with little training skipping the entry level pay of a traditional IT job. Use your existing experience. There are jobs out there that can use your skills.
Just curious, what are some of the programs you used and where are you located?

fusestone

I am located in the Greater Cincinnati area, The programs I have used extensively at work are Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Maxon 3d (creating 3d renders), Blender for light 3d work, and Esko Artworks suite of prepress and printing tools.
I am familiar with SDK's did a lot of basic application building in school over the past few years, nothing fancy mostly basic work building simple programs like inventory apps, or simple accounting tools for business using programs such as Android Studio, IntelliJ for OOP programing in Java, and Visual studio for VB programming, those along with SQL were really solid courses I enjoyed. However, I realize they were simply basic foundational courses and unless I have the job and the people around me full time those skills won't progress much due to time constraints I have.

Not much of a gaming hub here in Cincinnati, honestly not sure I have what it takes for that (or the time) those folks are on a whole different level, I have looked at plenty code over the past couple of years trying to understand it and the gaming development ones are really out of this world.

IronmanX

Start making stuff..........

Create a GitHub account and post some stuff...
Create an app.

Yeah your on a technical certification web forum so you probably wont hear this often but you don't need any certs for software development.
I've been on the development side of things for 12+ years. I do not know anyone who has a programming certification and I don't see them listed in job ads. Maybe at a high level I've seen a few PMP would be an asset listed.

I have no idea what the Cincinnati market is like you may have to move or move down your list of what you would like to do in the tech field.

volfkhat

fusestone wrote: »

I saw the writing on the wall a couple of years ago and started going to college for information systems at a local private regional university on the weekends and evenings. I am not usually good at timing but it sort of worked out this time I will be finished with my BS in Information Systems this May.

STanding Ovation Sir!!
seriously.

If i may add my 2 cents,
I think you have it backwards:
Figure out what you want to do first; then work toward the appropriate certification.

As a personal rule: Saying that you want to work "in IT".... isn't really saying anything at all.

The Network+ & Security+ are (relatively) easy certs to achieve (just one exam each); and Government Subcontractors do like these certs for Entry-level positions; but i STill wouldn't recommend it Unless you Know for certain that you have an interest.

Personally.... you sound closer to Graphic/Web designer.
(granted, i am NOT a graphic/web designer; nor do i know exactly what kind of work that entails.... but maybe look it up?)

Verities

Agree with Volfkhat and IronmanX.

@OP - you sound like the perfect candidate for designing web pages, web apps (UI/UX) type positions. People can create web sites easily, but the design is really what makes the site stand out. Check out freecodecamp.com; they help you setup a Github account where you can post your projects that act as your online portfolio. They walk you through learning: HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JQuery, Javascript, MongoDB, node.js and a few other technologies.

TheFORCE

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Maxon 3d (creating 3d renders), Blender for light 3d work, and Esko Artworks suite of prepress and printing tools.

Did a quick search for those tools and found plenty of jobs in the entertainment and advertising industry. Yoy have a unique experience, dont let it go to waste, supplement it instead.

jdancer

Since IT is a vast field, you need to decide what you want to specialize in. Only you can decide that.

Check out Coursera and Udacity for some ideas.

If software development is what you want to do, check out codeacademy.com and choose your language.

If it's infrastructure, learn a confirmation management tool like Puppet/Chef/Salt/Ansible. I use Ansible myself. This will serve you well for "cloud" computing.

If it's networking, Cisco certs.

If it's security, CompTIA Security+ then CISSP after a few years.

Etc, etc, etc. I think you get the idea.