Where to go, what to do??

biggene

Hello everyone,

I am just digging myself out of a rather rough patch in life, went through a divorce in the past 10 months, and I am wondering how to proceed with my career. I basically crawled into a bottle when my wife kicked me out and I have finally thrown the monkey off my back and am ready to crawl out of this mess I have made for myself.

I was promoted to a Project Manager position a little over a year ago, and I have been pretty complacent since the promotion. I had my A+, Net+ and Sec+ when I was promoted, but they have all lapsed since that time. O have the previous Project+ manual, but never even cracked the thing open before the divorce.


I have 25+ years of experience in the IT world, but don’t have my degree (only 12 credits left for my Associates degree) or any certs at this point in my career. With all my experience, I am wondering if it is better for me to just go ahead and go for an MCSA (I am leaning towards Cloud/Server 2016), instead of starting out with the Comptia trio again. With my experience level and the types of positions I plan on applying for, I don't really see the need to get the entry-level stuff again, unless someone thinks it would actually be worth it for me?



Thoughts, questions, comments??

Thanks for playing along,
Gene

scaredoftests

If it was me and 12 credits left, finish up your AA. Most companies want a AA degree to look at you.

biggene

Thanks for the advice scared.

I have actually already contacted the school and gotten my financial aid set up for next semester. I should be able to finish classes and have my degree by the end of summer at the latest, but I am trying to discern where to go from there.

yoba222

Bachelors, and then management level certs. I'd skip over The three "+" certs and MCSA. I'd skip Project+ too. The only people who care about that one are WGU students because it's a required part of their curriculum. Go for PMP.

JoJoCal19

As mentioned by yoba, ignore the CompTIA trio. I'd actually bull rush the PMP and get it out of the way now. With your experience it could set you up to move up/on sooner than later. After the PMP I'd finish the AA and also pick a technology you're interested in and go down that track, like you mentioned MCSA Cloud/Server would be good choices.

techfiend

I'd say focus on PMP if you are eligible.

[h=2]PMP Eligibility Requirements[/h][h=3]Bachelor's degree or global equivalent[/h]

• Minimum three years/36 months unique non-overlapping professional project management experience
• 4,500 hours spent leading and directing projects
• 35 contact hours of formal project management education

[h=3]High school diploma, associate's degree or global equivalent[/h]

• Minimum five years/60 months unique non-overlapping professional project management experience
• 7,500 hours spent leading and directing projects
• 35 contact hours of formal project management education

If not go for bachelors, Project+ (doesn't it reduce PMP requirements by a year?) ITIL and maybe a technology you are interested in like MCSA Cloud or AWS are huge right now.

mzx380

Speaking as a PM, if project management is what you want to do and you are eligible, then you should appear for the PMP. Please note that the format of the exam is changing as of 3/26/18 so if you want to take it before then, you should study PMBOK v five otherwise it will v6 which has new knowledge areas.

dizzy_kitty

If you don't qualify for the PMP you could sit for the CAP-M. Same organization, PMI, as the PMP certificate.

Bjcheung77

Hmm, interesting, hope you're doing well... BTW, what college did you go to and what credits do you have, is that school Regionally Accredited? You can reply back and I'll provide you a course of action. Anyways, this is my take and I would recommend the following.

1a) Go finish your Associates in Applied Science from either you local community college OR if you want, you can transfer to a West Virginia CC BOG AAS. The BOG AAS can be finished a lot faster if you transfer everything into the degree, there are 0-3 credit residency requirements, 9 WVCC's to choose from, some will waive the residency requirement.

1b) If you want just an Associates in CIS or something in IT, OR, if you are also wanting to get an Associates in CIT (Comp Info Technology) instead, you can transfer to Hodges Upower program, they require 5 courses, the rest are transferable into their program.

2) Complete your Bachelors at either of the three schools - Brandman, Hodges, WGU. They have similar Info Technology degrees that are competency based and certifications can be used for credit transfer to their courses.

When I was looking at Hodges, I found their success stories pages and there were a few that I really liked but only two mentioned UPower as it's a newer self paced program. I read all of their Success Stories: https://www.hodges.edu/Life-at-Hodges/Student-Achievement/Success-Stories/
These are the ones that I liked reading on, as some are "still students", I mainly wanted to read about the graduates. There are a few that did two or three degrees at Hodges, see below, and the IT program reviews.


Husband & Wife team who did all 3 degrees at Hodges, both finishing an MPA with Upower.
https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Ryan-and-Kayla-Harp/
This lady did all three degrees at Hodges as well in Legal Studies
https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Jennifer-Pretlow/


CIT: https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Michael-Enright/
ISM: https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Kevin-Jackson/
Digital Design: https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Brandon-Collier/
CyberSecurity (Upower) : https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Kasidit-Tipayaosoth-(David)/
Current Student: https://www.hodges.edu/Profile/Phuc-Sean-Tran/


Hodges and WGU are both cheap/easy/fast - For WGU Bachelors, most of their programs are 35 courses total as some are 4 credits. One thing people don't know about Hodges is their transfer and residency requirements, for an Associates you can transfer in 40 credits and finish 20 residency credits, for their Bachelors you can transfer all but 32 residency credits. The kicker is, most colleges/universities, it takes 40 - 3 credit bearing courses, but WGU requires roughly 5 less and at Hodges, it's 10 less - each undergrad course is worth 4 credits. When you transfer a 3 credit course, it still is treated at a 4 credit course! (Why can't they do that for the Masters programs! As I am only interested in grad studies!)

WGU includes the certifications in the tuition, so they are probably the best option. You can check their site for what degree/certificates are transferable if you want to transfer them into the degree, but I wouldn't want to "waste the $ obtaining certs beforehand".


For WGU - See here for their list: https://www.wgu.edu/admissions/it_certifications
BSIT Program (35 courses): https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/information-technology-bachelors-program.html


For Hodges BS CIT: 32 residency credits are required - 8 courses total
You can transfer in the remaining credits, 22 courses X 4 credits = 88 credits
Yup, if you counted that correctly, it's only 30 courses total! Go figure!
See link on courses: https://webadvisor.hodges.edu/aa_pdfs/planning-guides/cur-bcit.pdf


Hodges prepares the student for the following exams, I don't think the exam fees are included though.
A+, Network+ (Net+), Linux+
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
Institute of Certification of Computing Professionals (ICCP)
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA)


For Brandman BSIT (39 courses): If you look under InfoTech Generalist Emphasis, you can transfer in 14 certs
https://www.brandman.edu/academic-programs/business-and-professional-studies/bs-in-information-technology-mypath


If you have additional college credits through alternative means, that'll drop a number of courses down as well. In a perfectly dreamy world, I don't recall the residency requirements, but if you can take 2 years community college and 14 certs, that'll shave 34 courses, only 5 courses are required!


TLDR - Too Long, Didn't Read? Short Story, apply to WGU, email Brandman/Hodges for more questions. They all provide degrees that are in IT and Certs do transfer to the three of them. It's just picking the one that fits your tastes and needs.