So what's your ultimate goal in I.T?

liven

My goals...

To continue to listen and play music as much as humanly possible.

To continue to work out and improve my physical/mental condition.

To never stop learning history, science, art, and about life.

Oh ya, keep moving forward in this vast world of technology, in one way or another!

undomiel

To afford to be a college art teacher. Until then it is 100% IT. Many years to go until I hit that point.

liven

undomiel wrote:

To afford to be a college art teacher. Until then it is 100% IT. Many years to go until I hit that point.

NICE!!!

gojericho0

Do all work with integrity and tap my full potential

Panzer919

Right now I'm working on my CCNA, I'll be starting my CCNP in the fall and probably going to go onto CCIP, CCSP and CCIE certs. Ever since I started working with routers, switches, firewalls and concentrators, I've been hooked . Cisco seems to be difficult enough to be a challenge but easy enough to learn. I currently work for an ISP and I hope to go high enough on the corporate ladder to help them further develop their future network's.

empc4000xl

CCIE for me

But my main goal is to teach and run my own business. I plan on teaching electronics, or IT at a community college at night. Most colleges want a masters. I'm 21 credits away for my BS. Then I will start on a masters in IT. I plan on doing CCNP sometimes this summer. I'm doing MCSE right now and its sooo boring. I love doing the work, but the training sucks. I find myself studying cisco when I'm supposed to be doing microsoft because I'm getting graded on it. As far as the business goes. When my skill level is up, I will try to start contracting on my own. So it doesn't matter if I'm not at CCIE yet, if I feel my skills are good and people are calling, I will try to pimp my skills out.

royal

To be omnipotent. Really though, I'd like to be very technical for a number of years and eventually maybe become a Microsoft Certified Architect. Eventually I'll probably want to move more into the business side of things.

Slowhand

royal wrote:

To be omnipotent. Really though, I'd like to be very technical for a number of years and eventually maybe become a Microsoft Certified Architect. Eventually I'll probably want to move more into the business side of things.

I thought the MCA credential was more of a business/IT omnipotence type of cert? From what I read about the general program, (not necessarily each individual platform,) is that the architect-level certification combines project manager, CIO, administrator, and business analyst roles together. The cert shows that you know not only "just the technology", but also understand the business and management aspects of IT as well.

D-boy

CCIE

royal

Slowhand wrote:

royal wrote:

To be omnipotent. Really though, I'd like to be very technical for a number of years and eventually maybe become a Microsoft Certified Architect. Eventually I'll probably want to move more into the business side of things.

I thought the MCA credential was more of a business/IT omnipotence type of cert? From what I read about the general program, (not necessarily each individual platform,) is that the architect-level certification combines project manager, CIO, administrator, and business analyst roles together. The cert shows that you know not only "just the technology", but also understand the business and management aspects of IT as well.

Misread your reply. Yes, you are correct about the cert. I don't know exactly what I want to do in the future. But I definitely think MCA is one of them. I don't think I'm smart enough to acheive such a prestigious certification. There's only 15 or so Messaging MCAs in the entire world. You need to know your stuff really well, including project management, business, etc. We'll see in about 15 or so years.

Turgon

More time off with my family next year.

Slowhand

royal wrote:

Misread your reply. Yes, you are correct about the cert. I don't know exactly what I want to do in the future. But I definitely think MCA is one of them. I don't think I'm smart enough to acheive such a prestigious certification. There's only 15 or so Messaging MCAs in the entire world. You need to know your stuff really well, including project management, business, etc. We'll see in about 15 or so years.

Give yourself some credit, royal. The CCIE track already has enough "I'm not good enough" candidates that never sit for the lab because they believe they will fail. Look into it, you never know if you're qualified until you know what the actual MCA requirements are. Hell, if there's anyone on this forum that I think is qualified, it's gotta be you. (All the rest of you. . . get back to work. )

snadam

ultimately? thats tough to say

financially: six figures (shallow, but a goal nonetheless)
Educationally: at least a bachelors, maybe even teach someday
technically: Whatever the elite MS cert is, as well as other well credited certs throughout the IT spectrum (cisco, *nix, citrix, VM; security, etc). Im currently on the fence with what direction to go, but security is still my #1 even though I have minimal experience in the field with it (basic sys admin security only).
personally: I want to be in a position where I dont have to worry about a broken pipe, or a mortgage payment, car payment etc. I just want to live comfortably and enjoy my friends, family, job and my many hobbies comfortably.

jamesp1983

I love the fact that I see new issues almost daily and that I get my hands on new technology. Research is also a lot of fun to me. My ultimate, long term goal is to be in a director of IT or manager of IT position. My short term goal is to be making decent money as a network engineer at an ISP or data center. Certification wise over the next 5 years...I'm aiming for finishing up my CCNP within the year and hopefully obtaining my CCIE within 3 years. I may go for an MBA after the CCIE...lofty goals I know..

astorrs

royal wrote:

Misread your reply. Yes, you are correct about the cert. I don't know exactly what I want to do in the future. But I definitely think MCA is one of them. I don't think I'm smart enough to acheive such a prestigious certification. There's only 15 or so Messaging MCAs in the entire world. You need to know your stuff really well, including project management, business, etc. We'll see in about 15 or so years.

Slowhand wrote:

Give yourself some credit, royal. The CCIE track already has enough "I'm not good enough" candidates that never sit for the lab because they believe they will fail. Look into it, you never know if you're qualified until you know what the actual MCA requirements are. Hell, if there's anyone on this forum that I think is qualified, it's gotta be you. (All the rest of you. . . get back to work. )

The MCA program is hard - I mean really hard. I know two people who have attempted it. Both were a part of the pilot program in 2005/06 (and therefore didn't have to pay the huge fees associated with it). Essentially you have to prove a certain level of competency, submit reference letters, pay the fee, attend a 4 week course at Microsoft, complete a complex lab, and then defend yourself in front of a board made up of a couple of existing MCAs (in the past they were SMEs since they hadn't awarded any MCAs - now there are about 60 MCA Messaging's).

One of them passed, the other didn't. Both had 20+ years in IT and both had been responsible for designing global active directory and messaging environments for 25k+ user environments for at least 5 years.

It's not impossible at all, but from everything I've heard it makes the CCIE look relatively easy. As for a long term goal - go for it!

Andrew

Slowhand

astorrs wrote:

It's not impossible at all, but from everything I've heard it makes the CCIE look relatively easy.

Exactly the sentiment Microsoft was hoping to convey when creating the MCA.

Still, as you said, it's not impossible. . . unless, of course, people begin developing the attitude that they'll never be good enough to pass it. No matter how many war-stories people tell about their "friend with x number of years experience that still failed", you'll never know if you can pass it or not until you actually look into it and try.

astorrs

Slowhand wrote:

Still, as you said, it's not impossible. . . unless, of course, people begin developing the attitude that they'll never be good enough to pass it. No matter how many war-stories people tell about their "friend with x number of years experience that still failed", you'll never know if you can pass it or not until you actually look into it and try.

Agreed - I did that wrt exams for my entire career up until a month ago, my point was just to make people understand this is not like the MCSA -> MCSE, its a whole other ballgame.

I don't think I would attempt it until I had a certain level of confidence (or had an employer willing to underwrite it). The cost of the program is $25,000 USD plus hotel/airfare/expenses for the 4 weeks of training, 1 optional week, then additional days for the lab and up to two attempts at the review board, all of those have to be completed at Microsoft in Redmond, WA.

80% of candidates pass the training and can take the lab exam, of those 70% pass the lab, of those 20% pass the review board on their 1st attempt, 60% who failed pass on their second (final) attempt. That means of all the people admitted into the training program (those who weren't screened out during the interview and case study portions) the pass rate is only 38%.

dynamik

My dream list is: CCIE: Security, CISSP, and a Masters in InfoSec. I'd like to get some linux experience as well, so maybe an RHCE as well. The next couple of years are going to be focused on MS and Virtualization though. I'll probably start working on some Linux certs such as the Linux+ and some LPIC as well.