Do you take breaks?

AmpdChaos

Hello all,

Heres my situation. I'm a student with one year experience in the IT field, recently i passed my 70-20 and the month before i passed my A+... probally 3 weeks seperating them. I aiming for MCSA no time frame... So I dont have a job at the moment and but am looking. Now what im wondering is should i continue working on my certs or should I focus on getting a job and gain more experience before proceeding? I was thinking of going for my Net + next.. Any advice would be nice. Thanks ahead of time.

royal

I don't take breaks because I love what I do and love learning about it.

HeroPsycho

I take breaks from hard studying for specific exams after achieving major certifications, but that's like when I achieve MCSE or something like that. The breaks are rarely ever very long. The last break of any significant length of time was after I upgraded my MCSE to 2003, and that was about a month before I began studying for ISA 2004.

The only other time I'm not prepping for exams is when work gets so hectic I simply don't have the time, and that means there's other learning going on. Currently, I'm having to postpone my 70-620 exam due to having to deploy an MSA storage array, Symantec Enterprise Vault, and Office Communication Server, none of which I've deployed in production before.

Otherwise, even on vacation, I keep a book of what I'm prepping for with me in case I have downtime to read.

The last time I felt lazy for a significant amount of time was my previous job, and once I realized I just wasn't learning or motivated due to the job, I got out of there. Stagnation in this industry is a bad thing.

dynamik

Only from eating, sleeping, and maintaining personal hygiene.

I guess I don't see why looking for a job and continuing your studies are mutually exclusive. Regardless, you should try to find a job ASAP, so you can start gaining real-world experience.

AmpdChaos

lol... see my problem would be is that i feel like if i keep going i would over qualify for alot of entry level jobs... i only have one year of working experience and im not working currently ... is that an issue??

HeroPsycho

Obtaining MCSA would not hurt you in that manner.

AmpdChaos

oh okay... thats good to know because im in a good studying mode and i dont want to stop.. thanks..

bleScreened

AmpdChaos wrote:

lol... see my problem would be is that i feel like if i keep going i would over qualify for alot of entry level jobs... i only have one year of working experience and im not working currently ... is that an issue??

Everyone is different and finds his or her own way to break into this industry. All I can do is tell you what worked for me.

If it were me, I would spend about 60% of my free time finding a helpdesk job and 40% studying. People sometimes knock the helpdesk, but it REALLY helps. Also, if you get on an active helpdesk, you learn a very significant amount and it helps you connect many dots while you are studying for your exams. You get out of it what you want. If you are motivated you will learn the ropes and while you are studying for certs, you will be a better helpdesk tech because you are learning advanced skills. Someone like that doesn't stay on a helpdesk very long. Or, you stop going for more and stay there, which many people do and sometimes thats all they want.

To me, an inactive helpdesk means you are sitting around taking support calls 100%. Active means making desktop visits, repairing or configuring PCs yourself along with whatever vendor support you need, and answering phones 50% of the time. Finding a job that lets you do true preliminary troubleshooting out in the field really helps things along. Then usually you can work closely with the network guys. A+ and Net+ should land you a helpdesk job fairly quickly that requires skills a bit above Tier 1, and having the MCP or the MCDST will usually do the same. Having certs also tells employers that you can learn and have a desire to learn.

I am not suggesting that you are this type of person, but one problem I've seen when people have an MCSA/E and no experience is that for SOME employers, your cert could land you a job with more responsibilites than you may be prepared for. I have heard many horror stories of techs with all the certs but no field experience and people get frustrated with them. However a potential employer should be able to gauge your readiness. My first Net Admin job told me that they were looking for someone with solid helpdesk and troubleshooting skills that was prepared to move up and cut their teeth.

But that's just what worked for me. I took the crappy phone support job for a year+, moved onto an active helpdesk, got a few certs, moved up to Net Admin and now I'm working on the rest of my major certs. I am finding that it is going pretty smoothly because of the experience I have.

astorrs

What ccaltacc is describing, I would usually refer to as a Field Services Analyst or Remote Support Technician. In a small company the jobs will often overlap with a Service Desk Analyst position; in larger enterprises they are very different with essentially no overlap.

Your best bet is to start with a smaller company and build the varied skill set he describes rather than getting on in a Service Desk role at a larger company or you will be limited in what you can do/learn.

bleScreened

astorrs wrote:

What ccaltacc is describing, I would usually refer to as a Field Services Analyst or Remote Support Technician. In a small company the jobs will often overlap with a Service Desk Analyst position; in larger enterprises they are very different with essentially no overlap.

Your best bet is to start with a smaller company and build the varied skill set he describes rather than getting on in a Service Desk role at a larger company or you will be limited in what you can do/learn.

Astorrs, you are correct. The helpdesk I was on was in a smaller local government setting. There were 3 HD techs and 5 Net Admins and about 700-800 workstations/users. So I was able to get pretty well rounded with some overlap.

I forget how large organizations in the corporate world do not allow for that overlap and there are clear demarcation lines as to what an HD tech can accomplish.