New member asking some advice please!

Hello everyone!

I was just reading some here on this site and it looks pretty reliable and respected. So i thought i would ask if i could get some advice on what I should do about my future concerning my career.

I am currently not working in the IT field. Due to personal issues i have needed to work for family in a cabinet shop, due to my son being sick and me needing time off work frequently with little to no notice... Unfortunately, this is no longer an issue however.

I graduated from ITT Tech about 8 years ago from their networking program. It is a 2 year associate degree. Also, i did work for a few computer companies around the same time doing tech support for computers that we built. Nothing network related.

I now want to pursue my IT career and I'm not sure where i should start. Do i start with getting certifications? Or do I start somewhere else?

I am mainly interested in doing server/client type work, maybe security. So if someone could please advise me on where to start, and maybe some good self-study resources, it would be very appreciated.

Thank you!

Jason

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Comments

Paul Boz

Certifications will refresh your associates degree and increase your marketability. You said that your associates is in networking so why do you want to pursue server/client over networking? If you want to pursue client/server I would look into the Microsoft series of certifications, as they hold good market value. If you go for networking get a CCNA and go from there.

murdatapes

JayH wrote: »

Hello everyone!

I was just reading some here on this site and it looks pretty reliable and respected.

Very much so

Welcome to the Boards Jason. If you are liking the server side of things, i recommend going the Microsoft server route as far as certifications are concerned. Might want to pursue your MCSA or MCITP

Microsoft Learning: Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)

Firemarshalbill.com

I have to agree with the "Boz". Depending on whats going on I would recommend you get a job in IT somewhere. Experience counts alot. Certs are a great way of refreshing and increasing your knowledge. Go Microsoft for desktop and Cisco for networking.

Also, the 40-50 hours in an ITT class like IT 220, 320 or 321 (I am an instructor at ITT at Boston North) is only the beginning of what knowledge is out there in networking world.

Samurai004

By the sound of it, sorry for your loss.

This site is GREAT, keep asking questions and the people here will point you in the right direction for certs and study resources.

Good luck!

Aldur

Welcome to the forums Jason! It's always great to get new members and there is a wealth knowledge going around so your in the right place

I'm sorry for your loss, I can only imagine how terrible it would be to lose a child like that. You're definitely taking the right direction with your life and pursuing a career in something you enjoy.

Your situation seems similar to what mine was, I too worked for family in a cabinet shop. What kind of cabinetry did you work with? Kitchen cabinets? Custom cabinets? European style? Face frame style? Is it a large business or a small business consisting mainly of family workers?

Sorry for all the questions but it's cool to see somebody who does the same thing for a living that I did.

I worked in my dad's cabinet shop for 13 years before I made the transition into IT. I made that transition about 2 and 1/2 years ago and I can honestly say that I have never looked back. I enjoyed the cabinetry work but working for family was just too stressful. In that short time I went from knowing absolutely nothing about networking/IT in general to working for a major router vendor directly and making more then I could have ever imagined at this point.

My advice would be to dive into your certification studies and know the info forwards and backwards, whatever you do don't do any dumping. This will get you quick certs but it will shoot yourself in the foot when it comes interview time.

Certs will definitely help you get interviews but don't wait to get them to start applying for jobs. The sooner you can start getting experience the better. More then likely you'll have to take a low paying IT job to get that experience but this will pay off in the long run when you can start demanding the big bucks

As far as cert studying recommendations what are you interested in? A sys admin role in which you would be working with end users and windows systems? A networking role in which you would be working with routers and routing protocols?

The MS cert track is a great place to start for the sys admin role and like Paul said earlier the CCNA is a great place to start for a networking position. Dare I say Juniper is a great place to start for a networking role too? Worked well for me

To be honest I did start on the CCNA track and learned huge amounts of info about networking in general and I also learned that I loved to work with routers/switches and networking in general.

Also, some compTIA certs wouldn't be a bad place to start. The A+ will teach you a good amount of info on the workings and repair of a computer and the Network+ will give a good intro into networking.

I guess it's all up to you and what you want to do. The sky is wide open, don't be afraid to go for what you want to do.

human151

If your looking to continue with networking I would suggest you look here:

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/index.jspa?ciscoHome=true

Start with e CCENT ICND 1 Test and then take the ICND 2 test and get your CCNA.

Take a look at this book

Amazon.com: CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-802 (9780470110089): Todd Lammle: Books

Its a great book. If your serious about this I would invest in your own home lab so that you could practice on live equipment, theres really no substitute.. there are sims and other programs, but look at it like this, do you want a real girl or a robot girl? You can get a good CCNA set up for around $350. I bought mine piece by piece but there aere also sites like ciscokits.com that sell prepackaged used set ups.

oh and you will definetely want to get CBT nuggets.

CBT Nuggets: Cisco CCNA Certification Package

Its deli vered by an instructor who is a CCIE, and is very imformative. I cant say enough great things about the CBT nuggets.

Good luck!