Entry Level IT Job. Scam or Not

geeksquad09

I just applied for this job. which is a entry level IT job. Requires a High School Diploma and some Computer knowledge, which i currently have. Although it seems like a awesome deal.. somehting seems fishy about it. Below i've provided a link to the website

Find Jobs - Entry Level IT Opportunities Jobs in Atlanta, Georgia - New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Georgia

captobvious

You do realize this is not for a job but for training?

veritas_libertas

Run away from it as quickly as you can. There are multiple threads on here about that scam.

geeksquad09

dam.. that sucks
looked like a great opportunity

veritas_libertas

geeksquad09 wrote: »

dam.. that sucks
looked like a great opportunity

Don't worry, there will be more.

geeksquad09

I hope so.
Because being without a job sucks.
I'm about to Graduate With a Network Technician Professional Certificate, and i thought this was my Golden opportunity..

veritas_libertas

geeksquad09 wrote: »

I hope so.
Because being without a job sucks.
I'm about to Graduate With a Network Technician Professional Certificate, and i thought this was my Golden opportunity..

If you haven't picked up any certifications yet, I would do that as well. I see you are less than an hour from Atlanta, that will definitely help.

geeksquad09

After i Graduate i am aiming to Obtain my Network+ and A+

veritas_libertas

geeksquad09 wrote: »

After i Graduate i am aiming to Obtain my Network+ and A+

Good idea, could I suggest doing CCNA and A+ instead? The Network+ is pretty much useless as I have found out.

RobertKaucher

geeksquad09 wrote: »

I hope so.
Because being without a job sucks.
I'm about to Graduate With a Network Technician Professional Certificate, and i thought this was my Golden opportunity..

I'm sure it will be. It's just a question of what you are going to do with it.

But one thing I would like you to keep in mind is that this is the first step into a better career. It's not the end of the road and the rest just being gravy.

Once you graduate start on the Net+ and the CCENT. Star doing some volunteer work if you have to.

geeksquad09

Ok...How hard is the CCENT, and also are there any Entry Level Networking jobs available.
this is my Program i'm about to graduate from below

http://www.westgatech.edu/academics/cis/NetworkTechCert.pdf

veritas_libertas

geeksquad09 wrote: »

Ok...How hard is the CCENT, and also are there any Entry Level Networking jobs available.
this is my Program i'm about to graduate from below

http://www.westgatech.edu/academics/cis/NetworkTechCert.pdf

It's going to take you months but it will be worth it. Easy? That just depends on how quickly you are able to absorb the information, every person is different.

CCNA - Career Certifications & Paths - Cisco Systems

RouteThisWay

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Good idea, could I suggest doing CCNA and A+ instead? The Network+ is pretty much useless as I have found out.

Yep.

I have A+ / N+ , and as I am going through ICND1 right now.. alot of overlap. Net+ was a much wider but vague general intro to networking (which it should be, since it is vendor neutral). I wish I would have skipped N+ and just gone straight to ICND1/ICND2. Oh well.

I will probably take Sec+ before the end of next year just to keep them renewed. And if they expire.. oh well. I will still keep them on my resume and just list the year I obtained them.

Good luck man

Aldur

geeksquad09 wrote: »

After i Graduate i am aiming to Obtain my Network+ and A+

Don't wait till you graduate to pick up certifications. Get them now, or it least start studying for them now. You should be able to find the time especially if you don't have a job right now.

geeksquad09

Ok.
So With A+,CCNA certs yet alone with a Professional Networking Technician Certificate. What sort of Entry Level jobs would those credentials get me?

RouteThisWay

Help Desk, Desktop Support, maybe a jr Net admin position if you are lucky with the CCNA.

Any typical entry level IT work.

geeksquad09

i believe ill be better of getting a associates degree in network support specialist. then just having 2 certifications and a proffesional certificate

RouteThisWay

Associates is better than a prof certificate. But, use your associates as a stepping stone to a bachelors.

And, regardless of whether you get a degree or certificate... if you have no experience, you will be doing entry level helpdesk/support work.

Certs compliment your experience. A degree opens more doors for you.

geeksquad09

So in this case, After i graduate and get my certs. Try and pursue the degree. So after a couple year passed, i should have within 2-3 years worth experience will be under my belt. Correct?

jovenlibre

geeksquad09 wrote: »

I just applied for this job. which is a entry level IT job. Requires a High School Diploma and some Computer knowledge, which i currently have. Although it seems like a awesome deal.. somehting seems fishy about it. Below i've provided a link to the website

Find Jobs - Entry Level IT Opportunities Jobs in Atlanta, Georgia - New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Georgia

only HSDiploma $7.25 + compt. knowledge (w\out cert.) .75???

geeksquad09

I found Some Entry Level IT jobs in Atlanta that require a minumum of 1 year experience and a A+, Net+, and a HS Diploma... Time to Start Studying

RobertKaucher

geeksquad09 wrote: »

I found Some Entry Level IT jobs in Atlanta that require a minumum of 1 year experience and a A+, Net+, and a HS Diploma... Time to Start Studying

If you are a GeekSquad agent (I am part time and was full time for 3 years) you should be able to pass the A+ relatively easily. Just do some test prep and the certification you are studying for should be prepping you for the N+ already. I would expect you could achieve these with 30 days of prep. The real issue will be paying for them...

The deal is this: the odds are in your favor. Eventually, you will find a person willing to give you a chance as a Network Admin of some sort. The important thing is you keep at it and do not give up. It took me over a year after getting my MCSE to get the type of admin position I wanted.
The important thing was that I kept looking and trying to better myself.

MCDST->MCSA->MCSE Security (Dec 2007)->MCITP: EA ->MCTS SQL Server -> MCTS MOSS

And finally I got the type of job I was looking for (Mar 2009). And I have continued my studies and will continue. If you sit still for a minute in IT, you will quickly become useless.

ipconfig.all

You can always try and volunteer to get some real world i.t industrial experience.

geeksquad09

Ya. Unfortuantly there are no IT work nor voluntary work in my Area... I would have to relocate as near as 30-60 miles to find work.

Kaminsky

What are these "jobs" you keep speaking about ?

Your on a good start though, especially coming here to ask about that site, Those sites eat the parents bank accounts of guys like you for breakfast. That's how they survive... nice tv adds though, Even I almost though about training in IT after watching one of those type of company tv ads .... Damn tv.... it's the debil I tell ya ! ... Nice one VL for telling him straight and quick.

With training companys, think of it this way... Us IT folk have all generally been ahead in classes when it come to IT. Waaay ahead of the teacher most of the time .. ( one of my post school, pre university lecturers actually asked me in 2nd semester what a QWERTY keyboard was - seriously > I'm sure each of us has been there. Of course that is until you get to university level and they slap your leet IT skillin a$$ harshly right from the first week ..... juss cuz they can !!! > .

All we want in the early days is to have our abilities accepted by our peers and be accepted into the IT community and companys like this have sussed this out. < don't ever go near monster as you have individuals on there that work in these companys already but are hopefully wanting to go it alone one day and trying to snare young potential in early for themselves with amazing job offers> They will offer you the world, as will your university entrance, and in the early days, we bite everytime.....

Unless you come here and ask us guys that have been doing this for a little while who can hopefully warn you of pitfalls if we have come across them. We all realise we were you once. What I love about this site is that none of the regular members have an ego. We all seem to remember how we started out.. However, we can't abide shortcuts into our disciplines either by consequence.

Luckily, you are coming hopefully into the tail end of a recession where jobs are scarce but you will work for peanuts to get yourself experienced up; that is unless you still believe the hype your university fed you to sell their courses to you in the first place. Working for peanuts in the early days is something we all do but remember one golden rule. The only one who will look after you is you. Get your foot in but after a year or so, don't be afraid to move on and up.

Having any kind of degree in IT will not give you a starting leg up in the industry. It will just make your climb easier once you have been on the ladder for a while.

geeksquad09

Ok im browsing on craigslist, and careerbuilder, and most entry level job im researching are asking for 2 or 4 year degree's. This sucks

sambuca69

geeksquad09 wrote: »

Ok im browsing on craigslist, and careerbuilder, and most entry level job im researching are asking for 2 or 4 year degree's. This sucks

I guess you didn't get to the "entry" level jobs that require a CCIE, MCSE, and about 5 other high-level certs yet.

Apply anyway if you see a job you are interested in.

networker050184

geeksquad09 wrote: »

Ok im browsing on craigslist, and careerbuilder, and most entry level job im researching are asking for 2 or 4 year degree's. This sucks

Every job I've ever had asked for a degree on the description. I don't have one and it has never stopped me from getting the jobs. So like sambuca69 pointed out just apply anyway. It won't hurt to try.

eMeS

geeksquad09 wrote: »

Find Jobs - Entry Level IT Opportunities Jobs in Atlanta, Georgia - New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Georgia

I'm really sickened that New Horizons does things like this. They like to pretend that they are an actual training company that can compete with the big players. Then you see things like this (and other things they do) and it drives in the fact that they're really just working to put butts in chairs.

I think the problem with New Horizons is that they are a franchise. They are composed of some franchisees with high integrity that would never consider doing this, and many others with no integrity that have no problem with this and other shady practices. If there are some good ones in that lot then things like this bring them all down to the level of "questionable". In my experience, regardless of which New Horizons it is, they are all cheap, which is another "feature" of a franchise business. I tend to avoid business arrangements with them.

A few of them have fallen off during the recession. I think that's a good thing.

I sent a trainer to one in the southeastern United States a few months ago. I won't name any specifics, but the training facility was in the worst possible part of town, and had equipment that was probably up to date maybe 10 years ago. I'm not sure how they meet all of their partner program requirements, because many of those require specific technology to be in place that can support the courses being delivered. Fortunately it was an ITIL class, which requires no equipment other than a projector.

I'm tempted to post this in the MCT Cafe newsgroup and stir that pot a bit. Most of those people do work for New Horizons or others in the training industry that are just as shady. It would be interesting to see the comments this would get.

MS

geeksquad09

ok....but then i oly have a year of experience the odds for me getting hired...uh slim to none. i think

RobertKaucher

geeksquad09 wrote: »

ok....but then i oly have a year of experience the odds for me getting hired...uh slim to none. i think

You are right. Do nothing instead. I was not aware that there was a city in the United States, especially the South, where there were no churches, non-profits or small businesses that you could contact and offer to help for free.

My personal opinion is you should give up you IT career hopes aqnd simply memorize the following phrases:
Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order please?
Would you like to upsize that?
Would you like an apple pie with that?

You are under an hour from Atlanta. If you are serious about becoming an IT Professional, you need to stop finding easy excuses as to why things will not work and use your mental ability to find solutions that may not be apparent on the surface.

Distribute fliers for your services to small business, churches and non-profits like soup kitchens. All of these people need networks and computrers.

Look for jobs in Atlanta. For crying out loud! I live 45 to 55 minutes from my job depending on the traffic.