electrical engineering degree + CCNA

hi all. my gpa in electrical engineering was horribly low and this is whats preventing me from finding work. i am now working on my CCNA i am hoping to get certified within 2 months. my question is: will i have an advantage finding work as a network tech guy because of my bachelor's degree ? again, i have a very low gpa and absoultely no experience at all but my top priority is finding a job. thanks.

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mikej412

JDMurray wrote: »

At TechExams.net, we stress that education, certification, and experience are all necessary elements for finding a job, and no one of these elements is a substitute for the other two. However, in the real world, there are two additional elements: who you know and luck. These two elements can have just as much influence as the other three.

Your EE Degree, no mater how low your GPA (don't offer it on your resume but be prepared to answer THE QUESTION if asked), is one of the things that could get your resume pulled from a pile. A Certification that some HR Wonk is searching for is another. But it depends on what an individual job is looking for/requires (and luck being near the top of the pile or in the first few search results).

After that, it's all on you talking on the phone and in the interview. If you don't dazzle someone with your Cisco Routing & Switching brilliance from your CCNA studies you can still lose out on jobs to someone with no degree but good people skills and solid Cisco knowledge (and wind up competing with the people with no degree and no certification for the entry level help desk jobs).

AlexMR

Mike,

dont you think the luck is mostly a thing for the short term? Dont you think it evens out in the long run?

I sure hope it does!!

Damn, a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and starting in helpdesk as if he had nothing? At the same point some kid without the degree starts? WOW. That's tough!

eMeS

AlexMR wrote: »

Damn, a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and starting in helpdesk as if he had nothing? At the same point some kid without the degree starts? WOW. That's tough!

Yeah, it doesn't really add up, does it???

MS

hexem

They would prolly wonder why someone with an electrical engineering degree is taking a help desk position and think that he could jump ship, and they'd have to rehire again.

chmorin

Agreed. You need to apply for a job that you qualify for. By that I mean, a person with a BS in Information Technology - Networking and a CCNA will have a better shot at a network admin job than someone with a BS in EE and a CCNA.

I'm not sure what someone with a BS in EE should do, but it is not help desk and, even with a CCNA, it probably shouldn't be a network tech job. With that degree and a CCNA, you have probably have a slightly better chance at getting a job than someone with just a CCNA.

However, if that person with just a CCNA has experience under their belt, you might have just lost the battle.

Pitch your resume properly. I suggest not putting your GPA on it, boast knowledge in the field you are applying for, and prove it. I wouldn't expect your degree to come up in any searches though, so if you want a networking job I'd say go get that CCNA.

That being said, I'm not an expert. This is just my opinion on it.

Forsaken_GA

A network guy with an EE is a pretty good pairing, especially in a data center environment.

eMeS

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

A network guy with an EE is a pretty good pairing, especially in a data center environment.

I just can't see that at all. Engineers engineer things; they typically don't support things that were made by other engineers. I've worked in a ton of data centers and we never had EE's or CSE's knocking down the door for support jobs. Not that they wouldn't be good at it; more that their skills are more in demand elsewhere....

If the EE degree is truly an engineering degree I would expect the OP to be doing a lot of low-level, hardware-oriented work, work on embedded systems, using tools like Catia, and such....

There's more to this story that we're not hearing. Where's the degree from? Is it a true engineering degree? Where does the OP live, etc...?

MS

mikem2te

hexem wrote: »

They would prolly wonder why someone with an electrical engineering degree is taking a help desk position and think that he could jump ship, and they'd have to rehire again.

I understand what you are saying but don't 100% agree. I can only speak from my experiences being one of those people who has an electronic engineering degree graduating about 15 years ago but now works in IT.

It is quite common in the UK for graduates to find it difficult to get the ideal job, so after a while we accept any job that comes along. It is as if having a degree doesn't entitle someone to start half way up the career ladder. What it usually means (from mine and friends experiences) you start on the bottom rung of the ladder but progress much quicker up the ladder.

For a number of us the only work we could get was on a production line (money is money). but within a year most if not all of us had been spotted by other departments and moved in to the jobs we wanted in the first place. Most of the non degree guys stayed where they were.

In speaking to my previous employers over the years, most see a degree as not proof that you know everything or even a small percentage about a subject but rather having a degree shows the person has the ability to learn, cope under pressure, work to deadlines and is self motivated.

Obviously having an Arts degree will not help someone land a technical job but the difference between electronic engineering and IT is actually quite small. They are both technical subjects, both have problem solving aspects, mathematics, algorithms, similar set of challenges etc. Most computer guys and electronics guys are cut from the same cloth.

So having that degree is usually seen as an advantage and most helpdesk jobs are seen as stepping stones for employees, and for employers to find good guys and train them up. Nothing wrong with a helpdesk job if it is a foot in the door to your future career.

Forsaken_GA

eMeS wrote: »

I just can't see that at all. Engineers engineer things; they typically don't support things that were made by other engineers. I've worked in a ton of data centers and we never had EE's or CSE's knocking down the door for support jobs. Not that they wouldn't be good at it; more that their skills are more in demand elsewhere....

You really don't see why a network engineer with an EE degree is pretty useful in a data center environment?

Our senior net engy is an EE as well, and he was highly involved with the design of our new data center (it was actually quite amusing watching him argue with the general contractor's mechanical engineer over a few things). And you're starting to see more and more things integrated with the network, like the building automation systems, security systems, electrical command and control, etc. It's rather useful to have the guy who implemented all of that be the one who also runs the network.

mikem2te

eMeS wrote: »

I just can't see that at all. Engineers engineer things; they typically don't support things that were made by other engineers. I've worked in a ton of data centers and we never had EE's or CSE's knocking down the door for support jobs. Not that they wouldn't be good at it; more that their skills are more in demand elsewhere....

If the EE degree is truly an engineering degree I would expect the OP to be doing a lot of low-level, hardware-oriented work, work on embedded systems, using tools like Catia, and such....

There's more to this story that we're not hearing. Where's the degree from? Is it a true engineering degree? Where does the OP live, etc...?

MS

Don't agree. EE and IT are a lot closer than you think, especially considering the specialisation options available in EE degrees such as microprocessing, programming, general computing etc, etc.

After both having similar experience, I have known electronic degree guys walk all over computing degree guys on more than one occasion. Find an embedded programmer and a Java programmer with an IT degree. Which one will produce the tighter more reliable code - not the IT degree guy. I'm not sure why but it appears the skills and knowldege gained in EE degrees is portable into the IT world.

I know for a number of people, when choosing between an IT and EE degrees the choice often comes down to the toss of a coin - it is very common and "easy" to move from EE to an IT career after graduating (athough not the other way around).

Thinking back my superiors for my last two jobs are ex EE as well as myself. Both brilliant guys.

mikej412

eMeS wrote: »

Engineers engineer things; they typically don't support things that were made by other engineers.

The original poster has a GPA that is horribly low -- so I assume that he couldn't even get a job at Toyota as an Electrical Engineer.

The Electrical Engineers I worked with usually got good grades in school and could qualify for a job in their field.

I did work with one EE who either went to a State Party School that either automatically graduated everyone after 5 years -- or he was just lying about even having an EE degree. He survived by getting other team members assigned to the projects he was working on to "help him" -- which eventually meant just doing his part of the project. If he wasn't a nice guy with a family he would have just been hung out to dry -- and he finally did get moved to a spot where he couldn't cause any problems or touch any projects.

AlexMR wrote: »

Damn, a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and starting in helpdesk as if he had nothing? At the same point some kid without the degree starts? WOW. That's tough!

I mentioned the help desk option if they don't dazzle someone with their Cisco Routing & Switching brilliance -- for example, if they put the same effort into their CCNA studies they did their degree studies.

A degree is not a magic ticket to job for a mediocre student who can't demonstrate the knowledge and skills. It may get their resume pulled from a pile initially, but if they can't back it up on an interview, it's useless.

A certification is not a magic ticket to a job for a person who can't demonstrate the knowledge and skills. It may get their resume pulled from a pile initially, but if they can't back it up on an interview, it's useless.

Oh -- and if they can't demonstrate People Skills, they may not even qualify for a help desk position, since that's usually the LOWEST qualification required for a help desk position that doesn't have specific technical requirements.

muon

eMeS wrote: »

There's more to this story that we're not hearing. Where's the degree from? Is it a true engineering degree? Where does the OP live, etc...?

MS

my EE degree is from UCLA.

i just want a job im tired of sitting at home feeling like a bum.

mikej412

muon wrote: »

i just want a job im tired of sitting at home feeling like a bum.

Now that we can work with.

Check out your local Cable TV/Internet Provider. See what's available job wise -- and if all you can get is a sucky help desk job, that's your motivation to study hard on your Certifications. But it is experience -- and a paycheck. And if you do the job and make some friends there (that's the who you know in JD's job equation), you might get a shot in a few months (the luck part could kick in with a better job opening up in your location) to move up.

Almost any helpdesk -- except an outsourced helpdesk cubicle farm -- get's your foot in the door. Try and find a place that had some room for growth. Experience helping users with Microsoft Word doesn't help you with the experience you might want to be a network administrator -- unless the company you work for is the one with the opening (and you've made friends with the network guys or server guys or admin guys -- and maybe helped out on project).

Check out your local phone company. Check out that Billion dollar Computer/Electronics/etc Distributor (or one of their offices in your area).

Check out some of the local VARs and Service Providers/Business Partners. A service position supporting multiple customers could get you some contacts you can use down the road.

You can still shoot for the higher level jobs -- but if you're not getting the calls for those, or are getting shot down in interviews, suck it up and move on.

Help desk at least gets you out of the house and gives you a starting point to work your way up (in experience and salary and hopefully some contacts).

EDIT: Sometimes you have to make your own luck, rather than waiting for it to happen. Getting out of the house makes it more likely you'll run into some luck.

CharN

Forsaken_GA said:

eMeS wrote: »

I just can't see that at all. Engineers engineer things; they typically don't support things that were made by other engineers. I've worked in a ton of data centers and we never had EE's or CSE's knocking down the door for support jobs. Not that they wouldn't be good at it; more that their skills are more in demand elsewhere....

You really don't see why a network engineer with an EE degree is pretty useful in a data center environment?

Our senior net engy is an EE as well, and he was highly involved with the design of our new data center (it was actually quite amusing watching him argue with the general contractor's mechanical engineer over a few things). And you're starting to see more and more things integrated with the network, like the building automation systems, security systems, electrical command and control, etc. It's rather useful to have the guy who implemented all of that be the one who also runs the network.

It may or may not be helpful in a data center, but it is very useful when pulling fiber, for example, in a substation. I work for an electric utility company, and an EE must be present when doing fiber work in splice cases, trenwa’s, and pulling fiber.