Being Successful in IT

Hello All,

I want to know from everybody's experience in the IT industry, what are the desired qualities that are needed to be successful in the IT field and how to build your reputation? I am 23 years-old and I have done an six-month internship as a Help-Desk Support intern, passed my A+ (701) (will sit for 702 in a few weeks) and going for my Net+, Server+, Security+ and maybe Linux+ before the year goes out. Thanks.

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[Deleted User]

I would continue down the road you are on. You seem to be going in the right direction. The thing I tried to do the most was with each new job I encountered, I tried to take on more responsibility. I had a 2 contract positions as a Help Desk analyst then after being laid off due to budget cuts at one of those jobs I moved onto a smaller company doing Desktop Support along with minimal server tasks. Now I am in a Sys Admin role working for a company, I still do support but I have more Sys Admin roles now. The path you are following is great and you will get to where you want to be eventually. If you are looking to get into Networking, go after the CCNA and try to get into a NOC position. If you are looking to be a Sys Admin then get some MS certs and try to pave a similar path to mine. Good luck man you will get to where you want to be soon enough just remember to work hard and stay abreast with the technology.

DraxtheSoviet

xmalachi wrote: »

I would continue down the road you are on. You seem to be going in the right direction. The thing I tried to do the most was with each new job I encountered, I tried to take on more responsibility. I had a 2 contract positions as a Help Desk analyst then after being laid off due to budget cuts at one of those jobs I moved onto a smaller company doing Desktop Support along with minimal server tasks. Now I am in a Sys Admin role working for a company, I still do support but I have more Sys Admin roles now. The path you are following is great and you will get to where you want to be eventually. If you are looking to get into Networking, go after the CCNA and try to get into a NOC position. If you are looking to be a Sys Admin then get some MS certs and try to pave a similar path to mine. Good luck man you will get to where you want to be soon enough just remember to work hard and stay abreast with the technology.

Very well said. Thanks for the encouragement, pal!

Alhaji265

So how long did it take you to get to where you are now?

[Deleted User]

Around 2 years.. I would say that I caught a lucky break though. I started working in IT when I was 19 and I am now almost 21. I think if you get 2 solid years of experience working the help desk you should be ready to move up. My best suggestion is don't be complacent with your job once you get in there and do it. I saw a lot of guys with potential just being fine doing help desk work. I mean there isn't anything wrong with it if that's what you are comfortable doing.

Alhaji265

Thanks for the advice, I'll stick to it.

tpatt100

I will tell you what I learned from what worked and mistakes I made.

Make realistic expectations. I started during the dot.com boom and IT people had gigantic egos because they know they can get a different job before the end of the week if they lost theirs.

Learn people skills, this is the most important. Make friends but don't brown nose. Make real friends, be social and be polite even to the elitists who look down their nose at you (because they are probably insecure about their own positions lol).

Set realistic goals and timelines. Don't buy into the noob mistake of "I will get the following certs by next year X and X and X and X" and you are still help desk. Pick a path and look for projects at work that you can use as examples for promotion opportunities in your existing company or your next company. Build a portfolio of achievements. Somebody will notice you come review time or at your next interview.

Get certified in what you actually use. Pick an entry level cert in something you want to do and stay at the entry level cert. I think spending all your time focusing on CCIE and you dont even have a Cisco job yet will distract you from learning other things entry level that you will probably need to advance.

*note* I am not saying setting a goal of RHCE or CCIE or some high level cert is bad I just think actively pursuing it while at the bottom rung of the ladder might distract you from learning basic Windows/Linux Server admin skills.

Again get certified in what you actually can use at work. I got a Citrix Metaframe project while on the help desk because the sys admins were over loaded. After I got it working (spending long hours at work and outside of work studying the manuals) I got my CCA certification because I had an actual project and day to day responsibilities to back it up. It was the entry level Citrix Cert but it was worth more than the guy who got the CCEA who only played around in his home lab. I actually setup five farms consisting of 25 rack servers each.

That cert helped me on my next job but after that one I never saw Citrix again. So I dropped that cert track because I knew I would probably not have to use it again based on where I was headed.

Again get projects

Projects are significant bullet point material and get you noticed at your work.

Oh the economy sucks right now. Entry level and mid level jobs are tough. There seem to be plenty of them but employers are being more strict in their hiring practices from what I seen. They have a bigger pool of talent to pick through. Be realistic what took some of us months to achieve might take you a year or more.

Don't become complacent. I learned this mistake last year. Don't develop an entitlement attitude that "well I got X years of experience people will beg me to work for them". When in reality the market changed and job consolidation is big now. Security meant "Firewalls/Sys Admin/Cisco/SQL/Develop Time Travel Technology, etc etc."

I was good at a couple of things but not prepared where I used to pick a new path and learn the basics to expand my skillset.

howiehandles

tpatt100 wrote: »

I will tell you what I learned from what worked and mistakes I made.

Make realistic expectations. I started during the dot.com boom and IT people had gigantic egos because they know they can get a different job before the end of the week if they lost theirs.

Learn people skills, this is the most important. Make friends but don't brown nose. Make real friends, be social and be polite even to the elitists who look down their nose at you (because they are probably insecure about their own positions lol).

Set realistic goals and timelines. Don't buy into the noob mistake of "I will get the following certs by next year X and X and X and X" and you are still help desk. Pick a path and look for projects at work that you can use as examples for promotion opportunities in your existing company or your next company. Build a portfolio of achievements. Somebody will notice you come review time or at your next interview.

Get certified in what you actually use. Pick an entry level cert in something you want to do and stay at the entry level cert. I think spending all your time focusing on CCIE and you dont even have a Cisco job yet will distract you from learning other things entry level that you will probably need to advance.

*note* I am not saying setting a goal of RHCE or CCIE or some high level cert is bad I just think actively pursuing it while at the bottom rung of the ladder might distract you from learning basic Windows/Linux Server admin skills.

Again get certified in what you actually can use at work. I got a Citrix Metaframe project while on the help desk because the sys admins were over loaded. After I got it working (spending long hours at work and outside of work studying the manuals) I got my CCA certification because I had an actual project and day to day responsibilities to back it up. It was the entry level Citrix Cert but it was worth more than the guy who got the CCEA who only played around in his home lab. I actually setup five farms consisting of 25 rack servers each.

That cert helped me on my next job but after that one I never saw Citrix again. So I dropped that cert track because I knew I would probably not have to use it again based on where I was headed.

Again get projects Projects are significant bullet point material and get you noticed at your work.

Oh the economy sucks right now. Entry level and mid level jobs are tough. There seem to be plenty of them but employers are being more strict in their hiring practices from what I seen. They have a bigger pool of talent to pick through. Be realistic what took some of us months to achieve might take you a year or more.

Don't become complacent. I learned this mistake last year. Don't develop an entitlement attitude that "well I got X years of experience people will beg me to work for them". When in reality the market changed and job consolidation is big now. Security meant "Firewalls/Sys Admin/Cisco/SQL/Develop Time Travel Technology, etc etc."

I was good at a couple of things but not prepared where I used to pick a new path and learn the basics to expand my skillset.

Oh how I remember the dot com boom. Back then if you could turn on a pc and browse to a website you could get a job. I know, because I didn't know much more than that at the time.

Good advice, especially with regards to people skills. That's what got me my current job, more so than my technical skills.

Employers are looking for any reason to get rid of you, as its a buyers market out there. They know they could get someone as good, if not better, and probably cheaper. Now is not the time to tell people how you really feel about them. lol

Paul Boz

Find an area of focus that really interests you and try to become a master. You should obviously have a base competency with as many areas as possible, but being able to provide expert-level value is very important to moving up in your IT career. If your studies have revealed that you like Windows system administration, work towards understanding not only small office deployments, but very large deployments. Similarly, if you enjoy networking, start small with a CCNA but keep working towards more knowledge.