Needing some career advice/certs questions

pbankey

Hey guys,

Newbie here. I'm looking for some general guidance based on experiences all of you have had in your own careers and how it could possibly apply to my situations. I'll give a little bit of background information about my circumstances to date.

I graduated college this past May. I actually double-majored in marketing/management and had great grades with summa cum laude status, scholarships, and some other fluffy stuff. I got a job about a month afterwards as an account manager and I couldn't stand it. The company was messy, the job didn't seem to be anything like I anticipated, and to shorten a long story, I left a few months ago. About my junior year in college I started to kind of "regret" my degree choice but I wanted to stick it out and finish it since my choice of study is pretty broadening to a lot of job opportunities. I always felt in the back of my mind that I should go into IT and working with computers and software has always been a hobby and a love of mine. My dad, brother, cousins, and many friends are all in this field and it just seems like it is in my blood and I know I would love it.

I looked into going back to school for my masters -- and focusing on IT (MSIT). I learned it would take me multiple semesters of "leveling" classes to get me to the position so that I could take the grad level stuff if I do the IT focus. I could, alternatively, go straight into MBA with emphasis in IT, but that's really a different career path that I'm not really sure is right for me at this time compared to the MSIT focus. Now, I'm going back to the drawing board.

I'm wondering what I can do now. I'm not concerned so much about pay and definitely need to build experience in order to advance in this field, so I'm thinking about seeking a helpdesk or similar position. As far as certifications go, I got some study materials online that should be here Tuesday for A+ and Network+ that I plan to get in order to get me that entry-level position. My father works at HDS and actually just went to a bootcamp training session for his work (he's computer science though) and they wanted him to get IT Professional certification for Microsoft. He is coming back tomorrow and has the training material and practice questions for six tests if I want to use it, and I'm thinking (maybe eventually if that helps me more) that I will.

Will my non-IT degrees put me at a huge disadvantage? I'm worried I'm going to be well below the curve because for this reason, even if I get A+ and Network+. I'm really interested in hearing about how you guys advanced your careers -- especially if you don't have an IT-related degree. I'm not EXACTLY sure what I would like to do specific position-wise within this field years down the line, but I'm thinking I can work helpdesk, study for more certs, and figure that out while I get relevant experience.

Sorry for the essay. Does anyone have some input or advice on this? Are A+ and Network+ the way to go for a newbie like me to get his feet wet? Any help is appreciated!

Phil

Priston

Yes, the A+ and Net+ are something you should get if you want to get into IT.
As for your BS degree not being IT related. I'd say that's not a big deal if you get certifications.
Depending on the employer i'd say a non-IT related BS degree is better than or comparable to a IT related AAS degree.

mikej412

Your degree is NOT a hindrance. To succeed and advance in an IT career it helps to have education, experience, and certification. Toss in people skills (and networking skills) and various amounts of luck and you have the building blocks for an IT career. The more of those you have, the more opportunities you may have and the greater the chance you have of landing one of those opportunities.

The better your education (and it's relevance to your chosen career) and/or certifications -- and maybe impressing a Professor or two while in College/University (who has industry contacts in your chosen career field) -- and you may be able to skip the lower level entry level positions like phone support help desks.

Some people succeed and do fine without any advanced education -- and any degree MAY be better than no degree. Some companies may not look at your resume once they see you don't have a degree -- and other companies won't care about a degree if you already have industry experience.

A lot of people have been doing great jobs without any certifications -- but then if they get laid off they find out how hard it is to get a job interview (if they don't have networking contacts) without those certification buzz words on their resume (MCSE, CCNA, CISSP, JNCIS, CCNP, ... etc).

Since you're not worried about money, try and use your people skills and your computer hobby skills to find a help desk position with a company that has some room for growth -- and start racking up some IT experience while you start work on your certifications.

Or use your degree and try for a job with a Tech company doing sales -- and then work on your technical skills and qualifications and try for a pre-sales technical support position and use that to move to the technical IT side of things.

Or try and find a sales job with a Business Partner for Microsoft or Cisco or IBM or Oracle or Juniper, or etc... (depending on whether you like end user desktop stuff or server stuff or networking stuff or database stuff or more networking stuff, etc). You may still have to be a sales wonk, you may be able to gain access to the Business Partner study materials.

I've known sales people who could design a better network for a sales quote than some CCNA/CCNPs and even some CCIEs -- but they wouldn't have a clue how to configure it once the sales was made.

Qord

From my perspective, the major really doesn't matter that much as long as you can do the job. I was a Bus Admin student, and like you, started to regret it but decided to finish because I had already put so much time into it. I wound up getting my CCNA through the school I was attending, and got hired onto the IT Team just a few months ago. (FREE TUITION!!!!)

My direct supervisor has a degree in culinary studies, but he's one of the Sys Admins. Another guy there also has a Business degree. I'm not even sure if our Net Admin has a degree (or certs), but he can do the job. If I remember correctly, there's only one person in our IT dept. that has an IT related degree, and his is an associates.

What I'm trying to say is don't think your degree is holding you back or limiting you, because that's not necessarily the case. If you really want another degree, find an entry level position and peck away at the classes. I decided to go back and get my Network Admin degree, so I take 2 online classes and one in-class class. It might take me a while and my social life is dead, but it what I want to do. So I guess the big question is: What do you want to do?

powerfool

One consideration could be getting another major that wouldn't be too far from what you already, as it is a business school offering... Information Systems. Most universities require that you complete at least your last 30 credit hours with them, so I would assume that would wrap up your studies. It is a traditional business program with all of the base requirements that would be offered in other programs (management, accounting, marketing, macro/micro econ, finance, etc)., and then you would have the IS focused courses which would the software/systems development lifecycle (SDLC), project management, several electives, and capstone courses.

I do not necessarily think you would require this degree, but you if you want to eventually do the graduate program you mentioned, this could meet that need.

As others have mentioned, it isn't necessary that you have an "IT" degree, but it wouldn't hurt.

You could also checkout WGU, which is done online and includes several certifications into the coursework, which would be a double-win for you.