Career Path

Good evening! First post here! I'm glad I joined, I've been reading for about the past 3 hours and it looks like there is some great info and minds on here!

I'm ready for a career in IT. I'm 25 years old and have been an operations support manager at a financial institution for 4 years now. I have a bachelor's degree in business management as well. I have lots of "informal" computer knowledge, but nothing formal in terms of an IT degree of certifications. I'm in the process of changing that now. After some research, I've found that starting out getting CompTIA A+, Net+, and Security+ is a great idea. Right now I'm about ready to take the A+ test. I picked up a Mike Meyers study guide book about 2 weeks ago and I'm just about done with it. It's very informative, but I also knew quite a bit of that info going into it. As I said, I do have some knowledge, but wouldn't consider myself a "pro."

As far as a career path, that's what I'm trying to consider. I'm from Wichita, KS and after reviewing the job listings here there seems to be quite a bit of openings for application developers. Originally I thought about network/security as a path, but it seems in this region application development may be king. I think, though, i would like to get both. After reviewing available certs, I think I want to focus on network/security, developer certs, and in the future project management or professional certs. I would like to be a CIO later in my professional career, so I'm thinking that's the way to go.

If anyone has any advice about what I've mentioned I'd love to hear it! Also, I've reviewed the network/security certs in depth, but I don't know much about the developer ones. I have taken a couple programming classes in college, but I would need to start with the basics with that.

Also, are there any organizations or associations that I could join that would help me along this journey.....but also for networking purposes?

Thanks everyone! Look forward to hearing from you!

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N2IT

bparsons wrote: »

Good evening! First post here! I'm glad I joined, I've been reading for about the past 3 hours and it looks like there is some great info and minds on here!

I'm ready for a career in IT. I'm 25 years old and have been an operations support manager at a financial institution for 4 years now. I have a bachelor's degree in business management as well. I have lots of "informal" computer knowledge, but nothing formal in terms of an IT degree of certifications. I'm in the process of changing that now. After some research, I've found that starting out getting CompTIA A+, Net+, and Security+ is a great idea. Right now I'm about ready to take the A+ test. I picked up a Mike Meyers study guide book about 2 weeks ago and I'm just about done with it. It's very informative, but I also knew quite a bit of that info going into it. As I said, I do have some knowledge, but wouldn't consider myself a "pro."

As far as a career path, that's what I'm trying to consider. I'm from Wichita, KS and after reviewing the job listings here there seems to be quite a bit of openings for application developers. Originally I thought about network/security as a path, but it seems in this region application development may be king. I think, though, i would like to get both. After reviewing available certs, I think I want to focus on network/security, developer certs, and in the future project management or professional certs. I would like to be a CIO later in my professional career, so I'm thinking that's the way to go.

If anyone has any advice about what I've mentioned I'd love to hear it! Also, I've reviewed the network/security certs in depth, but I don't know much about the developer ones. I have taken a couple programming classes in college, but I would need to start with the basics with that.

Also, are there any organizations or associations that I could join that would help me along this journey.....but also for networking purposes?

Thanks everyone! Look forward to hearing from you!

I think leveraging your business admin degree and knowledge into a hybrid position would be your best bet. Business Analyst or Data Analyst would be a solid get. You get to play around with VB and SQL. Learn Business Intelligence tools like Business Objects, Cognos, Cape, SAP BW, Vista Reports, and Portal J. Maybe you could get into one of these roles and then transition into a more technical role. From there you can move up the later into a director position and then maybe, just maybe a CIO position.

Good luck I like the drive.

I would personally not waste my time with A+ or N+. I would consider getting the ITIL V3, learn SQL and Visual Basic, not to mention get really really good at Access and Excel. If you can get your hands on reporting application then do it.

bparsons

Thanks for the info!

I'm pretty proficient in Excel and Access, but are there any certs I should get to supplement and show that? As far as the ICIL V3, what exactly will that teach me? Is it more for developers? That's where I think I need/want to focus.

As far as the CompTIA trio, I think I'm still going to take them. They're not too expensive, and from what I've read on here they do more good than bad on a resume...no matter the field.

N2IT

bparsons wrote: »

Thanks for the info!

I'm pretty proficient in Excel and Access, but are there any certs I should get to supplement and show that? As far as the ICIL V3, what exactly will that teach me? Is it more for developers? That's where I think I need/want to focus.

As far as the CompTIA trio, I think I'm still going to take them. They're not too expensive, and from what I've read on here they do more good than bad on a resume...no matter the field.

Yeah you can get certified in Excel and Access 2003, 2007, and 2010, however I believe some of the advanced certifications are still not released for 2010.

bparsons

Okay, after a couple of days of thinking about it, I think I'm going to stick directly with network/security. I don't know a lot of app development or C++ or C#, so instead of getting into that whole thing I think I'm going to stick directly on the path I had orginally.

That said, the plan now is still to get CompTIA A+, Net+, and Sec+, and after that I think I need to dive into Cisco. However, several people have brought up ITIL V3....is that a smart thing to do? I'm sure I will learn quite a bit from it, I just want to make sure it's along the lines of what I wanna do.

Now for that ball of wax.....what are the "types" of jobs/careers I should be looking for if I'm going the network/security path. I don't really want to be a tech (fixing computers) my whole life.....I'd like to set up networks, design them, secure them, etc. What type of job titles fit that? Thanks everyone!