opinions needed on possible dilemma

techlady007

Hello Everyone,

I have a dilemma that is going to arise within the next few months. I've graduated with my Associates degree and is now currently beginning to work on my bachelors degree. Eventually, I would have to take morning classes and with my current gig my managers would more than likely shoot down my requests to take morning courses, which sucks because I need these courses to move on before taking my actual concentration courses. Online schools really isn't an option due to price and less networking opportunities. Plus, jobs in this area would like their employees to have a bachelors degree unless you are extremely lucky or know someone.

To lighten the situation, I am not a full time employee by any means, the pay isnt great, but I have gained a few years of experience in the field doing desktop support type work. Moving up with this company IS NOT an option, due to managers and people that have been employed before me. Even the ones who recently became full time been with the place for 5 years or more with meager pay. My education is important to me, but at the sametime I am scared that a break in employment won't look good either to possible employers.

Also, during this projected break I would like to gain a few more certifications to fill the void a bit until I find another gig.

What do you guys/gals think ? Have any of you all been in similar situations ?

IRONMONKUS

techlady007 wrote: »

My education is important to me, but at the sametime I am scared that a break in employment won't look good either to possible employers.

School is important and will not look bad to future employers if you take a break from employment to go to school. It can only look bad if you take a break in employment and don't do anything. For future employers, you just have to show that you did something -- and bettering yourself through education is wonderful.

instant000

techlady007 wrote: »

Hello Everyone,

I have a dilemma that is going to arise within the next few months. I've graduated with my Associates degree and is now currently beginning to work on my bachelors degree. Eventually, I would have to take morning classes and with my current gig my managers would more than likely shoot down my requests to take morning courses, which sucks because I need these courses to move on before taking my actual concentration courses.

While no guarantee, you have not even asked them yet. They may have more mercy than you give them credit for.

Online schools really isn't an option due to price and less networking opportunities. Plus, jobs in this area would like their employees to have a bachelors degree unless you are extremely lucky or know someone.

Hrm, you're making the degree sound like a pretty important step to getting better work.

To lighten the situation, I am not a full time employee by any means, the pay isnt great, but I have gained a few years of experience in the field doing desktop support type work. Moving up with this company IS NOT an option, due to managers and people that have been employed before me. Even the ones who recently became full time been with the place for 5 years or more with meager pay. My education is important to me, but at the sametime I am scared that a break in employment won't look good either to possible employers.

Also, during this projected break I would like to gain a few more certifications to fill the void a bit until I find another gig.

What do you guys/gals think ? Have any of you all been in similar situations ?

I would not worry about the break in employment. Consider these two candidates:
Candidate #1 has 5 years of desktop support, and associate's degree
Candidate #2 has 2 years of desktop support, bachelor's degree, and a cert or two

My Choice: Candidate #2 (I have been involved in choosing candidates for employment before. The candidate with more education and certification appears more "serious" about their career to me. The people in IT with an associates degree are a dime-a-dozen.)

As far as being in this situation: I have kind of been in this situation, whereby I slacked off on my education, and thus did not move on to a better job directly because of it, as all of the better paying positions required a bachelor degree. I got sick of my job, then focused back on my education, and now I'm sitting better than I was before. So, I learned the lesson that if I wanted to do better, I have to put in that effort. I plan on putting in even more effort, and going for my Master's next. Some of the better looking positions out there appear to require a Master's ...

EDIT:
Also, do not forget the power that a certification or two can lend to a Bachelor's degree. My significant other has a bachelor's degree, and she'd worked for years in a Call Center (for health insurance) that she'd been using to help pay for school, then got kinda stuck there, and was wondering how to get out of that. Lo and behold, she gets A+ in February, and she starts an IT call center job next week. Wisely, she has also attained Network+ during the month of March, and is planning on going after Security+ during this month. She says that she's worked four years in call center, and doesn't want to be there forever! Sometimes, you just have to put forth some effort to improve yourself, and you can go further. Continually pushing yourself is the key.

Repo Man

Staying at a place with no room for growth is not a good idea. Would you say you're getting good experience at this job?

kevozz

Can you take night classes? Even the small university i went to had almost all classes available during the day and night, though sometimes they were spread out over a few semesters. Quite a few were available online also.

techlady007

I appreciate the comments so far.

Instant000: I will ask them soon, but I viewed this instance before with these people. They are more concerned about how much time you can give them and not advance yourself if its not for the company benefit. The managers are rude most of the time and aren't really concerned about their employees besides the Network Administrator. In the beginning I've valued it because I needed the experience, but now I see it as a flunking situation as times has changed. I valued your response to everything especially the employment senario. A bachelors and a couple more certifications will definently help me achieve my goals. I've been on a couple of interviews where I did really good, but the bachelors was the thing that was holding me back due to the companys standards. As for your significant other, its was great to hear that she wanted something else for herself and went for it especially with it involving IT. In general I respect her grind and desire for wanting more period.

Repo Man: I would say that the experience was good in the beginning due to it being my first IT job and learning the ropes for customer service. As for experience now, its at a standstill. No one else attends training for various stuff besides the Director, Manager, and the Network Administrator. Anything Server related or Network related, techs don't have a shot at working with. Sadly, The Director, Manager and Network guy are the only ones who recieve advanced knowledge since they want to be guru's for ultimate job security.

techlady007

kevozz wrote: »

Can you take night classes? Even the small university i went to had almost all classes available during the day and night, though sometimes they were spread out over a few semesters. Quite a few were available online also.

Well, some of the IT courses will be the evening, but at random selection. The rest of my main cores such as biology, etc are in the mornings. So they have to be knocked out also, preferably before the IT ones.