Need some advice

kiki162

I want to hear from all of you and get thoughts from those who are doing really well (i.e.: making big $$$ at what you are doing, have the degrees, have the multiple certs, and more importantly have the CISSP's, CCNP, CCIE, etc, etc)

I'm trying to figure out which path to take as far as my career goes. Right now, I'm a year out from a BS Degree in IT security, working on mostly Sys Admin stuff at work (W2K8, DNS, AD, Endpoint, BackupExec, etc). I'm not doing any major IT security stuff since there are people "higher up on the food chain" in D.C. doing just that. I don't have access to networking stuff, since someone else is in that role, and we aren't sure if we are getting Cisco equipment this year. My biggest thing is I want to avoid a "plateau", if that makes any sense.

Right now, I'm leaning towards the Cisco/Networking side, since there's seems to be more training for it out there. In the meantime, I'm working on my degree full time till next May, then figure out the next step.

But what I want to get a feel for all of you and what path did you take to get to be where you are now. Did you do self study, did you go and get training somewhere specific, and what would you recommend?

jtoast

Define big money..heh. If High 5 figures low 6 figures (depending on yearly bonus) qualifies, then I can answer you.

I personally got where I am by working my ass off on a daily basis. I didn't have a degree until the 23rd of March and my certs were(and still are actually) minimal.

I started on the phones doing telephone support while I taught myself basic networking, scripting and software packaging after work. Eventually I got a job as a hardware tech. I did that for a couple of years, got sick of it, and became a contract software packager traveling city to city, wherever the jobs were. I did that for several years until I got married and took my current full time gig doing level III application support for a major oil company.

Now that I've been here a couple of years and have somewhat settled into my position, I have started working on all the degrees and certifications that I never had the time/money to get 10 years ago.

What would I recommend? There aren't really that many ways to break into the IT field. Usually you end up taking a job that (you think) you are overqualifed for just to get some experience on your resume, deal with all the low level BS for a couple of years and then jump ship for more money and more responsibility. Repeat until you get somewhere you like that pays you enough to stay.