Which Certifications should I get?

Hi All, I am new to IT and I will be graduating with my Bachelors of Arts in Management Information Systems and I currently have an internship site that I will be working at for about 5 months. My major courses in my degree program consist of Intro to Visual Basic, Database Management Systems (SQL Oracle and Firefox), Management Information Systems (Relational Database), Network Security and Digital Communications. Since I am relatively new to the field and I will be looking for employment upon graduation what certifications will make me a valuable prospect for employers? I called around to some training "boot camps" and they're quite expensive so I've been contemplating on jumping right into my Masters at WGU just so I can earn the certs. Any feedback would be appreciated?....oh and I'm currently an Accountant for a government agency with the hopes of changing careers (obviously) and I have an AA in Business and I will gradute with my BA in MIS next semester, as I stated previously. THanks

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Michael.J.Palmer

The Masters at WGU is probably your cheapest route to getting certs, I took part in one of those many training "boot camps" myself for about 7 to 8 months last year to get all of my certs and granted, I did learn a lot and it did help me get into my current program at WGU, but it can put a major dent in the wallet compared to WGU.

I'd go for the Masters at WGU if you plan on doing some sort of management role in IT. At that point the other certs won't really matter for you unfortunately, the common consensus is that certifications are required for the little folks who do the grunt work, not the big guys at the top in the management positions. That's not a slight against management positions at all, just an observation of the difference between a supervising position and non-supervising position.

If you do plan to get some additional certs at some point though then I'd probably look down the DBA route with the MCITP: DBA since it looks like a lot of your focus for your BA was already on databases.

odysseyelite

New2ITinCali wrote: »

Hi All, I am new to IT and I will be graduating with my Bachelors of Arts in Management Information Systems and I currently have an internship site that I will be working at for about 5 months. My major courses in my degree program consist of Intro to Visual Basic, Database Management Systems (SQL Oracle and Firefox), Management Information Systems (Relational Database), Network Security and Digital Communications. Since I am relatively new to the field and I will be looking for employment upon graduation what certifications will make me a valuable prospect for employers? I called around to some training "boot camps" and they're quite expensive so I've been contemplating on jumping right into my Masters at WGU just so I can earn the certs. Any feedback would be appreciated?....oh and I'm currently an Accountant for a government agency with the hopes of changing careers (obviously) and I have an AA in Business and I will gradute with my BA in MIS next semester, as I stated previously. THanks

I would skip the bootcamps and self study. Since you have been in school, you are used to studying. It is much harder to get back into that role after you leave it.

What area do you like right now? Security, programming, DB, Systems Admin?

I left college in the same place. No certs and a jack of all trades. Best thing I can tell you is try to figure out what area you want to sorta be in and go from there.

Most people will get the comptia certs. Network+, sec+, a+. The go after the client MS exam and then maybe CCENT\CCNA.

With a few of those, you will land a helpdesk job most likely. You have to put in your time and then continue to do certs in the are you like best to move up the latter to better jobs.

Get some certs before you hit the job market. I interviewed and that was a major question. Many places did not care I had the degree. I did have experience as well, but certs is what they were looking for. Not all places are like that, but you have to make yourself look better than the next guy out of college.

New2ITinCali

odysseyelite wrote: »

I would skip the bootcamps and self study. Since you have been in school, you are used to studying. It is much harder to get back into that role after you leave it.

What area do you like right now? Security, programming, DB, Systems Admin?

I left college in the same place. No certs and a jack of all trades. Best thing I can tell you is try to figure out what area you want to sorta be in and go from there.

Most people will get the comptia certs. Network+, sec+, a+. The go after the client MS exam and then maybe CCENT\CCNA.

With a few of those, you will land a helpdesk job most likely. You have to put in your time and then continue to do certs in the are you like best to move up the latter to better jobs.

Get some certs before you hit the job market. I interviewed and that was a major question. Many places did not care I had the degree. I did have experience as well, but certs is what they were looking for. Not all places are like that, but you have to make yourself look better than the next guy out of college.

Well I really enjoy programming. I loved working with Visual Basic while in school and creating projects. I find myself creating projects in my spare time on my home computer

.. it can get addicting.

I also enjoy Network Security and I especially enjoyed the labs. I find it very interesting. I really would like to pursue my studies further and thats why I've been contemplating on WGU's Masters in Information Assurance and earning certs along the way is a plus. One thing that is distracting me from actually pursuing the degree is I don't see many job openings for Information Security.. or maybe I'm not looking in the right places. I have also considered an MBA with a concentration in IT, MSIT and an MS in Software Engineering. Regis University and Norwich seems to have good programs... but I'm still "up in the air" about which degree will help me in the long run. I would like to eventually go into management one day. Any feedback and advice is welcomed, as I am an IT amateur.

New2ITinCali

Michael.J.Palmer wrote: »

The Masters at WGU is probably your cheapest route to getting certs, I took part in one of those many training "boot camps" myself for about 7 to 8 months last year to get all of my certs and granted, I did learn a lot and it did help me get into my current program at WGU, but it can put a major dent in the wallet compared to WGU.

I'd go for the Masters at WGU if you plan on doing some sort of management role in IT. At that point the other certs won't really matter for you unfortunately, the common consensus is that certifications are required for the little folks who do the grunt work, not the big guys at the top in the management positions. That's not a slight against management positions at all, just an observation of the difference between a supervising position and non-supervising position.

If you do plan to get some additional certs at some point though then I'd probably look down the DBA route with the MCITP: DBA since it looks like a lot of your focus for your BA was already on databases.

Those were exactly my thoughts. Getting a Masters from WGU + the certs is definitely a bargain and WGU is accredited by NSA which gives it some reputability. The "boot camp" that I called wanted me to pay $5,000 just for the CCNA training and an introductory deal for CCENT at $999.00 for a total of $6,000. I thought that price was quite steep for 2 certs. The price is almost like getting another degree and the Cisco certs aren't as invaluable as a degree.

Michael.J.Palmer

Yeah I spent well over that for my 8, the CCENT and CCNA studies they gave me for free on top of that but I've still yet to test for them.

I just enrolled at WGU this month (start August 1) and if I had known about WGU initially I probably would have just gone that route myself and saved myself A LOT of money in the process, but it is what it is. At least the money I spent last year to help get study material, etc for the certifications I have now helped get me an extra years worth of transfer credits into WGU and it looks like I'll have my degree in about a year.

odysseyelite

New2ITinCali wrote: »

Well I really enjoy programming. I loved working with Visual Basic while in school and creating projects. I find myself creating projects in my spare time on my home computer .. it can get addicting.

I also enjoy Network Security and I especially enjoyed the labs. I find it very interesting. I really would like to pursue my studies further and thats why I've been contemplating on WGU's Masters in Information Assurance and earning certs along the way is a plus. One thing that is distracting me from actually pursuing the degree is I don't see many job openings for Information Security

Well if you are good at programming, you can make some decent money. I got tired of it after a few years. I didn't apply myself as much as I should have.

Programming is also good if you plan on doing network security. That is the area I am looking at. The network and security are two areas which is hard to outsource. There are alot of jobs, search for CISSP, CCSP, CEH on career builder. Those are the higher level certs to obtain downt he road.

Not saying if you get those, you will fall into a great job. It takes time to move to the top.