Short and long term goals..Time for a change. Thoughts?

DatacomGuy

Apologies, this is a tad long? Lots to say though! LOL

Stated out in IT about 12 years ago. Started going to school for MCSE Server 2000 and CCNA. Worked two years out of high school, got laid off. School shut down over night. Was getting frustrating. Left with zero education, an A+ cert (the only one I got done before they closed), and now trying to find an IT job in a crappy, completely saturated market at the age of 19 or 20. Good luck to me! Fell in to a job (at first, now nearly a career) doing communications sales (layer one stuff) for a distributor. 10 years later, and thats what i'm still doing. I work with IT directors, CIO's, engineers, architects, electricians, and help them design their infrastructure, data centers, growth/expansion projects, software roll-outs, etc.

I love my job. I do miss the technical, hands-on side.. but i love the sales/marketing/business end of my gig for sure; and i'd like to think i'm pretty good at it too. However, until I move in to corporate management, i'm nearly capped. I've looped around a few different positions (management, operations, back to sales, back to management, to logistics, back to sales), and always end back up to the normal sales gig. I need to get to the next level in the industry, both in pay and in position. It's time to move forward, i'm nearly 30 and I'm not getting any younger.

That being said, I have no real hands on for the last 10 years. I can design the hell out of an infrastructure, populate a cabinet, design a fiber backbone or campus ring, or setup a datacenter from scratch. However, ask me to configure a cisco router or layer 3 HP switch and i'm screwed.

So.

• Short term goal: Get some more hands on experience on my resume. I'm hoping to use my relationships with CIO's and IT managers to get some weekend volunteer gigs. If I can't, then?
• Short-to-mid term goal: Start working on certs again. CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, RHCE, few others. Any others you guys definitely recommend? Also, start working on a degree.
• Mid-term goal: Change career path back towards technical side. Network engineering, design, or architecture.
• Long-term goal: Ultimate goal is enterprise architect.

So my questions are a few, and read as such.

• Is the BS degree really necessary for now? I know in the past it's always been experience > certs > degree. Still apply? The degree could take me 6 years due to family life, etc. I know it'll be necessary for the EA gig.. but what about getting back in to the networking/engineering side..?
• Any other certs you guys recommend?
• Any career paths to look in to, to mold myself towards the ultimate EA goal?
• Any other suggestions, thoughts, ideas, input?

And without diving too much in to salary's, I need to find myself beyond 75K in the short-to-mid term goal; Am I being unrealistic?

I may edit and add more. I feel like i'm leaving details out. But for now, here you have it.

vCole

I think right now, for a short term goal getting your Cisco certs. would be best. Wait until you land a gig with hands-on that you enjoy to pursue school (if at that point you want to.) Honestly, I think the Cisco route for what you want to do and where you want to be (position and salary) would be excellent.

DatacomGuy

Great info.

Any other certs besides Cisco?

vCole

DatacomGuy wrote: »

Great info.

Any other certs besides Cisco?

For now, I suggest just focusing on Cisco certs. Depending on what role you land, you can branch out from there.