Secured a volunteer position in networking!

andre81

Monday I start a volunteer position in the networking department of the county school board! The timing is perfect as I am almost done preparing for CCENT and I'll be working under a senior network technician. Finally some IT experience; just putting this up for others who might have started getting disenchanted. Don't give up! Ask any body who is willing to listen to give you a chance and somebody will.

veritas_libertas

Congratulations! Those can be great opportunities to learn and build a resume. I worked in my college's IT department and it was both a learning experience and fun.

fredmoogie

great job, congrats! what will u be doing exactly? have they told u?

cyberguypr

Excellent. This will definitely pay off. Best of luck!

andre81

I don't know exactly what I'll be doing as of yet but there are 12 remote sites with both apple and windows clients. He knows my eventual goals are network security, and said there is plenty of that needing to be done. There used to be 3 guys doing his job and now its just him so he said he definitely needs help. I asked if I should brush up on anything, and he said no, but we'll be doing all the things involved in networking with Cisco equipment. He has been vague so far, but he has tons of experience and should provide a great wealth of knowledge. I'll post an update after I start on Monday. The goal thing is I make my own schedule, and I can finally put something on the resume that is IT related.

Tackle

Congrats! Sounds like a great place to start.

Ryan82

Congrats man, that sounds like a great opportunity to get your foot in the door and gain some valuable experience. Jump into everything you can and try to learn as much as possible and it will pay dividends. That experience coupled with a CCNA should open a lot of doors for you down the road.

I would also recommend reading TCP/IP Illustrated vol. 1 2nd edition. It's great for learning the fundamentals of how protocols work and would be perfect for you at this point in your career.

Best of luck!

andre81

Ryan82 wrote: »

I would also recommend reading TCP/IP Illustrated vol. 1 2nd edition. !

So far I have been reading Lammle CCENT book and Cisco Press(Odom) ICND1, browsed Bryant Advantage, and have watched most of the CCENT CBTNugget videos. I have done some basic configuration labs in Packet Tracer as well.
Do you think TCP/IP Illustrated offers anything these other resources lack? If so I'll grab a copy of it as well, but I am trying to limit my resources.
Thanks to all for the kind words and advice.

alxx

Good going!

make sure to keep a logbook
Helps you summarise what you did for resumes later.

Ryan82

TCP/IP Illustrated will for instance cover how TCP works in much more detail. I wish someone had sat me down early on and said "I know this book may seem boring, but read it slowly and understand everything in here".

If funds are tight, the first edition is posted online for free and is still relevant:
http://docs.online.bg/NETWORKING/tcp-ip-illustrated/index.htm

nethacker

Ryan82 wrote: »

TCP/IP Illustrated will for instance cover how TCP works in much more detail. I wish someone had sat me down early on and said "I know this book may seem boring, but read it slowly and understand everything in here".

If funds are tight, the first edition is posted online for free and is still relevant:
TCP/IP Illustrated

^^That is a fantastic book right there

N2IT

Sorry I am late to the party. Good luck and well done!

CodeBlox

Ryan82 wrote: »

TCP/IP Illustrated will for instance cover how TCP works in much more detail. I wish someone had sat me down early on and said "I know this book may seem boring, but read it slowly and understand everything in here".

If funds are tight, the first edition is posted online for free and is still relevant:
TCP/IP Illustrated

Wow, I didn't know the book was published online!! It was on my list of books to purchase O_O Thanks for sharing! I'm currently reading a unix network programming book authored by this same person.

andre81

Ryan- Awesome resource, I am glad this thread ended up providing valuable information. Thanks again to all

fikaleb

Hello mates,I am new to this forum and also to US.I just came to US before 3 months and I have BSc in Electrical Engineering with Four years of experience in Telecommunication (NGN Network Project).I also finished reading Tod Lammels Sybex CCNA book before a year and now i am watching CBT Nuggets to take the CCENT exam.what do you guys advise me in my next move? i couldn't get a job yet and so want to volunteer in a networking field so where can i apply for it?
thanks in advance

andre81

Update:
As of the second day, I have mostly been doing jr.Admin/ Desktop support type stuff. I have added users in Active Directory and added email accounts in Exchange. I have fixed a few user problems, moved some office computers around, and setup a testing center with domain logins and adjusting securty settings on each machine. There has not been a lot of networking, but it is very enjoyable, and the guy I am working with seems willing to teach me a lot.
fikaleb: Just do as I said in the original post, ask every organization you can. Schools, universities, churches, computer shops, etc.

fikaleb

andre81 wrote: »

Update:
As of the second day, I have mostly been doing jr.Admin/ Desktop support type stuff. I have added users in Active Directory and added email accounts in Exchange. I have fixed a few user problems, moved some office computers around, and setup a testing center with domain logins and adjusting securty settings on each machine. There has not been a lot of networking, but it is very enjoyable, and the guy I am working with seems willing to teach me a lot.
fikaleb: Just do as I said in the original post, ask every organization you can. Schools, universities, churches, computer shops, etc.

Thanks andre for your reply.should i go to their office or can i ask them online?

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

jamesp1983

Congrats man and good luck!