Career Advice Needed for Newbie

Infoseeka72

So I will be finishing up my junior year in Mis this May and I have a couple questions. Ive read around and see that some people have had trouble finding jobs after graduation and im trying to avoid this. I know experience is the best way, but I have none whatsoever outside of my personal knowledge of computers (am working on finding an internship this summer or earlier if possible). My school offers 4 paths inside my major which are forensics/it auditing, info security, app. devlp, and sys. devlp which ive narrowed down to app or sys devlp. My question is which do you guys think would be the most beneficial if i wanted to go either the network engineer or systems analyst route or in the end will the classes not even really matter as the degree will say the same regardless?? (I know i will most likely have to start at the bottom also).

My second question is when should i start trying to get certs and which ones are most employers looking for the most?

-Thanks for the help guys.

techdudehere

I vote for Degree+Internship+A project or two (on or off campus) Certs can wait until later. Maybe get a really easy one like A+ in case a project you'd be interested in requires the person to hold at least one cert. Save the certs for later, degree + experience can land you some of the better jobs where you actually have nice working conditions. There is a growing amount of sweat shop type IT work where the only interest is working you until your head hurts everyday until you burn out then bringing in the next guy lol I think those jobs really look at certs because they are trying to find someone who will know a specific product and with the high turn over they are not looking to invest a lot of money in grooming someone for Director of IT over the years lol

Turgon

Infoseeka72 wrote: »

So I will be finishing up my junior year in Mis this May and I have a couple questions. Ive read around and see that some people have had trouble finding jobs after graduation and im trying to avoid this. I know experience is the best way, but I have none whatsoever outside of my personal knowledge of computers (am working on finding an internship this summer or earlier if possible). My school offers 4 paths inside my major which are forensics/it auditing, info security, app. devlp, and sys. devlp which ive narrowed down to app or sys devlp. My question is which do you guys think would be the most beneficial if i wanted to go either the network engineer or systems analyst route or in the end will the classes not even really matter as the degree will say the same regardless?? (I know i will most likely have to start at the bottom also).

My second question is when should i start trying to get certs and which ones are most employers looking for the most?

-Thanks for the help guys.

My advice:

1. Start studying for certs now but not at the expense of your college grades
2. Look for intern experience
3. Look for commercial experience before you leave college. Lots of companies out there you could approach directly about this.
4. Concentrate on your grades. Advice can come from people who dont have degrees or are doing them later in life, or people who simply dropped out of college. Get the best degree you can. It matters starting out and will help you later in your career.