Just a Little Career Advice

Savvy

Hey everyone,

I've still been lurking here reading threads from time to time. I recently just found out the AF might be forcing me to retrain and I was wondering whether you could give me some advice as to which field I should go into. Currently, I perform a job that is essentially Desktop Support/Help Desk Technician. I will likely be retraining out of this into either System/Server Administrator or Network Defense.

Which of these career fields do you think would be a better decision for me long-term as far as jobs go in the civilian side of things? I feel that I have a much better grasp on the concepts of System/Server Admin than I do about Network Defense, but I wouldn't necessarily rule it out due to having to learn some new things.

I'm also just about finished with an MIS degree, and will focus on professional level certification after I complete that in order to better prepare myself for when I eventually leave the military.

Any help/other angles to look at this situation that you can provide is greatly appreciated.

lantech

Do whatever you think you'll like best. Have you asked about the option to train on both?

YFZblu

Agree with lantech - Choose what interests you most, because it's a long journey.

Keener

Both will have plenty of opportunities in the civilian world. Overall, I think that the Network Defense would be more valuable and is definitely the hot ticket these days. I think you will be good either way you go, though.

How much longer do you plan on being in the AF? If your knowledge is less on the Network Defense side this might be the best time to get started in it. Many times in the civilian world if you switch gears and start in a new direction you start closer to the bottom than where you left off. In the AF, you don't lose your spot. You won't lose pay because of something new.

Once you are done with your MIS degree you can then supplement your knowledge in your new area or get parallel knowledge to keep you ready for the next step.

If you have a passion, follow it. Otherwise, throw a dart! LOL

the_Grinch

I agree, go with network defense. On the outside that will get you a lot more hits.

zrockstar

I have a friend that just completed the Cyber Transport MOS school for the AF. We were both really impressed with the quality of that school and the stuff they are learning out there. I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.

winstarman

Within the DoD, you can't go wrong with network defense or anything that is infosec related. Even if you go into systems admin, focusing on security will be of great benefit.

Savvy

Thanks for the quick replies everyone - I appreciate it and this forum is pretty awesome in the fact that I get some suggestions so quickly.

To address a few of the questions in this thread so far:

I kind of figured that Network Defense would be the more 'hot ticket' of the two job choices. I just have to decide if I can get to a highly skilled level doing it. I may call around some of the shops in the AF to see how much I can learn from some people that are actually in the career field to see how well I think I could perform it. It would definitely be an interesting career field to go into though.

I am in the AF until at the very earliest 2017, so I've got a good four years of experience to gain in either of these career fields once I get through the technical training.

I unfortunately will be unable to do both jobs, although it would be interesting to do so.

I do appreciate the fact that I won't get demoted or anything with the retraining - I am kind of forced to retrain because I was promoted so quickly in my career field that I filled a spot as the most vulnerable NCO in a career field that is overmanned in NCOs (so they're moving me to one of the others which are undermanned in NCOs).

I do intend to finish up my degree - hopefully by next year (depending on how extensive/time consuming the retraining is). After that I will begin to look at adding some professional level certificates to my repetoire - just depends on which career field I end up going to for which certificates I attempt to complete (right now I would like to pick up CCNA and maybe MCSA without thinking too extensively on it).

If I do go into the Network Defense side of things, is there any programming languages I should really spin myself up on to be proactive? The only programming language I've ever had classes in would be VB. Programming is definitely a weak area for me, but if there are any suggestions where I could/should focus some time - I would appreciate it.

Thanks again guys, I appreciate the help/suggestions.

Savvy

Just an update on this - I talked to my career advisor on base and he had some contacts in the network defense career field (which is relatively new and not at many bases in the first place, so I was surprised). I was able to contact one of the individuals that actually perform the job and they answered a lot of my questions as well as eased my confidence into going into that career field as a whole. So in short, I have prioritized network defense over server administration, and I will be trying to retrain into one of those two career fields sometime in the next year.