Should I stay at my job and finish my B.S. in I.T. or should I start looking?

Unknown

Should I stay at my job and finish my B.S. in I.T. or should I start looking for a job once I get my A.S. and CCNP VOICE?

I am working as a cisco technical engineer with an independent reseller for the past 6 months its a small shop. This is my first fulltime I.T. job. I was a field engineer for a few months prior but on call basis performing new installs of switches in SMB, desktop troubleshooting, and printer repair. In my current position I migrated the servers from server 03 to 08 and exchange 03 to 07. Also, will perform a migration from our analog pbx to voip using an all cisco backbone connecting to several sip trunks from cme. In addition, I will integrate unity express with exchange. My day to day is that I create complex test networks to be able to conduct performance tests on all the cisco hardware that we receive to make sure it will work in a live environment.

My position is getting real tedious besides the migration which is the only thing I'm excited about. After I complete the voip project I won't really get any other useful experience to add to my resume. I am 2 classes from completing my associates just can't enroll just yet to finish due to financial reasons will enroll in January of 13'. I am currently working on my ccnp voice as I found a liking in the voice work that I performed and want to dig deeper. I plan to have my ccnp voice completed by April or May of 2013.

My question is should I stay at my current comfortable position and finish my bachelors once I have my personal finances in order which will be around 03/13 so my education can be paid by cash. The duration of my completion of the B.S can take me 6-12 months depending how things go at WGU. By march of 2013 I should have my associates in I.T. and my well into my ccnp voice. At that point should I start looking for work once I get my ccnp voice? I want to look for a positing exclusive in voice but I know it'll look better on my resume if I have a bachelors. I'm pretty torn about it because if I do stay to finish my bachelors while working at my current job I'll more then likely forget most of the ccnp voice materials which will end up being a waste of time and money.

Let me add I do plan on finishing up my B.S. it if not at my current job at my next job once I'm settled in once that happens of course.

webgeek

Don't have to continue reading your post....finish your BS!!!!

Whatever it takes finish!!!! Don't let anything stop you!!!!

Trust me It will be worth it!!!!

lantech

Why can't you stay in school and find another job?

Legacy User

I can but I meant should I knock out my B.S. then look for a job or once I finish my A.S. go start immediately looking. I do plan on working on my B.S. I just don't want to wait an additional year to look for a new opportunity.

webgeek

BS > AS

Where are you located? I know the feeling of being stuck at a job and being in school. If you want to go the online route it would allow you to switch jobs and do full time both in your studies and at your new employer

Legacy User

Located in NJ.

computer g33k

dmarcisco wrote: »

Located in NJ.

Where at in new jersey, if you don't mind asking? i'm trying to get a meetup organized for people in philly area.

Legacy User

Elizabeth

webgeek

My wife has family in Elizabeth.....we are debating about moving up there....but yea I'm not used to the cold...we live in Florida

Legacy User

If you're not used to the cold then NJ will not be for you. In the winter months it can get brutal.

webgeek

I'll get used to it for the right $$$ plus it will make the wife super happy!!! And if shes happy, well I keep it PG on the forums lol

lantech

How long have you been with your current company? While I understand that you want something more if you've only been there 6 months it will hurt your chances of landing full time jobs if this becomes a habit. Employers might start to see you as a job hopper and might not take the chance on you. If you've been there at least a year even if part of it was part time that will look better.

When I got into IT the first time I ended up doing a lot of short term contracts. Not because I wanted to keep moving around but because that's what I could get and I needed to pay the bills. Whenever I applied for full time jobs it was hard explaining why I all of a sudden wanted a full time position and employers were afraid I'd be gone in a couple of months for something better.

Legacy User

In February it'll be a year. By the time I will look for employment it would be over a year working at my current company. As my OP I stated should I start looking by March or so. Which will be over a year.

Legacy User

Thanks everyone for your input I had a chat with a buddy of mine thats a senior engineer and got some great insight. I figured out how I'll play the next upcoming year.

gadav478

What advice did he wind up giving you?

Legacy User

Told me to get it while I still can. He said that once I'm really working in the field I really won't have much time to knock out the bachelors in 6 months. Also, don't get locked into a single vendor. He mentioned that he knew alot of people that spent a lot of money on Novell and ATM where the technology went nowhere. End result instead of taking the next 6 months to concentrate on the ccnp voice I plan on knocking out a few CIW, Sun Java Cert, and 2 mta exams to knock out the majority of the difficult classes that everyone tends to have problems with at WGU which totals to 6 exams. I calculated it and if I succeed with passing those exams then I should only need 7 classes to complete once I enroll at WGU. Which would equate to 27 credits left.