Advice on best route maybe to take

neo9006

Hello,

I am new to forum and this being my first post, I am going to get my bachelors degree in web and media design next year, even though I am taking it seems like nothing but computer science classes which is not bad. Kinda of what I read is get some of your early certifications like A+, and I off the top of my head can't think of the other one. I have always prided myself on being the jack of all trades and to a degree that is what is happening, what advice would you give someone that is just starting out new in the IT field? I know from reading several posts they said we all start at the bottom, I know I will be doing that when I change fields. I remember a classmate saying you needed your degree, I know it helps, but many certifications for example should you get? Thanks for your time in reading and answering my question.

Death Dream

I.T. field is really a huge subject and many different paths. Are you wanting to go more Desktop Support, Networking, or what? It all depends on which route you want to take.

neilperry

Please get an internship. I wish this was drilled into my head while I was pursuing my bachelor's. Ive seen so many people skip the entry level stuff with a single semester/summer semester internship.

Death Dream

I skipped the entry level stuff right out of college with no internship. I'm a System Administrator, only I.T. person on staff for a building for 200 users. Small company, but I wouldn't put all the weight on internship. Sometimes you just got to impress in an interview or get lucky as hell.

neo9006

I would say security or possibly networking, I guess what I am trying to figure out is what certifications I would need to get into the door, my background is another field and its mostly graphics so this would be different for me.

lsud00d

It sounds like you're getting an academic background in development so you could do programming/dev work, it really depends on what you want to do. I have several good friends that are devs but it's because they are 1.) good at it and 2.) they truly enjoy it.

There are days I wish I did the dev route...you are highly portable jobwise, mobile locationwise, and you can make uber money.

But, the projects can get mundane depending on what you're doing...

f0rgiv3n

Death Dream wrote: »

I skipped the entry level stuff right out of college with no internship. I'm a System Administrator, only I.T. person on staff for a building for 200 users. Small company, but I wouldn't put all the weight on internship. Sometimes you just got to impress in an interview or get lucky as hell.

Rarely are people as lucky as you Death Dream. That's why the internship is something that I also agree with . I have to say that an internship really puts a lot more weight in your favor. It gets you the opportunity to be seen as well as experience. The biggest problem people run into after getting an IT degree is that "all the jobs require experience". Then you think, "well, where the hell do I get experience?!". If you get the opportunity go for an internship!!

Aside from that topic... I would recommend looking at doing some comptia certifications (A+, Net+, Sec+) to give you a foundation of all IT in general. It'll give you some credibility straight off your resume. Once you have the foundation, you'll have to decide your direction:
Networking:
Cisco certs (CCENT, CCNA, etc...)
Juniper certs (JNCIA, JNCIS, etc...)
Security:
Security+, CISSP, all those other ones out there under the security category...
Server administration (Windows):
MCITP (all those microsoft server certs)
Server administration (Linux):
Linux+, RHCE

There's a bunch out there, i just spilled a few out on here off the top of my head.