Career Calibration

Hello all,
Been trolling this forum for a week now and thought i would be a member, reads like a great community to be a part of.
Give a small insight on what ive been up to since i have graduated high school. Worked my way up to a supervisor at amazon.com fullfilment center, 3.5 years later laid off. Now im 22 and im barely completing my A.A.S degree this coming janurary at university of phoenix (was at a CC prior). With no certs managed to get a job at Cableone (ISP) been here for about 4 months, taking calls troubleshooting Internet, VoIP, and CATV(I hate troubleshooing only via the phone).

My question's are, would WGU be a good option to think about as far as getting my B.S and the certs provided in their programs? And any other certs that i may need to also look into?(Im really trying to get off the phones!)
Im looking at going for security networking or system admin and virtualization later possibly. Thanks in advance.

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ptilsen

Welcome.

WGU would be a good option for you -- certainly a much better option than U of P. Luckily, WGU will probably take some of your U of P credits as well as your CC credits. Depending on your pace, you will probably be able to finish relatively quickly.

That being said, it would be worth strongly considering what direction you want to go. It can be hard to decide before you've got some practical experience, but I would at least try. The WGU degrees vary widely in their certifications. The BS I.T. with no specialization is pretty worthless in terms of the certs you'll earn (not saying it's worthless, just that 75% of the associated certs are). The ND&M is a little better, but still fairly weak. The Network Administration is the best overall, IMO, especially if you want to come out a strong generalist. The Security degree is very good if you want to go into network security or even just networking. Again, that's my assessment based on certifications, not any other class differences.

From what you've said, I would consider the Network Administration because it will make the strongest overall generalist, and it sounds like that's what you want for now. If you do decide you really want to get into something not involving Windows systems administration as a primary function, consider one of the other choices.

You can also self-study for certs and not go to WGU, or get a different degree altogether. Don't think WGU is the only option -- it just probably makes sense for you since it combines a reasonably reputable degree with decent certifications for a good price. A computer science degree, for example, is going to have a better reputation and teach you other skills, but it will be harder, not really prepare you for actual systems administration jobs, probably cost more and be less flexible.

Supermuin

Thanks for the great advice, looking forward to getting some of the basic Comptia certs out the way since they could trans into this program.

bgaudy

Supermuin wrote: »

Thanks for the great advice, looking forward to getting some of the basic Comptia certs out the way since they could trans into this program.

for some good study resources for the comptia certs.. I would highly recommend professor messer's video series, he goes through every single exam objective and explains in detail.. he has series on A+, N+, S+, and L+

Lamini

I would continue to make education a priority. Remember you can transfer IT certs into college credits (check w/ your college), knock out 2 birds w/ 1 stone. If time is of essence, CLEP them courses, get a tutor as needed.

Supermuin

I agree with continuing the education also because i dont want to run into any "glass ceilings" when any opportunities present themselves.

For one that wants to pursue just networking roles is there any benefits in studying for microsoft certs? if so which ones?

WiseWun

I think every TE member attends WGU! Had I known about this school before completing my bachelors, I would have gone as well. @Supermuin, I don't think there is a direct benefit studying for MS certs if you want to do networking but it does help with the overall picture and how the two fields come together.