How do you balance Work, Family and Certifications

matt333

I am finding myself slowly not caring about certs and just working and dealing with family issues, I haven't cracked a book/PDF in about 4 months.. I am just not as motivate as I once was, I have a good job now that I like, but I know now that I have a good job all I have to do is wait until I get a year+ before I can move up the ladder.

How to do stay motivate when being lazy is so easy?

Mrock4

I travel a lot, so it's a blessing in disguise. While on the road, I study. When home, I don't touch the books. Prior to that, I set aside a block of time (such as 8am - 11:30am on Saturdays) as study time. Then I could finish it early, and spend time with the family.

N2IT

Matt I think that's the progression of a professional. At first you get opened up to this world of IT or try to get into that world and certifications are a structured way of doing that. Only problem is it takes a lot of resources and time to accomplish certifications that are worth while like your CCNA.

Eventually you gain experience which trump certifications and therefore the value lessens. Meanwhile you have a family and children and they require a lot of time. Suddenly your priorities change and you realize certifications aren't as valuable as you once thought. Family becomes more important children require parenting and significant others requires time and quite frankly you just don't have the time nor want to make the time.

I know plenty of very successful IT professionals who have less certifications than you do. Personally I would not view yourself as lazy but someone who accomplished quite a bit.

Stay focused at work and continue to give 100% and that should and will be enough. Perceptions is everything and as long as you are coming in, delivering and not making waves in the corporate waters you will do just fine. (Assuming you work in a corporate environment)

***Any additional time spent in my opinion should centric to your job specifically not to vendor or neutral specific certifications. Of course I am not discouraging certifications I think they are great. But like yourself I haven't seriously studied for a certification in over 6 months. I find focusing more on the job adds more value to my career than focusing on certifications.

SteveLord

Who says you need to have your nose in the books every week of the year? There's a difference between being lazy and priorities. I don't get discouraged when I see others here spending 20+ hours a week studying. I don't have their life and they probably don't have mine.

DevilWAH

Family, job, certs.

Thats the order things take in my life.

Family first because it to them I gave my word I would look after, job second because while I am there they pay me to work. Certs last because they are just bits of paper. As long as I am getting new experinces and skills at work I don't worry to much about the bit of paper. But when I am working and involved in a project that intrests me i will often study extra and get a cert to.

I haven't taken an exam for a year, but I have had a wife and young baby/child to look after plus a new job. But in a few months I know I have a big project coming up that crys out for CCNP ROUTING. So when that comes along I will use it to kick start my study. But I would not be upset if I didn't take another cert in my career, I have enough now on a CV that I can get the jobs I want, and know I have the skills to match them. I doubt I will go much further than CCNP level. Not because I won't learn the skills, but I would rather spend time with family than study for an exam.

Iristheangel

I allocate certain hours to certain things a day. For example, I'll get to work early at 5AM, study at lunch if I'm not super hungry, study until I start at 8AM, and then later at night, I'll study from 10PM-11PM. The rest of the time I can do whatever I want. I get my studying done and I still have free time to play.

I'm balancing school, work, and SO but I don't have kids. With kids, it might be easier just to get to work earlier in the morning and leave your nights free to spend with the family.

MSPSHAY2003

This was a very helpful topic.. thanks

tpatt100

After WGU I will probably only get two certs per year. I went through a hiatus years ago and I want to make sure I don't do that but also I don't want to do the constant cert taking I did back in my early days.

kohr-ah

I have a little one and am studying for CCNP as well.

Mostly I learned to do it as follows. 1 change priorities to set time for family first certs second. I would learn to study while I ate my lunch at work or 30 minutes at night after the little one went to bed. That way I still got time with the MRS or if I studied at work I didn't have to study when I got home or I'd do a lab or two when I got home.

As above said experience will win in the end though. We have people here who aren't even CCNA certified who run all our IronPort and Checkpoint solutions and they are doing just fine

f0rgiv3n

SteveLord wrote: »

Who says you need to have your nose in the books every week of the year? There's a difference between being lazy and priorities. I don't get discouraged when I see others here spending 20+ hours a week studying. I don't have their life and they probably don't have mine.

I like this statement. Hits home for me as I'm an extremely competitive person and I am constantly comparing myself to others. While it does give me motivation, it can also be a fault. This is a great way to look at it, thanks for your insight Steve.

blargoe

I have found that time spent on self-study is inversely proportional to the number of kids in the household. Which is OK for me, as I'm at a point in my career now that certifications are maybe less important then they were when I was more green.

lsud00d

Things are pretty easy when you just have a girlfriend, work, and certifications

But...a family will come some day, and when they do come I will be in a very comfortable place financially!

tpatt100

I am glad I am at a more veteran stage in my career because my son at three makes studying in the evening impossible. I do some at work and some at the local coffee shop but the little butthead can be a handful and I cannot expect my wife to just handle all the stress when our son is at that "mine! mine!" stage.

Wilson502

for me I had to take time off of studying for Certs this fall semester due to my school schedule and requirements. I loaded up an took 16 units, but I did that so I would have less classes in my final semester to study for some of the certs. More or less, rockstar helps me to study, and staying up many late hours.

Geetar28

Haven't posted here in a while .. because of this very topic. I'm considering letting my CCNA lapse honestly because I haven't used the knowledge gained while going through it (well most of it anyway...lol), and because I don't think that further Cisco certs would benefit vs. the time I would have to invest in studying.

I do take time to learn things when I can actually dedicate time to it. But I'm certainly right there with you when you say you're not caring about certs. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about SQL right now, not because I really care about it but because the business is needing me to learn about it at least a bit. The thing that kind of frustrates me in the job i'm at is that I'm the jack of all trades and certainly master of none. That said people THINK I'm an expert at least locally...but I know the truth. I really would like to be able to focus and if not become expert...at least close.

Roguetadhg

Sleep less, Energy Drinks, Tea.

Mountain Dew straight into the blood system. Bypass all those un-needed taste buds and go for the IV:



Eventually there's a crash. The more you drink, the more and more you need to keep awake. It's pretty horrible, come to think of it.