Need some advice about my education and future

jsb515

I went to a local tech school for about a year and was not able to finish to to life circumstances and got married young at 21 and never had the time to finish my college but I did finish some small certs like my A+ and MCP.

I was lucky and blessed enough to work for a contracting company for about 2 years and got hired on at the hospital system that I was working out. I was a network tech for 2 years and moved up to a SR. level telecom position and learned how to work with rolm cbx systems and punch down on 66 blocks. I have been involved with all Cisco VoIP migrations with the Rolm system for the last 3 years and have been to a company paid Cisco training classes, worked with many Cisco engineers during the migrations. Then I figured I should get CCNA Voice certified and i've been working towards that ever since and recently passed my CCENT. After getting my CCENT this grabbed the attention of the network manager and I told him that I plan on getting my CCNA Voice and have no plans of losing interest in it and how much i've invested in a home lab to learn from. He told me that he will let be part of the router and switch upgrades that are coming up and that I can start racking the switches and shadow the other network admin who has an expired CCNA since 1999 and has no interest in the Cisco world anymore.. I told him that I will do anything Cisco related for experience and he also recently told me that a Network Admin position is coming open in the future and told me to apply and his already spoke to my current manager about moving me over to network side. My current manager spoke highly of me and said he agreed. So it looks like I have another position waiting for me once it gets posted.

The job process at my work place is a nightmare and is slow so I got plenty of time to get my certs lol. I was looking at doing WGU but I really do not have the finances for that at the moment. I plan on finishing my CCNA Voice and thought about throwing MCSA under my belt also. My question is should I even bother finishing my college right now or ever since I already got 3 years of experience in the VoIP world + 5 years in the network, and many other basic technical skills that many of us have. Having a Network Admin promotion coming that will give me even more experience, once I get a few years in that position would potential employers even care that I don't have my college education and consider my experience good enough?

paul78

It's always very difficult to gauge how each individual hiring manager and/or prospective employer will view the lack of a degree. I personally - as a hiring manager - take into account a candidate's background and experience, especially if that individual has been in the work-force for 5 or more years.

But my advice has always been to encourage anyone that is still young enough and has the necessary work-life balance to try to complete their degree.

I personally never completed my own degree. I do wish I had the opportunity to do so - but back then there was no such thing as an online school.

jsb515

i'm 31 so I guess i'm still "young" but someday's I don't feel like it lol

paul78

I should clarify what I meant by "young". I didn't really intend to imply age but life-style scenarios. Folks that already have an upward moving career with 10+ years of experience with kids and a mortgage with little time on their hands may not necessarily find getting a degree to be practical or pragmatic. If an individual's work-life balance permits the time and focus to get a degree, then by all means I would encourage it.

From what I've read about the WGU program, it does decent and respectable. But the reality is that WGU or any similar program has some degree requirements which are not worthwhile - for example - for someone that's been a software developer/engineer for 10/20 years - having to take a CIW certificate is a bit silly. Or someone with 10/20 years of server admin experience needing to take a A+ is not valuable.

jsb515

yeah I agree with you there on the programs that WGU makes you take but most colleges seem to throw in things you don't need. I'm going to check with HR tomorrow to see what help I can get to get my degree. So while i'm getting work experience i'll also be advancing my education.

Cisco Inferno

I say get your CCNA and CCNA Voice. That will make your resume reflect your experience. I doubt it will be much trouble to you with good experience. Also for school, I would recommend getting at least an Associates at a community college. That's what I'm doing. I'm also seamlessly transferring my Associates to University of Maryland online. (something you may want to look into).

The remaining Junior and Senior credit classes for me are just Cisco and Microsoft Certs. I'm going to enroll in their BS Computer Networks and Security program while obtaining an A+, N+, S+, CCNA, CCNP, CCDA and MCSA. If you already have certs, or get them on the side, they will waive those specific classes.

jsb515

Thanks inferno, I really going to try and attend WGU since it allows me not to take time away from my family and let me study in my best available time. I believe B.S Network Admin on top of my experience will help out later down the road.

dmoore44

A degree is always a valuable thing to have, especially if you're a mercenary minded individual (i.e. you don't mind moving from job to job and company to company). If your plan is to largely stay put with your current organization, then I'm not sure a degree will benefit you as much as getting progressively higher level experience and certs. The reason I say this is because you'll be able to prove yourself to the organization, and there are others in the organization who can vouch for you.

On the other hand, if you think you might move on, it might be worth it to look in to finishing your degree. There are organizations out there who will discard a resume if it doesn't meet the degree requirement - no matter what the experience level of the individual is. HR lackeys will just see it as you not meeting the requirement, hiring managers will see it as you not being committed enough to your education.

Everyone's situation is different, and it really depends on what you goals you've set for your life and career.

JoJoCal19

dmoore44 wrote: »

There are organizations out there who will discard a resume if it doesn't meet the degree requirement - no matter what the experience level of the individual is. HR lackeys will just see it as you not meeting the requirement, hiring managers will see it as you not being committed enough to your education.

That's the TRUTH. I've experienced that a bunch firsthand. And even further than that, from my own personal experience a lot of them don't even care that you're 3/4 of the way through either. I can't wait to have my completion date of my bachelors on my resume.