Another Career Advice thread

shownuff

Hello everyone.

real quick about me

31 years old, B.S. in engineering technology, my current position is Biomedical Engineer Tech for a hospital and I've been in this field for 6 years. My current pay is 54k or 57k when you factor in on call pay. My problem, I feel theirs a lack of growth in this field. My solution, change careers. I've always been interested in IT. Some of the medical equipment I deal with interfaces and communicates with a basic PC. So from time to time I deal with networking issues and reloading software. Pretty much basic held desk issues. This isn't enough for me and I want to learn more and do more. The areas of IT that interest me are Networking and Security. I'm leaning more towards Security.


So I plan on taking A+, Net+ and Sec+. and then Comptia's Healthcare IT cert and or CCNA before I test the market. Hopefully some of you can shed some light to my dilemma.

1)What combinations of these certs will get me a job matching my current salary?
2)What are some job tittles in the networking and security field that one could get with the mentioned certifications and my job experience?
3)What value do you see comptia's Healthcare IT cert will have in the next few years? This cert sounds good, but I don't see any jobs requiring it.
4)Can any of these certs land me some kind of analyst job, or do I need SQL scripting experience?

Sorry for any typos or vagueness, I typed this on my tablet during a quick break.

shownuff

Any input would be greatly appreciated

paul78

Hello and welcome to the TE forums.

I honestly don't really have any constructive advice since I'm not familiar with healthcare. But there are a few career changers in here and it's certainly very do-able.

The description of what you do now does seem to be a great background if you want to stay in healthcare IT. I can't really comment on the certs that you mentioned but a lot of people do start with Comptia certifications. Given your background, if you are already fairly proficient with network concepts, you could consider just jumping to the CCNA.

As for salary, it sounds like you are in Maryland, I would imagine that if you stayed in healthcare, it would be a better fit and you are more likely to retain your current salary.

As for security, the healthcare industry definately needs a lot of help from what I have read.

shownuff

Thanks Paul78

I appreciate your reply to my thread. I did start to studying for my CCNA but a few friends of mine convinced me to knock out the easier certs first. The comptia Healthcare IT cert seems like a bargin, but I havent seen any jobs that ask for it. I guess Healthcare IT is still in its infacy and this would be the best time to get involved in it.

Complete_IT_Professional

I think attacking the easier certs would be a good idea. You mention you've had some experience with PC's already, but these certifications are easier and will give a good foundation leading into the CCNA.

I also don't know a lot about the healthcare industry so can't comment on that specific certification.
Good luck!

Master Of Puppets

It's good that you have at least some experience. I would guess that if you move into IT rather than healthcare IT, you would experience a decrease in salary. However, I too have no knowledge of healthcare IT so this is where I stop.

I don't think that the comptia certs and the CCNA will be enough for a analyst job if there is no previous related experience. Maybe the analyst position should be considered after gaining some experience?

As for getting into security I doubt this will be enough. IMHO, you will have to get some networking experience and get into security after that because as I learned the hard way - hardly anyone wants to hire you for security positions if you do not have some background. You could definitely get a helpdesk kind of job with these certs but I don't think this is what you are looking for. I think it is not impossible to land a network admin kind of job though. But again for the security stuff, I think you will need to be in IT for a year or two before you can make the transition.

shownuff

Thanks everyone for the feedback. My current certification path is A+ by the end of this month, Net+ by May, and Sec+ by June. Then I will spend the summer studying for my CCNA. I'll make a new thread once I've completed my A+.