Howdy!

chrisfu

Hi guys... I suppose I am new here. Actually, I'm not, but I am. I've probably registered here a few times over the years, but I always forget to stick around and I ultimately forget my username.

Anyway, I'm hoping this time I will stick around. Mostly 'cause I really want to get back into the earning certs game, and I'm hoping seeing others do it will keep my on track and motivated.

Right now I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to work on at this time. I'm kinda thinking I might want to get Alcatel Lucent NRS 1, which might seem a bit strange to some, but I know of a few place (mostly service providers) who use the 7750 service routers. I figure since I already have my CCNA, I should have a decent foundation to get that. Plus its coverage of MPLS and BGP should be useful if I ever move into the CCNA: SP OPs and CCNA:SP certs (planned) It's also nice to get a non-cisco perspective, I think.

What sucks is that I'm actually working desktop support mostly dealing with Windows, printers and PC hardware (I'm really starting to hate it) But since that is kinda what I do, I feel I should be focusing on getting certified in that area because I'm already in the door. Plus if I was to get even more well versed in VoIP, imagine how useful I could be. Ya know? I also have a personal fetish for web development and linux stuff...

So I feel like there is so much I need to take in, but it's just too much to do. I feel like I'm pulled in so many directions that it's hard to stay focused.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you get around? Should I just pay for an exam so that I force myself to focus on it? Maybe I should just become an exotic dancer? I don't think they need to worry about this stuff.

DevilWAH

Hi and welcome back.

yep just book an exam and pay for it and get studying. Very few people are in jobs where they a pushed to move up. Plenty of people around who will put in time to self study especially at the lower levels. So companies can afford to pick out the ones who put in the effort and leave the rest to fester.

Only person who will get you of the helpdesk is you, so just chose one exam and do it, if you assume it should take between 2 and 3 months per exam, that means in 6 - 8 months you should have 3+ exams under your belt. that could be a whole Microsoft cert or three of the CCNA certs (security, voice and design)

With in a year you CV starts to look quite impressive and hopefully work will see you keen and start giving you more interesting jobs.

chrisfu

Thanks for the reply. I actually don't do help desk and never have. Well, I guess it might be considered help desk depending on your definition. I'm rarely at my desk and I'm usually driving to the remote site locations when responding to tickets (there are about 50 buildings around a 100 miles radius) Even though I say I hate the job, its more that I don't find it interesting. I enjoy the people I work with and I also really enjoy the field aspect of it. It's just that I see guys who have been in the role for over a decade still troubleshooting end user's email, domain and printers, and it makes me fear I will suffer the same fate. They get paid a lot more, and some even get paid as much as the server and infrastructure guys. I'm sure I could even move into the server or infrastructure role eventually... I already do the occasional project for them every so often. But moving into those roles would mean sitting at a desk most of the time. I even turned down a NOC "engineer" job a couple months ago because it was too desky. I dunno, I feel like an ass for "complaining" about this stuff, because I know there are others who would love to have it...

I just want to be able to find a field network job at a service provider. I know they exist, but they seem much more rare and difficult to get. Which is why I want to up my certification game a bit. I just need to zero in on one and bang it out.


I think part of the problem is that I maintain a subscription at both CBT Nuggets and Safari Books, so it's like being a kid in a candy store. It's difficult for me to focus on one subject alone, but in the end it's detrimental because nothing ever gets all the attention it needs. For example, I spent much of Sat. and Sunday going through a course on Apache Hadoop. I don't foresee myself ever having to use that, and if I ever do, it will be at some point where I'll probably forgot the few tidbits of information I got from the course. Therefore it's my conclusion that we need to destroy the internet and all the data on it.