network engineering without 4 year degree?
happytech
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Greetings,
I'm 29 with no IT experience and 80k in student loans. I plan on getting the A+ and network+ certs. I have a degree in accounting and a few mba credits, no job currently. I can't go back to school for another bachelor's degree. Is it possible for me to get a career in IT with just certs? And I would like to be a network engineer eventually
I'm 29 with no IT experience and 80k in student loans. I plan on getting the A+ and network+ certs. I have a degree in accounting and a few mba credits, no job currently. I can't go back to school for another bachelor's degree. Is it possible for me to get a career in IT with just certs? And I would like to be a network engineer eventually
Comments
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1. Actively participate in a student/professional IT group in your area. (If possible, one that is network-focused, like a Cisco user group.)
2. Let everybody you run into know that you want to work in networking. Family, friends, etc.
3. Seek out entry level opportunities.
4. Look for free/low-cost training opportunities. Library, web search, university e-materials, vendor specials (e.g., INE is offering CCNA R&S training for free), etc.
5. Network engineer is a broad term, and can mean different things, depending upon the environment you work in. Did you want to work with a service provider, enterprise, or consulting company? Do you want to work local, regional, national, or international? Do you like design, VoIP, wireless, security, etc.? No need to worry about figuring out all of this right now, it'll come as you go, and you'll do bits of it all, in due time.
6. Find an area of focus, and excel in it. You're not going to be great at everything. You can be good at a few things, but you will probably only be great in a couple areas. Find something in networking that you seem naturally good at, and strive to be one of the best in that specific area.
7. Practice selling yourself. IT people get accused of not realizing how the dollars add up, and often end up reporting to the accounting/finance department. With your accounting background, you can leverage that, and can probably get a faster track to management than someone without it. You might want to focuse your search, initially, on IT opportunities in the finance sector, as you might be able to best leverage your accounting background that way.
8. Give yourself mock interviews. Of course, there will be questions that you don't know the answer to. The key as much as possible, is for you to be comfortable fielding these types of questions. As long as you're selling yourself honestly, you don't have much to lose.
9. Volunteer. Volunteer experience can be used on your resume. I'm not talking about fixing Uncle Sam's PC for him, but if you did the same for a local charity, you can use that. Charities also make great references!
Hope this helps.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!)
2020 Goals: 0 of 2 courses complete, 0 of 2 exams complete
Good Luck!
M.I.S.M: Master of Information Systems Management
M.B.A: Master of Business Administration
What is wrong with the getting A+? If you have had previous experience in IT such as working at a helpdesk it shouldn't be too difficult. Your statement doesn't make sense.
Considering that the OP has no previous experience in IT, I would think that the A+ can be useful to list on the resume to get that first IT job.
Why not spend the same time getting the CCNA or CCENT out of the way and save money? You cannot get the money back once it's spent. It just doesn't make sense to spend it on something you don't need.
Nothing is wrong with getting it, but it won't help achieve the goal at hand and it is a waste of money. If you like wasting time and money be my guest, but I'm trying to provide the advice that will help the OP reach their goal not just get them some letters on their resume.
Many people on this forum will say a (related) degree is not necessary and is just letters on a resume. Although you can get an entry level job without one, it will still be harder to do so. By at least having entry level certs, employers will at least consider looking at OP's resume and hiring him. If he doesn't want or need the A+ and would rather spend his time on more advanced certifications such as the CCNA or MCSA, then that's fine too. Those are more challenging certs, however, and without the background it will be harder to study for them. Just my opinion.
A business degree that you pay attention to and actually absorb is useful.
~
I said to get the background, but don't bother spending the extra time or money to actually get the certs. CCENT is also entry level and more inline with the OP's end goal.
2020 Goals: 0 of 2 courses complete, 0 of 2 exams complete
Any of the "+" certs are jokes and laughed at within the industry IMO.
I say get A+, Net+, Sec+, ITIL , MCSA and CCENT...
If you don’t know anything about how the inside of a computer work check out this site: Professor Messer, CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Linux, Microsoft Certification Training
Here is my input:
-Avoid any more student loan debt
-Avoid CompTIA Certs (A+, Network+). They are a bad, expensive investment with little to no return on investment (ROI). See the thread in my sig to get more info about this
-If your wanting to go the networking route, investigate the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and the forums here that pertain to it. Depending on your state, you maybe able to secure funding that may prepare you a networking career. Check our your local job center on this
"Its easier to deceive the masses then to convince the masses that they have been deceived."
-unknown
Typically you have to have some sort of prior-military experience to even make the 1st cut.
And even with my military experience, college degrees and CompTIA certs and with me applying for DoD jobs in my current job search, I haven't had one lead yet.
"Its easier to deceive the masses then to convince the masses that they have been deceived."
-unknown
If you're serious about networking, and by that I mean routers and switches, forget CompTIA, forget MS. Go Cisco, go hard.
Later on branch out to Juniper/Brocade if you want, security or VOIP etc. but the CCNA is your obligatory first step. Esp with your complete lack of experience it is the ONLY thing (short of the juniper JNCIA but there are a lot less juniper shops out there) that will get your resume in the interview pile.
I worked for the DoD as a contractor and never serve a day in the military...
Don't keep it a secret...do tell...I've been trying for a long time now.
"Its easier to deceive the masses then to convince the masses that they have been deceived."
-unknown
M.I.S.M: Master of Information Systems Management
M.B.A: Master of Business Administration
I worked for the DoD at one point as well (no military exp). A recruiter simply called me up one day after finding my resume on one of the job sites (either Monster or CareerBuilder). AllStaff Technical Resources was the name of the contracting/recruiting firm.
On a totally separate note, I have to add here that I've landed more than 1 position because I had the A+. This was early in my career, obviously, and the jobs were in the realm of desktop support. That's not the route OP is looking to take, so the CompTIA lineup are not the best choice (as indicated). But to say that all CompTIA certs are a waste of time and money is ignorant.
Heck...I wouldn't have gotten called by that DoD contractor if it weren't for the Security+ on my resume. Was a TS Clearance worth the $250 exam.....? The point is...never discount a cert just because YOU haven't benefited from it.
We'll said. I've noticed that most people who criticize degrees or certifications already got their foot in the door and have many years of experience. The question is how did they get an entry level position in the first place? I agree that degrees and certifications aren't necessary for many IT positions, but you need to have some way to verify your skills to an employer. I don't have any work experience or a related degree which is why I need the A+ so I can get an entry level job and pursue more advanced certifications like the CCNA more easily. Kudos to those who managed to get in without degrees or certifications. I wish I had an easier time doing so.
I see IT blogs, posts, etc. all the time about how so and so got a job in the IT industry without a single certification or degree, even cert haters, etc.
There are a few ways this could happen:
1) They have a friend already working high up within the system, and got them in. "its who you know..." Heck, you don't even need prior experience in most of these cases. Just take a look at your local Target store. Its supposedly tough to get a job there, you have to take a online aptitude exam, yadda yadda. I go there to shop and I see some of the employees that are at my local Target (unattractive, unprofessional looking, etc) and wonder how the heck did they get hired?
2) They slept with the HR/Lead IT technician. "sleep your way to the top..."
3) Daddy Bigbucks CEO of whatever corporation gets them the job. "job by inheritance..."
I am sure there are other ways to "get in" the system without a degree or any certs, and I haven't listed them here, but the point is it is possible. Every time I read one of those kind of posts or blogs, they seem to conveniently leave out the above information, and I cant help but think there has to be some other way they got in, other then no experience, no degree, no certs.
More power to those that do get a job this way.
To those that say CompTIA is a complete waste of time, garbage, etc. This is not true. In fact, I applied for a job for a local bank help desk position 18/19/hr to start, in May of last year. The interview process took a very long time. I was interviewed by a 5 person panel, then had 2 phone interviews after that. Finally in August they had made their decision, and went with "the other candidate". I was told it was very, very close. I was told that if I had my A+ certificate I would have gotten the job. I got my A+ cert 2 weeks too late. I am 44 yrs old and have 10 years of experience in the field of mobile computer repair (my small business), consulting, etc. All I had on my resume basically is the 10 yrs of mobile computer repair exp and 26 yrs of customer service exp.
I think what might be true is if you do get a CompTIA certification, say the A+, then get a job in entry level help desk, after the first year or so of exp the A+ certification is pretty much worthless. The exp gained at the help desk job just trumped the A+ cert. I would think the A+ is still useful in this example, since it probably got the job in the first place.
Some potential employers specifically say in the job post something to the affect of:
"Required: A+ certification (or whatever cert), or Bachelors Degree or equivalent certifications or experience related to the position applied for..."
I have the "holy trinity" of the CompTIA certifications (A+, Net+, Sec+) and I definitely have been getting callbacks, interviews, etc. because of them. I don't plan on stopping there, I plan to continue on the certification path and get my MCSA and maybe MCSE and eventually my CCNA.
To the OP: I would re iterate what others have said before. If you are looking at network engineering I would definitely go the Cisco route. I have read and have been told that even having CompTIA Net+ is useful in prepping you for the Cisco material. In fact there is a statistic somewhere that says people that have the Net+ cert have a higher pass rate with CCENT/CCNA then those that don't. Other then that, other points have been already covered, such as volunteering your time, look for intern positions, network with other IT professionals in your local area, etc.
Getting the fundamental knowledge of your network could very well put you ahead of another candidate who is just trying to blaze the fastest path to $100k a year. Ultimately you are investing in yourself.
Just my two cent