For those working, how much time do you devote to studying?

When I worked part-time, I had plenty of time studying and got my certs rather quick. Now I'm working roughly 60 hours weekly and haven't been studying at all. I feel bad about this. Studying on the job wouldn't be realistic. I could see myself maybe cramming in 20 hours a week max if possible, but that doesn't seem like a lot of time.

I want to get CCNA and CASP before Security+ expires late next year. I currently do repair work and feel it wouldn't be worth investing more time into unless I ran my own business. I feel confident I would be successful running one, but I question myself if I really want to go that route. I would work solo. Although possible I don't think it's realistic seeing myself making 60k working for someone else in this field. I'm making 43-45k including bonuses, but that's not enough.

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TheFORCE

karl88 wrote: »

Although possible I don't think it's realistic seeing myself making 60k working for someone else in this field. I'm making 43-45k including bonuses, but that's not enough.

You think it's not possible making 60k working for a company? You can easily make 60k in another company or doing another IT related job. Repair work is for those new to the field and trying to gain experience.

DoubleNNs

It comes in waves and spurts for me. Sometimes I'll only study for 3-5 hours a week. Sometimes I'll be cram for 30 hours in a week.

I consider 30 hours in a single week a lot of study time. If you're able to even hit 10 hours in a week, do it. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

What type of work do you want to do when you leave repair work? Are you actually interested in networking?

powerfool

TheFORCE wrote: »

You think it's not possible making 60k working for a company? You can easily make 60k in another company or doing another IT related job. Repair work is for those new to the field and trying to gain experience.

I felt this exact same way numerous times throughout my career and always qualified it as a condition of my "market area." However, I have always continued to grow my salary significantly past each of those marks... of course, I still feel I can't make a whole lot more than I do now.

thomas_

My current company is pretty strict with their attendance policy. I've been arriving at work 1.5 hours early, so I don't have to worry about being late. I've been getting about 45-60 minutes of study time in each morning. On the weekends I might study 2-3 hours or not at all. If you consistently study each day, even if it's 20-30 minutes, you can make some pretty decent progress.

TechGromit

DoubleNNs wrote: »

It comes in waves and spurts for me. Sometimes I'll only study for 3-5 hours a week. Sometimes I'll be cram for 30 hours in a week.

Same for me, depend on how busy I am at work. Two weeks ago, I was able to devote a good 15 hours Studying, last week I was lucky if I studied 5 hours.

karl88

It seems the consensus or at least the ones that responded is that you guys don't spend a lot of time studying.

TheFORCE wrote: »

You think it's not possible making 60k working for a company? You can easily make 60k in another company or doing another IT related job. Repair work is for those new to the field and trying to gain experience.

I was referring to repair jobs, not IT in general.

NetworkNewb wrote: »

So what kind of work have you been doing the last couple years? You should be able to apply that experience and the knowledge you gained on the job to get a new job. Sounds like you just need to get applying

I repair PCs, smartphones, and tablets for the most part. I'd rather do this than Help Desk. I'm good soldering and familiar with malware, but I don't think this stuff pertains too much to networking, security, etc.

DoubleNNs wrote: »

What type of work do you want to do when you leave repair work? Are you actually interested in networking?

I would like to get try Security or Linux Sysadmin. I think CCNA would be a good next step. Issue is I don't have any network experience other than crimping cables. I don't think I would know whatever until I tried it, and I get bored easily. I think being a contractor regularly doing different stuff would be more interesting.

DoubleNNs

karl88 wrote: »

It seems the consensus or at least the ones that responded is that you guys don't spend a lot of time studying.

As I said before, I think that 30 hours is a lot of time in a week. If you can only fit 20 hours in, do it.
There's only ~ 160 hours in a week. If you're working 40 hours, work further than 5 mins from home, and sleep you're not left with much more time. What would YOU consider a lot of study time?

karl88

DoubleNNs wrote: »

As I said before, I think that 30 hours is a lot of time in a week. If you can only fit 20 hours in, do it.
There's only ~ 160 hours in a week. If you're working 40 hours, work further than 5 mins from home, and sleep you're not left with much more time. What would YOU consider a lot of study time?

I work 60 hours, not 40. I would consider over 40 hours of studying to be a lot, but that wouldn't be possible for me unless I worked less.

olaHalo

I try to do about 45-60 minutes a day on work days.
90-120 minutes on weekends.

If I feel tired or too busy to study I dont make up for it the next day or anything.

JoJoCal19

I only study at work, with occasional study at home early Saturday/Sunday mornings if I'm up before the rest of my family. I'm at the point in my career and salary where I'm tiring of the cert grind. It's not that I don't want to pursue new things and learn more, but I'm losing the drive and I want to spend what little free time I take away from my family on other things. So right now I'm getting in 15-20 hours a week studying.

v1ral

I study at least 2 hours a night before I go to sleep on week nights. I study about 6 hours total on the weekends. I only ramp up my study schedule when I close in on the exam date.

Then again I have no family to take care of and im just a fresh grad so I don't have a lot of responsibilities like other folks in here.

Kinet1c

This is an interesting topic and after looking at my figures, I need to find out where my time is going.

168 hours in a week.

Times are approximate and rounded up/down to nearest round figure:
70 hours spent in bed (sleeping mostly but I'll read too).
40 hours spent working. (this will contain elements of learning as I'm new to my role)
10 hours spent cycling (commuting and fitness - will be higher in summer, lower in winter).
10 hours watching media (TV/youtube - some youtube stuff could be educational as I watch tutorials or conference talks).

Right now, of the remaining 38 hours I would say that 5 at most is spent learning/studying with the balance being spent with my wife/son. I'm sure I could take my reading time in bed and also some of the media time and put it to learning but I'm pretty darn happy right now with my work/study/life balance.

Edit: Just to add, I'm in my 7th year in IT now and still learning. I was definitely very hungry in years 4 and 5 where I spent a good chunk of time getting certifications which have helped me get to where I am now. Back then I probably spent 2-3 hours per day studying whether it was a work day or not.

ThomasITguy

TheFORCE wrote: »

You think it's not possible making 60k working for a company? You can easily make 60k in another company or doing another IT related job. Repair work is for those new to the field and trying to gain experience.

I hated repair work. Most of the repair work was done on printers and fax machines. I love the job I have now... stay away from repair unless its a Side business...

ThomasITguy

To answer the OP.

I study at least 5-6 hrs on the weekends and a hr during the week, (mainly on lunch break) im going to be increasing my studying once I go to my reg schedule at work which will be 4 days working 11hrs a day then having 3 days off..

Verities

1-2 hours in the morning either at work (if its slow) or shortly after I wake up.

NotHackingYou

Usually 2-3 hours a night if I'm actively working on something which is most of the time.