Peace of mind....

Arvean · February 2008

Hi guys,

Again I'd like your opinion like the last time.

I've been thinking about 2008/2009 for my life and I see a lot of decision to make. I have a dilemma right now in regards to certificates. I work as an office manager with some but very limited IT administation. My work is mostly office related,but after I'm done with school *in two years* I want to switch to media/IT related field. Recently I completed Project+, Network+ is next, but I'm wondering whether I should proceed with anything further right now.

My biggest concern is that I don't have that much contact with IT. I will learn the skills while preparing for certs, but not used they will blunt by the time of my graduation. Also by the time I get into the real field there might be another generation of certs.

Should I go ahead and do certs, or should I hold until I will be closer to my graduation?

I was also considering switching into entry-level IT position ( I used to work as desktop support for 2 years before) but I really feel good in this office ( they are reasonable with work and my school, etc).

Any advice will be highly appreciated.

dynamik · February 2008

Pick something you can keep working with. Go for your CCNA and CCNP. Completing both of those will take 1-2 years with school. You're not going to lose the knowledge because you're going to continue working with it as you progress with your studies.

Even if you do something else that doesn't build upon previous knowledge, you can keep your skills sharp with little effort. Just run through some practice tests and/or lab exercises every couple weeks.

I'd keep studying if you have the time. You will be quite surprised at how much you will have accomplished in two years. Even if you have to get new certifications around that time, the previous knowledge will help you out quite a bit (i.e. you'll only have to learn the new material instead of starting from scratch).

I see you're looking at doing the MCSA. If you haven't started yet, and you're not planning on doing anything with it for a couple of years, you want to consider going for the MCITP: Server and/or Enterprise Administrator certifications instead.

Daniel333 · February 2008

I can see valid reason to not bother with certs, such as it getting the way of school or work. But if you still have time. Then don't let the fear of forgetting things stand in your way.

And as far as relevancy, don't worry about it. We still have Nt4 workstations floating around here(circa 1995!). So trust me when I say, "2003/Xp and Cisco IOS 10.x will be sitting there waiting for you in two years" (all probably unpatched).

I don't know how fast you are moving either, took me near 6 months to get my CCNA and 6 more months to snag my MCP 70-270 (windows xp). So depends on the kind of time you have.

Given you are not getting "IT" experience, it might be funny to have a MCSE, CCNP or LPIC-2/3. Unless you can bring that knowledge to work?

But no hiring manager would bat an eye at "+" family of certs or even a few MCPs for someone withouth much IT experience. A+, Net+, Linux+, server+, Security+ and comptia's certs don't expire. Vista would be a smart move as in two years it wil just be coming into it's own along side 2008 server.

Good luck in what ever you decide!

Lee H · February 2008

Hi

From what i gather you would like a career in IT but you have not specified which area, the 1 choice right now is to either follow CCNA or MCSA, each would offer completly different roles in IT, depends on how you feel about doing the work involved and which you would enjoy more. i would look into each of these roles to see which would be right for you MCSE or CCNA

Its always good to have as many certs as possible to feather your hat and it wont do your CV any harm, 1 extra cert over the next guy makes you more desirable, so the more you have the better

Thats about as profound as i can get at 9.45 Saturday morning so hope that helps

Lee H

Peace of mind....

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