IT Certification questions..

[The Bad Guy]

I'm tossing around the idea of scrapping going back to grad school and concentrating on getting a certificate in IT.

I'm trying to narrow it down right now. I'd love to do some programming, network/help desk type stuff and was wondering if anyone could give me some direction on to what classes to look into for IT.

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Do you speak Punjabi?

[HC_Chief]

Depends on the platform you wish to support.

The big ones are Microsoft (most prevalent) and Oracle (based on Windows, Linux, or Unix of one flavor or another).

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Do you speak Punjabi?

No. I don't want to be a phone troubleshooter.

There are a lot of IT jobs back in my hometown that I'm moving back to in June and wanted to pursue something in an area that I enjoy.

I don't think grad school is necessary after examining a few college certificate programs and wanted some advice from people in the field.

[Brock]

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/searc...earchid=134767

Bad Guy, this stuff has been brought up a few times before, with lots of good input by the guys around here who know their stuff. I'd suggest reading some of those topics along with whatever you get here. Good luck.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by HC_Chief

Depends on the platform you wish to support.

The big ones are Microsoft (most prevalent) and Oracle (based on Windows, Linux, or Unix of one flavor or another).

Windows.

The Penn State branch campus offers certificates in:

AutoCAD
Network Technology
Web Authoring

Which ones would benefit me the most to make a career out of this?

[kaplin42]

MCSE, MCDBA, A+, and any of the cisco certs would be good. To be honest though, I found if you have some expierance in the field already, Certs mean exactly squat. Not one person in my department has anything more than a MCP, and yet we run a very advanced an modern network.

[TN_Chief]

Experience is considerably more important than paper. Certs without experience will put you at the back of the hiring line.

Programming is completely different than troubleshooting, so right there you've got some decisions to make. If you're looking to go down the troubleshooting route, I'd suggest starting with your A+ and N+ certs. Picking up your CCNA would also be a good move. While this is going on, you should be trying to scrape up some experience to flesh out your resume. Those certs (A+ and N+)are for basic computer and network knowledge/troubleshooting (CCNA is a bit more advanced). Beyond those you will need to start looking into specific OS certs (MS, RedHat) or specialized product certs (Oracle DBA, etc.).

[kaplin42]

Also, while on the topic, if you want to be on the cutting edge as far networking/trouble shooting. Wireless techs. are in hi demand. you know your stuff about wireless techknowledgy and you will have a much easier time finding a job.

[Simplex3]

Take mfg. certification testing, don't just get some generic thing from a college. The cert won't be a substitute for experience, but it will put you a step above the guy straight out of college with a CS degree. I'm not sure how, but CS degree guys get more worthless every year.

Generally I'd take some Cisco certs if I wanted to do networking, Windows (MCSE) if I wanted to do phone support and/or server admin, and .NET (MCAD/MCSD) if I wanted to do programming. I hold an MCSE and two MCSDs, though I don't do anything MS related anymore so it's really more of a "know your enemy" thing for me now.

[Robio9]

Monitoring and capacity management is an important area for major corporations. These types of applications are used by Fortune 500-size companies to optimize current usage of IT resources (servers, applications, network, employees, etc.), predict future usage, and monitor events that may be critical to the environment. Certified consultants are doing very well in this field. I will admit that vendor training is expensive, but you can find manuals, trial software, and certification information from vendor web sites for product suites such as:
HP OpenView (you may be interested in OVOW -- OpenView Operations for Windows)
BMC Patrol and Perform/Predict
Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) -- HUGE demand for this currently

Some of the reasons I like this IT field:
1. Lots of demand for these products. Capacity and performance are high on CTOs' radar these days.
2. Follows a typical IT career path. Most capacity/monitoring specialists will start out in operations/help desk as a product end-user, watching an application console for performance/monitoring events. Next logical step is to move on to support staff, and then graduate to architecture/integrator/developer roles.
3. In the course of supporting these programs, you get to learn and work on many skills: Hardware, network, OS, applications, databases, web services, project management, programming, and more.
4. You can get certified without having to take vendor training classes, which can run upwards of 3000/week. Certification tests aren't child's play, though, so you will need to know your stuff.
5. If you deal with product support, chances are you won't be dealing with the same type of issues day in and day out. Low threat of having a monotonous job.
6. Pay is pretty good in my opinion, and positions are needed at every level. Glancing at monster and dice, I see these types of job descriptions and pay ranges:
operations -- for people with little or no IT experience. You're typically an end-user who watches an application console, and when a problem is reported, you escalate to someone else: 20k to 50k/year salary, 8 to 30/hour as a contractor.
level 2 support -- providing day to day support for these products. You have some IT experience, maybe not necessarily in capacity or monitoring, but you're capable of learning. May have product certification. Knowledge of OS, application support, simple structured programming (shell, Perl, etc.). 50k to 80k starting salary, 25 to 80/hour contractor.
level 3 support -- 3+ years experience, you're a subject matter expert in more than one product, you possess product certifications, have multiple skill sets (OS, Network, programming, project management, etc.), and you're dealing with architecture/development/implementation/integration instead of direct support. 60k to 120k+ salary, 75 to 250/hour contractor.
7. Relatively small niche in relation to web programmers, network engineers, DBAs, and what not. My current customer literally has hundreds of DBAs on the payroll, but less than thirty people supporting capacity and monitoring products for a 150,000+ internal customer base. Fewer total positions means fewer initial openings, but with determination and desire, you can quickly make a name for yourself and move up fast.

[HC_Chief]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Windows.

The Penn State branch campus offers certificates in:

AutoCAD
Network Technology
Web Authoring

Which ones would benefit me the most to make a career out of this?

Well, AutoCAD I would avoid unless you plan on working at an engineering/architecture firm; and even then, you'd spend all your time troubleshooting desktop application issues. Trust me, that's a PITA.

Network Technology sounds like a high-level OSI model course to me. It wouldn't hurt to take it. You'll learn all the transport layers and they low-level functionality of networks... which applies to whatever platform track you decide on later. In other words, good general knowlege to have.

Web authoring = HTML. You can pick that up in any HTML book in a week. Seriously, nothing to it. FTR Web Developers don't make jack for money unless they own their own business and have lots of clients. HTML is so easy and so widely developed that the market has been completely flooded.

If I were you I would do a bit more research into the specific area in IT you prefer. Talk to people you know who do different jobs in the field. It's all about focus these days. You have to be really good in an area, with the ability to "pick up" other areas (act as backup to an expert in another area).

Since you're looking at a Microsoft track, MCP in Windows Server technologies is highly recommended. I would also study Active Directory, LDAP, and X.400. WMI would be also be nice to know, but you should probably learn SQL syntax first, as WMI is based on SQL.

Exchange is nice to know, but Exchange admins don't typically make much $ (50-65k range).

IIS is good to know. It's very simple, so don't break your back trying to line up courses or training... get a decent book (use Amazon's reader ratings) and play with it.

Once you have a grasp of the infrastructure, it will be time to choose a focus area: programming, administration, or a combination (DBA is a good combination role and it PAYS!).

[Saulbadguy]

DBA.

/thread

[HC_Chief]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

DBA.

/thread

Not quite... next you have to choose what flavor of RDBMS to support (IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAS), then the type of data-tier work to focus on: BI, relational, DW, reporting, administration, developer, architect...

[StcChief]

Start by doing database programming in language of choice Java,C#,C,C++, native T-SQL (SqlServer) PLSQL (Oracle) and learn and know SQL cold.

Not book easy stuff do something involved (hard).

DBA/ Data Architect is a work up to position.

Certs are an initial hiring item maybe, but not over experience it's just a differentiator.