IT people - please help

[JediJorgie]

Heres the deal.

I am currently majoring in Management Information Systems. This semester I am taking my first upper division courses and finding out, like I expected I would, that I hate the business courses I am required to take. Since MIS is a Bachelors of Business of Administration, there are a lot of business courses to take.

When I graduate, I would like to work in networking or computer support/maintenance. I am affraid my MIS degree won't allow me to do that. I plan on getting various certifications, but I want to know what you think.

Will an MIS degree and the right certifications get me the job I want? What sort of degrees and certifications do you have? Or should I switch majors?

Any advice you can give will be appreciated.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Did you not know that Networking or computer support/mainteance is pretty much a dead field?

Way too many folks with lots of experience are looking for work in that field.

 

[JediJorgie]

Whats a good IT field to be in then?

 

[gscone]

Networking is a slow field indeed but certainly not a dead field. I'm a CCIE and firewall engineer and my skillsets are highly in demand.

 

[Hyperblaze]

Originally posted by: gscone
Networking is a slow field indeed but certainly not a dead field. I'm a CCIE and firewall engineer and my skillsets are highly in demand.

where do you live?

PS: how did you become a CCIE?

 

[Zee]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Did you not know that Networking or computer support/mainteance is pretty much a dead field?

Way too many folks with lots of experience are looking for work in that field.

yeah. go into law or medical or something. you probably have better chance of going to china, start a business imitating something namebrand, like printers or cars or shoes or whatever, and then selling them here

 

[gscone]

I live in NYC. Dedication is the only way to become a CCIE.

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

Originally posted by: gscone
Networking is a slow field indeed but certainly not a dead field. I'm a CCIE and firewall engineer and my skillsets are highly in demand.

where do you live?

PS: how did you become a CCIE?

 

[Hyperblaze]

Originally posted by: gscone
I live in NYC. Dedication is the only way to become a CCIE.

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

Originally posted by: gscone
Networking is a slow field indeed but certainly not a dead field. I'm a CCIE and firewall engineer and my skillsets are highly in demand.

where do you live?

PS: how did you become a CCIE?

how much time did it take you to get ready for it and take the test?

Reason why I'm asking is because I'm interested in getting CCIE cert

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

Originally posted by: gscone
I live in NYC. Dedication is the only way to become a CCIE.

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze

Originally posted by: gscone
Networking is a slow field indeed but certainly not a dead field. I'm a CCIE and firewall engineer and my skillsets are highly in demand.

where do you live?

PS: how did you become a CCIE?

how much time did it take you to get ready for it and take the test?

Reason why I'm asking is because I'm interested in getting CCIE cert

I'd say it probably took him about 10 years.

 

[vi edit]

You would be amazed at how much those business classes could/will help you. I've been in the field for 5 years now and I wish I would have taken MORE of them.

IT is starting to morph a bit for a lot of the jobs - it's not so much technical break/fix stuff as it used to be. Where the job openings are at are for business & system analysis. Basically a mixture of business and IT. Knowing how a business works and using IT and tech resources to improve efficiency. Sure there will always be jobs for network engineers and server admins, but they are decreasing and will continue to dwindle.

The new jobs are taking the tools that are out there (programming, applications, networking, ect) and learning how they best streamline your buisness.

Keep in those business classes - knowing the ins and and outs and lingo of the business field is invaluable and gives you a bit of diversity over the strictly "tech guys".

As for making yourself the most marketable when you get out, your best bet is to get yourself into an internship and riding that for as much experience as you can. If you've got a good internship and solid experience under your belt, your degree type is largely secondary unless you are going into something specific like an engineering field.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Turn on, tune in and drop out. A professional career isn't going to make you happy unless you are a freak about the field.

Carl Karcher got rich by starting out selling hotdogs from a cart.

 

[cressida]

IT is a field that is heading another direction and isn't the same as it was before.
If you want to get into something like that, try to find a campus job working
with computers. This will build up your resume and open doors for you.

Then you can maybe look into something like Best Buy geek squad? Move on
from there.

 

[gscone]

[/quote]


I'd say it probably took him about 10 years.[/quote]

Please dont answer questions on my behalf as you dont know me.

It took me 3 years to become CCIE certified.

 

[JediJorgie]

I don't doubt that the business classes will help me, I just have very little interest in them. HappyPuppy brought up another point I've been considering. I don't really know for certain what I want for a career. I spoke with a career counselor at my school and she told me about some preference and personality tests that help people in my situation. I'm going to take them this week hopefully. We'll see what happens then.

 

[randal]

Originally posted by: gscone

I'd say it probably took him about 10 years.[/quote]

Please dont answer questions on my behalf as you dont know me.

It took me 3 years to become CCIE certified.


[/quote]

including professional experience time? Most CCIE's I know have been in the industry for at LEAST 10 years before they feel ready to take the CCIE, not including tons of studying and lab time.

$.02,
randal

 

[gscone]

I've been in the field for about 7 years now. 3 years from beginning to end to get my CCIE cert.

 

[vi edit]

Not including application specific degrees like nursing and engineering, your degree is NOT going to limit you once you get out. Not having experience will. Sure a history major isn't going to go out and get hired by Microsoft to program applications and Operating systems...but if that history major did programming on the side and had the experience to back it it won't stop him from getting hired as a programmer.

I'd venture to say that the vast majority of "skills" you aquire and use as an IT professional DID NOT come from your schooling. It came from your own personal tinkering with things and skills you picked up on the job or at an internship.

Use your education to round yourself, not box yourself into a corner of narrow skills. Again, if you are in a career specific field like I mentioned above things change, but IT isn't one of them.

Just knowing how a lot of small to mid size companies work, the guy with a slightly lacking technical background but with a solid business head on him is going to be more valuable than the hard core tech guy with no business sense.

Besides, if you want to be a hard core Cisco guy or network monkie, those business classes will be really helpful in setting up and running your own consulting company if you choose to go that route.

 

[kranky]

I can tell you one thing... Lots of people know computers and nothing about business and lots of people know business and nothing about computers. Don't be like them.

I've been working with computers for a long time and my prime selling point is that I know about business. If you can analyze a business problem, devise a solution, and make it work, you'll be golden.

I can't program for crap, but I know what can be done and a good way to go about it. So when I tell my boss we can solve a certain problem for $30,000, he just wants to know how long it will take. He assumes it's going to work. There are plenty of programmers who can implement the solution once it's been laid out but not very many who know WHAT to do.

If you can't hack the business courses, do yourself a favor and abandon an MIS program. If I had to pick one hot area, it would be computer and network security.

 

[Hyperblaze]

I actually took a computer related course to AVOID business courses. I hate business with a passion (read: I don't want to feel like i'm taking advantage of other people by charging expensives prices for my services).

 

[iamwiz82]

i am about 7 weeks out of college with an MIS degree. I had a Network Admin. job waiting for me, but I have worked with the company for 4.5 years as an intern previously. I have learned many things over the years, but my work experience has helped me for the most. I can't name all the things I have done, which is a good thing, I think.

Personally, my education was much more theory-based, rather than the causes and affects that occur in the real world. Both have their uses.

 

[JediJorgie]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Not including application specific degrees like nursing and engineering, your degree is NOT going to limit you once you get out. Not having experience will. Sure a history major isn't going to go out and get hired by Microsoft to program applications and Operating systems...but if that history major did programming on the side and had the experience to back it it won't stop him from getting hired as a programmer.

I'd venture to say that the vast majority of "skills" you aquire and use as an IT professional DID NOT come from your schooling. It came from your own personal tinkering with things and skills you picked up on the job or at an internship.

Use your education to round yourself, not box yourself into a corner of narrow skills. Again, if you are in a career specific field like I mentioned above things change, but IT isn't one of them.

Just knowing how a lot of small to mid size companies work, the guy with a slightly lacking technical background but with a solid business head on him is going to be more valuable than the hard core tech guy with no business sense.

Besides, if you want to be a hard core Cisco guy or network monkie, those business classes will be really helpful in setting up and running your own consulting company if you choose to go that route.

I've been trying to tell myself that my major won't be the only factor in what job I get. Its funny you mentioned history though, I am minoring in history. I need to take a certain number of credits outside the business school to graduate, and I love history, so I thought it would fit. Who knows, maybe it will lead to a cool IT job at a museum or something.

 

[RGN]

Originally posted by: randal

Originally posted by: gscone

I'd say it probably took him about 10 years.

Please dont answer questions on my behalf as you dont know me.

It took me 3 years to become CCIE certified.


[/quote]

including professional experience time? Most CCIE's I know have been in the industry for at LEAST 10 years before they feel ready to take the CCIE, not including tons of studying and lab time.

$.02,
randal[/quote]


Most of the CCIE's I know are in their early/mid 20's. They haven't been in professional IT for 10 years... They have worked hard and DO know their stuff.

 

[Reckoner]

For my MIS major, the majority of the coursework ended up being business courses. I didn't even really get into the nuts and bolts of the major until senior year. I didn't learn many technical things from my courses either.

It seems, in my experience at my school, that the supporting classes for the major were geared in a way that if you couldn't break into the IT field, at least you have a business degree that pretty much allows you to enter almost any field out there.

 

[JediJorgie]

Thats what I'm affraid of. I don't really want a strictly "business" job. But I guess I'm not sure if I want a strictly computer-related job either. I really need those tests.