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ITs... Your thought, please.

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RadiclDreamer said:
Dont mean to be all poopy, but I dont have much respect for masters in IT, most of the ones ive seen are the worst technical people ive ever met.

I prefer someone with experience over someone with certs and degrees any day of the week.
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For what it's worth, I totally agree. I won't go into specifics because I never know who is reading ATOT, but I'd take a good hard worker with experience over a newbie with a masters any day.
 
A bachelor's degree would trump all of those certs.
10 years experience would trump all those certs and a degree.

You need experience, a degree, or a "good" cert like CCNA.

Being a smart, hard worker trumps everything, but it's tough to prove that.
 
edro said:
A bachelor's degree would trump all of those certs.
10 years experience would trump all those certs and a degree.

You need experience, a degree, or a "good" cert like CCNA.

Being a smart, hard worker trumps everything, but it's tough to prove that.
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I only have a Specialized Associates, pretty much a bach without the gen ed, but what I do have is over 10 years experience, A+, Net+, and Cisco CCENT

I always feel people look down on the associates degree, but I run circles around most "Highly Trained" folks
 
NuclearNed said:
My entire career has been spent in software development & systems admin. So no real experience in network admin here, but my general impression is that certs are practically worthless nowdays.
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but yet every employer wants them along with a degree and 20 years experience, at least where i live any way.
 
TwiceOver said:
Trust me, no you don't. "Jack of all, Master of nothing". You'll find yourself unmarketable except to a small group of companies or maybe helpdesk somewhere.

Focus on one thing you like to do and can do well, and you'll make real money. A "well rounded network administrator" finds themselves archiving emails, terminating wall jacks, and fixing peoples idiotic problems on a daily basis.
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i wouldn't say ONE thing, but several. you don't want to be deeply invested into one technology that could be obsolete, which is very likely in a fast moving field like IT.
like a guy I know who is/was a notes administrator, hahaha.

either that, or make sure the field you specialize in has a low chance of being obsolete (VM, storage, security, db admin).
 
some people seem to be ignoring this

I currently have a very easy, well paying job which would allow me lots of time for study... AND they'll pay for tests and study materials.
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I'd suggest starting out by choosing the 2 exam route to get the CCNA. Completing the first exam, ICND 1, will get you the CCENT. Completing the second exam, ICND 2, will get you the CCNA.

ICND 1 shouldn't be too difficult. ICND 2 is much more difficult if you are not adequately prepared. For study material, I suggest using the Cisco Press books and lots of router labs/sims. If you can prepare on real router/switch configurations, then that is even better.

I managed to barely pass the ICND 2 to get the CCNA recently, but after taking the test, it was abundantly clear to me the book material (not Cisco Press), some Packet Tracer usage, and online resources I used were no where close to adequately preparing me for understanding the material presented in the ICND 2 exam.

I've been considering getting the Cisco Press ICND 2 book just so I can get a more proper understanding of the concepts and technologies covered within ICND 2.
 
"an IT" - I would say you are either in the IT field or you are an IT professional. Usually someone is not called "an IT" or a group of "ITs". Do you know what IT stands for? Good luck in your career though. I wouldn't worry about lower level certs. If you can get a Cisco Cert I believe that will count for something decent though.
 
pontifex said:
but yet every employer wants them along with a degree and 20 years experience, at least where i live any way.
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every HR department wants them, because they are too far from the technical to understand what we actually need (this is *less* the case at dedicated software shops and similar type places). The way to get around that is a well-written resume that attracts the eye and gets through the initial shuffle. Once you get a person that knows their business, CompTIA generic certificate #1204334948874 is more or less a negative
 
ultimatebob said:
Seriously. IT is miserable, thankless work. The hours usually suck, and your customers are a pain in the ass.
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your experience in IT must be limited to help desk, or phone support.

i'm in "IT" and i only deal with vendors and my colleagues/managers, no clients or customers.
the hours only suck because we have a pretty stringent SLA, but other than that, it's not bad at all.
 
BlahBlahYouToo said:
your experience in IT must be limited to help desk, or phone support.

i'm in "IT" and i only deal with vendors and my colleagues/managers, no clients or customers.
the hours only suck because we have a pretty stringent SLA, but other than that, it's not bad at all.
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Vendors are a pain in the ass as well... they never meet deadlines, and rarely deliver on their promises.

And don't even get me started on management.
 
Study sub-netting and understand it well. If you can pin down the binary, do so. That's always a good start to being a network administrator, assuming you're talking ONLY about designing and operating IP based networks and not the other stuff that goes with the title (desktop support, etc.).
 
MarkXIX said:
Study sub-netting and understand it well. If you can pin down the binary, do so. That's always a good start to being a network administrator, assuming you're talking ONLY about designing and operating IP based networks and not the other stuff that goes with the title (desktop support, etc.).
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You can do subnetting without binary/decimal conversion.

Just take the non-255 number of the subnet mask and subtract it from 256. The subnet number of each subnet is a multiple of the difference.

For example, if the subnet mask was 255.255.240.0.

256 - 240 is 16. The subnet would go:

x.y.0.0
x.y.16.0
x.y.32.0
etc.
 
Concentrate more on experience than certs. Play with stuff at home, put that in your resume that you have experience with NN systems. While some companies who have incompetent management will just look at papers and certs, the competent ones will look at experience and knowledge, which is what counts. Certs just mean you were able to learn a ton of info by heart temporarily so you could write a test.

I have community college, no certs and a $60k/y job. Sure, I could get a super high end degree and 30 certs and maybe get into some bigger company, but you have to ask yourself, how much of your personal time are you really willing to commit just for a job? Remember that these certs expire after like 3 years, so all that work needs to be redone over and over.
 
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