Job as a Computer Technician

[violator]

I am planning on becoming a computer technician as a career. At the end of high school, I will be taking a computer technician course at my local college. In the meantime, I would like to gain more knowledge and I have a few questions:

1. Where can I get the information that is needed to become a computer technician? Are there any books or resources (besides just visiting tech sites) that are in depth?

2. What will I need to know to become a successful computer technician?

3. Is it difficult to get into this career provided I am willing to move within my own country (Canada).

4. Is it difficult to get a decent paying job as a computer technician?

5. Where do I get certification in Canada, are there courses for that in college or is it more private?

6. What certifications should I work towards?

7. Any other tips?


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[her209]

A+

 

[Ns1]

it's uh, more of a job than a career..

 

[ric1287]

prepare to be wayyyyyy behind if you need to take a class to be qualified.

 

[violator]

NeuroSynapsis, I ultimately plan on working for a social institute, such as a school. I don't plan on a long range career in Geek Squad or Nerds on Site.

Sorry, Quote isn't working.

 

[violator]

What do you mean by that ric1287?

I'm going to be progressing towards a computer technician for networks, not a Geek Squad job where I just install OS's and build computers for clients.

I think the path is a diploma at the college program, then Microsoft Certified Professional and CISCO certification.

 

[Ns1]

So do you want to be a network admin or just repair servers and such all day long? I don't think you are coining the word "technician" very well.

 

[RichUK]

Go to university and get a Business Management degree. As NeuroSynapsis has already said, it?s just another job and not a position that has any career potential.

 

[FoBoT]

go to usenet and search for the thing in my sig

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part1/

 

[violator]

Originally posted by: RichUK
Go to university and get a Business Management degree. As NeuroSynapsis has already said, it?s just another job and not a position that has any career potential.

Ugh, so am I fucked?

But I thought social institutes, such as schools, had computer technicians. My high school has one and he is payed well. My uncle's friend is one as well for the government, and he is also payed well.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: violator

Originally posted by: RichUK
Go to university and get a Business Management degree. As NeuroSynapsis has already said, it?s just another job and not a position that has any career potential.

Ugh, so am I fucked?

But I thought social institutes, such as schools, had computer technicians. My high school has one and he is payed well. My uncle's friend is one as well for the government, and he is also payed well.

ok, for the most part

a technician = a guy that goes around and repairs shit. If you work for somebody, you're not going to get paid. if you work for yourself, you might make money at it.

you can be..

a network engineer, it support staff, DB admin, yaddi yaddi yah, blah blah blah. Each one of those positions entail different things. I would say IT support, and any of it's 34899305 variants, sounds like what you want to do. Basically you are entrusted to make sure a company's system works. If it goes down, you fix it. If it needs to be installed, you install it, etc. You do everything short of programming. Usually also includes administration.

If THAT's the case, then you have the right idea. A+, then MCP/MCSE, then you take classes depending on what you want to do. That said, IT is worthless w/o experience.

 

[FoBoT]

i think they are telling you to aspire to a fancier job title


like "Network Engineer"

or "Cisco Certified WAN Engineer"

or "Head Knob Polisher"

 

[violator]

So am I in trouble taking the following course?

http://www.confederationc.on.c...s/calendar/default.asp

If I am, I really don't know what to do as I arranged my high school classes thinking I would be entering this course.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: violator

Originally posted by: RichUK
Go to university and get a Business Management degree. As NeuroSynapsis has already said, it?s just another job and not a position that has any career potential.

Ugh, so am I fucked?

But I thought social institutes, such as schools, had computer technicians. My high school has one and he is payed well. My uncle's friend is one as well for the government, and he is also payed well.

Not really, you?ve just got to figure out exactly what you want to do in life. It's most definitely a good stepping stone to start out as a general I.T guy, but if you want to work in a proper technical environment, you?ll ideally be looking to specialise in a certain area of work and have worthwhile accreditations under your belt i.e. CCNA, MCSA etc.

I?m probably not the best person to speak with about progressing a career in I.T. support, or the like. I?m in a different field of work, Project Management.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: violator
So am I in trouble taking the following course?

http://www.confederationc.on.c...s/calendar/default.asp

If I am, I really don't know what to do as I arranged my high school classes thinking I would be entering this course.

iono, sounds pretty worthless to me. nothing you can't learn outside of school. experience is probably worth more than that.

 

[violator]

But everything I learn in formal education can be learnt elsewhere. It is for the paper more than anything else.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: violator
But everything I learn in formal education can be learnt elsewhere. It is for the paper more than anything else.

you mean like those MCSE and MCP/A+ ones that you're going to get?

Seriously, get a job doing some IT work, prepare for the MCSE's on the side. When you're done with the MCSE's, you'll have experience also. That's gonna be worth WAY more than a 2 year degree.

 

[violator]

Originally posted by: NeuroSynapsis

Originally posted by: violator
But everything I learn in formal education can be learnt elsewhere. It is for the paper more than anything else.

you mean like those MCSE and MCP/A+ ones that you're going to get?

Seriously, get a job doing some IT work, prepare for the MCSE's on the side. When you're done with the MCSE's, you'll have experience also. That's gonna be worth WAY more than a 2 year degree.

OK, now I have a few questions:

1. How do I get into IT work, is any post-secondary formal education required?

2. What can I do with MCSE certification and are there any prerequisites?

3. Am I alright as far as high school courses go? I'm not sure if you are familiar with Canadian education, but we have university and college and I am in the college route.

So all in all, I'm looking for a decent paying job in computer technology that isn't extremely difficult for my average logical mental capacity (such as a computer scientist which is what I was originally aiming at until I realized that programming was pushing my sanity over the edge). I realized that it is extremely difficult to make decent money in this world without having a technical job, which is why I am skimping out on a more creative job, and leaving that as a hobby. I'm trying to get into technology now as it is my only technical interest that I am familiar with.

I enjoy technology, but I would not want to spend the rest of my life coding and I am average at mathematics, nothing more. This is why I was looking at being a computer technician, but now that you mention these certifications and suggestions, I am unsure of what to do.

Number 3 is probably the most important question as it affects me at the moment.

 

[FoBoT]

you start in phone support, that is the worst crappiest IT job

after a couple years of phone tech support, you move to helpdesk/desktop support, that is slightly less craptastic because you aren't stuck on a telephone all day long
then after a few years of desktop support, if you have your degree, then you can move to a real IT job

unless you get a computer something degree, then you can skip part of that crappy stuff and just become a project manager and do excel, powerpoint, visio and emails all day long. and have meetings, lots and lots of useless meetings to reduce the amount of time your project workers actually have to work

 

[violator]

OK, I am thinking of doing this:

- Going for the college degree
- Getting a starter job
- Getting as many worthwhile certifications as I can while working at the starter job
- Moving up as I obtain better certification and more experience

Is this a good plan? Also, what would you say the difficulty of obtaining the worthwhile certifications is? And I really need to know if these certifications have prerequisites. And I need to know if I am in trouble or not with my current high school courses, which are college oriented rather than university oriented.

 

[ric1287]

ok...what is your idea of college? Community college AA degree != 4 year decent school degree.

-Go to real school, work helpdesk throughout.
-Get your degree in IS or CS or BADM
-become IT director somewhere (guy who makes entirely too much money for what his job entails)

 

[violator]

Originally posted by: ric1287
ok...what is your idea of college? Community college AA degree != 4 year decent school degree.

-Go to real school, work helpdesk throughout.
-Get your degree in IS or CS or BADM
-become IT director somewhere (guy who makes entirely too much money for what his job entails)

Yes, but I don't think I am capable of computer science and programming for long periods of time drives me insane. I don't want to program for a career.

I have no idea what BADM stands for.

And, I don't want to get a job that I will hate just for the money. I want a job that I can tolerate, am confident in myself, and ideally be middle class or upper end of working class.

I cannot go to university because I am taking all college courses in high school at the moment. And I would not enjoy myself, would struggle, and feel out of place if I went into university level.

There are careers in the local college that make more than some university careers.




EDIT: Could you respond on this please?

"OK, I am thinking of doing this:

- Going for the college degree
- Getting a starter job
- Getting as many worthwhile certifications as I can while working at the starter job
- Moving up as I obtain better certification and more experience

Is this a good plan? Also, what would you say the difficulty of obtaining the worthwhile certifications is? And I really need to know if these certifications have prerequisites."

 

[ric1287]

college courses in HS are nothing like the actual college. BADM is business administration, if you cant make it through most of a buisness's degrees curriculum then i dunno what to tell you.

if you are set in what you want to do, why ask for advice?

 

[violator]

Originally posted by: ric1287
college courses in HS are nothing like the actual college. BADM is business administration, if you cant make it through most of a buisness's degrees curriculum then i dunno what to tell you.

if you are set in what you want to do, why ask for advice?

I need to know what certifications I should get.
I need to know what certifications I can get and if they have prerequisites.
I need to know what I can do with the certifications.
I need to know the difficulty of obtaining each certification.
I need to know how much people are paid with jobs based on the certifications.

The college course is just to prepare me, since I don't know where else to learn from as I asked that and no one told me.

The college course is there so I have formal education with the certifications.


By the way, I used to be in university level but the jobs that were available weren't interesting to me. I wasn't failing, but I had below average and average marks in the more logical classes.

When I said a computer technician, I didn't mean a Nerds on Site type of job as a career. Perhaps I mislabeled the job title, as I am unsure. For example the technician at my school makes about as much as a teacher, and he is in charge of the computers and networking used in the school. I want to work up to a job in a social institute such as that.

 

[Pepsi90919]

where do you live