what good paying jobs should a beginner aim for

[JoesLonghorn]

Im looking for advice from you professionals for my career path.

Im not sure if this is the right forum to ask the ? but this forum seems to have all the right answers.

For my next certification, I am wondering if I should go Novell or CISCO or ...

I looking for a career path that is in demand.

I am sure others are wondering about this as well.

Does anyone have any regrets about their career choices and have advice/warnings to share? or did you make a great choice that propelled your career faster than anticipated?

 

[montag451]

At a guess, I think the certs aren't worth anything to employers unless you have the experience in years to back it up.

If you do get employment, there is a chance that, if they see potential, and, you sign your balls over to them for a certain amount of decades, that they might pay for your certs.

 

[airfoil]

You will need to decide between the MCSE path or the Sun certifications for your next step IMO. A CCNA will complement either certification. It can be a little difficult making a start, so its probably a good idea to get yourself into any half-decent job to gain experience while you work on more certifications in the background.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so don't be put off by the lack of experience. Good Luck!

 

[goibhniu]

The questions should be, "What do you want to do for a living?" Once you've answered that question you'll have a better idea which cert makes more sense. If you want to be a network engineer then you'll want to go with a Cisco cert. If you want to administer Microsoft solutions then go for an MCSE or MCP. If you want to be one of the cool elite Linux types, get an RHCE. If you want to spend the rest of your life supporting a legacy directory service that is dying a slow death, you'll want a Novell cert.

Ok, that past bit wasn't exactly fair, I don't like Novell. But if you google "migrate from windows to netware" you'll get 1 hit, whereas if you google "migrate from netware to windows" you get 390 hits, so I'm not the only one who doesn't like Novell. Since Windows 2000 and AD, many people have been moving to a Windows-based directory service. Mainly because it's already included and supported in the server OS, and there are a lot more people capable of administering Windows and AD than Netware. People just don't implement Netware very often these days, and those who have in the past are getting away from it. I would tend to stay away from them if you can help it.

Linux is getting bigger in the corporate space, and RedHat is leading the way. Being RedHat certified has decent payoff potential, though Linux adoption isn't anywhere near as prevalent as Windows.

As you may have guessed, Microsoft is usually a safe bet. They're not going anywhere, and they have interesting technology that is constantly growing. It's also fairly easy to learn, and there are plenty of places that offer classes if you want to go that route.

Cisco is also a solid bet. Nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco equipment, and they're looking like the leader for enterprise networking technology. They have a lot of great products available now, and they're really pushing this whole concept of "self defending networks" which is pretty interesting. Right now they're focusing a lot of effort on security, anti-virus/anti-spyware, intrusion detection, and so on via their partnerships with Trend Micro and other security companies. This is going to be a big growth area in the next couple of years. If you're interested in security (you indicated that you were working on your Security+) then this is a good option. Especially if it is coupled with another cert like an RHCE of MCSE, so that you will be familiar with security best practices from a systems and infrastructure point of view. Security is big business these days.

The certs that you currently have are a nice start, but they probably aren't going to be enough to get you a job any higher than helpdesk/pc tech at this point without a fair amount of experience to go with them. I don't say this to put you down, but as certs go the CompTIA stuff are regarded by employers as fairly low-level, "nice if you have them but not necessary" kinds of certs. They will help you distinguish yourself from other job candidates with similar experience, but they're not going to be the determining factor in whether you get the job in most cases.

Of course, the same could be said about most certs. Certs are nice to have, but your work experience is far more important. Most of us have worked with 'paper MCSEs' or other people who got certified via a bootcamp and were totally useless on the job. The cert can get you in the door but if you can't perform then you'll be right back out the door. Sometimes certs aren't even necessary. I've never gotten a cert, and with 6 years experience I'm an admin at my company (Microsoft and Cisco mostly) earning a VERY respectable salary. I guess what I'm saying is that what you know is a lot more important than what certs you have, so don't get distract by them too much.

 

[doublejbass]

Let me end the string of thoughtful, serious responses.

I find there to be enormous earning potential and great job security in dealing drugs.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: doublejbass
Let me end the string of thoughtful, serious responses.

I find there to be enormous earning potential and great job security in dealing drugs.

Go screw up a thread somewhere else n00b.

I personally think certs are a joke, I have network and A+

But if an employer pays for it, im not going to turn it down.

 

[MrControversial]

Experience gets you the job. Certification gets you the dollars. You don't get experience from certification, rather it gives your resume balls so you can be negotiable with your pay. I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science but even my B.S. didn't mean crap except for the fact that I was a DECENT programmer. I got hired as the Network Admin for a health corporation right out of college based on the fact that I used to work for the CEO when I was in high school plus he knew my degree had SOMETHING to do with computers. I knew some things about networks and troubleshooting, but I felt thrown to the wolves. All the books I read and all the classes I took in college wasn't enough to help me with the unique problems I was facing. I inherited a Netware/Windows hybrid network. I inherited old Windows 3.1 OSes that needed to be upgraded. I inherited weekly system crashes. I inherited a limited IT budget.

I learned more in one year by having my balls roasted in the real world than in four years of computer science. Moral of the story, experience is where it counts. Get your foot in someone's door even if it's serving bagels to the IT guy. Hang on to his collar, learn from the school of hard knocks. Screw up. Screw up somemore. Learn. Lose sleep. Work hard. Get that experience. That will get you in the door. Then work to get your certifications. Believe me, experience makes getting certs easier, but it doesn't work the other way. Certs alone don't make your experience any easier.

Right now I have my A+ because I already have a roadmap of what I want to do. Next I'll get my MCSE, then my Net+ and CCNA. In five years I want to have all of that so I can ask for more money or go somewhere where they'll give me more money. I suggest you use my roadmap and get some entry-level experience first.

 

[Coherence]

Some say experience gets you the job, but every IT guy I've talked to said the certs get you the interview.

I'm sure many, if not most people on this board have years and years of computer experience, and could possibly perform better than someone with an MCSE when it comes to building rock-solid PCs, but without the certification, your job hunt will end short.

All my IT contacts have told you me you gotta have at least an MCSE just to get your foot in the door. In my town, A+ certs are a dime-a-dozen, and simply not in demand.

 

[goibhniu]

Originally posted by: Coherence
I'm sure many, if not most people on this board have years and years of computer experience, and could possibly perform better than someone with an MCSE when it comes to building rock-solid PCs, but without the certification, your job hunt will end short.

All my IT contacts have told you me you gotta have at least an MCSE just to get your foot in the door. In my town, A+ certs are a dime-a-dozen, and simply not in demand.

Nonsense. How many MCSEs do you think build PCs in the course of their daily job? None that I know of. An MCSE building PCs for a living is the IT equivalent of having an MBA and working the deep frier at McDonald's. An MCSE has nothing at all to do with building PCs. On top of that, an MCSE means very little to your employer if you're not applying to build or support Windows networks. If the employer needs an IP engineer then you're SOL if all you have to show is an MCSE.

Experience is what counts. Knowledge will get you the job, and it is what will keep you employed. No matter how many certs you have you will not be able to display a good working knowledge of the environment without experience. In the end the employer wants someone who can do the job, not somone who can take a class and pass a 75-question test.

You are right about the A+ being a dime a dozen though. The A+, Network+, etc certs are a joke because they are very easy to get and they don't demonstrate a great depth of knowledge. They are the absolute lowest level certification you can get. Getting an A+ or Network+ basically involves demonstrating the knowledge required to get an entry level position. If all you want to do is build and troubleshoot PCs or work the helpdesk lines for the rest of your life, then A+ is the way to go. But if you want a job in IT that pays better than $10 an hour then those certs will be useless to you.

Think about this: If you are a PC tech, why waste your time working on an A+ cert when all it does is prove that you know how to do what you're already doing? You might as well just take the Windows XP Pro MCP exam. At least then you can call yourself an MCP, and your single cert can be counted towards a higher level Microsoft certification. Then you can work on an MCSA so that you can get a job administering Microsoft servers. Then once you've done that for awhile and have more experience, take a couple of the MCP engineering exams and get yourself an MCSE. Now you can work at getting an honest to goodness engineering position. Throw in a CCNA and/or a CCNP along the way and now you have a potent one-two punch. Engineering complex network infrastructures is within your reach. You can now make a living as a consultant, and that's where the MCSEs are who have six-figure incomes.

Just don't get too caught up in the whole certification thing though. Certs are not a shortcut to the top, even though they are marketed that way by the people who make money off of the training and certification. Experience is the only way to get to the top, and the certs are meaningless without it. I'm not telling you this as someone who has heard this from "all of my IT contacts." I'm speaking as someone who has worked in the industry. I have worked as a consultant billing six figures. I have done the hiring, and I have done the firing. I've been doing this for years, and I've never had any certs at all.

 

[Siddhartha]

Go to medical school and specialize in internal medicine.

 

[bocamojo]

No matter which direction you go, getting a basic Cisco certification would be the way to go. After that, get at least one MCS under your belt, so you can show that you are well rounded. After that, just get your foot in the door. It doesn't matter if it's deskside support, helpdesk, whatever. You've just got to get in the door. Then, over time, you will be able to see which direction you want to go, in terms of a career, then you can start applying for higher paying jobs, and start focusing your certification efforts on that type of job. It all takes time, but if you're determined and capable enough, you'll get there. I went from deploying LAN's in the military to being a senior exchange admin over the course of several years, and the pay I recieved quadrupled over that period as well, but you have to start somewhere before you can move up.