What kind of Major should i look into to be a computer technician?

[Ryan]

I am seriously considering becoming a computer technician, and an MCSE. What exactly would be my major in college if I chose these?

 

[churchdoesmatter]

computer science

 

[RossGr]

Not computer science. It seems that anybody with a CS degree views hardware as a necessary evil!

The kind of job you are talking about does not require a univeristy degree. Go to your local CC and investigate their 2yr electionics programs. Given a decent job market a 2 yr Technician program can land you job starting at $25-$30K and if you are reasonably competent $50K and up with a few years experiance. This is pretty good bang for your education buck.

Frankly there is no money in computer repair. Any HS kid with half a brain can and will do the work for minimum wage. The money is getting into a chip fab or other cleanroom type hightech operation these Technicians make a good living.

 

[Ryan]

thanks!

 

[kranky]

There's nothing wrong with doing computer tech work, but don't plan on it as a career. Like RossGr said, it's a job that HS kids can do. We have a contract with a company that has been doing hardware maintenance on our computers for 20 years. At the beginning the systems cost half a million dollars and the workstations that ran off of them cost $40K each. Now the servers cost $15K and the PCs are $1500. During that time they went from 9 technicians to 2. And the two who are left aren't too optimistic. They make good money because back then they were working on very expensive and complex systems, but now it's just not worth paying someone all that money to swap out boards. I think we paid $500 for a three-year service contract on our newest server - not enough money to be able to afford to pay the technician a lot of money.

 

[burnedout]

One thing you may want to do that I have done is couple a business degree with computer courses.

What really helped me the most was experience. In the position I'm in I do software, hardware, networking, server admin.

Start out with a tech support job and go from there.

As everyone else says, the market isn't good right now. Plan a college degree with some flexibility if you are intent on staying in the IT field.