• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

What Level of Education Would I Need?

J

Jimbo

Platinum Member
Over the last several months I find myself getting requests from people that I know in the medical field to do "IT Make Overs" for their offices.

These are small office, no more than a dozen PCs, and the jobs go quick and the pay is OK and overall it's a fun experience. By word of mouth customers are sending me more and more business, certainly more than I could get to right now but they are happy to wait, as long as I take care of whatever emergency has come up.

My problem is that I feel incompetent, and I have had a few scares along the way, but eventually everything turned out well and everyone was happy.

If I am going to make a go at this, and not leave a bunch of unhappy customers in my wake, or re-do a bunch of jobs for free, or worse.

Where do I go to get a practical education in networking computers together in a production environment? The insides I know just fine, but working a router correctly or configuring a server, I'm pretty lost. I can stall until I learn the procedure, but I would rather know fully what I am doing.
So where would I start, what specifically should I learn, and how much time and money would it take?

Thanks!
 
Well you could go several routes, however probably the best one for you (if you do not have a college education already) would be to pick up a bunch of networking books (especially if you're dealing with Cisco networking equipment) and practice. Or if you have financial resources, you can pick some networking routers (again depends on the manufacturer(s) that you normally see in your line of work) and practice on those.

Nail down the basics and some of the more complicated tasks (such as redundancy with Domain Controllers), and you should be fine.

However I would strongly recommend trying to get a technical or college education, as some higher education locales, may have some courses that deals (hands-on) with the hardware and software of networking equipment. If you can afford it, that would be my biggest recommendation.
 
I learn better with books and hands-on. If you can afford to build a "Lab" to test inside your own network you will be fine. IMO, most community college courses are a waist of money and time. Some do offer decent continuing education classes like a Cisco certified program that are just 3 or 4 weekends that could be very beneficial though.
 
ccbadd said:
IMO, most community college courses are a waist of money and time. Some do offer decent continuing education classes like a Cisco certified program that are just 3 or 4 weekends that could be very beneficial though.
Click to expand...

Community colleges vary a lot the one I went to was great, it was mostly networking(Cisco) based. With just enough of the other aspects to get you feet wet and get an entry level job just about anywhere. They're pretty well respected for putting out good graduates and they have a 70-80% attrition rate. But on the other hand there I know of a few community colleges that are absolute junk that don't teach jack and they graduate just about everyone no matter what, as long as they show up to class and pretend to try.
 
Can you define what an "IT Make Over" is?

Depending on what they want you to do, this could be too big of a job for someone with little-to-no experience. Especially in a field like medical where you've got regulations to comply with (HIPAA).
 
seepy83 said:
Can you define what an "IT Make Over" is?

Depending on what they want you to do, this could be too big of a job for someone with little-to-no experience. Especially in a field like medical where you've got regulations to comply with (HIPAA).
Click to expand...

Coming from the medical field (IT) I feel I can give a pretty good handle of what to expect. HIPAA rarely comes up in your daily functions, it can be boiled down to dont leave things unprotected and dont go snooping where you dont belong, things go a little deeper with the wording, but this is the jist of it.

That being said, most offices around here are 10 pcs or less and may have a small server that does scheduling and billing or they may dual purpose a pc for this (not recommended)

Typically their network is a flat network with a single router and sometimes a modem or vpn appliance of some sort for vendor access to trouble shoot the application.

The makeovers are typically pc replacement, printer add/change, and maybe a switch and some cabling. Rarely a file server or content filtering etc
 
RadiclDreamer said:
Coming from the medical field (IT) I feel I can give a pretty good handle of what to expect. HIPAA rarely comes up in your daily functions, it can be boiled down to dont leave things unprotected and dont go snooping where you dont belong, things go a little deeper with the wording, but this is the jist of it.

That being said, most offices around here are 10 pcs or less and may have a small server that does scheduling and billing or they may dual purpose a pc for this (not recommended)

Typically their network is a flat network with a single router and sometimes a modem or vpn appliance of some sort for vendor access to trouble shoot the application.

The makeovers are typically pc replacement, printer add/change, and maybe a switch and some cabling. Rarely a file server or content filtering etc
Click to expand...

I also work in a HIPAA covered entity (small health insurance provider), and my concern would be having a novice admin making changes that could effect compliance with HIPAA Policies and Procedures. But if these organizations have networks like you described, then maybe this isn't much of a concern at all.

I'd be worried if someone that didn't have a firm grasp of both the Technical side and the Regulations started messing around with AD, Permissions, Group Policies, etc.
 
I really want thank everyone that answered.
These are all offices that have been set up 6-10 years with computers from that era and are just beginning to go bad in peace meal.

When I repair their computers, it's little things typically, and when a computer goes out for good, then I just get them a SFF number from Dell or IBM/Lenovo and they are deliriously happy with the new reliable and quiet hardware.

The problem that I see is stuff that would curl your hair for both data security and longevity. In one case, they stopped saving everything on the server (it was too slow) and were saving everything at workstations.
They just didn't know any better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top