I am going to be going for a BS in IT in the near future (like 3 weeks), but I want to be as proactive as possible. My current job will be disappearing in 4 to 6 weeks, and then I will be scrambling. I don't imagine I can learn enough in that time frame to open a whole new job set, but I'd rather start while I have a job and then continue between interviews afterwards.
I know enough about computers to have assembled my last desktop, play games, and forum whore, but thats not much - seriously, most things don't fit in multiple places, so putting them together is as much about shopping and puzzles as any computer knowledge.
I know certifications are important in the computer / IT world. I have never looked into them before. I am hoping some of you might be able to tell me which are most important, which are easiest to acquire, what books or websites do the best job of allowing someone to be self taught or...where I can learn about any of it. Aside from that, increasing my general IT knowledge before my classes start can't hurt - I'm going into the degree program already nervous that I don't have enough background to handle the speed and workload of online classes. I'd like to jumpstart as much as possible.
Other than the knowledge that an IT degree could help be an in with the Postal Inspection Service, I don't have specific jobs in mind. For my degree program, I chose a concentration in Security, but that was pretty arbitrary. I've never looked at the jobs before, because I knew I didn't have the required knowledge for them, so I'm shooting blind.
I had heard that A+ certification was the place to start, but that was from a newspaper article, not from a person who's opinion I value.
Anyone have knowledge or experience with those, or similar? The two together are less than three hours, I generally only buy stuff from audible that is 20+ hours each, but if they are worth it I can roll that way this time.
Gonna be brutally honest here as I see this all the time. Hopefully this gives you the incentive you need or stops you from making a mistake.
First and foremost, IT is not a job that you go to school to learn. While degrees and certifications are desired, they are at the same time disdained. Stuff you learn in school is years behind and honestly if you can't already pass the A+ with your eyes closed then IT is not for you. The only IT guys I have met over the years who are any good at this are the ones who are constantly tearing their own computers apart, or coding stuff depending on their specialty. If you aren't already into that, then you may want to reevaluate your thoughts. Every single person I have met in 16 years of doing this who tried to treat this like a job, is either throughly miserable, out of work or was just plain terrible at it and out of work.
So if that didn't send you running, here is your list of things you need to focus on.
1) Figure out what you want to do. There is simply too much to learn to do it all.
2) Take the A+, not because it has any value but because it is stupidly out of date, completely worthless in todays IT and yet everyone still wants it. No A+ and no one is going to take you seriously. As mentioned before, you should be able to pass it in your sleep before you even consider applying to a position.
3) If you decide to go more hardware/network then start learning how this stuff works on your own environment. By the time all is said and done you should be able to build a server, pc or network in your sleep.
4) If you decide to go more web oriented, build a website. Then break it with some bad code and build another. Wash rinse repeat until you can solve the majority of common issues. Learn to Code HTML, creating a template website is not building a website.
5) Programming - C++ and Dotnet, these are invaluable anywhere.
6) Linux/unix/solaris...the fact that I am typing this proves that this is well beyond you right now. Don't bother with it.
There is your starting point..If you think I am being mean or joking, I am neither. I cannot tell you how many people i have interviewed over the years that came in the door with a BS and failed a basic computing test I give them. I literally have had people not be able to name 4 operating systems, what cpu stands for, what ram stands for or what tcpip is.
Good luck.
"Forums: You have to form your opinions immediately based on jack s*it then fight them to the death! It's like Highlander, but instead of swords we use ignorance."
The thing is Tivia, I did **** like that when I was a teen. I wanted to deal with computers back then, but never followed through with it. Was all the time in the guts of my own system, sent a girlfriend lame interactive text only letters I wrote in C++, that read something like an IM convo offline. I had subscriptions to 3 or 4 computer magazines and was constantly using the articles to fix the computers of friends and family.
Only now, I don't remember anything of C or C++, and don't have a compiler. I still do my own computer work, but lots of the time it involves help from google or the safehouse. I haven't read any magazines for years, because being dead broke made all the new tech just feel like salt in the wound. Three years ago we moved, and I finally threw away 5 or 6 boxes of old computers and old parts.
Treating it like a job, for me, may not be as bad as you think. I have a tendency towards overwork.
If you don't mind offering a little more help - the first thing you offered for advice was to figure out what I want to do. I don't believe it is programming - I was leaning towards something more network related, though to be honest, I don't have any reason for that. What directions or options are there?
Networking's most valuable skill in the IT market at present is, and will probably be for quite some time, Cisco networking.
Unfortunately it's quite the behemoth to get into. If you're a do it yourself-er, it may be prohibitively expensive (entry level Cisco devices are around 500 dollars just to give you something that you can play around with). There are a number of certifications within it, and a bunch of specialties. Given that you're talking about getting A+, this might be something to consider for the future.
I've heard tell that the CCNET (http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le...evel_home.html) is the best place to start with Cisco. I've not moved in that direction myself because it appears to be a fairly long road, and I'm not particularly interested in it.
Cisco is, by all means, not the only networking system out there worth learning. But it's definitely the most desired in the IT market place.
I'm quite similar to you Sol, insofar as I didn't train formally in IT but am doing it for a living. Right now I'm deciding on the next path of my certification (I have A+ and Linux+, considering MySQL certifications for a better understanding of a DBA, or Red Hat certifications to fortify my linux knowledge). Unfortunately I work in a very small IT team with another fellow who hates the idea of me knowing more than him in anything, so the moment he sees I'm interested in something, he makes a public declaration to master it.
I can answer to the best of my knowledge any questions you have about the various tasks IT can contain, insofar as my job at a small company requires me to do most (if not all) of them.
The thing is Tivia, I did **** like that when I was a teen. I wanted to deal with computers back then, but never followed through with it. Was all the time in the guts of my own system, sent a girlfriend lame interactive text only letters I wrote in C++, that read something like an IM convo offline. I had subscriptions to 3 or 4 computer magazines and was constantly using the articles to fix the computers of friends and family.
Only now, I don't remember anything of C or C++, and don't have a compiler. I still do my own computer work, but lots of the time it involves help from google or the safehouse. I haven't read any magazines for years, because being dead broke made all the new tech just feel like salt in the wound. Three years ago we moved, and I finally threw away 5 or 6 boxes of old computers and old parts.
Treating it like a job, for me, may not be as bad as you think. I have a tendency towards overwork.
If you don't mind offering a little more help - the first thing you offered for advice was to figure out what I want to do. I don't believe it is programming - I was leaning towards something more network related, though to be honest, I don't have any reason for that. What directions or options are there?
Appreciate the response.
This post is significantly more valuable then the first. The first led me to believe you were just wanting to get into IT for something different to do. Again, I wasn't trying to be mean just being realistic about how IT is. I know far too many people who think they can take a computer class and it suddenly makes them an IT guy. I spend quite a bit of time coming into offices behind those people cleaning up the mess they made.
Ok, networking. Now you have a start.
Learn Wins as despite being outdated is heavily used in the industry. Also get very familiar with DNS and IP packet structure and routing rules. Get yourself a semi decent router/firewall. I suggest a Netgear Prosafe FVS318. This has the basics you will need such as DHCP, routing tables and the like. It is a great entry level platform that is affordable (around $100). As mentioned above Cisco is valuable, but it is prohibitively expensive. You are almost required to have a company backing you for that certification process. Although, I believe you can get a CCNA as a start to show you are serious for a couple thousand.
Additionally, Learn network security. A good security guy is worth their weight in gold. You would be surprised how many companies set up behind the aforementioned netgear defaults and think they are secure.
Here's my two cents, from my perspective as an information systems manager in public sector (as some of you already knew, I'm a civilian employee of the Navy).
With the exception of Information Assurance, nobody really cares what you're degree is in, just that you got one. Certifications make the world go round, even the dumb ones. A+, Net+, Security+, CISSP, Microsoft anything, etc are required to get your foot in the door if you're going to be touching systems.
This brings me to my second point, people who are touching systems tend to not move up. People who are coding, tend to move into project management, program management, and supervision positions much more frequently than people who are managing servers and networks.
Also, key niche knowledge can get you a long way if it's the right niche. Having the broad background is great, but if you have targeted skills in an area that is in high demand it is much easier to get in the door and move up.
The areas that we're falling over our selves to hire qualified people today are probably not the areas that we'll need in 2 years when you finish a degree program. I suggest keeping up with industry trends and watch for "the next big thing" and trying to be ready for it.
There are a number of programs in public sector to help you build experience while working on formal education. I'm not sure about the postal service, but I know DoD and State both have paid intership programs that help build experience while completing your degree.
So in conclusion, the degree will help, but practical knowledge will be a huge factor in employability.
I got my CCNA in the course of 4 classes at the community college. The books are expensive, about $200 for the set, but the test itself was really rather cheap; I think it cost around $50 to take the test. Best tool I can recommend for that is Boson's NetSim. The computer labs at the college had it installed, and the students picked it up after a week. It lets you wire and tweek virtual routers and switches, and they behave very similarly to Cisco's IOS. Check if your college offers a similar program. Ones like GNS3, and pyIOS are free/open source. Start there, then invest in hardware when you want to move up.
Otherwise, if you want to focus on running servers, get VirtualBox or VMware, and start running one. Create a few virtual devices, or wire up some spare computers, and create a network. Turn one server into your router/gateway, get DNS and DHCP running.
Websites, you can do the same thing. Get a virtual server, install LAMP, and start bashing away. Learn a bit of PHP, PERL, Ruby, whatever works and interests you. Make sure you know what SQL injection is, and XSS. Learn Flash, learn HTML5. Find an HCI manual and memorize it.
Desktop/workstation support, collect some windows disks and keys and, you guessed it, set up a set of virtual machines running them. Get Active Directory working, try keeping everything sane while running both windows server 2000 and 7, if you can.
Security, learn a bit from all of the above. Study http://google-gruyere.appspot.com/ if you want a free starting point. SQL injections are going to show up here, too. Chances are, working in security you need to know more languages than if you are coding, as you will be finding flaws in what ever someone else is writing. So, again, study everything.
Programming/code monkey work: get the K&R C bible, get something like the arduino, and learn to program very low level. Then learn Haskell or anything else very high level. Get an algorithms book from a used book store, and convert the solution from one language to another.
Really, all the certs are is to prove to someone in HR that you know what they think the IT department wants. They get you past the gate, that's it. Nothing I have seen in the real world ever works the way it does on a cert test; Cisco threw me ISDN questions for the CCNA. The A+ . . . if I were hiring someone, having just an A+ and N+ would qualify someone to do repairs like Geek Squad.
And to echo Nymm, you won't move from IT into Project Manager unless the project is just networking. I dunno why, I have met admins who code better than the Computer Sci grads banging out code, but that's what I have seen and heard as well.
TL,DR: You will pick a focus. Sure, branch out now, try everything you can get your hands on. There are free versions of software for all of those career paths, I will be glad to post links to any of them (free/GNU/FOSS compilers, simulators, virtual servers, etc). Then specialize a little. Then narrow it down again. Repeat a few times. You can find a niche that you will want to learn all about, and still have enough brain power left to expand your knowledge in the way your job requires. Start writing to companies that you want a job with, and ask what they are looking for in a new recruit; then study the tech they use.
Just reaching back to this topic with a few more questions.
Are there any magazines that really stand out for people who are (trying to be) computer or networking professionals?
Ditto mailing lists, forums, newsletters - basically anything I can read or add to my browsing line up to help keep me caught up on what is new and important.
Audible seems sadly lacking in text books, probably because of the usefulness of images and code snippets that don't read easily.
I'm not yet to the classes that are most important to the field, but where I am so far leaves me wishing I could quit messing around with the assignments and just read the text books cover to cover - in fact, that is my plan for the 3 weeks I have off at christmas. I also grabbed an A+ study guide, though I've only skimmed it so far. A lot of it seems to related to stuff I knew 10+ years ago and haven't needed since then, so not sure how much actually remains in my memory.
I have currently a Windows 7 Desktop, a Windows Vista laptop, a Windows XP netbook, and a box with Windows Home Server 2003 that does nothing but automated backups (because I haven't messed with it). Half are plugged directly into the router, the other half are wirelessly connected. It's not a lot of hardware to play / learn with, but at least it gives me a network to examine, and a variety of windows versions.
I downloaded a Linux distro and was trying to decide if I wanted a cheap mini computer to mess around on, or to mess with it another way (live cd, thumb drive, dual boot, whatever). Leaning towards the mini just so none of the actually used computers have to be down while I learn / screw up / learn some more.
My laptop, which in the family computing dynamic is *my* computer, is quickly running out of space. I will take your suggestion under advisement, but it may require drastic software removal
Tons of stuff on the Cisco Learning Network. Granted it's geared specifically to Cisco but if you learn it, you have a solid foundation in networking principles.
