/cct/ - Career and Cert Thread General

We need new pics for this general edition

What are you working towards? Need advice? Share your study resources!


If you've got a tech career:

>Job Title
>Years of Experience
>Degrees/Certs
>How did you find/get job
>Pay
>Location

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>Job Title
Network Admin
>Years of Experience
~5
>Degrees/Certs
A+, Net+, Sec+, CCNA R&S
>How did you find/get job
Contractor website
>Pay
131k
>Location
Bagram,Afghanistan

>Job Title
Technical Consultant / IT Technician (?)
>Years of Experience
~3
>Degrees/Certs
None. BA in Film Theory
>How did you find/get job
Started rebooting computers for Whole Foods, latched on to mentors until I left for a real IT MSP
>Pay
$61k USD
>Location
San Francisco

I need a cert to get promoted and make more money. Thinking about security cert or infrastructure. Security seems more lucrative / stable, but infrastructure seems more "fun" and "creative" to me but I'm not sure why. Advice?

>>Job Title
Geeksquad
>>Years of Experience
1
>>Degrees/Certs
A+
>>How did you find/get job
Applied in store
>>Pay
$13
>>Location
TX

Which security cert were you looking at?

I really have no where to begin. I have none in mind. It's a shame really.

Sec+ is useful especially if you've ever toyed with the idea of working for governments.

CCNA Security looks better to private employers I'm sure, but you have to at least take the first part of the CCNA R&S (CCENT) to be able to sit for it.

Any idea of where you want your career to go?

I don't want to work for the government really under any capacity. I like private; right now we're supporting small businesses as an outsourced IT dept. but I'm open to working for a one single larger client, or even just freelance consulting.

I don't really like IT. I find it as a good and relatively easy way to make a lot of money in a field that isn't going to go away. I'd basically want to do whatever has the best ROI in terms of time, effort, and stress. Does that make sense? Sounds shitty but c'mon, it's IT

Kek, I understand but if you play your cards right that's exactly why you'd want to work for local/state/federal governments depending on your area. Some pay really well..but are the most lax jobs that are impossible to get fired from with the best benefits.

I'd be shocked if San Francisco government employees didn't get paid well or at least +/- 10% of what private sector does. You don't have to limit yourself to just Federal. Also look at school district jobs.. they can be comfy from everything I've heard.

I have 2 years of school 1 dedicated to computers, I have my CompTIA+ and Network+ also ic3 what can i get Sup Forums

Start applying to helpdesk, famalam

I am not really in need of money I just need a job to keep busy with my education what do you think helpdesk can offer as entry level pay? I have references and a pretty solid resume

I just find the subject matter and bureaucracy to be a huge turn off. I don't want to hear "Oh we can only give you an X% raise because of da gubment" or "Sorry the book says it doesn't work like that."

Have you seen the perks these private companies in the Bay are providing? Will the state of California send my team on a beer garden tour followed by jet skiing? Catered lunches on the regular? I know that shit isn't going to last forever but it's definitely never going to exist in the government in any fashion ever until the end of fucking time.

Depends on area and industry.

Helpdesk for an insurance agency office in bum-fuck Kansas or some shit? $12/hr. Helpdesk for some bullshit over-funded Tinder-For-Plants startup in a major city? $20/hr+ bonuses and perks

I've worked both private (Fortune 20) and government. I'm currently working as a contractor for DoD to give you background.

As I said I completely understand your sentiment but as you stated it's not going to last forever -- we've seen this many times. It's entirely based on you,and I don't know you well enough to say exactly what you want, but I'll give some more thoughts on both sides.

Generally speaking, if you want the least amount of stress and best money, benefits and long-term stability mix then government is hard to beat.

Pay is generally never going to be as good as private sector, however, you may be surprised as some states/local govts are really generous. As I said, until I took this job my government position paid within 10% of my private sector pay.

Vacation can be good/bad on both sides. On the private sector, I had a good company that started at 4 weeks of vacation and you could move up to six, but there were holidays I was required to work. Government, less vacation starting (3 weeks) but if you were to work there 5+ years you'd wind up with something like 8 weeks not to mention never working any holidays and on-call was pretty much non-existent.

Pension, you don't get this in the private sector. 20 years and you can retire is a pretty sweet gig if they pay well.

Quality of life, all of my private sector jobs required much more time and effort to be put in on them...and this is something you need to consider as you move up the chain more time is expected in many cases. So on-call and things like that... if you're not really into IT now.. just wait til you get a call at 3am because shit has hit the fan (not all jobs are like that though) My government job was lax.. no one really bothered me unless there was a big issue..moves much slower paced which can be bad as well some days.

Cont.

Overall, it depends on what type of position you want more business vs hands-on. I left a good paying government position for a DoD job that paid more. I somewhat regret it,but I'll probably get back into government work once I leave from overseas. The perk of this job was mainly allowing me to have a Top Secret security clearance that I can segue into an even better government based job (hopefully)

You're going to get outclassed by the folks who love IT

Having worked in both the private sector and local government I can say with pretty good authority that government is much more free with raises than private companies.

Unless you're in real good with the finance department bonuses really don't exist for IT either.

The only way I could get a decent raise I the private sector was too switch companies. Every company I worked for was basically locked at 3% and promotions wouldn't get you the same amount as just working for someone else.

I appreciate you long response. I guess a lot of my preconceived notions aren't as bad as I thought. My mother worked for DoJ and she was constantly complaining about them fighting for even a cost-of-living raise, nevermind the standard 3%, so her ramblings have turned me off. Good points on the vacation and on-call thing.

I know a pension would beat 401k matching if I were to stay the entire 20 years, but if not, is a 100% 401k match up to 5% contribution a better perk?

I find this unlikely. I'm not passionate about IT as a subject because I think it's a bit boring, but I am passionate about doing the job right 100% of the time. If someone told me they "loved IT" I would either think they are just saying what they want their superiors to hear and/or are autistic nerds.

My yearly bonus definitely exists and I don't have to butter up a CFO for it. Maybe that's rare? Every ad I see offers bonuses based on performance and company profitability. They have to do that to remain competitive. Must be a Bay Area thing.

bump

I have Sec+ from military stuff. Just got back. In reserves. Should I get a net+ and/or an A+? I've heard Sec+ pretty much covers and necessitates knowing A+ stuff

I've had 10%-20% bonuses baked into my contracts, I get great exceeds expectations in every review ever and the only time I got close to the top possible bonus my boss was super tight with everyone in finance, including CFO.

The biggest non-promotion raise I got in the private sector was 3%.

I typically get 10-15k more switching companies.

When I got hired at one of the local governments here in SV I got a 5k raise per year for 5 years plus two 3% cost of living increases.

Government perks: medical, time off, work/life balance, retirement

Government cons: bureaucracy, coworkers are union members (lazy and complain about raises), micromagement

Private perks: free food, autonomy, coworkers are motivated, travel

Private cons: no work/life balance, do a lot of work that isn't necessarily your responsibility, no union to bitch on your behalf

>Job Title
Cashier
>Years of Experience
0 related to IT, 3+ years of warehouse/fast food/grocery work (So I know a bit about customer service)
>Degrees/Certs
HS diploma/Linux Essentials cert
>How did you find/get job
Applied and got the call a day after being laid off from seasonal warehouse job
>Pay
10.30/hr
>Location
1 hour outside of Los Angeles

I want to apply as an entry level technician/helpdesk whatever at a datacenter and become a linux admin.
The thing is while I know some Linux and basic networking concepts I can't actually put a computer together.

I know all the components like the motherboard, cpu, ram, NIC etc. and in general the slots they go into but I
couldn't really put it together physically, like the wiring or even come up with a configuration, like which components
from which vendor are the best for a given scenario.

I know an i7 is more powerful compared to an i5 processor but I couldn't really tell you where a system would be
bottlenecked (unless it was glaringly obvious) etc. I know from a guy who helped my fix my PC once that a good
way to go about diagnosing hardware is to: first turn it on, remove and reinsert the ram, make sure everything is
seated properly and then go on to test various components one by one removing them and turning on the PC looking
for a point of failure with a specific part.

The question is can I still apply for an entry level job without knowing the hardcore specifics of computer hardware,
will entry level jobs train you on things like this? Server is pretty similar to desktop hardware from my understanding
in terms of basic structure. What types of jobs and what kinds of businesses would be appropriate for me to apply to?

Bump.

No problem on the response -- I'm long winded.

You're kind of in good position for either way you go. Private sector is obviously going to be better in the Bay Area than most places since they're always trying to be hip and add the most perks to get talent, you're lucky!

As far as the 401k 5% vs Pension plan.. again.. it depends, for example, I worked for a city in Texas. I put in 7% of my income and they matched it 2:1 at 14% that was fully vested after 5 years. They also had supplemental ways to save pre-tax dollar as well, so my plan was much better than any 401k you could possibly get. It was also baked in a lifetime annuity with COLA raises, so when I retired they'd adjust my pay either 3% or add an extra $100 every month each year. It was a pretty sweet deal honestly.

The difference is also between Federal vs State vs City. I wouldn't particularly LOVE federal work for the reasons you mentioned. Texas, where I mostly know, has a strong government at the state and city levels, so they're pretty good. Oddly enough, the State of Alabama actually has really good paying state jobs.. Nobody wants to live there but their IT positions pay well especially considering the benefits and ridiculously cheap cost of living there.

If you're looking for something to be enthusiastic about and work with bleeding edge technologies private sector will be better, but if you're looking for a career that's easy, well-paying, more stable than most jobs.. you can't beat the government. It's what I did. It allowed me to have an awesome life/work balance, so I wouldn't be burnt out after work and could actually enjoy hobbies vs my Fortune 20 job.

At this stage in my life, I'm really looking for more of a lifestyle career. Make enough money to live comfortably and do things that interest me outside of tech. I can say that I do enjoy IT, but after 15 years I don't know anyone that doesn't get somewhat burnt out with it.

We need some new graphics for these threads. Any artsy user hook us up?

We are fine like this actually

this should probably go in /sqt/ but can i configure a cisco switch/router with an a normal rj45 cable or do i have to use a USB to serial

Very generic question here: What types of Certs will land me an entry level job; one that could one day become a bit more prestigious with a few more certs, and some experience?

I keep seeing A+, but assuming I want to be a Network guy, what else would I need?
Could I get a job without a college/University degree? (Ontario, Canada btw)

If you want to be a network guy?

CCNA R&S then you can move up to CCNP, and then CCIE R&S which is a pretty much guarantee of 100k a year job.

A+ is fine if you're trying to get your foot in the door and get experience though.

Merci beaucoup

Oh, and should I get these independently, or can you do them with a college?

That's up to you. Colleges offer them but you can do them independently as well. The most important part is really getting your foot in the door at some place and getting some experience and then getting the certs.

I'm seeing that there's multiple exams I can take. Is a certain exam better than the other one(easier)?

For which test?

CCNA R&S you have two options. You take a two part test, or you take 1 composite test. If you're new to networking I'd recommend taking the two part.

As far as A+, it's two parts and you have to take both. There is no easier.

Yeah the CCNA. Thanks very much.

its better to apply
best care scenario you learn as you move along and you keep the job

worst case you get fired and end up jobless. but considering you still at the stage where youre working cashier/warehouse jobs you shouldnt have too much trouble

I know it's reddit, but read this thread and read it good. Not sure if it's against the rules or not to post reddit links. I hope not because this link would be extremely informative to help a beginning linux admin get a job.

reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/5149r5/linux_skills_are_lacking/

Not him but are you thinking learning some linux stuff (I already know a very basic amount. about the level of installing arch and a desktop environment) and putting that on my resume? Or maybe get a linux cert of some sort?

haHAA never mind about the arch thing I guess, it was a long time ago and I just fiddled with it for like 10 minutes and can't figure anything out.

I do not know what I did before, must have followed a step by step guide or something.

so a Net+ and A+ gets you a $30k job... CCNA gets you a $40k job??

I made 42k with an A+ and after I got Sec+ and CCNA R&S I got a job making 58k

CCNA can easily be done at home with a bunch of torrents (packet tracer, cbtnuggets, odom, etc)

Anyone have experience with VMware certs