Well, after a period of unemployment, my husband decided to go back to school and earn several IT certifications. He does have a good, steady job now, but is completing his first A+ certifications, and wants to do several more after that before he begins to look for a job and start his career in IT.
So…since he’s completing his A+ certifications, what should he do after that? Is there a particular certification that would be beneficial in addition to the A+ certification? He knows that he’ll pretty much be keeping up with certifications and doing continuing education throughout his career, but he’d like to at least get a good edge when he begins to look for a job in IT. He’s considering the MCSE as his next one, but isn’t sure that’s the right step.
(And he’s really enjoying his courses…so hopefully, he will enjoy IT as a career.)
In my experience, certifications mean less than experience. It doesn’t hurt to get them, but they don’t carry all that much weight in hiring. Let’s say that someone with relevant experience without a certification is going to be preferred with someone with no experience and a certification.
Definitely the CCNA. In fact, quit wasting time with the A+, and get the CCNA in addition to looking for an entry-level sysadmin job.
An A+ qualifies you to do desktop support, which is probably the least rewarding and satisfying field within IT.
I decided to go back to school and get my BS in IT, in addition to my BA. A year into the degree, a friend of a friend, who was familiar with some of my amateur Linux experience, recommended me for a network administrator position at a small company. The pay wasn’t too hot, but it allowed me get some experience in system architecture, design, and project management, which proved to be gold on a resume.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I’m about to start a very well paid administration/architecture job at a Fortune 500, after picking it over two other very good offers from another Fortune 500 and a mid-sized company.
In other words: have your husband get the experience in addition to the certs. Certifications are nice, but there’s absolutely no substitute for the experience. Even if it’s just a helpdesk job someplace, have him stick it out for a couple of years while he’s working on the CCNA.
He’s actually going to start working part-time for a friend of his dad’s who owns his own computer business. We figure that’s a good way for him to get the experience at the same time he’s earning the certs:). We honestly didn’t think he’d be able to find a position without the certs, though, which is why he hasn’t been looking for a job.
Eventually, he does want to get a BS in IT, but for now, he’s going to try to get the certs and experience until he gets a decent paying position so that we can afford to send him back to school. Does that make sense?
Cisco’s a great idea - I don’t know why I didn’t think of that (I used to write IT resumes, although I’ve never worked in IT - I remember Cisco being a big one). Thanks! He will definitely be doing that one next. (He’s already into the A+ ones, and the money’s not refundable).
At the very beginning, yes. But in terms of bang for your buck, nothing’s going to beat a degree, if only because a lot of positions are going to be difficult to get without it. He should pursue it as soon as it’s reasonable to do so.
The A+ and Cisco certifications are a good start, and should qualify him for a helpdesk position. Like black rabbit said, it’s not a great position, but it gets his foot in the door at a company and can be a springboard to bigger and better things. Does he have any idea what he wants to eventually do?
I think he said something about either network adminstration or systems administration, but I can’t remember what he told me.
He definitely wants to go back to school at least in the next two years - we just need to pay off a couple of other bills, and by then, I should be in a higher paying position, too. School is in the definite plans, just not sure how soon he can do it.
His first stop should be the MCSA. Beyond that, he should take Cisco or particular Microsoft (SQL or Exchange or whatever) exams as his desire for employability takes him.
Wouldn’t the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certification be a better first step (although perhaps that depends on what he wants to do)?
Most of our desktop techs have B.A.s All our Network techs do (some have Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering). The only sys admins that don’t have B.A.s have been in the industry so long that you didn’t need them when you started. I don’t have one, but had 12 years of experience when I got hired, and was hired during the dot com boom when creditials weren’t important. I’m working on a B.A. now because I doubt I’d find a job without one if I get laid off.
We haven’t hired anyone in years (the most recent “new hires” have been around more than three years - this is a big several hundred person shop - when we lose someone we don’t get headcount to replace them - and we’ve done two big layoffs - in a business that has had a 20% growth rate over the past six years) - however, we are particularly interested when we do talk of hiring someone in business knowledge - like how to understand priorities, project management, scheduling, business requirements. I’d think project management certification would be helpful - and applicable outside of IT.
Dangerosa, he actually has 7 years of business management experience. Will that help him? (I’m also trying to figure out how to update his resume when he does start looking for a job).
More than you might think. Companies love people who have technical and business skills, because there aren’t that many people who do. I’ll second the project management certification–that’s a good one for an IT type to have. For business technologies, he should look into various database certifications; in particular, Oracle has a few that are pretty valuable.
Yes, But then the question is “why does he want to be a tech.” IT Techs are the secretaries of the current age - little respect, little career path. Maybe a better bet is for him to work the project managment or business analyst side.
I’ll echo the business management/project management side. I made a career change into IT and that experience served me tremendously well. The question I have is what track is he interested in? If it’s network admin, I’d recommend the Cisco cert; if it’s LAN admin, probably the MCSE. The specialties are myriad in the field, and each it seems has its own cert. track. Not too many generalists out there, but if you love uncertainty it’s a fun job
To be honest, he started the courses because his dad wanted him to do so - his dad offered to pay for them. I think it’s only as he’s really gotten into them that he’s starting to seriously realize that he likes it, and definitely wants to start exploring a career path. So it’s one of those things that could have backfired (he could have hated it), but luckily, it hasn’t.
krisolov and Shecky, thanks. I’m going to give him this thread and let him decide what steps to take next. We talked a little last night, and I think he’s going to look into a Project Management slant, as well as the additional certifications.
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