Anyone have a career in IT?

Anyone have certifications? What ones are more valuable than others?

 

all depends on what direction you are goin

best basic to have is and always will be windows imo
0365 certified with a md-100 from windows is the best value for your CV

Once you got that look into what you want to do, if it's server management keep on going with the md series of windows, for networking CCNA is a must and you can get CCNP to continue later on

 

Server wise I’d say cloud stuff has been hot for a minute. I’m just worried like hey I got all this time in one subject and shit I won’t get anything out of it. Idk guess I need to just go out on a limb and do it. Hell I was just now starting to tackle an A+. My time is valuable so really I just need to locate some ebooks and keep going. I Saw an amazon engineer job in my area before the rona the requirements were steep but just wondering how hard the work actually is.

 

CCNA is a basic starter cert but it covers essentials and is valuable by itself. It doesn't take long to study for, looks great on your resume and it opens up job prospects (depending what exactly you want to do in IT, obviously).

Once you have your CCNA, you can think about CCNA specialization (you mentioned cloud - there is a CCNA pathway for Cloud, as an example) or going higher and earning your CCNP.

While I have my CCNA and have not gone for CCNP, it can be worthwhile depending on your career goals. CCNP certification is both sought after and lucrative - you'll not struggle to find a position requesting CCNP certification that pays in the high 5 (near 6) figures as a starting salary.

My role has shifted mostly away from IT through years at my current employer, so I have not bothered to go past getting my initial CCNA, but I can say without a doubt it's a very valuable/rewarding path.

 

I applied for that amazon IT engineer job as it was local to me as well. I have a BSC in computer forensics 2:1. CCNA Semester 1 and 2 certificate. 2 years experience as a 1st line engineer. They told me I didn't have enough experience.

Currently i'm studying for MCSA Server 2016. (I believe MS are changing this certificate/making it redundant)

Long term goal is to be infrastructure engineer in my current company.

 

I study programming in college too and I want to make a career in IT in the future.

 

Also note there are a lot more positions in IT than just varying devs jobs of dev ops, systems architect, network engineers, etc

the industry ALWAYS needs good Business Analysts, project Managers, QA testers, and beyond. In fact in m experiences some of the biggest make or break parts of end to end builds is usually not the skill/knowledge of the techie guys, but just being able to figure EXACTLY what the business wants and then manage the scope accordingly. Business will almost always be what fucks everything up time and time again... thus someone who can mitigate that is worth their weight in gold in the industry

 

I used to work for Microsoft, they have courses online you can take which are amazing.

 

Certifications in my opinion are the cherry on top. Certifications complement a candidate that has a strong background, they do not make up the strong background. Quite frankly, many are a dime a dozen.

Obviously, some are more recognized than others, but ultimately experience (think: job history, side projects, school projects, hackathons) is going to hold much more weight for the majority of jobs.

Often times in interviews, you will find that the interview will ask you to tell them a story about a time you did something within a particular context (ex: tell me a time you had a disagreement with someone you were working with)... Your answers to these questions will be driven by your experiences, not your certifications.

When considering what certifications are worth completing, take some time beforehand to evaluate the job postings that you'll be applying for, some of them may even list specific certifications that they are looking for or would prefer in a potential candidate. This is how I would determine which ones are worth your time - by assessing what the marketplace you're looking to break into actually values in a potential hire.

Some certification areas that I have, generally speaking, found to be recognized at least to a certain extent (obviously, this depends on your field/niche) are:
- Cisco
- AWS
- Azure
- Comptia

 

Yes I have a bachelor's in computer science and certifications in Python, Java, MSSQL, .NET Entity Framework and .NET Core. I'd say the last 3 are super useful for sites.

 

may i ask (you dont have to answer) if you've had real world experience like worked for companies out there? I know some people who are studying computer science and was wondering what getting a job/ career in this field is like, is it hard to find a job etc.

 

Yes I am currently working as a Developer. I work in .NET creating sites for clients. It's very easy to find a job as I found one after about 2 weeks of searching after graduating university during corona. Working in the field is pretty nice as my employer does all the work for me. They basically just tell me: "Hey you're going to be working at Citibank on xxx application the next 6 months."

 

@gncalvin13 that seems more like a marketing job than it is IT unless you yourself are the source of the automation. There's a reason I am not quoting your above post (prevent link proliferation).

I have to hand it to several individuals here; they are some of the brightest I have had the pleasure to speak with thus far. @Dev Zach and another user not on these forums; truly made me go from newb to even more newb.

Jokes aside, now, I have gone from Python For Beginners to understanding and implementing Paxos based resilient and fault tolerant systems. Paxos was and still is a legend; Google's cloud spanner is based off of it heavily, a good read can be found here: Spanner: Google's Globally-Distributed Database – Google Research

I would highly reccomend you to find a community with like-minded individuals, even if its above your understanding. My strategy was just to learn as I went. I tried not to ask many questions (Google truly was my best friend) unless I had a very specific, good "aha" question to ask. Not that I am saying asking Q's is bad. Just my take.

Anyways, no one cert will land you a job; some require years of experience not just an exam (the serious ones like CISSP CISM). You need to find experience and in that regard... I am not sure how'd I get started nowadays as the junior level area seems saturated but there's a massive gap between junior level and competent level in the IT realm. It's quite bad how it's gotten. (Too many juniors, not enough competent higher levels).