Thread: How do you relate to IT?

Originally Posted by ChedWick

I've got a question for all those who are currently working in the field. All 3 of you; I will have my associates in networking which includes 4 successful completions of cisco CNNA courses and hopefully my CCNA certification at the end of next semester. I desire to pursue my Bachelors as well. How important is it that I actually have an IT degree vs certifications and experience and how much might it matter if I get my degree from a tech school vs a large 4 year university?

I'm trying to find a close school to get my bachelors degree but some require 3 semesters of a foreign language others 3 years of calculus and others a bunch of sciences. I don't know that I could make it threw foreign languages. I could probably do well in the sciences and push my way threw calc but I'm unsure. I'm not sure what to do.... Any possible career advice would be much appreciated.

There is no substitute for experience, once you have years of experience in the field that is far better than certs or even a degree. But, I was pretty much in your boat. You can't get experience without working, lol.

I have an Associate Of Applied Science in IT. My current job is what I consider my first "career" job. It really depends on the employer, experience always is a winner, but some care about degree's and believe it or not, some care about certs (in lieu of experience).

Right after I got my degree I got a job working for Circuit City's PC Services (later reamed firedog), it wasn't much money but I had to start somewhere! I went from being in in store tech, to the in-home field tech when they started doing home service, and became the department lead before I left for my current position. It was basic small network and break/fix crap, you know... someone brings in a PC, diagnose it as a bad hard drive, replace hard drive, reload Windows, related drivers etc at loan-shark rate prices.

I left at $14 bucks an hour, due to the lead & in-home responsibilities, the normal in-store techs are lucky to get $10. But, now I had a 2 year degree, 2 years of tech experience, a handful of certs (A+, MCDST).

My 2 year degree, small amount of experience and handful of certs got me in the door to the interview. They can tell from that point by talking to you if you know anything or not. People knock certs, but my manager said that I would have not been brought in for an interview if it were not for the certs, they viewed it as kid-of, making up for the lack of experience... at least enough to bring me in to see if I could be a fit. (without them I was just another guy with little experience and a degree).

So, once you get your degree, don't count on just "getting a career" from day 1, In my opinion it's worth getting a few certs, but don't spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars. You may have to work help desk or other menial end user support for a while. I was extremely lucky to find my current position, especially with the IT industry in Indiana, and that is lol, using the term "IT Industry" and Indiana in the same sentence.

Oh, and there was a time when I was considering going back for my bachelor's to help increase my marketability as a person with little experience. But I hit the gold mine, I plan on working for my company for years, but if something happens in 5 or 10, I'll have 5 or 10 years of experience.

All good information. I figured experience would be a greater asset than any certification or degree. I have a teacher now with 20 some years of experience when he graduated college with a degree in accounting. Despite not having a degree in IT he has head hunters offering him jobs any time he asks. His long list of employers and experience is rather impressive. Something no person would have right out of school. I just hoped that times didnt really change to where it was almost a necessity to get a real job in IT.

I have far from enough experience. I suppose I gotta start thinking more about getting the hell out of retail than what I'll do when I graduate. I do need to get my foot in the door. I may work on my Microsoft certification and look into getting a job a small local home service computer shop. Maybe I'll look in

The issue I see is I may eventually like to be a high school technology teacher and give kids a step in the right direction with proper knowledge unlike I had. To do this I'll need at least a bachelors.