Thread: How do you relate to IT?

I am an IT guy, I am in the Windows\Windows Server world and that's pretty much what I know, I would like to learn Linux.

I have a degree in Information Technology (for you not in the industry, that's what IT stands for)
PC Technician for 2 years w/field service (home users... fun fun)
Field Engineer for my current company, 1 1/2 Years now, we service small to medium business, I do the Server and Network design, infrastructure & installations, maintenance, repairs, consulting etc in my territory.

CompTIA A+ IT Technician (This is the new generation of A+ cert)
MCP in Windows Server 2003 (plan to be MCSE sometime, just because)
MCDST
MCP in XP (yes I know that MCDST is on XP, but this was a seperate unrelated test I took earlier)
DCSE (Dell Certified Systems Expert) - this one is LOL, it's a joke, but it impresses those not in the industry.

BS in IT
- 3.5 years on a Help Desk
- Almost 2 years as a AIX/Linux Systems Administrator focusing on virtualization, SAN and DASD storage allocation, automation through use of scripts, application administration such as WebSphere, DB2, MQ, Oracle, Weblogic, Peoplesoft, TSM etc. I work on 300 + UNIX servers, all ranging from webservers, to application servers to database servers. They are either virtualized on a P595 IBM server, which virtualizes our AIX logical partitions, consisting of 64 POWER5 processors and more RAM we could ever use and a IBM Z10 mainframe which hosts our Z/OS which virtualizes our Linux logical partitions.

Not much of a programmer now, I just like to tinker with stuff and try and get things to work. I really like working with shell scripting and touch into perl, C and php. I've written a number of scripts that have been integrated into my companies production environment. Programming wise I am working on taking statistics about usage, on these mainframes listed above, and integrating it into a PHP graph that can show usage by month, week and year.

I think certifications are kind of addictive, once you get one or two, you want to keep getting more.

Originally Posted by Harner

I think certs are a waste unless you NEED help making yourself more marketable. Or feel the need to pigeon-hole yourself.

They certainly don't make your resume look bad of course. They just aren't weighed like they used to be.

IMO Experience > Education > Certifications. As far as Trojan goes, he probably deserves every last penny in his paychecks.

I don't think they pigeon hole. And yes, experience is FAR better on a resume. But without my certs I would not have my current job. I don't have years of experience, so they see A+, MCP in XP, MCDST and MCP in Server 2003 and they are willing to take a chance on me than someone with no experience and no certs.

Certs increase marketability in today's cutthroat world and instill confidence and those not tech savvy. Now if you have 20 years of experience, there is no need to go get the Windows Vista certification.

But sometimes certifications are required, for example my company partners with Dell, and Dell wants all of their techs to hold certain certs, period.

So if you don't hold those certs, you do not have a job at this company. Even if you are MORE than overqualified.

Originally Posted by sudo

I wouldn't work for a company that required me to get useless certifications.

Good, more jobs for the rest of us.

Seriously guys? So if a company had a partnership with Dell, or IBM or any other major company, and that partnership deal requires your companies techs to have XX certification, you would not do it?

So you would turn down a 40 to 60 grand a year job just because you don't want to go get a Server 2003 cert? Wow....

The only certs that actually mean anything are the higher level Cisco and Juniper ones, RHCE and CISSP if comsec is your thing. Everything else should be left up to your employer. I have a laundry list of certs, most of which are worthless and are not on my resume, and haven't spent a penny of my own money. And never will.

I've also been part of the hiring process at a couple jobs, and honestly, entry level techs with a laundry list of certs isn't impressive at all. I've never come across a decent company that didn't favor experience and problem solving skills over paper certs.

Originally Posted by MrTroy

Seriously guys? So if a company had a partnership with Dell, or IBM or any other major company, and that partnership deal requires your companies techs to have XX certification, you would not do it?

Vendor programs are one of the few good reasons to certify. Promotions are the other. Most people accumulate certs because their employer requested and paid for them though, not the other way around.

So you would turn down a 40 to 60 grand a year job just because you don't want to go get a Server 2003 cert? Wow....

Like Harner, that's not a job I'd be looking for in the first place. And, yes, I would turn down a job if they would not let me certify after being hired, on their dime.

Originally Posted by ephekt

The only certs that actually mean anything are the higher level Cisco and Juniper ones, RHCE and CISSP if comsec is your thing. Everything else should be left up to your employer. I have a laundry list of certs, most of which are worthless and are not on my resume, and haven't spent a penny of my own money. And never will.

I've also been part of the hiring process at a couple jobs, and honestly, entry level techs with a laundry list of certs isn't impressive at all. I've never come across a decent company that didn't favor experience and problem solving skills over paper certs.

Vendor programs are one of the few good reasons to certify. Promotions are the other. Most people accumulate certs because their employer requested and paid for them though, not the other way around.
Like Harner, that's not a job I'd be looking for in the first place. And, yes, I would turn down a job if they would not let me certify after being hired, on their dime.

That is what I am talking about, they hire you, you have 3 or 6 months to get the cert, and they pay for it.

Originally Posted by Harner

I make over 60k now?

What area of the country do you live in? 60K in Indiana is a lot, 60K in Los Angeles, CA is not.

Originally Posted by Harner

Personally, my job description/title does not make me out to be an engineer, more of a technician/admin role. So 60k for my position is probably average.

The term engineer is thrown around loosely in the computer industry, I don't mind really, as we aren't claiming to be a professional engineer in a true sense of the traditional degree, such as a Civil Engineer or Electrical Engineer. But some people get pissed and think that no one should be called an engineer unless they hold a professional engineering degree, so in their mind there is no such thing as a network engineer or a software engineer. In my opinion if your job involves design, you are on the right path to that kind of job title.

I'm really nothing more than a field service technician, but my official job title is "Field Engineer". Hey, if trash men can call themselves sanitation engineers than it's fair game, lol. I wear many hats, I do IT consulting work with our customers, design and install their network infrastructure as well as setup their servers, PC's etc... which is all more on the "design" side. And of course the maintenance and break/fix troubleshooting for our contracts.

The other portion is that we also handle all of Dell's small to medium business work, where a random business contact's Dell, they sell them an Assessment, we are dispatched and we go on site for several hours consulting and basically write a complete proposal of what they want their network to be. Anything from a super small server for basic file sharing in a work group with 5 PC's and 2 shared printers, to something like 10 servers (terminal server, file servers, SAN's) across multiple locations. Which is where my employer requires certification because Dell demands certification as part of our partnership. Pretty much was told when I was hired that I had six months to pass the 70-290 (Microsoft) and they would pay for it. This is what Dell required.

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.