What IT certifications do you have?

[Erudito]

I only have the IT Fundamentals and A+ certifications by CompTIA at present, but I am working on getting the CompTIA triad as my first goal. 

[GoldenLag]

I distribute cookies.......

 

Thats good enough, right?

[AngryBeaver]

On 8/17/2019 at 12:53 AM, Erudito said:

I only have the IT Fundamentals and A+ certifications by CompTIA at present, but I am working on getting the CompTIA triad as my first goal. 

I find the triad to be rather limited in value. It might help at entry level, but it doesn't offer much outside of that. If you have a tech degree then you can probably skip them all together.

[Erudito]

7 hours ago, AngryBeaver said:

I find the triad to be rather limited in value. It might help at entry level, but it doesn't offer much outside of that. If you have a tech degree then you can probably skip them all together.

I am actually going for the triad because of my degree program. I have my Associates but I am going for my Bachelors now and the university accepts CompTIA certs as a substitution for courses. 

[AngryBeaver]

2 minutes ago, Erudito said:

I am actually going for the triad because of my degree program. I have my Associates but I am going for my Bachelors now and the university accepts CompTIA certs as a substitution for courses. 

WGU? If not then you should consider them over where you are looking.

[Flying Sausages]

On 8/17/2019 at 1:53 AM, Erudito said:

I only have the IT Fundamentals and A+ certifications by CompTIA at present, but I am working on getting the CompTIA triad as my first goal. 

Do you have any skill or experience in IT field at all? Certification is like college degree paper which is pointless if you don't have any experience on the field.

[Erudito]

2 hours ago, AngryBeaver said:

WGU? If not then you should consider them over where you are looking.

SNHU, and I am not changing my mind.

[Erudito]

2 hours ago, OlympicAssEater said:

Do you have any skill or experience in IT field at all? Certification is like college degree paper which is pointless if you don't have any experience on the field.

I have 8 months experience in mentoring middle/high schoolers, but that's about it. I have applied for a federal IT Specialist position nearby though.

[AngryBeaver]

2 minutes ago, Erudito said:

SNHU, and I am not changing my mind.

Your choice, but WGU if you have a 2 year would cost you about 6500 for a 4 year total... then depending on how many classes you take another 7-9k for your MS

[AngryBeaver]

2 minutes ago, Erudito said:

I have 8 months experience in mentoring middle/high schoolers, but that's about it. I have applied for a federal IT Specialist position nearby though.

Do you have TS or any other security clearance? Depending on the position you might need it or at least be able to get it.

[Erudito]

1 minute ago, AngryBeaver said:

Do you have TS or any other security clearance? Depending on the position you might need it or at least be able to get it.

It's not a specialty clearance position, which is good as I don't have any. They will however require me to complete quite a few rounds of training within 2 years of being hired.

[Guest]

 

[AngryBeaver]

31 minutes ago, Erudito said:

It's not a specialty clearance position, which is good as I don't have any. They will however require me to complete quite a few rounds of training within 2 years of being hired.

That is pretty standard even for people with all their major certs. They need to show continuous improvement of their staff. Plus means they can define clear cut lines for moving up in a pay grade/promotion.

[Ja Krispie]

Currently I have A+, Network +, CCNA Routing and Switching, CCNA Data Center.

 

Linux+ will be the next certification I work towards followed by Security+, then I will work on some microsoft certs

[AngryBeaver]

4 hours ago, comander said:

I would be wary of places like WGU and SNHU. You don't have to jump through flaming hoops to get in to them and everyone knows it. 

College degrees are tools to signal that you meet or exceed a given baseline. They show that you're low risk. The person with a bachelor's degree from Harvard is very low risk - they proved that they can jump through flaming hoops to get in.

Employers want people who can succeed at jumping through flaming hoops (figure out what determines success, kick rear, get things done). 

For the record, I have thoroughly been rejected (MBA programs) by places like Harvard, Yale, Penn and Stanford (did get to the interview stage so I was in the running - I kind of stopped caring after I got into Facebook/Amazon/Apple/Netflix/Google/Unicorn with a healthy 6 figure salary and they could tell I gave 0 damns) and I'm a fan of good state schools (I went to one after going to a community college). University of Wisconsin, Madison (in-state) + basic financial aid package is usually CHEAPER than most programs like WGU or UoP. Same with UVA, or UConn or University of Florida or UNLV or... Even if it's more expensive, if it costs $10k more but your first job pays $10k/year more, it pays for itself in 1 year.

 

I suggest you look in to WGU. A lot of people in the IT field use it and many employers love them.

 

They are regionally accredited, non-profit, and are proficiency based. So you have to show mastery of a topic to pass. On top of all that they have the best pricing model of any school I have seen. Like similar to 2 year schools if not cheaper at times

[Ja Krispie]

16 hours ago, comander said:

I would be wary of places like WGU and SNHU. You don't have to jump through flaming hoops to get in to them and everyone knows it. 

College degrees are tools to signal that you meet or exceed a given baseline. They show that you're low risk. The person with a bachelor's degree from Harvard is very low risk - they proved that they can jump through flaming hoops to get in.

Employers want people who can succeed at jumping through flaming hoops (figure out what determines success, kick rear, get things done). 

For the record, I have thoroughly been rejected (MBA programs) by places like Harvard, Yale, Penn and Stanford (did get to the interview stage so I was in the running - I kind of stopped caring after I got into Facebook/Amazon/Apple/Netflix/Google/Unicorn with a healthy 6 figure salary and they could tell I gave 0 damns) and I'm a fan of good state schools (I went to one after going to a community college). University of Wisconsin, Madison (in-state) + basic financial aid package is usually CHEAPER than most programs like WGU or UoP. Same with UVA, or UConn or University of Florida or UNLV or... Even if it's more expensive, if it costs $10k more but your first job pays $10k/year more, it pays for itself in 1 year.

 

Employers don't really give a damn where you got your education from.  If it's accredited you're good to go. Also for a lot of employers love certifications and you can make a lot of money with only certs and no college.

[NineEyeRon]

I made mine in GIMP, Shhh don’t tell my boss!

[Erudito]

2 hours ago, comander said:

Earlier this morning I overheard the management consultants I work with talking about whether or not to add the University of Washington as a target. A target university is a school where the company hires from. A similar term is "feeder school". https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2015/01/07/the-top-feeder-schools-to-google-goldman-sachs-and-more/3/ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296110- this doesn't tell the whole story though, as different positions get recruited for at different schools. The UoP people are likely assistant managers at Apple stores, the MIT people are likely working in tech. 



Accreditation is like a pulse. It's a very, very low bar. You can be alive but in a coma.



With that said, if you are born into a wealthy, well-connected family, you're right. Where you go doesn't matter if you're practically guaranteed a job due to family connections. 
For many though, WHO they are matters quite a bit too. Those who reached for the stars and fell short ended up doing alright in the long run. Those who set their bar low... stayed low. 
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/does-it-matter-where-you-go-college/577816/



I never had connections and was utterly unsophisticated when I hit age 20. I started doing a lot of research and started jumping through flaming hoops. I snuck into career fairs at places like Stanford and Caltech - they had MUCH better options than the top 50 school I went to at the time. Flash forward a decade and the people I'm working with went to MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Harvard Business School, etc. I had to jump through A LOT of flaming hoops that they didn't. The people I knew growing up who said "having any degree is what matters" or "GPA doesn't matter", including those who were in gifted programs for the top 1%, are for the most part floundering. There's a lot of value to be had in shooting for the stars and having big names on the resume in terms of the opportunities you get to grow and develop. With that said any degree >>> nothing... it's just that there IS a very real benefit to doing things "the right way". 


----

For what it's worth, my perspective is that you're gunning for an SRE or Network engineering role. The common IT ladder is 3-10 years of IT and then jump to SRE or NE at 1.5-5x the pay. The common "I did everything right out of college" path is "I'm 22 and an SRE, cool, I'm making more than a guy who has 15 IT certs and 5 years of experience"

I've had to jump through plenty of hoops having Aspergers and Generalized Epilepsy. While I can agree that there is a degree of discrimination based on the college you attend at, sometimes some things cannot be helped. I have tried doing fuller than full time in a semester and it more than taxed me, so I don't think I could work a job to more readily afford a more expensive college while also attending it; all of this while also having no legal ability to drive due to the epilepsy. I'd be dependent on the almost always late bus system for everything (as every bus system I have encountered is almost always late.) And all of that is before discussing my parent's over-protectiveness and fear in me living in a big city with high crime rates and my naive self being a big target (naivete being a part of my Autism.)

 

When I started college it was Fall of 2009, and I was 18. It wouldn't be till 9 years later after a few skipped years that couldn't fiscally or geographically be helped (moving to a state without the BOG Fee Waiver before coming back to it), and most of my semesters being part time, that I would get my Associates. A year after that, I got a certificate of achievement recognized at the state level, and then after that, apply for SNHU.

 

In short, the best thing I can do right now is the online SNHU program. I get Phi Theta Kappa's 10% off tuition merit scholarship and I have applied for more, and my parents can actually afford helping me with direct subsidized loans should I need them (which they weren't able to do five years ago.) I have 54 transfer credits and given how the online system works, I have eleven 9-week terms before I graduate (9 and a half after I earn the three CompTIA certifications that substitute for three courses I need.) I do often wonder if I didn't have the accompanying epilepsy, could I handle more? In the end, that line of questioning doesn't matter. All that does is building my resume and, eventually, getting into my preferred career.

[The King of the Undead]

0.

[Erudito]

As a side note, I have spoken with my parents and they would rather see me get college out of the way first then do college and a job, so I will only be focusing on my studies.

[jake9000]

I just have the MCSA stuff personally. 

Weighing in on the WGU discussion, I think it's a decent option if you already have a career started. If you are fresh out of high school you should stick to trad routes (4yr or start at a CC). It's more comprehensive than any self-driven program would be. 

I would also avoid overly practical degrees. There's lots of guys who got their degree from a program about managing Active Directory, Exchange, and Server 2003. I have to wonder what value such a degree has on a resume in 2019. 

Get your degree in something soft like MIS or go all the way with an engineering program. WGU is practical but it's just a box ticker so you can stop being rejected by robots when you have been working for years already. 

I consult with an MSP and sometimes a client will not-so-subtly encourage me to apply for a real job with them. I honestly wonder if I would survive the first HR lookover even though I know their networks inside and out and have been implementing new stuff and putting out their fires for years. 

[Erudito]

10 minutes ago, comander said:

At some level you do what you can. Just be aware that there will be additional hurdles to overcome. Life is a journey.
 

Some things I WILL point out - 
1. If you have 30 years of career in front of you, $10k worth of loans works out to 333/year. If you can increase your income by enough to offset that (roughly $30-40/month) then it works out in favor of taking the loans. Strategic risks ARE worth taking (spending loan money on spring break not so much). You get big rewards if you go from the bottom 20% to the middle 50% of college grads or from the middle 50% to the top 20%. If 10k debt lets you do 1-2 extra internships... just do it. Internships/co-ops are investing in yourself the same way that education is. 

2. You should be doing everything you can to make your resume look more like an MIT student's resume. This usually means internships during the summer. In an ideal world you have a filled out resume 1 year before graduation with enough stuff to say "this person can handle mid-level level work with minimal guidance". 6 months after graduation it gets WAY harder since you're no longer considered for "campus hire" recruiting pipelines. Ideally you have a full time job offer 6-12 months BEFORE graduating. 

3. See if there are programs out there that help out people with Aspergers. I likely have mild aspergers and looking back there were a lot of therapeutic things that could've helped me a fair bit (with that said, working in retail and treating it like a paid social experiment helped a lot).
 

Not gonna reveal too much on the financial front, but I can say that the debt isn't a major concern. Everything will be paid off before the end of the 6 month grace period allowed for the Direct Subsidized Loans, and significant payments will be made even before graduation is near. Still, thank you for the advice commander. I will make sure I get summer period off for these internships if available. 

 

As for the programs, the best one I have been able to find is Specialisterne USA, a social business that helps people with Autism get competitive wage jobs.

[Arika]

absolutely none

[Erudito]

6 minutes ago, comander said:

I wouldn't rush to pay off student loans (assuming you're getting subsidized loans). I think mine are at 3-something percent. I have a few hundred thousand invested in other areas and the return on that was more than enough to compensate for the debt payments. Subsidized loans are artificially low and are basically the government giving you money to put into stocks/bonds/real estate. Now, it might be worth looking into something like SoFI which might be lower. Debt isn't a big deal if you have assets to counter it (so 100k in credit card debt with nothing to show = bad; 100k mortgage with a house to show for it = good) and healthy cash flow. 

One bit that I'll add. A lot of "programs to help the disadvantaged" usually end up helping those who don't need it (e.g. the black kid at Harvard is more likely to come from a household in the top 1% of income earners than the bottom 10%). At some level it's up to YOU to make sure that YOU are getting access to the programs that disproportionately advantaged the privileged (despite being designed to "level the playing field"). 

Here's a handful of things I quickly found (I was aware of their MBA program equivalents):
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/programs-and-outreach/riordan-programs/riordan-scholars
https://ml4t.org/career-prep/

Getting tied into the right programs and organizations can turbo boost your outcomes. Most people don't know about most things. (e.g. a random person off the street wouldn't know that McKinsey is a TOP place to go to out of university or about the various VC funded startups out there)

I will keep looking for other programs then. 

[Erudito]

24 minutes ago, comander said:

Just be aware that most of the good programs will require a thoughtful application, likely some recommendations and an interview (for select individuals). Being able to answer: "Prove others in the program will benefit from your experiences/perspectives" "Prove you'll benefit more from this program than someone else" both matter a fair bit. It also helps if you've gotten coaching (forums, friends, consultants, alumni from the programs who you reached out to chatted with and convinced to help you out) on how to answer a lot of these things. (they emulate the selection process at top universities, which are dominated by "in the know elites" so to speak)

I will be careful with whatever autism hiring initiatives I come across. As for the internships, those aren't going to happen until after graduation if needed. My parents meant it when they said they only want me focusing on the school work, and told me from their own experiences the hell they had to go through doing more than that concurrently because they didn't have parents to rely on for their education like I do.