Foo - Anyone here Microsoft Certified/working in IT?

OK here's the deal - I'm really desperate to start working in IT.

I've had an interest in computers since the age of 11 (now late 20s) and have spent my far too much of my free time building and tinkering with more computers than I can remember and troubleshooting all my friends/family's computer, phones etc etc. After years of people saying "why do you not work in IT", I've decided to finally take the plunge and try and get IT support work. I have no formal experience or training yet. I feel I have had an epiphany recently and finally accepted that computing and computers are my one true (non-human!) passion in life and I am desperate to achieve!! I'm totally realistic in that I realise my first few jobs will probably suck.

The route I am look at is to get my 70 270 basic XP exam done within a month and then apply to IT recruitment agencies. While this is going on, I'm going to do the 70 680 basic Windows 7 exam to try and give myself another feather in my cap.

What do you think of my plan? Should I be taking another route? Is the XP exam worth doing with the rollout of windows 7 around the corner? Any advice gratefully received!

what aspect of IT? Do you want to be a hardware monkey? netowrking? software dev?

Oracle certified. Suck on it!
Sorry. Nothing worthwhile to add. Bored.

I know companies that will not hire people with the MS Cert, they consider them blue collar workers in a white collar industry.

Here is what I consider to be important if you are seeking a job in IT.

1. Your personal network, it is about who you know
2. Your personal experience, what can you do and what have you done
3. College or technical degree, you are committed and have invested in your career.
4. Technical Cert, you have proven you can pass a test (With the exception of the CCIE)

several people here are, but they are busy with their day jobs flipping burgers.

It is getting more and more difficult to find work without a degree. While I do not have a degree I have quite a bit of experience.
I would suggest going to college. Either that or relocating to India. Where you may still need to go to college.

next biggest business for the foreseeable IT future: laptop/netbook repairs

get certified in apple product repairs, it's lucrative.

I was Sun certified once for Solaris 7. Seems that the consulting companies were the only ones who gave a fig for the certificates, and then bunches of people would run out, train for, and test for the certs, and then be pretty useless.

So whatever you do, make sure you know stuff that isn't on the test and might be useful in real life.

It is getting more and more difficult to find work without a degree. While I do not have a degree I have quite a bit of experience.
I would suggest going to college. Either that or relocating to India. Where you may still need to go to college.

+ lots on this. Get your degree and work on your certificates on the side so you can have a double barrel of knowledge.

Heck. I'm going to go back to college eventually. The one thing I regret is not finishing my CS degree.

Try to get a job with these (http://www.cognizant.com/html/aboutus/executiveTeam.asp) guys.

^^Be sure to do your best Apu from the Simpson's impersonation.

I have several expired certs (MCSE, CCNA, CCA). They were great to get me started back in '99, but after 10 years, they are basically useless, especially being expired. :) Now it's about experience and knowledge, although some recruiters/companies want the certificates because all they know is "keywords" from HR who has no clue what our jobs entail.

I'm going to give a different approach than the others suggesting college/degree first. What you do now and how much you make can play a part in how you pursue this initiative. I think you would be better off taking the A+ and Net+ certificates from CompTIA and then maybe the XP or Vista/7 workstation exam next, then whatever you want. This would get you in to a helpdesk or desktop support role pretty easily and probably pay a decent amount to start. The reason I'm suggesting certificates and work before degree is because you can get a good handle on what you want to do and which route you'd like to go within IT and possibly cater your college degree more closely to what you enjoy (networking, software dev, etc). You could probably find a 2nd shift helpdesk position, which would allow you to take college courses in the morning.

Why take 4-6 years going to school to get a degree, come out and make 50-60k (maybe less) to start with little to no experience, when you could take a few tests, get a 2nd shift helpdesk job (probably paying 30k) and earn money and experience for 4-6 years while obtaining your degree. In addition to getting experience while going to college, you might be able to get your "new" employer to pay for your education.

Just my two cents.

kmg is absolutely right. CompTIA A+ & Network+ are fairly easy to attain. I have both, and trained without sitting in a class. While you won't make the big bucks right off, it will surely put you in front of the next guy without these. They simply validate your basic skills and will land you a Help Desk or Desktop position, as kmg stated. Easiest and quickest way to get your foot in the door of IT.

That won't even get you an interview in my company.

I have several expired certs (MCSE, CCNA, CCA). They were great to get me started back in '99, but after 10 years, they are basically useless, especially being expired. :) Now it's about experience and knowledge, although some recruiters/companies want the certificates because all they know is "keywords" from HR who has no clue what our jobs entail.

I'm going to give a different approach than the others suggesting college/degree first. What you do now and how much you make can play a part in how you pursue this initiative. I think you would be better off taking the A+ and Net+ certificates from CompTIA and then maybe the XP or Vista/7 workstation exam next, then whatever you want. This would get you in to a helpdesk or desktop support role pretty easily and probably pay a decent amount to start. The reason I'm suggesting certificates and work before degree is because you can get a good handle on what you want to do and which route you'd like to go within IT and possibly cater your college degree more closely to what you enjoy (networking, software dev, etc). You could probably find a 2nd shift helpdesk position, which would allow you to take college courses in the morning.

Why take 4-6 years going to school to get a degree, come out and make 50-60k (maybe less) to start with little to no experience, when you could take a few tests, get a 2nd shift helpdesk job (probably paying 30k) and earn money and experience for 4-6 years while obtaining your degree. In addition to getting experience while going to college, you might be able to get your "new" employer to pay for your education.

Just my two cents.

If this were a techie forum I would say to make this a sticky.

I have an expired MCSD/MCDBA (Visual Basic 6 :roflmao2:). I'm now a manager. :cry:

I'd add that if you are after money remember to take an economics course and not just learn, but live supply and demand. Do not saddle yourself with a skill set that is in low or moderate demand but high supply (Java programmer, for example). Look for skills that are in high demand with little supply (VM/Citrix Admin for example).

I too have several certs (MCSE, CCNA, CCA) and my MCSE & CCNA has expired. At one time it was the way to go but things change weekly and the information that you learn in class now for the most part is obsolete. I have not even bothered to renew them either. They are a stepping stone. Why take more classes and pay to renew certs and ones present job will not utilize the new knowledge? So I will just
continue with my "Direct" experience. By the way, direct experience is what answers the questions at the interview table...

However don't let this discourage you. The certs will get your foot in the door and allow you to get exposeure to enterprise systems. You must appy yourself to absorb all you are exposed too. It will pay off
in the long run.

You must also decide to go either private or government. Very competative in the private sector though. IT guys are a dime a dozen. Government is more secure and less competative and you may also make a few bucks less than those in the private sector. You will also be "Locked" in a position for while because promotions are slow. But you are gaining knowledge while you waiting for your opportunity to move up.

One more thing that I have noticed in my 12 years in the IT field. Employers
tend to favor certified people with "experience" over non-experienced degreed people. In some cases I can't say that I don't blamed them either.

The degree will have the edge when you go from "worker bee" to a "management" position if you choose to go that route. I personally enjoy being a worker bee in networking infrastructure and I enjoy what I do and my salary is great too. Most of the degreed guys here coudn't swap out a rack server and put it on line if their life depended on it and I'm not kidding. Direct experience is the way to go for now.

Continue along your choosen path. Don't lose your focus and you will do fine my friend. :thumb:

I know companies that will not hire people with the MS Cert, they consider them blue collar workers in a white collar industry.

Here is what I consider to be important if you are seeking a job in IT.

1. Your personal network, it is about who you know
2. Your personal experience, what can you do and what have you done
3. College or technical degree, you are committed and have invested in your career.
4. Technical Cert, you have proven you can pass a test (With the exception of the CCIE)Yes, a lot of IT staff is considered blue-collar work nowadays. Partly because there are so many people who are hacks with paper-certs and not much real experience.

Personally I would go with the enterprise-level certs if you want to get a decent job:

1. Cisco CCNE
2. Oracle OCA/OCP on the latest 10g
3. EMC - any enterprise-level outfit will be using something like a DMX box
4. VMware VCP/VCDX
5. RSA - security is always a concern

That won't even get you an interview in my company.

Think simple...we're talking Help Desk here. This is adequate for an entry position.

That is not applicable for my company. My statement still stands.

It is getting more and more difficult to find work without a degree. While I do not have a degree I have quite a bit of experience.
I would suggest going to college. Either that or relocating to India. Where you may still need to go to college.Heh, heh... one of the companies I consult for just made an acquisition. They laid off pretty much all 120 of their IT staff and moved the entire division to India. For help-desk stuff, you can't beat a well-educated group working for peanuts! :) They just reduced costs for supporting 150 offices (about 2000 desktops) by about $500k/month.

Oracle certified. Suck on it!
Sorry. Nothing worthwhile to add. Bored.

I have a call into Oracle now. Man, their support is SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOW!

Couch

All outsourced to India. :p

Heck. I'm going to go back to college eventually. The one thing I regret is not finishing my CS degree.

doing that now through Regis (online). Pretty good program, just gonna take a while, one class at a time....

That is exactly what I am thinking of doing. At least I have finally learned a bit of patience. Only took 30 years.
I can't raise a kid, work at a full time job, ride my bikes, and go to college full time.

I have a call into Oracle now. Man, their support is SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOW!

Couch

She is probably baking cookies for Neo.