Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mongoose on January 28, 2013, 12:29:00 am
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My current efforts to track down some sort of legitimate job have produced little in terms of either success or motivation, and I'm kind of at the point where I'm looking to branch out more. I have some interest in seeing what's out there in the IT field, and what really spurred it was a mailing from our local community college that included a bunch of courses for various IT certifications. These include a number of Microsoft Certified IT Professional designations, from Windows 7 to various server architecture packages, Cisco networking certificates, A+ and other "plus" general IT tests, along with the usual array of basic instructive courses. I figure at least a few people here have to be involved in the IT sphere, so I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to what sort of certification (if any) might do me the most good to pursue in terms of increasing my chances of finding work.
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Heh...maybe I misread my target audience. :p
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So, you're into IT? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8) :D
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While I'm afraid I can't help you with your request, when reading "some sort of legitimate job" I couldn't help but wonder why you felt the need to put "legitimate" in there.
What have you been into? :D
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Because if he didn't mention legitimate, he would have got worse than the IT Crowd. :D
I dropped IT and moved into Hospitality personally. Front Office, Concierge. Concierge mostly, FO is boring...
Good Luck!
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when going into your interview, be sure to present the heads of your previous interviewers to your interviewer.
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While I'm afraid I can't help you with your request, when reading "some sort of legitimate job" I couldn't help but wonder why you felt the need to put "legitimate" in there.
What have you been into? :D
because
when going into your interview, be sure to present the heads of your previous interviewers to your interviewer.
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It doesn't seem to have worked :D
I can't remember what it was advertising, but I remember an advert where some guy acts like he's having the crap beaten out of him in the interview room, and then throws himself out of the door and into the wall.
Everyone leaves shocked except one guy, his buddy, who he's cleared the way for to get the job.
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Mongoose, google some appropriate IT recruitment agencies.. Sign up to them, and take on fixed-term/short-term jobs to boost your experience. Even if it seems like a comparatively junior position to what you want, it all adds to the strings on your CV's / resume's bow.
The more agencies you apply to, the better your odds at finding work fast.(try to get into a physical office rather than an online job-hunt as people are physically employed to GET you work that way, they get commission and they need to eat, they WILL hunt you the work you need to get that experience)
Ones to try (if you live outside the UK, try something closer obviously :yes:
http://www.itrecruitmentagencies.net/
http://www.tagrecruitment.co.uk/
http://www.hwselect.com/
http://www.langleyjames.net/
Honestly, I've never used any of these as i don't work in IT, some look like the sort of average jobsearch site that pollute the net. But at the end of the day, if you use them all and apply every job that catches your eye as well as registering at agencies PHYSICALLY, I.E. sit down with somebody, go through an application interview and all that stuff. (standard induction process when registering with a legitimate agency) there's no reason why you won't get a foot on the first rung withing the month at latest.
Good luck mate.
Keep us posted and stay motivated and positive.
It doesn't seem to have worked :D
I can't remember what it was advertising, but I remember an advert where some guy acts like he's having the crap beaten out of him in the interview room, and then throws himself out of the door and into the wall.
Everyone leaves shocked except one guy, his buddy, who he's cleared the way for to get the job.
That was an advert for Coke.
the cola....... :nervous:
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I'm an IT professional with many years of experience. There's no single certificate that is the "best". The IT field, even just systems and networking, is incredibly broad. The trends appear to be toward cloud/virtualized architectures with an emphasis on supporting rapid development and security, so I'd keep that in mind if you go ahead with this. I did the "traditional" route of starting with desktop support/desktop OS migrations, moved on to file/print servers, moved on to web/application servers, and on to architecting highly-available application hosting environments using dedicated front end load balancing and clustered databases. If I had to do it all over again today, I'd go into desktop support to pick up day gigs more quickly and get cash flow, while studying Linux admistration, and would probably get a Red Hat certification to improve chances of moving into that area. Honestly, if you know what you're doing, certs don't matter, I haven't bothered to have any certs for years, I don't need them. The best objectives for pursueing certificates are 1) learning and 2) having some cred to put on your resume in lieu of extended work experience. Number 1 is the most important, to start with, because you're useless if you don't learn first.
I think that pursuing certifications via community college courses is a viable approach. However, it is not likely to succeed much without you investing some personal time into self-study, outside of the course(s), before and after taking the course(s).
I'd also say that networking is probably more in demand than systems administration, but it's a little harder to get into as a noob. The advantage you have as a noob is that you'd be cheaper to hire, presumably.
Good luck!
EDIT: I'd recommend getting some basics first, if you can afford the certifications. A+ will teach you about basic computer hardware and operations (essential!), unless you're already confortable with the OSI network model and assembling working computers from parts. An A+ cert alone probably won't get you a job, you still need functional operational knowledge of OSes, so study Windows or Linux after an A+ cert, and study scripting (python, powershell, bash, etc.). If you discover that networking really gels for you and turns you on, go after networking (i.e. Cisco certs), if you love scripting then consider going into programming (although you'll probably still need an IT day job like desktop support to afford to study programming long enough to be hireable). In any case, having a functional understanding of computer hardware and OSes will make you better at any of the above.
EDIT2: If you're technically inclined, I strongly recommend studying Linux. Linux will outlast Windows imho. It will still help a lot to be comfortable with Windows technologies to one degree or another.
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Whether or not Linux will outlast Windows is immaterial when the chances of you encountering windows machines at work are higher than encountering a full Linux/Unix shop. Banking your job qualifications on impossible to predict trends is not a particularly bright idea,
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The way i see it is that a job is a job is a job. The economy is still horrible, and the chances of getting a job you actually want are going to be low (then again, things seem are lot more cut throat where i live).
I set out last february running my own computer repair IT business in a town i moved effectively homeless back too so i could survive. I negotiated and parted ways with a lot of handy equipment so i could get ahead and have a warm place to live (you can't just live in your car in winter in interior alaska; death would be around that corner). I gave my all to my landlord even. That computer business lost out on barely being able to pay my rent and business dropped off. So, i applied at many different places for doing things not that i only didn't want to do, but was afraid of. And so landed me two jobs at the same grill for cook and cashier. The first day was serving 300 people with a staff of 3. The place i work at is ridiculous, but at least the money comes in for learning a new trade, but that of which will not be the rest of my life, and i survive.
With money coming in means being smart with your money of course. So, what i do outside of work to get ahead is beefing up my mechanic skills (since the only mechanic i trust quit) and buying and trading cars. I've sold my 89 dynasty, and traded a 91 ford escort for a 97 nissan truck that i plan to fix up and sell among now driving an 89 buick century in the past 5 months (cars have a lot of value, and so far i've been winning out on it. However, i never would have imagined myself selling or trading cars, but people seem to really like the cars i have maintained).
The job market's hard these days; and i'm not saying apply at your local mcdonalds or carl's junior, but if that be the thing that needs to happen to let money in, then get used to it fast. I'd like to say that being picky today with jobs that people want isn't really something that can happen currently. Especially with the government budget cuts that will continue to flood the populace with more out of work folk that directly affects me where i work (i didn't get fired because i work my ass off and the higher ups know this regardless if they like me or not; and i know my boss doesn't like me, but no one quite does my job duties like i do (those budget cuts were agressive with job firings and hiring freezes)) to further lower those odds. Even though these are government and military jobs being affected by the budget cuts, that still leaves a lot of those people that were fired to compete against for the job you want. Go ahead and apply and yearn for the job that you want, i'm saying that you'll likely find yourself doing something else. So plan for both.
A job is a job is a job; i wasted 5 months looking for the job that i wanted and i lost out big financially, so i ended up getting a real legitimate job in something that i more or less never wanted. Why don't i find another job that i want? It's not as easy as that. What's more practical is me keeping putting up with the **** that brings the money in until looking else where is more realistic.