Jobs in IT

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Batcha

First time out of the vault
Hey folks :)

If i got it right, and i hope i did, a certain amount of people on this forum have an occupation that in some way falls under the IT branch and computer science.

I am currently a student at the 2nd year of IT and even though we are just scratching the surface of each area, i felt like it would be a good idea to pick 1 area (not necessarily one included in my studies) and start taking it more seriously and hopefully invest some free time to improve at it.

The problem is not only do i not know which area to choose, i dont even know what to expect from either one.

The way i look at the scope of the possible jobs, on one end are the "safe" a bit straightforward options but which arent very inspiring, while on the other end are the "less accessable" but more creative and fullfilling options.
Ofcourse, i am a gamer, and some areas of gaming industry seem quite appealing. :)

My question to you is if you would like to share any of your thoughts or experiences regarding your own line of work, whether you are a sys admin, tech support, freelance web designer, software developer or simply someone who knows stuff about those fields.

Comment whatever you like... the wages, difficulty of mastering the field and afterwards getting the position, level of prior education, satisfaction of doing the work, etc...
 
network engineer / hardware network admin

deal primarily with cisco hardware with some riverbed and juniper appliances.

basically to get this job all i did was take a CCNA class. i have my CCENT and now my Sec+ and working on getting my full CCNA.

my history is primarily phone tech support, but the problem with that line of work is that it is an end-point unless you want to go into supervisor/management going with fluffier degrees like MBA and such.

so i went hardware side by going for my CCNA.


there are 2 main focuses you can go in computers.

1) software side
a) programming ( technical )
b) server setup and maintenance ( technical )
c) tech support ( technical )

2) hardware side
a) networking setup and maintenance ( technical )
b) network design and layout ( less technical )
c) user box setup/specs

now in a network the people that tend to get "all the glory" are the software/server side because thats the people that typically do the stuff that is visible to the people using the network. unless there is a problem.

who determines how effective and effecient a network is, is the hardware side.


do you want to be someone who sits in the corner ignored by everyone unless there is a problem, or do you want to be in the limelight talking about new apps and making the users job easier.


for my department, we rarely get people walking through to look at what we do. on the helpdesk or the server guys, they constantly get people walking through.

when a server guy screws up, only people who use that server are affected. when we screw up on the hardware side or something goes down without redundancy.... it can get ugly fast.
 
I have both a professional bachelor (applied informatics, spec in networks) & a masters degree (IT management, spec in open systems).
I work as a sysadmin / IT manager hybrid. I run the servers of a european SaaS company and support a small group of local users. Lately I'm investing more time in other stuff sadly (administrative & client contact), but it has to be done.

DO:
- Let your interests guide you. IT is a broad field & software development, web design or system administration are very different fields. A sysadmin would be driven insane if he was forced to do software development all day.
- Expect a life where you have to make a commitment to get somewhere. Work will come first. IT is usually not the field where you can clock out & leave everything behind.
- Have the will to continue learning as you go along. This means AFTER hours, btw.
- Expect stress. Learn to deal with it, or you'll burn out.
- Develop the ability to look at a problem from all sides. Don't get bogged down in one point of view. This means a sysadmin taking the view of a network admin, but also of a simple user. An informatically sound solution might not be much of a solution for a user.

DON'T:
- Helldesk (at least not first line). It's a stigma for life and might cause you to lose whatever sanity you have left.
- Expect that school will prepare you for actual work. More than 50% of what you need to know, you will learn by researching & by doing. School is a basis, nothing more.
- Expect employers to simply go off your degrees when deciding who they hire. Both attitude and interests are more important in my experience. Your attitude must fit in and your interests (did you build your own PCs for you & your family? did you write for an online hardware reviewing site? etc) will show your commitment to the field you are in.

That said, I think what americans and western europeans have to say about your questions might not reflect what you will encounter. I see you're from the Balkan, and unless I'm mistaken, the area has a bit of overcapacity in ITers. This means a lot go for alternate revenue streams (illegal ones). I'd expect it to be dog eat dog on the IT job market in the Balkan...

TheWesDude said:
now in a network the people that tend to get "all the glory" are the software/server side because thats the people that typically do the stuff that is visible to the people using the network. unless there is a problem.

who determines how effective and effecient a network is, is the hardware side.

do you want to be someone who sits in the corner ignored by everyone unless there is a problem, or do you want to be in the limelight talking about new apps and making the users job easier
Click to expand...
That's actually more or less true for all IT. Slightly more for you, but it goes for network, system, dba, hell, even programmer. As long as everything works, no one actually gives a shit.

When stuff breaks, they will find you however...
 
Batcha said:
Hey folks :)
Click to expand...
Hey you :)

Batcha said:
The problem is not only do i not know which area to choose, i dont even know what to expect from either one.
Click to expand...

You should look for something like this

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9j80Jkc_A[/youtube]

To be more serious. Just dont stop studing. Look for something "higher". Maybe I am biased, but from my experience in job training, its boring. Really it is. I mean the PC was my hobby kinda and I thought I could do a job in that field just to realise that I didnt really had the needed skill for programming and computer science. But if that is really something you love as said. Dont stop to do some collegue for it. Dont go for the first possible job its probably ... boring.
 
SuAside said:
DO:
- Let your interests guide you. IT is a broad field & software development, web design or system administration are very different fields. A sysadmin would be driven insane if he was forced to do software development all day.
- Expect a life where you have to make a commitment to get somewhere. Work will come first. IT is usually not the field where you can clock out & leave everything behind.
- Have the will to continue learning as you go along. This means AFTER hours, btw.
- Expect stress. Learn to deal with it, or you'll burn out.
- Develop the ability to look at a problem from all sides. Don't get bogged down in one point of view. This means a sysadmin taking the view of a network admin, but also of a simple user. An informatically sound solution might not be much of a solution for a user.

DON'T:
- Helldesk (at least not first line). It's a stigma for life and might cause you to lose whatever sanity you have left.
- Expect that school will prepare you for actual work. More than 50% of what you need to know, you will learn by researching & by doing. School is a basis, nothing more.
- Expect employers to simply go off your degrees when deciding who they hire. Both attitude and interests are more important in my experience. Your attitude must fit in and your interests (did you build your own PCs for you & your family? did you write for an online hardware reviewing site? etc) will show your commitment to the field you are in.
Click to expand...

SuAside, I haven't read many of your posts but the ones I do read are informative and wonderful.

TheWesDude said:
now in a network the people that tend to get "all the glory" are the software/server side because thats the people that typically do the stuff that is visible to the people using the network. unless there is a problem.
Click to expand...

That might be generally true, but you can distinguish yourself in any field. Perhaps not amongst "end-users" but I find it much more gratifying to be lauded by your peers (people who actually know what you're doing).

Batcha said:
Hey folks :)
My question to you is if you would like to share any of your thoughts or experiences regarding your own line of work, whether you are a sys admin, tech support, freelance web designer, software developer or simply someone who knows stuff about those fields.

Comment whatever you like... the wages, difficulty of mastering the field and afterwards getting the position, level of prior education, satisfaction of doing the work, etc...
Click to expand...

I'm an application engineer for an e-learning software company. I do a bit of everything. Development and technical consultation for companies looking to integrate our software into third-party platforms makes up a large portion of my job. Since I also fulfill a role of technical support for clients and our software my job often entails knowledge of networking, debugging, server administration and etc. Being familiar with several programming languages, web standards and communication protocols is a must.

I have a single diploma from college for development. It was largely an introduction to different programming languages. Everything I have achieved since then was from commitment and self-learning.

* Web design and web "development" in themselves are two different fields. Neither of them glamourous and neither generally pay well until you're not only a master of it but have garnered years upon years of experience. I know several "freelance" web developers who are just scraping by. I know others that work with web dev companies and make less than grocery baggers.

There are also all kinds of web designers/developers who work in different fields. Many will work primarily with Joomla or Drupal (content management systems) and others with software like Wordpress. They build on existing architectures rather than build from the ground up.

Web people are a dime a dozen and if you trip over a homeless guy on the street he'll probably make a web page for you for a free meal.

That said, if your passion is web design/development, by all means pursue it. Just know that you will be the starving artist for a time. It's a competitive field and you need to be good at it.

* You need more than school. Whatever it is you want to do, school will not prepare you for it. You have to be interested in what you want to do and you have to spend the personal/free time expanding on it.

* Be interested. If you go into an IT field without an interest in it, you will both hate your life and be lackluster at your profession because you will not have the time or drive to learn and become better.

* Round out your skills. Specialize in something if you like, but knowing how to program can be an immensely useful skill, no matter your IT profession. Always expand your horizons and at least dabble in different fields. Don't stay in your comfort zone, the best IT people I know are multi-skilled.

* You might have to start at the bottom. If you want to work in software development, it might mean starting as a tester or someone in QA. Take a look at the ladder and see what the future career opportunities are.

* I believe jobs that require certifications often have a higher salary "floor", as some certs automatically equate to a certain level of pay. Perhaps someone who's been certified in one of these fields could say.

E-learning is a niche field but if you're looking to break into development and want lots of variety in the software and environments you'll be working in I would recommend it. It wasn't what I intended to be doing but after 6 years it's still very fresh and interesting.

Experience is key, so having some kind of job in just about any IT field will generally be a good stepping stone.
 
yes, i can talk about certs. first hand knowladge about it.


when trying to get a job, having certs is important. it lets possible employers know what your minimum level of knowledge is.

when you actually get the job if you have no experience, you will realize what you learned to get the cert is horribly inadequate for the job you are actually doing.

plus after you have the job, you need these certs to advance. the employer wants you to have these certs because it makes the company look better. HR people generally wont have any real idea what your job entails or what professional certs actually mean.

when looking for jobs in IT i have seen lots of job requirements for positions asking for certs/background elements that make zero sense.

such as tier 1 helpdesk jobs asking for Sec+ or else even CISSP. whenever i see helpdesk jobs that ask for A+, i know that the HR dept are the ones who wrote that job ad up and not the people actually involved with the helpdesk. the A+ used to be pretty technical and worth something, but since like 2003 or 2004 it has been considered a joke and a HR cert.

that leads me to another point. something that i see a lot of people in technical fields call "hr certs" are certs that may have some relevance but actually are not relevant for the position.

certs will get your foot in the door, but do not convey knowledge or ability, especially if non-technical people are doing initial interviews.
 
I've found certification only to matter for large & formal companies.

Now, don't get me wrong, certs are useful if your profile is the same as the next guy, but you have more certs, you'll likely have an advantage.

However I've found that certification is only really sought after by large companies with rigid structures. This most likely comes from the fact they rely less directly on people, but more on regulation and such.
In smaller or younger businesses certification is usually not important. Many even view it as a waste of time & money, since most certification is either too abstract or not really applied to the specific situation they are in. Many job hoppers also have certification out the ass, so they might be rubbing off a bad reputation on the certification itself.

Now, for things like network administration, by all means, get Cisco certified! But a lot of otherwise "standard" certification is rather useless for anything except getting your foot in the door at companies with big HR departments.
 
sua, you just said a lot of what i said.

the larger the company the more their HR/hiring managers are going to be less technical and look more at what certs and qualifications you have and less on effective knowledge/ability to do the job.

to get your first job, get certs out the ass. once you have experience in the field the certs matter less. and honestly the big thing to look at are those that are given "lifetime" which is some of the comptia ones.

A+ is a joke. Sec+ is useful. CISSP may be nice and help get you in the door but it has a yearly fee/renewal. look at what the renew/upkeep is on certs. and then look around to see what people in your field are actually saying about that cert.
 
TheWesDude said:
sua, you just said a lot of what i said.
Click to expand...
I know. Just reinforcing what you said mostly.

Also comptia is not relevant in Europe. Don't know anyone with a comptia cert.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, very informative! :)

A Cisco academy is actually joined in the same building with the IT faculty i attend, and conveniently they offer a -50% price discount on all courses for us students.

Do you think it would be smart to use the offer and go for their certs even if i would prefer to work in some other area rather than networking? Sort of like a "just in case" thing.
Not that i would completely cross networking off my list, i just find server administration or programming more interesting.

Generally, the fixed workspace of software related work seems more appealing to me than working around with hardware. :)

I suppose ill have a more clear image of what i want to do after i get the bachelor degree, especially after seeing how i cope with more serious programming..

Btw, do you have any thoughts on work in gaming industry?
The pay is probably slightly less, but i imagine doing overtime on a game you want to be great isnt much of an obstacle.
Then again, how realistic is to expect to join the exact company and work on exact type of games that you like..
 
well, like we have said, the more certs that you get the better.

now if you are currently software side like VM/Server/User areas, then getting network certs does not hurt, and can help in some areas because you MUST have a foundation in networking to really understand why a lot of things are the way they are.

even if you dont go for the certs, having knowledge of how networking works is good. i would say take a CCENT or CCNA class even if you dont go for the certs.

you really should have general knowledge on spanning tree, ospf, how networks are laid out, vlans, vtp, trunking, and stuff like that. otherwise you could end up in a situation where people are talking about these things and you have to ask a bunch of basic questions if it ever comes up. the smaller the network the more general everyones information base needs to be. the larger networks it matters less because they tend to compartmentalize more.

if someone comes along and shows you a network diagram and asks you where the best place for your server is, not having that information could slow down deployment as they ask the people who normally handle it. you shouldnt need to get into snmp and tacacs and hsrp and different types of switching and customizing the routing protocols, but you should know how they work.

does all that make sense? even if you do not get credentials in the cisco tree, you should take a class to learn how it works.
 
Yeah it makes sense.

Even if i decide to get CCNA, it will have to wait so i wont concern myself with that for now..
What i will do is go through the Computer Networks lessons again, as ive kind of only scraped by the last time ^^
 
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