Information Technology (IT)

[mr j 858]

Started with degree in information technology (security) and landed my first job at a now defunct online retailer many years ago. I peeped game and just kept moving up. I guess my hot tip would be to look at govt, school district, university jobs. They allocate BIG money for the Technology sector since "Who wants to be known as a school that still running windows XP" (believe me, lots of those still out there when doing DA sweep).

IF you land a gig like the one mentioned above, YOU WILL get promoted as you finish jobs/projects and score high on your 6month - 1yr reviews. Remember, when you're under a BIG umbrella...these type of things are mandatory:

- Reviews (as well as 360 reviews)
- Competitive Wage increases (depending on city/state)
- Merit increases / Bonuses

Also, not to mention how great insurance and PTO/Holiday & SICK time are all considered its own entity. So in actuality, you probably earn/get a 5wk+ paid "vacation" yearly.

I'm sorry if I'm going to come off sounding negative about jobs with gov, school districts, and colleges & university's.

But in my experience which I have 18 years and counting and plenty of friends and co workers I've worked with in the past. Government jobs be it DOD contracts or government civilian jobs suck because as contractor you may get paid big money but you can literally be cut or lose your job due to lack of funding or a government civilian employee just not liking you. Also the certs & government security clearance level requirements for the jobs is just straight up ridiculous now.When it comes to government civilian jobs like a GS-13 or higher IT job, just to get your foot in door you literally have to know someone and it's like one big fraternity where a lot of people who are already GS Civ employee are former or retired military people.

School district jobs in the IT industry may be good but a few people I know out here in California who worked in school districts the jobs are heavily tied to a school districts yearly budget.

Colleges & University IT with 4 year colleges like University & State University may have say 5 to 10 full time employees for the IT department but a lot of time it goes back to the University's yearly budget and they are and will constantly outsource and use contacts & temps for a lot of IT jobs.

Just my 2 cents. Where I've worked with big companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, HP, EDS. I've held a TS/SCI government clearance.I've worked DOD contracts locally here in the US and overseas in Europe on military bases.

 

[mr j 858]

I’ve heard they’re hit or miss depending on the one you attend. Tuition for some can also be outrageous. I’ve hit a roadblock this past week and a half with teaching myself C# but I’m trying to fight it and caught myself looking at bootcamps. If others learned without them, I can too.

Depending on where you live. Check out and see if there are free training courses offered by your local community college.Seriously down here in San Diego they have free Cisco Networking academy, Linux+, A+, Network+, Security+, Windows Sys admin, and even a Project management prep course offered.

Here is the link :

https://sdce.edu/job-training/computer-system-network-administration

I just signed up for the project management cert prep course.

 

[mr j 858]

Jumping into IT work isn't that hard but you have to be into it... meaning you have to actually like what your doing. I made a career change moving from Project Coordinator, am now a technical analyst trying to become a sys admin. In most cases it's all about experience. I had to hit the reset button; so I started off at a lvl 1 which as we all know is grunt work and slowly moved up.

I will tell you this you cannot BS your way in this field, and as many others said certs will only take you so far... once your tasked with a problem, and you have to start troubleshooting that's where the true skills come in to play which for me is the fun part but that's because I love computers, and it's always a learning experience.

A lot of what you said is TRUE. Yes Tier 1 help desk call center environment jobs are the WORST jobs. I mean I see it both ways where a lot of people nowadays just aren't willing to start at this point and put their time in they're IT careers where they need a starting point and get some experience on their resumes and have the mindset of "nah I'll get all my certs out of the way, throw together a dope resume and land a dope paying job". But on the other side these jobs surprisingly I know 2 people that are perfectly happy doing the Tier 1 call center jobs and have been at companies their entire careers for 10 to 20 years.

 

[spiderjericho]

Any of you folks live in San Diego. I have to execute a military move there. It’s my last before I retire. How’s the job market around there?

Before I move, I’m trying to knock out Linux+ and got my job to pay for the SANs Incident Response and Penetration Testing Courses. I hated working there but there were training perks.

 

[mr j 858]

Any of you folks live in San Diego. I have to execute a military move there. It’s my last before I retire. How’s the job market around there?

Before I move, I’m trying to knock out Linux+ and got my job to pay for the SANs Incident Response and Penetration Testing Courses. I hated working there but there were training perks.

DOD private sector the big companies like: General Atomics, Northop, Lockheed, and HP usually have DOD contract jonbs. NMCI which is now called NGEN has been divided up but HP still has a lot of the jobs and trust me HP is a terrible company to work for.

Other big private companies out here: Solar Turbines: oil industry, a ton of Biomed companies out here, LPL Financial, Intuit is out here. Medical industry: Kaiser, Scripps health, and Sharp.

 

[spiderjericho]

Thanks for the info.

Is the Navy portion of NMCI called NGEN too? I talked to a sailor and he’s still calling it NMCI. Marines changed the name of the network but it is under the NGEN contract.

 

[capital sb]

Yeah as a contractor you really gotta watch your back and know how to maneuver. My own lead was trying to get me fired, made it through that bs though.

 

[Rj4147]

Yo say you get hired as a Business analyst and then get fired, and for your next job that you apply to (in a month or 2 after getting fired ) would it be difficult to land a higher paying job like being a data scientist/ some type of developer, given that you know what youre doing coding wise? Im just wondering because I know a few BA's who have been fired and they get jobs as BA's again but Im curious if getting fired would make other companies not want to hire you especially at a higher more technical position

 

[and1play5]

Yo say you get hired as a Business analyst and then get fired, and for your next job that you apply to (in a month or 2 after getting fired ) would it be difficult to land a higher paying job like being a data scientist/ some type of developer, given that you know what youre doing coding wise? Im just wondering because I know a few BA's who have been fired and they get jobs as BA's again but Im curious if getting fired would make other companies not want to hire you especially at a higher more technical position

depends on your specific skillset to the position your applying for...its about ur knowledge and skills being applicable

 

[and1play5]

hey guys longgggg time no respond...some career and bs updates:
been a devops engineer for over 2yrs now at same company but I basically do every and anything needed.
-company has multiple simultaneous projects
-all cloud env
-debian and redhat based systems
-code in bash, nodejs, react, jquery
-cloudformation use a lot
-load testing (writing and executing tests)
-CI/CD pipeline for all our many builds and releases

Certs I have: CCNA, Network+, Linux+, A+, Security+, LPIC-1, SUSE Certified Linux Admin
Certs I should have got but didn't (busyness etc)....all 3 AWS certs associate and pro
Certs Im looking to get over the next 2yrs: all the aws base n pro certs, RHCE, CCNP
Skills Im looking to master over the next 2yrs: relearning C, C#, C++ & Java

I would classify myself as more of a system/design architect/engineer...I can code tho, I was a comp sci major but I like infrastructure/troubleshooting/architecting more than just coding...but thats also bc I wouldn't classify my skills yet as a pure coder....make about 100k per for the last 2yrs...getting 150-250 offers 24/7 but Im not switching jobs until I get my skills up to par with what I consider good...I'm not about just changing jobs and getting by, I like to make impact and be a help to the team rather than a hindrance...just me being overanalytic but its cool....turn 30 on thursday so im still in line with my "Life Plan"

 

[Rj4147]

depends on your specific skillset to the position your applying for...its about ur knowledge and skills being applicable

so getting fired doesnt really matter, as long as your skills are good enough at the interview/for the job?

 

[and1play5]

so getting fired doesnt really matter, as long as your skills are good enough at the interview/for the job?

exactly...I was fired 3weeks from my 1st devops job before I got the one I've been at....just keep chugging along and find the avenue u want to take and just study the material to true understanding

 

[beasly151]

has anyone done any Instructional Design work? this one Desktop engineer position wants you to be able to create e-learning courses. I just started researching Instructional Designers and WOW. its alot of temp jobs and the salary is crazy

 

[AZwildcats]

I’m definitely considering getting AWS certified myself, seen a lot of job listings recently asking for it

 

[beasly151]

I’m definitely considering getting AWS certified myself, seen a lot of job listings recently asking for it

Udemy has a back to school sale going on. AWS course is 9.99

 

[W)taps]

still at the help desk.. got my HDI Support analyst cert since my company paid for it lol... guess it'll help if i want another help desk job

 

[fluid hips]

Looking to get into the IT field. Already have an undergraduate degree in a non related field. Any schooling you guys would advise to get into the field? Trying to avoid another 4 year degree program if possible. However, the local college has an associate degree in computer technology and a bachelor's in information systems and informatics. I'm in NYC if that helps

 

[Stakeholder]

trying to move into a Technical Project Management position (possibly implementations). My current (resigning next week) position is with the OCIO for a government department, working on IT business planning and policy development, I hate this place.

 

[dathbgboy]

Finally landed a PM gig after contracting as Project Admin for a little over a year. Ended up getting my MBA w/ a concentration in MIS and getting my CSM. Looking into Blockchain and some Blockchain certs as well as ITIL before I build up enough hours to sit for the PMP, which my job will pay for. Been a long grind but finally on the path that I wanted and now I'm going to keep getting experience so I can leverage it later on for better opportunities.

 

[datznasty]

Job let all of us go who were hired under one of the sub contractors. It's cool, but they knew about it ahead of time and purposely gave nobody any notice because they are big on compliance (i.e if they are supposed to have 9 bodies, they will have 9 bodies, so by not telling us early and risking that someone will quit first or find something else and not report in one day breaking their compliance, and/or they have to hire a replacement for just a short term which wastes their $$ since they know they are trying to be all out of the contract by x date)

They actually never told me. I was told by the site lead (who technically isn't my boss per say since he works for the other company who is Prime)

Need to get some new certs and get on this management track, maybe get CCNANet+ and go that way

By the way, I got the opportunity passed to me by a friend/former coworker, but if anyone is interested in Ft Huachacha (it's in Arizona), they throwing MAJOR bags. I mean literally 6 figures + relocation + housing/per diem, pm me I'll shoot you a contact

 

[spiderjericho]

^^^I'm sorry to hear about that. Contracting is so volatile. Gotta definitely save for that rainey day. Probably why some take less money for the security of GS.

I wouldn't waste your time on Net+. Pursue CCNA and Sec+ IF you're trying to be a network admin in the Federal Government.

That's a good look on helping folks on here out. It's been awhile since I lived in AZ. How's the cost of living there?

 

[datznasty]

Just looked it up and it's super cheap. 3br townhomes going for $800, nicer 2 bedroom apartments around the same.

 

[spiderjericho]

Yeah. Have to look at the taxes (state, property, etc), gas, home cost.

Do you have to be 8140/8570 compliant for positions?

I lived in AZ (Yuma) and it was hot as basketballs. Six figures seems very alluring. If I was in the market, I'd take the job. I have an idea of who the customer is.

 

[mr j 858]

If you are government civ worker.

President #45 just took a major sh*t on you after a lot of those same people voted for him.

 

[freakydestroyer]

If you are government civ worker.

President #45 just took a major sh*t on you after a lot of those same people voted for him.

I don't follow politics, and don't understand what happened. Cliff notes please?