Information Technology (IT)

[melo0115]

Great man i cant complain ever since i left for the military at 19 i have not been jobless in IT. I currently working a Networking IT contract in Europe.

certs i have so far are to name a few

Sec +
Net +
A +
CASP
CCNA routing and switching
CEH

Since you have so much experience. If you can answer. What would you say the biggest hurdle usually is for new IT people with just a CCNA or Comptia A+ ?

 

[melo0115]

Yes, like many - I started in the help desk. I’ve work in every aspect in IT (Business and Technical) except for Datawarehouse. I’ve been a DBA, System Analyst, Engineer, SAN Admin, Web development, Real-Time Data, Virtualization Admin, Hardware with the NOC, Fiber, Security, PCI, GSI, Radio Communication, Project Manager, etc The list goes on. You name it, I’ve done it.

I left the company as a Network Supervisor.

At the time, I was fortunate enough to work with a company that allowed me to explore my IT skill sets. Now I’m back to what I enjoy doing - it was NOT management.

I’m with an organization that fits my career, lifestyle and my values/principals. I work for Habitat for Humanity International.

You've had a long but I'm pretty sure challenging and fun journey. Quick question... How important is it for someone new with just a CCNA to know programming language like python or something else. Would that be like the new standard?

 

[Grine]

You've had a long but I'm pretty sure challenging and fun journey. Quick question... How important is it for someone new with just a CCNA to know programming language like python or something else. Would that be like the new standard?

This all depends on what direction you’re wanting to take. I do believe learning a language, like Python, is a great tool to curate network automations. This is a huge plus. It’s not necessity. A lot of network libraries are open source and you can always have a software developer help with it. Where the fun in that? Are you making yourself an asset by doing this? Would it be a new standard - I doubt it. Should it be, yes.

Out of the team of 12, only two of them knew other programming languages outside of Linux. And the others only knew the bare minimum of Linux, Let me just say the two that knew it was making $275K a year. The rest were all around $100k-$150K.

 

[melo0115]

Damn.. Very good insight though. Within the next 7 months I should be continuing my IT career. Starting from verizon fios/dsl, Comcast support I've done. I'm in the oil field, and ive kind of hit a paywall, and im not building any usable skills here. So, im ready to full emrge into the future of ioT, automation, cloud, AI.. Not sure where ill end up.. But its the clear move for me and my family.

 

[mr j 858]

Since you have so much experience. If you can answer. What would you say the biggest hurdle usually is for new IT people with just a CCNA or Comptia A+ ?

That's great. But honestly you also got that job and it's probably a DoD contract position because you acquired your government TS or higher clearance from when you were active duty or in the reserves. Not hating at all. Just saying that having those certs and other is half the battle in working for military or DodD jobs which also why they pay pretty well most of the times.

 

[Grine]

Majority of them were contractors. They only had two permanent employees. I think they were making $97K-$100k.

 

[tay1]

I failed my A+ twice last September. I was tryna study all that material on top of being in school. During my break I got back to studying and I absorbed the material easier. Gonna take the 1001 in the next two weeks and look around for a desktop support position in the summer

 

[SupremeBeing5]

^word thanks. I’ve learned SQL before so I’m thinking about revising that and learning Tableau to get an entry database developer job but I’m not sure if that’s even realistic.

This is what I’m teaching myself now.

Is AWS Cloud worth learning?

What else should I learn if I’m going the SQL Database Development route?

 

[Grine]

This is what I’m teaching myself now.

Is AWS Cloud worth learning?

What else should I learn if I’m going the SQL Database Development route?

AWS Cloud is the future - well the present - Cloud period!

 

[John Wick]

Govt contracting? SOCEUR, EUCOM?

After Sec+ I want to tackle CASP and ICND 1. I want to stay on it while it’s all fresh on my mind.

yup DoD contractor i was contracting for DoJ which is better in my eyes there is no 8570 to obey in DoJ.

im not going to lie CASP wasnt easy and i would tell you to take the CCNA exam in one sitting instead in 2 sittings, if you fail the first test 1 once you gon have to take it again and same for the second test which will make 4 attempts and cost you more money and more questions. Also you got till the end of feb 2020 until Cisco kills ICND and a bunch of other certs. They are over hauling the whole cert process after feb.

Since you have so much experience. If you can answer. What would you say the biggest hurdle usually is for new IT people with just a CCNA or Comptia A+ ?

those 2 test are on the total opposite of each other. where a+ is more of a beginners cert and ccna is more of an intermediate cert and both fulfills 2 diff job requirements. But the biggest hurdle i would say just getting into IT is understanding the customer needs/problems. Alot of folks who dont understand IT will be coming to you for help and wont speak the IT lingo so dont rude to those customers lol

That's great. But honestly you also got that job and it's probably a DoD contract position because you acquired your government TS or higher clearance from when you were active duty or in the reserves. Not hating at all. Just saying that having those certs and other is half the battle in working for military or DodD jobs which also why they pay pretty well most of the times.

im thinking this for me?

but you are correct those certs alone wont help you in DoD contracting because you can have all that and cant do the job if you cant get a clearance and vice versa for the certs and yea i have my TS/SCI with a full scope poly just that alone puts you in a whole different competing market. But i have worked in DoJ where they dont really care for certs but instead wants a degree from a known college like george mason.

 

[John Wick]

AWS Cloud is the future - well the present - Cloud period!

I have been contacted by amazon for some 100k+ jobs but i dont know nothing about aws. Im sticking with CISCO tho im not trying to be a jack of all trades but instead a SME.

 

[Grine]

those 2 test are on the total opposite of each other. where a+ is more of a beginners cert and ccna is more of an intermediate cert and both fulfills 2 diff job requirements. But the biggest hurdle i would say just getting into IT is understanding the customer needs/problems. Alot of folks who dont understand IT will be coming to you for help and wont speak the IT lingo so dont rude to those customers lol

Is this it right here - customer service! Unless you’re into coding - this will take you a longgggggg way.

 

[Ricky D]

yup DoD contractor i was contracting for DoJ which is better in my eyes there is no 8570 to obey in DoJ.

im not going to lie CASP wasnt easy and i would tell you to take the CCNA exam in one sitting instead in 2 sittings, if you fail the first test 1 once you gon have to take it again and same for the second test which will make 4 attempts and cost you more money and more questions. Also you got till the end of feb 2020 until Cisco kills ICND and a bunch of other certs. They are over hauling the whole cert process after feb.





im thinking this for me?

but you are correct those certs alone wont help you in DoD contracting because you can have all that and cant do the job if you cant get a clearance and vice versa for the certs and yea i have my TS/SCI with a full scope poly just that alone puts you in a whole different competing market. But i have worked in DoJ where they dont really care for certs but instead wants a degree from a known college like george mason.

Yeah I got my TS/SCI last year and initially wanted to get N+, S+ and possibly CASP and CCNA before getting out in 2022 but now I think I'll just use N+ and S+ to complete my Warrant Officer packet and go that route. I there is money to be made on the outside but I don't have a lot of experience. I know that the WO route would make me more of an SME and I'd personally feel more comfortable. I also figure I'd make more money with the experience plus it'll be nice to have that pension coming in after I retire in about 10 years.

I have been contacted by amazon for some 100k+ jobs but i dont know nothing about aws. Im sticking with CISCO tho im not trying to be a jack of all trades but instead a SME.

I considered trying to take a few AWS classes/certs too. It's crazy that you don't have any of their certs but they offering you a bag like that. I guess they figure they with your previous knowledge and experience, they can train you on the job.

 

[tay1]

For some of y’all seasoned IT brehs, how do y’all feel about the accuracy of this roadmap and are they forgetting things?

 

[John Wick]

Yeah I got my TS/SCI last year and initially wanted to get N+, S+ and possibly CASP and CCNA before getting out in 2022 but now I think I'll just use N+ and S+ to complete my Warrant Officer packet and go that route. I there is money to be made on the outside but I don't have a lot of experience. I know that the WO route would make me more of an SME and I'd personally feel more comfortable. I also figure I'd make more money with the experience plus it'll be nice to have that pension coming in after I retire in about 10 years.
I considered trying to take a few AWS classes/certs too. It's crazy that you don't have any of their certs but they offering you a bag like that. I guess they figure they with your previous knowledge and experience, they can train you on the job.

thats wassup what is your MOS? and yea i did 5 years in the army and got out with sec+ a+ and net + and been on the upward ever since i made the move to get out. The military will have you scared on getting out just because of the job security and you are use to the every day. I wanted to do 20 but figured the military wasnt for me and i could make more supporting them.

I wish i would be getting that retirement check but alot of folks get in to get med boarded and collect that check for the rest of their lives instead of doing 20.

but yea those aws jobs that hit me up also wanted a ts/sci with a poly so im sure they wanted that more than the experience and probably would of trained me on the job but since im comfortable where im at the moment i never followed up on them.

 

[John Wick]

goodluck brother

damn seems like ur going to kill it!

if you need any help with secuirty+ hit my PM

Still working on the CEH its got me REAL NERVOUS MAN

CEH is not that hard its even easier if you take the bootcamp and get familiar with the hacking tools. I tried to self study but was having a hard time using the tools so i just said f it signed up for a bootcamp and passed the class, and mines is about to expire in 3 months so now im working on the continuing education to renew it which is so easy than taking the test again.

 

[Ricky D]

thats wassup what is your MOS? and yea i did 5 years in the army and got out with sec+ a+ and net + and been on the upward ever since i made the move to get out. The military will have you scared on getting out just because of the job security and you are use to the every day. I wanted to do 20 but figured the military wasnt for me and i could make more supporting them.

I wish i would be getting that retirement check but alot of folks get in to get med boarded and collect that check for the rest of their lives instead of doing 20.

but yea those aws jobs that hit me up also wanted a ts/sci with a poly so im sure they wanted that more than the experience and probably would of trained me on the job but since im comfortable where im at the moment i never followed up on them.

25C, Radio Operator-Maintainer. It’s a dying MOS that’s supposed to merge with 25U in the near future. Luckily I made the most recent E7 list so I won’t have to deal with that.

 

[unkn0wn]

For some of y’all seasoned IT brehs, how do y’all feel about the accuracy of this roadmap and are they forgetting things?

These are mostly generalizations but does an okay job at least. Different orgs have different titles and structures. I started as a Project Manager (first job) > Business Systems Analyst > Business Analyst. Trying to obtain an Sr BA role now. There are also leads, which is missing here.

 

[Rj4147]

Signing up for WGU this week to get my computer science bachelors and classes will start on Feb 1st. If anyone has any info on the school, positive or negative, it’d be cool if you could share.

 

[John Wick]

25C, Radio Operator-Maintainer. It’s a dying MOS that’s supposed to merge with 25U in the near future. Luckily I made the most recent E7 list so I won’t have to deal with that.

Cool i had some friends in that mos i was a 25B

 

[suberzat1]

Damn. You started off on a great note. Data analyst pay good don’t it?

Depending on where you live starting off should be around 60k - 70k on the low end.

At least in a major city with demand.

 

[willypete]

How old were some of you guys when you got into IT?

17, started interning while in high school with the service desk of a company. Pretty much got lucky this time 5 years ago and was able to land a contractor role that' only helped put me in better positions. In the process of getting my TS/SCI along with S+ and net + through my company.

I have a connect at Microsoft whose trying to get me submit my resume since they just won a big DoD contract here in the DMV.

 

[MaxP_3]

How old were some of you guys when you got into IT?

32. Career change.

Started my first internship this past fall in desktop support. I graduate in July. Trying to get a full time as soon as possible. I would like to transition into cyber security.

 

[osek206]

37 , switching to cloud computing.

 

[mr j 858]

Depending on where you live starting off should be around 60k - 70k on the low end.

At least in a major city with demand.

Living somewhere in Texas or in the South people would be living like a king on that salary.

Killa Cali LA, SD, OC and especially NorCal the bay area, Silicon Valley, and San Jose people would be strugglin and looking for a 2nd side gig job just for rent and cost of living.