A way in?

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Ok guy's, we have a lot of new members here who are interested in getting started in IT and we offer advice appropriately.

Now what if someone who has been in IT for a good few years (approaching 10 faster than I'd like!) wanted to further develop their skills in other aspects of IT. How would they go about doing this?

For instance my background in IT is in installing and repairing, and then into network mgt, but now I'm interested in learning more about scripting and web design, and perhaps even some programing.

What programs, resources, formal certs are out there for someone like me?

 

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I suppose just what I did.

I am going in the opposite direction. I've been a programmer for 20+ years, but have kept an interest in the hardware side (I originaly trained as an Electronics Engineer).

I'm sufficiently good at hardware that I've become the unofficial support guy in this building, although that is most emphaticaly not my job. (The company *does* have support people, but they all live at another, bigger, office 30 mins travel away.)

I decided in August this year to 'formalize' my experience into some certs, and had already heard about A+. An extensive Google search revealed the CompTIA web-site, and this site, among many other places.

Going the other way *into* programming and the like seems to be less clear-cut. I don't hold *any* certs in that, and I don't know of any, other than degrees, which most employers seem to regard as too theoretical. For the Web side I only know of the CIW thing - but don't know anything about it. (IMHO web design is far too crowded a field!)

So the bottom-line of these ramblings? Do some research, and get some hands-on. Most programming and web can be done for almost no outlay. Write some example stuff to show people. It think that will work better than certs.

Harry (the verbose)

 

Thanks for the reply Harry.

Ok then, I don't want to 'go the other way' as you put it, but simply want to extend my skills into these areas.

For instance part of being a net admin can be made a lot easier by learning to script. This is something which I believe MS are now touching on in there 2003 certs? However it does not get covered in too great a depth, how do you take it to the 'next level' so that scripting tasks becomes second nature?

I'll admit I could just buy a book and read it, but I'm looking for others thoughts.

 

Si,

I have been having similar thoughts as of late....
My plan is to have one by the time i finish N+. The idea being, once i have a foundation to go for one area in particular, rather than trying to know a bit about everything.

 

The unfortunate thing is that in some roles you have to be a 'jack of all trades' and need to know a bit of everything.

 

My standard way to 'take it to the next level' is to do a google search ('windows scripting' is a good start) and read what appears. There seems to be quite a lot of stuff about, and M$ seems to have a book+CD on it.

I have to confess that I'm a book junkie. If I want to get to know a subject I nearly always research the best books and buy them!

For me the best thing about books is that I can read them on the train. My commute is about 1hr each way - so I can get a lot of reading in a week!

Harry.

 

IMO, one of the better books for admin scripting in Windows is the "Windows 2000 Scripting Guide". It introduces ADSI and WMI scripting using VBScript and gives a fairly good background into VBScript itself. It teaches by example, not by teaching about VBScript itself though although it does give enough background to be able to understand what's going on.

 

Shouldn't that be Harry -v ?


btw, wtf has happened to the formatting on this thread ? Damn - wasn't expecting that tonight

 

Care to explain Gav? looks ok to me?

 

Sorry - it is indeed fine. Think my browser just had a mild fit !!

 

either that or you have started on the lash for Christmas gav

 

Well, one is best not to rush into these things unprepared, Boycey

Anyhoo ...

 

oh, so true :more beer

 

More like Harry -vvv for that post....

Harry -q

 

ROTFL

 

if you are looking for a cert in programming try scheidegger.
i'm doing the ciw web design manager course, but they also offer
a cert in programming which is simply called java/c++programmer

http://www.scheidegger.co.uk

Personally i think you'd be better off learning java or c++ as the syntax is pretty simular and it is used a lot more than vb, but thats just my opinion.