Hello all

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Hell all. My name is John Large. I am about to graduate from university in Manchester with a dregree in Web Design, Content & Management. I have a keen interest in Computer hardware and at 22 years of age I am pretty clued up. However I do not have all these skills on paper. I will graduate with an estimated 1st class honours in Web Design however I would rather follow my pashion for the technical hardware side of PC's. I have been building machines for years now (the first machine i built was a cyrix 333mhz bad boy :P). I worked for PC world for a year (I Know, the devils own company) and have worked on the university IT helpdesk for a year and continue to do so supporting a lab of 100 users on my own.

Id really like to pick your brains (and please do tell me if this is the wrong thread to do this, I do not mean any harm and dont fancy getting flamed for my mistake). I want to get into either building or fixing machines working for myself, or in a network admin type role at a business. What certification/experience would be most beneficial to follow these routes of employment.

Your responses will be much appreciated

regards

John Large aka Jodsclass

 

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Hi john.

Seems to me if if dont want to do web desgin you wasted your time at UNI. Surely before going to UNI you must have thought if that courses was for you and would you make a career out of it? After all a good Web designer can find plenty of work now.

However, no matter, If you want to get into PC hardware / software fault finding, Network setupas and admin then most people suggest the Comptia courses for a base to build on. The A+ covers PC hardware and diagnostics in 1 exam and OS setups in another, And the Network+ give the technical knowledge for guess what.. NETWORKS lol. Both of these are entry level qualifications for technicians.
Then you could go onto some form of MCP (microsoft certiiefed prof.) and study for a MSCA, MCSE, MCDST or other if you want network admin jobs, or try a CCNA / CCNP (cisco) for network desgins and hardware engineer jobs (its more technical). Or you could study for a Unix/Linux course as thats getting in more demand now...
Theres a lot of certs out there and you need to decide what you eventually wanna do before you start down any route....

BTW i am jealous of you having a degree in web desgin.. i would never last that long on a course lol... and also think its a good career in itself.

LINKYS
https://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/default.asp
http://www.comptia.org/certification/certifications.aspx
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/learning_career_certifications_and_learning_paths_home.html

 

Hi John,

Welcome aboard. Well done on the degree. Has it turned you off Web design totally then? At least you have a good standard of education and ready for the world of IT

 

Thanks for the prompt reply Twizzle. I did want to persue Web design when I applied for the course, But I had a year out before starting which essentially means I applied for the course over 4 1/2 years ago. This amount of time studying has left me completely bored with the subject. I enjoy the tech side more, and do use Fedora core 4 on 2 of my machines at home.

the problems I seem to be having are compounded by the fact that no one will give me any decent advice. I must thank you so much as you are the first person to give me any good advice in 3 years of university (thank god i found this forum).

I think i could get my A+ without any issues so i will look into my local testing centre and get it under my belt asap.

Also I have been looking for graduate jobs and they all want like 3 years commercial experience, which is frankly impossible if you are a fresh graduate of my age. I cant get the experience and whilst the helpdesk work im doing now shows that I have worked in the IT sector, it is little use when applying for technician roles.

Web design, well, that just bores the pants off me now, and the pay is so small for what we do. Also the skill set required is phenomenal now (ASP, HTML, PHP, XHTML, XML, CSS, SQL, Flash etc etc etc).

Cheers for your help guys, i guess I just need guidance from those in the know (and beleive me, you guys seem to know the secret of eternal youth when compared to the academic careers service in this country.

Jodsclass

 

Yeah Boyce, completely turned me off web design. The competition is fierce and the pay is lacking unless your a senior designer. I just want to be a techie :P why must the world mock me so

Jodsclass

 

I know how you feel.. I did my A+ 3 years ago and didnt manage to get into IT.. so i carried on doin electrical work. And i hate it.. speak to my old man, he keeps saying i should do it as its what im trained in and experienced in, but the competition is very fierce and to stay on top you have to keep doin more and more courses as new regs keep comming out. Not worth it for a job you hate.
Now as for IT i love it! could mess with PC's all day for free (infact im gonna soon if the bro inlaw lets me loose in his shop), so dont mind doin courses etc to keep up..... Network+ in 2 weeks and the maybe security + a month after (think thats all it will take as much of it is based on net+ course) then MSCE or MCDST im not sure yet.....

And try self study as its cheaper.. you will always find support on these boards should you get stuck. My local colleges dont do much in IT (unless u want office or a HND in computer science) tho one is doin the CISCO CCNA course in sept so i might try that. But with self study the range of certs you can do is deffinatley wider and you can take as much time as you like doing them.

All i can add is good luck with it all!

 

Hi and welcome, Jodsclass. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope we can be of help to you

 

Welcome to CF!

IMO i think go for the A+ all the way... no point waking up and going to a job you dont like for the rest of your life is it!

 

Greetings

 

Thanks for all your kind greetings and suggestions. I have been out and got some literature on the A+ and related certs. Will work towards them in the coming weeks. May also look at getting my Linux cert as Im a user already.

Again thanks for the warm welcome, looks like this is a genuinely great community

Jodsclass

 

Welcome to CF!

 

Greetings, John. Welcome to CertForums.

 

Hi there and welcome to CF