What to do?

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Hi,

As you know ive bought the 2 popular books with a view to train for my A+

I think ive hit a problem. I feel dishearteaned. Im on chapter 4 now after doing the cpu chapter and to be honest am not excited at the thought of doing it. I thought i really wanted to do this for a living but find myself being almost bored by the talk of all the old technology (serial ports and scsi etc)

The other thing i wanted to do which i find very interesting is Web Design. I decided on the A+ as i searched for jobs on the internet and found lots more A+ type jobs than web design jobs.

Do you think its right to send the books back and train for the web design?

Matt

 

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You've gotta do what you want.

There will always be parts of something that you find boring or not interesting. I am doing the N+ at the moment and don't find it exciting at all but I know it will help me when I am doing the MCDST.

If you want to be a tech or in support carry on with the A+ and if you want to do web design create a port folio and do the CIW.

 

The grass is always greener. It is a decision only you will know the true answer to. Nobody is saying you would have to plug CPU's in all day in IT. The knowledge gained though would serve you well in any part of IT for many many years to come. You will not always be excited about the things you learn.

I know some of the older technologies are boring. When i was studying faxes and modems on the Microsoft stuff i was bored to tears but i am glad i pushed on through it. I may never use a modem again but then again you never know. I'm sure you would much rather be reading about the latest firewire device and mobile windows device but you will still have to learn the boring bits too.

I have many books on a cupboard across the room and as i have said before, as soon as i start to study one i start to think the next one will be more exciting. I am excited to start studying 70-291 exam yet i know as soon as i get stuck into custom subnetting i will be wishing i was doing anything else.

If your true passion is web design then study for that and start doing that. It sounds as though you are not sure though. Which is why i would personally urge you to keep going and get this cert under your belt and then work out what you want to do from there.

 

I think if you are already bored with the A+ ,you'll be completely bored with mcdst,the A+ is the more interesting of the two by far i'd say.
scsi and serial are just references to the old technology they are there for you to be aware of rather than knowledgeable on.

Web design might not be such a great idea web designers are ten a penny,does anyone really value the work of a web designer?
Could you even make minimum wage each week from web design?

In terms of competition,i think you'd have much more to cope with than if you stick with repair work.

 

Hi,

Well i actually meant Web Development not Design

I think i know what the problem is. Its that i am finding it much harder to retain information than i thought. I was always bright at school and got above average marks in everything i did. Ive always hated reading books lol and have read 2 books since the age of 16 when i left school (15yrs ago)

I just went through the whole CPU chapter and did the q's at the end and got 6 out of 10 right. I found myself thinking (have i actually just read what they are asking me about)

Know what i mean?

Matt

 

To me this seems poor reasoning. Do what you love, thats true success. Who knows you may even create your own market. If not, sooner rather than later the market will give you some pretty definite feedback and you'll know to change direction.

Just did a few searches on Jobserve :-

A+ - 15 hits
javascript - 999 hits
html - 984 hits
hardware tech - 1164 hits
first line - 3694 hits

Who knows how many jobs are real jobs ? Who knows how many are duplicates ? You can play with the numbers and get any answer you want.

There probably is more call for support personel than web developers but if you are passionate about web development that shouldn't matter.

Don't do what other people want you to do, do what you want to do.

I know developers that don't read a lot, but personally I'd say you are not well suited to development if you aren't prepared to read at least five computer books a year. Mastering the skills to become a programmer takes years of effort, you have to put the work in because you want to, and that includes occasionally reading dev books on weekends etc. There is some truth in the image of the IT nerd that doesn't have a life, you will have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot.

Best of luck !

 

You've got to remember that you're far more likely to meet this old technology in a business environment than you are in a domestic situation, so it's maybe not so old. For example, I had to configure a piece of kit a few months ago that only had a serial port.

Anyway, after 4 chapters you haven't really got to any of the juicy stuff yet.

 

SCSI old tech? In our server farm taking up several office floors most are SCSI. Just because something is rare on home machines doesn't mean it isn't used any longer!

Harry.

 

Yep In the mail room of our work we have a PC running windows 98 and one running 95. The one with 95 even has a 5.25 floppy disc drive, not that we actually have any 5.25 discs

 

Also, the vast majority of new computers still have at least one serial port. In fact the only computer that i have seen in the past year that didnt, was a dedicated Media Centre unit.

 

Again, how do you think the majority of people connect to their ADSL/DSL broadband? by firewire, i think not.

Linkage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSL_modem

 

I would have thought that people connect their DLS router via ethernet to their network card or via USB.

not to a modem as its dial up and only 56kbps

Or am i missing something?

Matt

 

You're only missing the fact that the majority of people call any box that connects them to the internet a modem, regardless of what it actually does.

 

I think you may be confusing me with the original poster. I have no problem with learning about hardware new or old. I only stated that i found the subject of modems or faxes boring whilst studying for previous exams. I was obviously talking about a 56k dial up modems when i mentioned not having to use them again and not broadband router/modem devices

Can't even remember the last time in 5-6 years i have messed about with the old dial up modems. Might have been for a friend who was living in the sticks. Glad we are moving forward with technology. Used to wake my mum and dad up when i was younger and the noisy as hell dialup modem started beeping and sqwarking as it connected at 2am.

 

ohhh how i miss the "handshake"!

 

Dude... you JUST got the books today. It's not a race, and it's not meant to be read like a graphic novel. It's a study tool. Study it - don't just skim it and expect it to all come to you in a day.

So... what happens when you start learning how to program, and you have to learn something that bores you out of your skull? Or what happens when you are faced with cleaning up someone else's uncommented spaghetti code? You'll will - not just sometimes, but OFTEN - be asked to code something that isn't going to thrill you. Sure, development CAN be fun, but it can also be boring and tedious at times, just like learning about serial ports can be boring and tedious. Sorry, man. That's just reality.

If it were entertaining and a thrill to study this stuff, we'd all have a hundred certifications. It's GOING to feel like work sometimes. But it's necessary for you to learn if you want to be a good tech.

Bottom line is this: do what you enjoy doing. Those who LOVE what they do tend to do much better than those who do something simply to make a living, because their love for what they do is evident in their work.